Journal of Visual Culture vets received manuscripts through a two-tier review process. Submitted manuscripts are initially reviewed by members of the editorial group for an assessment of their fit. Criteria for internal review include engagement with topics specifically relevant to visual culture, understanding of major debates within visual culture as a discipline, interest to a broad interdisciplinary audience, writing quality, and the journal’s publishing history around similar topics. Manuscripts recommended by the editors are then sent for peer review by members of the editorial board with relevant subject expertise.
The first stage of review typically takes 4-6 weeks. If an article has been cleared for peer review, the author will be notified via email. The peer review phase typically takes 3-4 months, but may take upward of 6 months.
Unfortunately, we cannot offer feedback on manuscripts that are rejected at the first tier stage. Additionally, we only guarantee feedback on accepted manuscripts. While we always strive to provide feedback to submitters, rejected manuscripts may receive feedback only if released by the reviewer.
Successful submission to Journal of Visual Culture requires adherence to all submission guidelines, as detailed below.
Length: The word count for the entire manuscript–including texts, quotes, notes, references and bibliography–should fall between 5000 and 8000 words.
Language: All submissions must be composed in fluent English. We are sensitive to the reality that English in not a global standard for all prospective authors. However, we do insist that authors who are not fluent in written English seek the assistance of an editor.
Format: The text should be double-spaced throughout, left justified with standard margins. Please use Times New Roman, 12 pt font. The manuscript should include a title, keywords and abstract, which are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Abstracts should be 100-150 words in length, and authors should list 5-8 keywords. Any headings/subheads should be consistently signaled with italics or underlines. Preferred formats for the file itself are Word DOC/DOCX.
Style: SAGE Publications uses a form of Harvard Style for references, notes and citations. Guidelines for SAGE’s Harvard style can be found here. Authors should use single quotation marks with double quotes inside single quotes. Present dates in the form 1 May 1998. Do not use points in abbreviations, contractions or acronyms (e.g. AD, USA, Dr, PhD). UK or US spellings may be used with “-ize” spellings as given in the Oxford English Dictionary (e.g. organize, recognize).
EndNote: If you use EndNote to manage references, download the SAGE Harvard output style and save to the appropriate folder (for Windows this is normally C:\Program Files\EndNote\Styles and for Mac OS X it is Harddrive:Applications:EndNote:Styles). Once you’ve done this, open EndNote and choose “Select Another Style…” from the dropdown menu in the menu bar. Then locate and choose this new style from the following screen.
Images: For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines. Figures supplied in color will appear in color online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For specifically requested color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from SAGE after receipt of your accepted article.