Editorial Policies and Submissions Guidelines
Overview
The Journal of Southern Religion is a fully peer-reviewed academic
journal reflecting the best traditions of objective and critical
scholarship in the study of religion. As an interdisciplinary venture,
the editors invite submissions from historians, religionists,
anthropologists, sociologists, and other interested scholars. The
journal welcomes submissions on all aspects of southern religion but is
especially interested in publishing manuscripts that address the
following topics:
- Regionalism in southern religion, e.g., Appalachia, the Gulf Coast,
south Florida and the Caribbean - religious aspects of southern culture, e.g., religion and cuisine,
music, and southern literature - southern civil religion
- local and folk religions, including ethnographic studies of
congregations and parishes - ethnicity including immigration and slave religions
- religion and race, class, disability, and gender issues in the
South.
Scholars desiring to submit their research to the journal should read the
submissions policy.
Open Access and Copyright
The Journal of Southern Religion is an open-access publication. You
are encouraged to make use of the materials published in the JSR in your
scholarship and teaching.
All materials are © copyright Association for the Study of Southern
Religion, 1998--2012. All articles, book reviews, podcasts, and other
material are licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
This license grants you permission to use the material published in the
journal as you see fit, for example, in course packs, on course
websites, and in quotations in other scholarly works. In return, you
must cite the JSR wherever you use its contents. The citation must
include all relevant bibliographic information, as well as a URL
pointing to the content. See the sample citations below. Your citation
may not imply that the JSR endorses or has published your derivative
content.
The grant of these open-access permissions does not remove your
professional obligation concerning proper use, citation, and plagiarism.
Citing the JSR
As with print media, any use of JSR materials for scholarly or other
purposes should be properly documented. The following format should be
used:
Footnote or endnote
Chad E. Seales, "An Old Love for New Things: Southern Baptists and the
Modern Technology of Indoor Baptisteries," Journal of Southern
Religion 13 (2011): http://jsr.fsu.edu/issues/vol13/Seales.html.
Bibliography
Seales, Chad E. "An Old Love for New Things: Southern Baptists and the
Modern Technology of Indoor Baptisteries." Journal of Southern
Religion 13 (2011): http://jsr.fsu.edu/issues/vol13/Seales.html.
Minimally, all references should contain the author's name, title, and
the name of the journal with volume and year citations. If cited in an
online publication, the appropriate URL for that site may be linked for
instant reference. The use of the URL is recommended even for print
publications.
All articles, essays, reviews, etc. that appear in a given calendar year
constitute a single journal volume.
Article Guidelines
Submitting Manuscripts
Submissions to the JSR are fully peer-reviewed by members of the
editorial board and their designees. Electronic submissions are
preferred. Please submit via email to the JSR Associate Editor.
- Alison Collis Green, alison.collis.greene@emory.edu
Unsolicited manuscripts should fit broadly into one or more of the
categories outlined by the journal's editorial policies. Materials
submitted to JSR must not have been previously published nor submitted
for publication elsewhere while under review by JSR editors.
All submissions should be accompanied by the author's name, current
institutional affiliation, postal and e-mail addresses. In most cases,
authors will be notified within ninety days of the editors' decision. We do not substitute or change author names after initial submission.
Electronic publication allows for the addition of images and other
visual or auditory aids, and the editors encourage authors to include
such with articles when appropriate. Authors should make certain that
all submitted materials are clear of copyright claims or that they
obtain permission as required by law. JSR reserves copyright
privileges for all materials published.
Solicited essays should conform to the same criteria but are not
restricted by word length requirements.
JSR Style
All manuscripts must follow the Chicago Manual of Style.
Book Review Guidelines
Thank you for agreeing to review a book for the Journal of Southern
Religion. Reviews are a vital part of the journal. At their best, as
historian Steven Stowe has observed, reviews are a "vernacular form of
scholarly talk" that assess where we are, where we are going, and how we
might best reshape our work.
Book reviews should be between 500 and 1,000 words, but we have no
formal limit. Scholars interested in submitting book reviews to JSR
should contact the book review editor Carolyn Dupont.
- Carolyn Dupont, carolyn.dupont@eku.edu
When you receive your review copy, please send a short confirmation
message to the book review editor. Within eight weeks, please email your
review for approval and editing.
Book reviewers should consult the book review style sheet before
submitting reviews. Please refer to the guidelines below as you write.
JSR seeks reviews that:
- Tell plainly what the book says and for whom it is written. Most
readers read reviews to learn the scope and argument of a book. In
addition, a careful assessment of the book's intended audience is of
particular interest to the readers of an interdisciplinary journal
such as the JSR. - Set the author's argument in a broad context of scholarly analysis.
Reviewers should bear in mind that scholars from a variety of
disciplines will read the review. The perspectives of the reviewer's
own discipline will be of great interest, but reviewers should avoid
assessments based solely on issues of interest to those in a single
field or subfield. - Suggest whether the author achieves the book's stated purpose and
assesses the significance of that goal. Criticism is welcomed, of
course, but it should be made only on courteous and constructive
terms. The editors will either ask reviewers to rewrite sections
that breach this standard or refuse the submission altogether.
Writing should be concise yet lively, and should strive to balance a
personal voice with careful analysis.
Book Review Style and Format
Most reviews run between 500 and 1,000 words, but there is no formal
limit.
All reviews should be submitted as an e-mail attachment in Word format
to the book review editor.
The following information should appear at the top of the review:
Author. Full Title of the Book. Place of Publishing: Publisher, Date
of Publication. Number of Pages. ISBN. Reviewed by Name of Author.
Please list your name, current status, department, and affiliation at the end of the review; such as: Arthur Remillard is an associate professor of Religious Studies at Saint Francis University.
Reviewers should consult the Chicago Manual of Style on all questions
of style. Please supply page numbers for all quoted passages. Use the
first name in the initial reference to any person (including the
author). With organizations or acts, use the full name in the initial
reference; all subsequent references may use initials or acronyms.
Please supply publication dates of any books mentioned in the review.
Please proofread the text of the review carefully.
Questions should be directed to the book review editor.
Status of Electronic Reviews
Professional ethics dictate that a scholar can publish only one review
of a book. Journal of Southern Religion reviews count as that one
review. As indicated above, journal reviewers have permission to
republish their reviews provided that proper credit is given to the
Journal of Southern Religion, but should not agree to write a separate
review of the same work for a print journal.