POSTMEDIEVAL Special Issue Proposal Form
Deadline: April 1, 2024
Queries and completed applications to postmedievalED@gmail.com
postmedieval is looking for guest editors to conceptualize, organize, and edit special issues focused on topics of the guest editors’ choosing. One person may act as a guest editor, though it often works better with two or three in a team. Special issues usually consist of 8 (at minimum) to 12 articles and an editorial introduction. Individual articles can be quite variable in length, usually falling between 3,500 and 8,000 words each. If your proposal is accepted, the editors will work with you to develop a timeline to publication.
In becoming a guest editor, you agree to assume the following responsibilities: soliciting contributions; securing anonymous peer reviewers and liaising with them; providing additional feedback to authors to ensure the quality and comprehensibility of each article and its fit with postmedieval’s ethos and style guide; writing an introduction; maintaining prompt email contact with postmedieval’s general editorial team; and following the publication timeline set at the start of the process. (And don’t worry: postmedieval’s Co-Editors-in-Chief will offer advice and guidance. All that’s required is that you’re committed to meeting these responsibilities!)
There are no editorial costs involved, and the guest editors will have the support of the Co-Editors-in-Chief, the Managing Editor, the Palgrave Springer production team, and members of the Editorial Board. Guest Editors will receive a physical copy of the published issue, and their introduction will be permanently free-to-view online. Contributors will receive a digital offprint of their article. Palgrave Springer does not generally make their content Open Access (outside of a fee of $2780 USD per article or some other prior institutional arrangement). Authors are permitted to self-archive an accepted manuscript version of their article (prior to typesetting).
Issues proposed using this form will be considered for publication in 2026/2027.
Please return the questionnaire below to postmedievalED@gmail.com by April 1, 2024. We anticipate accepting TWO proposals this year and running another application cycle next year. So, if your application isn’t accepted this time around, we warmly encourage you to submit again in the future. We also recognize that applying is labor, and we are grateful to everyone who spends time and energy proposing ideas. You will receive a response from us by the end of April 2024. The proposal questionnaires will be reviewed by the Editors-in-Chief as well as members of the Editorial Board.
Queries should be directed to postmedievalED@gmail.com.
Application Questionnaire
Please download this document and use it as a template, or copy-and-paste into a separate file, returning your answers by April 1, 2024 to postmedievalED@gmail.com. Answers may be brief, and we recognize that some inquiries are overlapping -- so, if you’ve articulated it in one place, you don’t have to repeat yourself in another!
1. Name(s) and contact information of guest editor(s):
2. [OPTIONAL] Affiliation(s) and/or biographical information for guest editor(s):
3. Proposed title of special issue:
4. In no more than 300 words, please provide a description of the proposed issue:
5. Does the issue emerge out of an event, like a conference, class, or symposium? If so, please explain briefly.
6. In about 3 sentences: Why does this special issue belong in postmedieval? In what ways does the topic speak to the journal’s aims and scope (see http://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/41280)? If relevant, you might make reference to the journal’s catalog of previous issues (see https://link.springer.com/journal/41280/volumes-and-issues ). (If you need access to specific articles, please contact postmedievalED@gmail.com for pdfs.)
7. In about 3 sentences: How would the issue make an intervention or claim within existing scholarly or theoretical conversations? And how would this intervention be significant to an interdisciplinary audience of premodernists?
8. Please provide a short bibliography of 4 or 5 publications exemplifying the intellectual conversation to which the issue would be contributing.
9. How will the issue be accountable to values of equity, inclusion, access, and justice? Answers might address the anticipated subject-matter, citation practices, outreach to potential contributors, and/or the diversity of perspectives included.
10. [OPTIONAL] postmedieval welcomes articles and issues that experiment with the forms and norms of academic writing. If you have ideas for innovative discursive forms (e.g. response essays, interviews or conversations, incorporation of poetic or literary genres, events leading up to the issue’s publication, etc.), feel free to discuss them here.
11. [OPTIONAL] Please use this space to provide any additional information that may be helpful for us to consider.