I. Restatement of Purpose
As emphasised in the justification section, the founding of the Journal of Critical Southern Studies is primarily motivated by the need to provide a high quality, independent, reliable and authentic platform for the promotion and representation of ‘otherness’ through the lenses of Southern voices. This aim is rendered all the more necessary by the expanding avenues of marginalisation and dominance, whose individual and combined impact sometimes go unnoticed and often unchallenged. In this light, the Journal welcomes submissions for peer-reviewed papers. Scholars and researchers from all generations and across different disciplines are encouraged to contribute to the Journal so as to both enrich discourse and promote research excellence.
Whilst publication in all areas of the humanities and social sciences are encouraged, contributors are urged to as much as possible, reflect the journal’s founding purpose, emphasis and lines of inquiry. Such themes and emphases ought to variously engage Southern challenges, knowledge systems or perspectives, and their particular relationship with hegemonic globalisation, modes of dominance, violence and disempowerment. Details on this are found on the section outlining the Journal’s scope and justification.
II. Founding Principle
The founding premise of the JCSS is anchored on the undertaking to provide an accessible outlet and thereby actively seek to make a difference in the representation of ‘otherness.’ In pursuing this objective, the JCSS professes and encourages originality, objectivity, independence, professionalism, quality and excellence. The JCSS is fully peer-reviewed and provides a free downloadable open access source for high quality articles, commentaries, editorials, poetry and book reviews. The Journal thrives on and promotes interdisciplinarity.
III. Author guidelines
Author guidelines can be download here.
IV. Citation Style
JCSS ascribes to and expects all papers to adhere to the 16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style guidelines. Manuscripts must be double-spaced in standard font (e.g., Times New Roman). They must also be submitted in a compatible Microsoft Word format such as .doc, .docx, or rtf. Where required, the editorial team will lend a hand to authors whose papers contain certain features such as tables, graphs and images.
Manuscripts intended to be published as Briefings are welcome and encouraged. These must not be more than 5,000 words in length. The decision to publish Briefings is dependent on the extent to which they offer value to policy-makers, practitioners and scholars. Briefings could be categorised as critical, analytical or research-oriented. Whilst Briefings do not require the standard of originality and rigour demanded for scholarly papers, they must however be refreshing, stimulating and concise.
Book reviews constitute an important part of the Journal. In this light, authors and publishers are encouraged to forward their books for review. Contributions as book reviews should be 1,000 to 1,500 words in length (including notes and references). Authors should email manuscripts and other works intended for publication to: jcss@global-hands.co.uk
When preparing papers for publication with the JCSS, regards must be had to the following:
(a) Original and unpublished:
It is to be noted that works submitted to the JCSS should not have been previously published, nor should they be under review with another journal or publication outlet. Where works require copyright permission for purposes of materials used in such works, it is the responsibility of authors/contributors to arrange and obtain prior permission.
(b) Intellectual property and plagiarism:
The JCSS upholds to a very high degree of ethical and professional standards. In this light, all authors are expected to be familiar with and adhere to the standards and codes governing intellectual property rights and plagiarism. By submitting manuscripts to the JCSS, authors assume full responsibility of ethical and legal requirements and obligations. Whilst the editorial team will take adequate measures to ensure conformity to these principles, it cannot however bear responsibility. The Editorial team is at hand to assist authors avert incidence of plagiarism.
(c) Length of manuscripts:
Manuscripts should be between 8,000 and 12,000 words in length (including all notes and references). They must be of high degree of scholarship. Submissions other than book reviews and commentaries must also include an abstract of not more than 200 words in length. Authors should in addition submit a brief biography of about 100 words maximum, which should include name(s), title(s) and affiliations.
(d) Peer review process:
As a fully peer-reviewed Journal, the JCSS operates on a blind refereeing process that requires all papers to be reviewed by at least two anonymous referees in the area of the subject matter addressed in the paper. The review process would typically take several weeks, the outcome of which is duly communicated to the author(s). Where amendments are recommended and changes required, authors must undertake to reflect these before a decision to publish is made.
V. Copyright
The JCSS strives to fulfil all copyright obligations. And so, except as otherwise stated, copyright in all contributions submitted to the JCSS remains the ownership of authors. However, as per standard practice, the JCSS holds exclusive rights in relation to electronic publications and their dissemination. The Journal is open access and therefore freely available. Whilst there is no permission required to download papers, the recipient (person downloading) must ensure that the accreditation details (i.e. authors’ names, place of publication and copyright notice—where applicable—remain attached to the download).
VI. Special Issues and Conference proceedings
In our drive to optimise discourse on Southern issues, Special Issues of the Journal may be catered for and requests for such arrangements would be granted on the basis of need, strength of contributors and competence of the designated Guest Editor(s). A cover note about the rationale of the Special Issue with a brief outline of the intended benefits, target readership and potential contribution to knowledge should be addressed to the Editor for consideration. Similarly, requests could be made to the Editor for conference proceedings to be published. All these must, of course, reflect the founding purpose and lines of inquiry of the Journal.