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PUBLICATION DATES

ALJ uses a rolling submission process, allowing authors to submit at any time during the year without time restraints or quota of articles in an issue. Rolling submission, the most current scholarly method of accepting publications, allows for more timely publications and current scholarship to enter the public sphere quicker, rather than to conform to traditional academic print journal guidelines.

We are pleased to accept your submissions at any time.

Please note, we are a 100% volunteer enterprise and as such it may take time to peer review your essay and return. Wait times can range anywhere between six months to a year. Please keep this in mind when you submit.

SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT

JCAS submissions are expected to follow the formatting and research documentation criteria prescribed by the American Psychological Association (APA). If you are not familiar with APA formatting, you can review it here.

Please do not use footnotes or endnotes.

For submission guidelines, see ALJ Formatting Guide. Please follow these guidelines when preparing your submission. Failure to comply with these guidelines will delay the processing of your submission! 

For general questions and to submit your article, please email your documents to journalforcas@gmail.com

REVIEW POLICIES

  • Submissions must be grounded in the field of animal liberation. In short, animal liberation is the end of the oppression, domination and exploitation of nonhuman animals.
  • Submissions must not be under review for any other publication. Here’s a very thoughtful article about why you should not submit your article to more than one journal at a time.
  • Submissions must be original and not previously published. If you are submitting a version of a previously posted or published piece, please tell the editors.
  • Upon acceptance for review, the editors will send manuscripts, under a double anonymous peer-reviewed process, to no less than two, and usually three, reviewers. Reviewers provide their recommendations to the issue editor(s), who makes the final decision to accept the manuscript.

TYPES OF SUBMISSIONS

  • Research articles/essays – 5,000 to 10,000 words
  • Film, book, art, and media reviews – no more than 3,000 words
  • Interviews and dialogues – between 1,000 to 10,000 words
  • Course/class summaries – no more than 2,000 words
  • Tactic and strategy analysis – no more than 10,000 words
  • Lecture summaries – no more than 2,000 words
  • Conference summaries – no more than 2,000 words
  • Protest summaries – no more than 2,000 words
  • Poems – no more than 10,000 words

SUGGESTED TOPICS

ALJ is dedicated to focusing on animal liberation and the animal liberation movement. This is a single issued journal for animal advocacy, animal rights, anti-speciesism, and animal justice. We especially encourage contributions that engage animal liberation in disciplines and debates that have received little previous attention. If you are looking to write on total liberation or intersectionality please submit to the Journal for Critical Animal Studies.

REVIEW PROCESS

  • Everyone who submits text to be reviewed for publication in ALJ will work with the Editor, and this will be the only person with whom the submitter should have a contact at ALJ.
  • If a dispute/conflict arises that cannot be resolved with the Editor, the author(s,)/reviewer(s) may contact the General Editors of ALJ, but not anyone affiliated with the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS), which is a separate entity.

Submissions will be assigned to one of the four following categories:

  1. Accept without revisions
  2. Accept with editorial revisions
  3. Revise and resubmit for peer review
  4. Reject
    • Every effort will be made to inform the authors of the Issue Editor’s decision within 6 months to a year of manuscript receipt.
    • Authors whose manuscripts are accepted for publication will be asked to submit a 50 to 80-word biography that includes their institutional or organizational affiliations, if applicable, professional title, country, and one to six research fields of interests.
  1. Once accepted for publication, JCAS author(s)/reviewer(s) will work within a structured timeline to edit the text for publication. A final draft of the text will be sent from the Issue Editor to the author(s)/reviewer(s) of the text to approve. At that time, author(s)/reviewer(s) can only make minor changes in grammar, spelling, and formatting and must send the article back within five days in a Word Doc (or a simply approve via email if no changes are made). Author(s)/reviewer(s) will they receive a confirmation email from the Issue Editor with the General Editors cc’d.
  2. After the issue is formatted by the Issue and General Editors, it is uploaded via Word Doc, PDF, and Issuu.com. Once published/uploaded, no re-editing is allowed; the only situation in which publication would be retracted is if legal questions arose about the material an author(s)/review(s) submission.
  3. Finally, once published, the Issue Editor, General Editor, and ICAS will promote the publication via e-mail listservs, social media, websites, blogs, flyers, media, newsletters, etc.

COPYRIGHT, REPUBLISHING, AND ROYALTIES

  • All work published in the journal is copyrighted by ALJ.
  • Republication of a contributor’s works will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, and a reasonable fee may be required for the administration and facilitation of other presses. Such fee shall be determined at the discretion of ALJ.
  • Contributors agree and acknowledge that no royalty, payment, or other compensation will be provided by ALJ in exchange for or result from the publication of the submitted work.

ACCESSING ALJ ISSUES

ALJ is a free online publication with each issue published in three formats: Word Doc, PDF, and Issuu.com. The articles are both published collectively and individually. Once an issue is uploaded, it is promoted via listservs, Facebook, Twitter, the ICAS website, and via e-mails to reviewers, authors, editors, ICAS board members, and members of ICAS.