Frequently Asked Questions answers many of the most common inquiries we receive from propsective authors. Please review this page to see if your questions are addressed here before contacting Journal of Visual Culture.
Due to high submission volume, it is the policy of Journal of Visual Culture not to comment on abstracts or manuscripts that have not been officially submitted for peer review. We respectfully ask that you do not email abstracts or manuscripts to members of the Editorial Group for consideration. If you are wondering whether your article is a good fit for Journal of Visual Culture, we highly recommend you look through the table of contents of our past several years of issues on our Sage site, to get a sense of the range and focus of our publication.
Journal of Visual Culture uses a two-tier review process. Manuscripts are first reviewed by members of the Editorial Group to determine whether the work should be sent for peer review. The first tier of the review process typically takes 4 – 6 weeks. If a manuscript is appropriate for peer review, the second tier of the review stage takes an additional 3 – 5 months
Journal of Visual Culture does not charge authors to publish in the journal. Authors will only incur charges if they must pay for image rights or if they wish to print images in color.
Obtaining permissions for images, especially copyrighted works of art, is often time consuming. Some rights holders also wish to know details of publication before granting permission or setting price. Given this, we only ask authors to at least be assured that permissions for an image are obtainable before submitting their manuscript. Should a manuscript be accepted, it is the author’s responsibility to obtain necessary permissions in order to move forward with the publication process.
You are not required to have an academic affiliation to publish in Journal of Visual Culture. You may simply list yourself as Independent Researcher or Scholar, or whatever title you feel is most appropriate (artist, filmmaker, etc.).
No. Our policy is that potential authors may only have one manuscript submitted at a time. Any additional manuscripts with be withdrawn.
Yes! Journal of Visual Culture is always looking for new book reviewers, and first-time reviewers are welcome to pitch an idea or inquire as to what books we may be recommending for review at that time. If you would like to write a review, please review our Reviews submission page.
Journal of Visual Culture has a very thorough proposal process for themed issues, which is outlined on our Themed Issues submission page. The fitness of a themed issue will be judged on the proposal itself, and all components must be completed. However, it can be advisable to contact the Editorial Group early on, to engage an informal conversation about whether your issue idea would be a good fit for JVC.