special issues and essay clusters
special issues and essay clusters
postmedieval seeks guest editors to conceptualize, organize, and edit special issues or essay clusters focused on topics of the guest editors’ choosing. (Special issuesusually consist of eight to twelve articles and an editorial introduction. Essay clusters are of variable size, usually with a minimum of three articles.) For both special issues and essay clusters, one person may act as a guest editor, though it often works better with a partnership or team. Individual articles can be quite variable in length, usually falling between 6,000 and 8,000 words each. Finally, both special issues and essay clusters may include works in alternative genres. If your proposal is accepted, the editors will work with you to strategize, determine scope, and develop a timeline to publication.
In becoming a guest editor, you commit to the following responsibilities: soliciting contributions; securing anonymous peer reviewers and communicating 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.)
There are no editorial costs involved, and 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 and contributors will receive a digital offprint of their article. Palgrave Springer does not generally make their content Open Access (outside of a fee of around $3000 USD per article or some other prior institutional arrangement), though each new issue is accessible for free on a temporary basis following publication. Authors are permitted to self-archive an accepted manuscript version of their article (prior to typesetting).
Please return the Special Issue questionnaire to postmedievalED@gmail.com. We welcome and accept submissions for both special issues and essay clusters on a rolling basis. We recognize that applying is labor, and we are grateful to everyone who spends time and energy proposing ideas. The proposal questionnaires will be reviewed by the Editors-in-Chief as well as members of the Editorial Board. The editorial team may follow up with further questions, especially as related to scope, the work of identifying a diverse group of contributors, and/or meeting postmedieval’s commitment of reaching a global audience with broad interdisciplinary interests.
Queries should be directed to postmedievalED@gmail.com.
Please copy-and-paste these question into a separate file, returning your answers 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. Are you proposing a special issue (8–12 articles + editorial introduction) or an essay cluster (3–5 articles)?
4. Proposed title of special issue/essay cluster:
5. In no more than 300 words, please provide a description of the proposed issue/essay cluster:
6. Does the issue/cluster emerge out of an event, like a conference, class, or symposium? If so, please explain briefly.
7. In about 3 sentences: Why does this special issue/essay cluster 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.)
8. In about 3 sentences: How would the issue/cluster make an intervention or claim within existing scholarly or theoretical conversations? And how would this intervention be significant to an interdisciplinary audience of premodernists?
9. Please provide a short bibliography of 4 or 5 publications exemplifying the intellectual conversation to which the issue/cluster would be contributing.
10. How will the issue/cluster 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.
11. [OPTIONAL] postmedieval welcomes articles, issues, and clusters 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. Examples of some alternative formats we have published recently can be found on our website.
12. [OPTIONAL] Please use this space to provide any additional information that may be helpful for us to consider.