Submissions

Important Notice

We have adopted a new submission procedure. For details, see below.

Focus and Scope

The presentation of accessible high quality research in American Studies, broadly defined, for students, teachers, and the general public is our goal. We seek contributions that, while informed by the theoretical concerns of specialists, are composed in order to be understood by non-specialists as well. We present American Studies content in a clear and jargon-free prose so that the complexity of research findings can be accessed by readers with a variety of objectives, including the general reader.

The American Studies Journal and ASJ Occasional Papers welcome contributions from scholars working in all disciplines of the humanities, including literary studies, cultural, studies, media studies, gender studies, environmental studies, history, political science, philosophy, sociology and anthropology. 

Creative Commons License

Scholars wishing to submit their work for review should be aware that all ASJ content is published under a Creative Commons License. It is the responsibility of the authors to clarify all copyright matters. Requests for copyrighted material should include the information that publication permits must be granted for Open Access/CCL publication.

Submission Guidelines

The American Studies Journal welcomes proposals for thematic issues (six to eight articles). Individual articles, preferably with 5,000 to 8,000 words, will be also be considered. Articles with more than 10,000 words may be published as ASJ Occasional Papers. Please submit a one-page abstract for an article or a 1000-words proposal for a thematic issue. Some biographical information should also be included. Do not send your manuscript at this point. Inquiries should be directed at to the editor.

If we wish to consider your article or thematic issue for publication, we will invite you to submit the full, proofread text through our content management system. Please note that a decision not to publish may be based on editorial priorities and does not necessarily reflect on the quality of the work.

The document to be considered for submission should include the following sections:

  1. Compelling, easily understood title
  2. List of key words (maximum of 5)
  3. Teaser (i.e. an introductory paragraph of 150 to 250 words)
  4. Full text of the article (please use short paragraphs for easier web reading)
  5. Author biography (a short paragraph with your name, affiliation, and scholarly credentials. You may also provide a picture of yourself if you like.)

Please submit manuscripts as Microsoft Word documents (.doc or .docx).

  1. Articles should be in standard English, U.S. spelling. Please set the language to English (United States) in your word processor.
  2. Formatting should be in Times New Roman font, 12 point, single line spacing, left aligned.
  3. Long quotations should be indented.
  4. Keep other formatting to a minimum. In particular: no page numbers, boldface, underlining, paragraph indents, or hanging indents. Only italics are allowed. Do not use italics to indicate emphasis in your text.
  5. Paragraphs should be kept apart by inserting an extra line. Do not indent the first line of a paragraph.
  6. Please use in-text citations only. Footnotes make no sense, since an e-journal has no particular pages. Endnotes should be avoided, too, or kept to a minimum.

Since the ASJ is an e-journal, the inclusion of multimedia content such as pictures, videos, or sound files is welcome. If your article contains pictures or other illustrations, please send these as separate files, indicating in square brackets, i.e. [Fig. 1: Title of Illustration.], where the files should appear. Please bear in mind that pictures must have a resolution of at least 200 dpi (300 dpi would be preferable). 72 dpi files downloaded from the web are not acceptable because we are offering PDF files for download where the images should be crisp. Hyperlinks leading to multimedia content on the web should also be put in square brackets and placed after the content that they are intended to illustrate.

The Modern Language Association of America has significantly changed its style recommendations in the 8th edition of the MLA Handbook. However, the editors of the American Studies Journal have decided to retain the style recommendations of the 7th edition. The major rules of the seventh edition are available in a PDF document prepared by the Durham College Library. Please adopt this style sheet, using in-text citations in round brackets, and provide a list of Works Cited. Please do not use Endnote©, Citavi© or any other referencing software in your submission as it interferes with formatting: Bibliographies and in-text references should be in plain text with hyperlinks removed. We will return any incorrectly formatted documents for resubmission.

Please bear in mind that the American Studies Journal and the ASJ Occasional Papers target scholars, but also teachers and general readers.

NEW: Authors of accepted papers must register with ORCID and provide us with their ORCID ID.  ORCID provides an identifier for individual researchers to use with their name as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. The organization provides open tools that enable transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributions, and affiliations. 

Peer Review Process

Two members of the Editorial Board will read the submitted manuscripts. Only those papers that seem most likely to meet our editorial criteria are sent for formal review. Those papers judged by the editors to be of insufficient general interest or otherwise inappropriate are rejected promptly without external review although these decisions may be based on informal advice from specialists in the field. Reviewers will be looking for originality of content, usefulness in terms of our stated mission, and clarity of composition.

The editors will make every effort to reach a decision on a manuscript within two months from date of submission.

Manuscripts judged to be of potential interest to our readership are sent for formal review, typically to two reviewers. The editors then make a decision based on the reviewers’ advice.

Processing & Submission Charges

There are no article processing or submission charges.