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Editorial Policy of the
Peer-Reviewed
NWSA Journal
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(or What
Happens to Your Manuscript When You Submit It to the NWSA Journal)
Initial
Submission
Please send two print copies on standard U.S. paper,
including an abstract and list of keywords, along with an e-copy (by e-mail
attachment in the latest version of Word). Be sure to follow the submission
guidelines, as well as the citation format and style guide on this web
site. Delete any self-references that might reveal your identity to
reviewers. Please be certain that your paper copies and e-copy are
identical versions of your paper.
Acknowledgment
The NWSA
Journal acknowledges all submissions; however, our editorial staff
determines whether a submission is appropriate for the NWSA Journal before sending it out for peer review. For
example, the topic and approach must be appropriate for a feminist
audience, and the research must be suitable for an academic journal.
Review Process
All manuscripts appropriate for consideration
for the NWSA Journal are sent to
two readers in the appropriate discipline for blind (anonymous) review.
Readers are asked to send their evaluations, comments, and suggestions for
revision to the editors. We also ask reviewers to respond to the author.
Reviewers are given one month to complete their evaluations, but are often
given extensions.
After the review by two outside readers, manuscripts
are then considered by the editorial group at Louisiana State University. If the three readings
(two outside readers plus the editorial group) do not agree,
the manuscript may then be sent to an interdisciplinary panel
of the national editorial board (three to five readers), along
with copies of the readers' reports.
Board members do not know the identity of the author
of the manuscript.
The review process can take six months or
more, depending on our readers' speed and our schedules. Authors are
welcome to query the status of their manuscript after six months.
Upon completion of the review process,
authors will receive a decision letter, along with anonymous reader
reports.
Revisions/ Resubmissions
If a manuscript is returned to an author with
an invitation to resubmit, an author who chooses to resubmit should explain
in a cover letter how requests for changes have been addressed. The Journal endeavors to send a
revised manuscript to at least one original reader. A revised manuscript is
not always accepted. Sometimes a manuscript is accepted for publication
with the condition that the author meet certain
revisions requirements (length, etc.). When specific revisions have been
made to the editor's satisfaction, the manuscript is then accepted and a Consent to Publish form is sent to the author.
Editing
Both editorial changes and the first round of
copy editing are done in our offices, after which the manuscript is sent to
an external copy editor and then to the compositor. Authors may receive
queries at each stage in this process:
1) during our in-house editing, 2) following external copy editing,
and 3) after copy is set by the compositor. Authors should carefully
re-read their manuscripts following each of our queries since, at the final
stage, the press charges $5 to change a word and $10 to charge a line. In
short, authors must pay for any changes they request after their articles
have been set by the compositor.
Publication
All authors of articles receive two copies of
the NWSA Journal in which their
article appears, and all book reviewers receive one copy.
Our Goals
Because we are committed to a mentoring
process for academic writing, we try hard to give authors positive
suggestions for strengthening their manuscripts. Sometimes, therefore,
manuscript decisions are delayed. We hope authors will remember these
considerations as their manuscripts proceed through this careful process.
We welcome your comments and queries. We are always
looking for additional manuscript readers, book reviewers, and, of course, your
excellent manuscripts of new scholarship in women’s and gender studies.
Thank you for helping the NWSA Journal become the very best journal
it can be.
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