Submission guidelines - jcmsjournal/editorial GitHub Wiki

Pay careful attention to the following guidelines. Those submissions that do not follow these procedures will not be considered for acceptance. Once you're sure that you've adequately prepared your manuscript, submit your paper via JCMS's submissions portal.

  • Submitted manuscripts must not be previously published or be already under consideration elsewhere, and may not be simultaneously submitted to another journal while under consideration at JCMS. Discovery of such simultaneous submission will result in the submission being removed from consideration. In some cases, work submitted to JCMS may later be submitted to publishers as part of a book manuscript, as authors retain copyright for use in their own monographs. Should your book be published prior to an accepted article's publication in JCMS, we will request acknowledgements in both the book and article indicating this relationship.

  • To be considered for review, manuscripts should be at least 8,000 words long and no longer than 10,000 words. This word count includes end notes but does not include abstract.

  • Submissions must include an abstract of approximately 100 words and approximately six keywords or terms (such as African Cinema, audience, Adorno) that will help us to ensure they are reviewed by an expert in the appropriate area. Abstract and keywords do not contribute to the article's maximum word limit.

  • Submissions should follow the format specified by the Chicago Manual of Style (18th Edition). All bibliographic information should be in endnotes, and submissions should not include an additional bibliography. See the JCMS Style Guide for more specific guidelines.

  • As JCMS seeks to publish critical inquiry into the global, national, and local circulation of a wide variety of media, we look for articles that foreground original interventions in current conversations within film and media studies. Articles that focus on the formal or textual analysis of a single or small number of case studies should clearly articulate what larger questions they ask and answer.

  • JCMS and Michigan Publishing follow the COPE guidelines regarding use of AI and AI authorship in scholarly work, which state that AI cannot be considered an author and authors are ultimately responsible for all work including AI-generated text. All submissions should be original works of scholarship, reflecting the author’s research and analysis. Thus, AI use is discouraged in most cases. In exceptional cases in which scholarship is about AI, utilizing creative digital humanities methods, or otherwise experimenting with technological form, AI use may be appropriate. Any and all AI use must be disclosed at time of submission. If AI use is not disclosed and discovered later, or if AI use exceeds reasonable expectations, JCMS will consult with the author and may decline to publish.

  • JCMS receives a high volume of submissions. Submissions that comply with the stated submission guidelines and fit the current needs and goals of the journal will be sent out for anonymous peer review by experts in the relevant subfields. Because accepted articles are published in the order in which they are submitted, we cannot accommodate requests to accelerate publication for job market or promotion cases. However, the editors are happy to write a letter for authors affirming that the article is accepted and is in queue or in press.

  • Frame enlargements or other image materials must be supplied by authors, who are responsible for obtaining permission to publish them in cases where Fair Use does not apply. For more information about permissions, please consult Michigan Publishing's permissions guide. While not required at time of submission, authors must supply documentation of permissions to publish images shortly following the communication of an official decision by JCMS to publish an article following peer review.

  • Images should be a minimum of 1,500 pixels wide or tall (or at least 3-4 inches when saved at 300 dpi) and have a minimum resolution of 250-300 dpi. Uncompressed TIFF files are best, but other common formats are also acceptable. Do not save your images with compression.

  • JCMS supports up to six images per feature article published. As a general policy, JCMS does not run figures that are composed of multiple images, such as two or more stills or screenshots placed side by side and submitted as one image. Some exceptions may be granted for images of interfaces with dimensions that do not match standard media figures, such screenshots of mobile phone content, or for original, creative, or transformative images.

  • JCMS only accepts electronic submissions through our Submissions portal. If for some reason you cannot submit electronically, please contact the editorial team. Please note that JCMS requests submissions in Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx) and does not accept manuscripts in PDF format.