Submissions

Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines for Mande Studies

Mande Studies (ISSN 1536-5506, e-ISSN 2379-5506) is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal publishing original research on the Mande-speaking peoples of West Africa, their diasporas, and those populations who have historically or recently interacted with them. It welcomes both French and English submissions in the social sciences and the humanities, including anthropology, archaeology, art history, ethnomusicology, history, literary studies, religious studies, public health, sociolinguistics, sociology. Please consult our Submission Guidelines, and contact the editors with any additional questions you may have about publishing in Mande Studies.

To view current and past issues of the journal, please visit Mande Studies on JSTOR.

General Submission Guidelines

Mande Studies accepts original submissions in either French or English, which have not been previously published or submitted to any other publication venue for consideration. Exceptions may be made for works submitted to Mande Studies in French that have already appeared elsewhere in English, or for works submitted to Mande Studies in English that have already appeared elsewhere in French. In either case, the author must notify the editor-in-chief of this fact and, if the submission is approved, obtain permission to reprint from the original publisher. It is the author’s responsibility to arrange for and approve translation in either case prior to publication (but not before submission).

Review Process

All manuscripts receive an initial review by the editorial collective. At that point, the editors will either inform the author that they decline the submission or that they will initiate the journal’s double-blind peer review process.

Authors are encouraged to suggest the names of three to five scholars who might review the manuscript. Authors should provide these scholars’ current institutional affiliations and e-mail addresses. Authors may also indicate the names of scholars whom they would prefer not to review the manuscript. The editor need not respect these suggestions but will do so whenever possible. Suggested reviewers should not present a conflict of interest; for example, they should not be employed at the same institution as the author or be closely involved in the author’s research. Each article will receive systematic review by the editors and will be sent to one to two anonymous reviewers selected by the journal’s editors and asked to disclose any conflicts of interest before accepting the assignment. All reviewers are expected to read the work carefully and provide a thorough report as voluntary service to the journal. A decision on whether to

accept, reject, or invite revisions on the article will generally occur within three to six months after sending the manuscript out for review. A final decision may be delayed if the editors have difficulty obtaining willing reviewers. It is therefore important that authors carefully craft the abstract and reviewer list and follow the journal’s style guide before submitting.

In addition, authors must prepare their manuscripts to facilitate a fully anonymous review. Any identifying references to the author should be removed prior to submission from both the manuscript and the electronic file:

• Make sure figures do not contain any affiliation related identifier.
• Remove references to funding sources.
• Cite Author’s publications in the text as follows: ‘[Anonymous, 2007]’.
• Omit details of author’s publications from the list of references. Limit reference to author’s publications to “Anonymous” followed by the publication year.
• Do not include acknowledgments.
• Remove any identifying information, including author names, from file names and ensure document properties are also redacted entirely and anonymized.

Submitting a Manuscript

Please submit your manuscript via the Mande Studies online submission system: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/mandestudies/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions. Should you have any problems with the system, please contact the editor in chief.

Manuscripts submissions should be organized with components arranged in the following order:

1. cover page
2. abstract
3. list of keywords
4. text
5. endnotes
6. references
7. tables and figures

Please notice that items 1 through 6 should be combined in one document. Tables and figures should be uploaded separately, at most they can be combined in one zip file.

Cover Page

State the title of the paper; author name; institutional affiliation; name, address, and email address of author to whom correspondence should be sent, and include an acknowledgment (if any) of financial or other assistance.

Submission Length

Submissions of research articles should range between 6,000 and 9,000 words, including Notes and References. Manuscripts longer than 10,000 words will not be accepted and author(s) will be asked to reduce his/her/their manuscript before it is internally reviewed. On occasion, Mande Studies may be able to publish shorter pieces in the Current Issues section especially when authors cover timely issues of interest to readers. Mande Studies also publishes book reviews, film reviews, conference reviews, and summary of theses, contributions that should not exceed 2,000 words.

Abstract

At the start of the article, please provide your abstract in both English and French. Abstracts should summarize the article in 125 or fewer words. This is one of the most important elements of the manuscript. The abstract should communicate the research topic and/or question, the argument or main findings, and the significance of the contribution.

List of Keywords

Please list five to ten words that will help the reader identify your scholarly contribution.

Text

Submissions (which include feature articles, essays, and/or interviews) may be between 6,000 and 9,000 words in length, including notes and references. The author's name should not appear in the text. All submissions should be double-spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides, use 12 -point Times New Roman font, and have page numbers in the upper right-hand corner.

Endnotes

Endnotes should only concern substantive comments on the content of the article.

References

References should follow the author-date format described in 17^th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style: Author's Surname, First Name. Date. Title. City: Publisher (see Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide, author-date tab). Please see the examples below.

Mande Studies takes plagiarism very seriously. We ask authors to be certain that they have properly acknowledged the scholarly work of others. Failure to do so may amount to grounds for declining to review and/or publish a submitted article.

Languages

Mande Studies publishes manuscripts in French and English. Kindly be aware that authors may be referred to an external professional copy editor should their manuscript requires additional copy editing before its final publication.

Photos, Maps and Other Illustrations

We encourage authors to submit materials that supplement and enhance their published articles, such as photographs. Authors may submit up to two –three images. Mande Studies may consider using images that authors submit for the journal’s cover illustration. Images will appear in black and white. Authors must provide any images and captions they intend to accompany their article. For review purposes please insert all images as low-resolution files in a separate Word document, with the caption beneath each image.

For captions, include title, author, technique —if needed—, and indicate if the image is copyrighted or if it appears by courtesy of the author. Images that accompany a text should be referred to within it. Authors are responsible for obtaining all permissions required to publish an image. They will be asked to fill out and submit the appropriate IUP Image Permissions Form before publication.

Construct captions so that they are logical and informative in themselves, perhaps restating or expanding upon information provided in the text. Number each image, and include your name, to correspond with the caption list and the references in the main text. Authors submitting images should be sure to indicate within the text where the image should be placed by inserting the designation “(fig. 1),” “(fig. 2),” etc. at the end of the sentence referencing the image.

When the manuscript is accepted, we will ask the author to submit high-resolution images for publication according to the following guidelines:

Caption texts and a list of figures should appear in a separate document. Images should not be embedded in your manuscript, but uploaded separately. Name the file “YOURNAME Fig. 1” etc. Images should be submitted as JPG or TIF files, preferably of at least 300 pixels per inch. Digital frame grabs should have a minimum resolution of 250-300 dpi.

Maps and drawings: Mande Studies does not offer art production services. Only maps, charts, and drawings of professional quality will be accepted. For any map production, use an official map as a basis in order to ensure accuracy.

Authors are responsible for obtaining all permissions required to publish an image. Please indicate the source of each image and whether you: 1) are the creator of the image; 2) have permission from the copyright holder to use the image; 3) are using an image in the public domain or one licensed under a Creative Commons license; or 4) believe there is a fair use case for publishing the image. Please be mindful that Mande Studies does not pay licensing fees for copyrighted images.

Format of References

References within the Text

• Citations of sources should be made within the body of the text, following the author-date system from 17^th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (see Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide, author-date system tab):
• When the author's name already appears in the text, the date of cited work should appear in parentheses, e.g., (1988). When the author's name does not appear in the text, the author and date of source should appear in parentheses, e.g., (Smith 1988). When a specific page number or page numbers are to be cited, the page number(s) should follow the date, after a colon, without a space, e.g., (Smith 1988, 17).
• Use “et al.” for more than three authors; the complete list of names must be given in the references cited.
• When there is more than one work by the same author from the same year, put the titles of the works in alphabetical order and then mark the year with lowercase letters, e.g., 1988a, 1988b, and so on.
• Original publication date should precede later publication dates in brackets within parentheses, e.g., (Smith [1896] 1969).
• A series of references should be separated by semicolons within the parentheses, e.g., (Jones 1989; Jones and Smith 1998; Smith 1977).

Reference List at End of Manuscript: References

Follow The Chicago Manual of Style, 17^th edition author-date format (see Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide). Please capitalize titles of books, articles, and journals using headline-style capitalization, e.g., The History of Africa.

Examples:

Books

Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. 2015. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Chapters from Books

Thoreau, Henry David. 2016. “Walking.” In The Making of the American Essay, edited by John D’Agata, 167–95. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press.

Journal Articles
LaSalle, Peter. 2017. “Conundrum: A Story about Reading.” New England Review 38 (1): 95–109.

Online Articles, Websites, Videos

Authors analyzing this type of data should cite source, including author (producer or distributor if no author), publication date (type “n.d.” if none is provided), title, date accessed, and website address. If no author is provided, replace it with the producer or distributor of the article or the website. Examples: 

Okonjo-Iweala, Ngozi. 2007. “Aid versus Trade.” Filmed June 7, 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania at TEDGlobal 2007. TED video, 22:07. Accessed October 25, 2018. https://www.ted.com/talks/ ngozi_okonjo_iweala_on_aid_versus_trade.

Kenya Bus Services. n.d.. Nairobi Bus Guide. Accessed September 22, 2018. http://kenyabus.net/downloads/NAIROBI_BUS_GUIDE.pdf.

Interviews/Verbal Information Collected by the Author

In referring to a specific interview by the author, in-text citation and references-cited entries should follow the same conventions as outlined above, e.g.:

(Smith 1998)

Smith, John. 1998. Interview by author, 9 April. Houston, Texas.

In cases where it is not possible or advisable to identify an “informant” or respondent by name (for example, for political reasons or if an informant asked to remain anonymous), the author may use a pseudonym (and use it consistently in all text citations and references-cited entries).

The Publication Process

TO READ AS FOLLOWS: Once the article has been accepted, the editors will send a PDF of the article proofs to authors by email so that the author may check carefully for errors of omission, factual and typographic errors. Authors are responsible for checking these proofs and are strongly urged to make use of the Acrobat Comment toolbar to note their corrections directly on the proofs. Authors can find a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC at https://get.adobe.com/reader/ At this stage in the production process, only corrections for serious errors are allowed. Requests for alterations to the proofs at later stages will result in considerable delays in publication and, therefore, are not accepted unless they are egregious in nature. Proof corrections should be returned promptly by email to the editors: rdejorio@unf.edu and spbelcher4@myfairpoint.net

The Press shall provide to article and review authors one-year of complimentary online access to the Journal, which will include the issue in which their article or review is published. Contributors may, at their expense, purchase directly from the Press copies of issues in which their contributions appear after they are published and may purchase those copies of the issue from the Press at a forty percent (40%) discount off the print single issue retail price, plus shipping.