Submission Guidelines

Particip@tions is a fully-refereed Journal, seeking to publish genuine advances in knowledge and understanding, and original contributions to debate and dialogue. All submissions of over 1,000 words, other than book reviews, will be scrutinised by at least three expert referees who will be asked to report in detail on the suitability for publication of submissions against a published checklist of criteria. One of the three will be a member of the Editorial Board, whose task it will be to collate responses and bring a recommendation to the Editor/Editorial Board, as appropriate. It will be the Journal’s policy that, wherever possible, authors will receive responses within three months of submission. Shorter submissions will normally be considered by two referees, one of whom will be a member of the Editorial Board.

There are no restrictions on the length of submissions, although the Editorial Board reserves the right to advise authors that a submission is unnecessarily long, and to suggest where cuts might be made. 

Articles should be submitted as e-mail attachments, formatted as follows:

• in 12 point, in a standard font, in Word 6 (or in a format which can be converted into Word 6);
• they should be headed by a summary of 100-150 words, setting out their main thrust;
• submissions should be headed by a title, and the author(s)’ name(s), along with any institutional location;
• submissions should include 3-10 key words;
• paragraphs should not be indented, but separated by additional spaces;
• titles and equivalents should be given in italics;
• quotations of less than 40 words should be included in the text with single inverted commas, and double inverted commas for quotes within quotes. Quotations of more than 40 words should be indented, instead of being placed in quote-marks;
• numbers should usually be spelt out rather than presented as numerals, except for numbers over 100, percentages and dates;
• submissions which include materials from interviews must make clear either that people have been anonymised, or that interviewees have given their permission for quotations to be used;
• you may, if you wish, include a means by which you can be contacted (normally, your email address) at the end of your main text;
• endnotes (not footnotes) may be used;
• a bibliography, broadly using the MLA mode of presentation, should be supplied, as sketched below;
• all images should be sent as separate files, preferably as jpegs – it is authors’ responsibility to ensure that no copyright issues attach to the images they submit.

Upon acceptance of any submission for publication, a CONTRIBUTOR CONTRACT will be sent as a PDF file, which should be printed, signed and returned to the Editorial address (which will be on the form).

Bibliographic references

Please use the following system for references:

Books

Handel, Leo, Hollywood Looks At Its Audience, Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1950.

Articles within books

Bobo, Jacqueline, 'The Colour Purple: black women as cultural readers', in E. Deidre Pribram (ed), Female Spectators: Looking at Film and Television, London: Verso 1988, pp.90-109.

Journal articles

Gomery, Douglas, ‘Movie audiences, urban geography and the history of American film’, Velvet Light Trap, 19, Spring 1982, pp. 23-9.

On-line materials

Plantinga, Carl (1994) 'Movie Pleasures and the Spectator’s Experience: Toward a Cognitive Approach' [WWW document] URL http://www.hanover.edu/philos/film/vol_02/planting.htm [visited 02/09/03]

Ephemeral materials - please give enough information to enable location of any materials cited, e.g.

Hodgkinson, Will, ‘Monster Deal’, Guardian, London, 8 February 2002.

Narrator’s commentary, documentary accompanying the DVD Special Collector’s Edition of Toy Story, 2001.

Refereeing procedures

The Journal will operate to an explicit policy of trying in all cases to give authors positive feedback designed to improve submissions to the point where they can be considered for publication. Simply negative, damning referees’ reports will go against the spirit we wish to encourage. This is not intended to prevent in any way a referee’s report which may conclude that a submission is unpublishable, and unlikely to be able to brought to the point where it could be published. It is intended, rather, to make explicit in all cases where and how a submission does not meet the Journal’s criteria, and to prevent simple declarations of failure. 

In order to encourage this style of refereeing, except where referees explicitly state otherwise, the policy of the Journal will be against anonymous refereeing. In return, and in fairness to referees, it is a condition of submissions to the Journal that unless a referee explicitly declares his/her willingness to engage in correspondence, authors will refrain from contacting or seeking to discuss comments with referees. Where correspondence does take place, it should be conducted via the Editor or the member of the Board responsible for the refereeing of the article.

In order to assist the refereeing process, the Editorial Board will produce, and as necessary improve over time, a set of guidelines for referees designed to maximise transparency and optimise fair and rigorous responses to submissions.

For further insight into editorial procedures on all articles and the key aims of the referees, please refer to our Constitution.

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