Submissions

Author Guidelines

Essays

Textual Cultures welcomes submissions on all aspects of textual scholarship as described above (see “Focus and Scope”). Most manuscripts accepted for publication by Textual Cultures are standard essay-length, 5,000 to 12,000 words; we are interested in work that is experimental in terms of genre and format and will seek to accommodate such work within the limits of our technological infrastructure.

The endeavor of Textual Cultures is to widen our understanding of how new developments in fields such as codicology, material philology, art history, musicology and cultural studies are redefining our notions of what constitutes a text in diverse cultural contexts. Textual Cultures is committed to reviewing a wide range of works across these and other disciplines.

Reviews

Textual Cultures features two distinct forms of reviews: Essay Reviews (1750–2000 words) and Short Reviews (750–1250 words).

Responsibilities of the Author

All essays and reviews submitted to the journal cannot have been previously published, nor can they be before another journal for consideration.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

• Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (see: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
• Authors warrant that their submission is their own original work, and that they have the right to grant the rights contained in this license. Authors also warrant that their submission does not, to the best of their knowledge, infringe upon anyone’s copyright. If the submission contains material for which an author does not hold the copyright, authors warrant that they have obtained the unrestricted permission of the copyright owner to grant Indiana University the rights required by this license, and that such third-party owned material is clearly identified and acknowledged within the text or content of their submission.
• In preparing the essay or review for submission authors should follow the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style’s “B citational style” with abbreviated author, date, page references in parentheses coordinated with a list of works cited. Footnotes should be reserved for additional discussion. A complete Style Sheet can be accessed at our website (see: http://textual-cultures.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Style-Sheet-TC-updated.pdf)
• If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her/their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper. If the editor or the publisher learns from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, it is the obligation of the author to promptly retract or correct the paper or to provide evidence to the editor of the correctness of the original paper.
• Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.

Submission Process for Textual Cultures

 The submission process is fully electronic. Authors should type, “Submission to Textual Cultures” in the subject line.

• Essays in English on North American, British and Australian literatures and cultures should be sent by Microsoft Word email attachment to Marta Werner, Editor-in-Chief, at werner@gmail.com, with “Submission to Textual Cultures” in the subject line.
• Essays in languages other than English on European, South American, Asian and African literatures and cultures should be sent by Microsoft Word email attachment to Michelangelo Zaccarello, Editor and European Coordinator, at zaccarello@unipi.it, with “Submission to Textual Cultures” in the subject line.

If you are interested in reviewing for Textual Cultures, please contact the book review editors and attach a copy of your c.v.

• U.S., British and Anglophone Book Review Editor: Logan Esdale (esdale@chapman.edu)
• European Book Review and Contributing Editors: Alvaro Barbieri, Università di Padova (barbieri@unipd.it) and Paola Italia, Università di Bologna (paola.italia@unibo.it)

While we strongly encourage readers and submitters to register at IUScholarWorks (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/textual), we only accept essays via the above email addresses.

Peer Review Process

The editors of Textual Cultures will first review all submissions for alignment with the journal’s mission and scope. Editors will recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors; instead, they will ask another member of the editorial board to handle the manuscript. If the editors feel that the submission is indeed within the purview of the journal, it will be assigned for review, through a double-blind process, to specialists in the field in which the author wishes to make a contribution—typically, two reviewers, who will independently evaluate the manuscript and recommend that it be rejected, revised for resubmission, or published as is. If the two reviewers disagree, the editors may decide one way or another or send the article out for a third review. Comments from reviewers will be reviewed by the editors and shared with the author, regardless of the decision to publish or not.