(or What Happens to Your Manuscript When You Submit it to the NWSA Journal)
Please send one print copy on standard U.S. paper, including an abstract and list of keywords, along with an e-copy (by e-mail attachment in the latest version of Word). Be sure to follow the submission guidelines, as well as the citation format and style guide on this Web site. Delete any self-references that might reveal your identity to reviewers, except for on your cover page. Please be certain that your paper copies and e-copy are identical versions of your paper. See Submitting.
The NWSA Journal acknowledges all submissions; however, our editorial staff determines whether a submission is appropriate for the NWSA Journal before sending it out for peer review. For example, the topic and approach must be appropriate for a feminist audience, and the research must be suitable for an academic journal.
All manuscripts appropriate for consideration for the NWSA Journal are sent to two readers in the appropriate discipline for blind (anonymous) review. Readers are asked to send their evaluations, comments, and suggestions for revision to the editors. We also ask reviewers to respond to the author. Reviewers are given one month to complete their evaluations, but are often given extensions.
After the review by two outside readers, manuscripts are then considered by the editorial group. If the three readings (two outside readers plus the editorial group) do not agree, the manuscript may then be sent to an interdisciplinary panel of the national editorial board (three to five readers), along with copies of the readers' reports. Board members do not know the identity of the author of the manuscript.
The review process takes between three to six months, depending on our ability to find suitable reviewers who are able to read your work in a timely way. Authors are welcome to query the status of their manuscript at any point in the process.
Upon completion of the review process, authors will receive a decision letter, along with anonymous reader reports.
If a manuscript is returned to an author with an invitation to resubmit, an author who chooses to resubmit should explain in a cover letter how requests for changes have been addressed. The NWSA Journal endeavors to send a revised manuscript to at least one original reader. A revised manuscript is not always accepted. Sometimes a manuscript is accepted for publication with the condition that the author meet certain revisions requirements (length, etc.). When specific revisions have been made to the editor's satisfaction, the manuscript is then accepted and a Consent to Publish form is sent to the author.
Both editorial changes and the first round of copy editing are done in our offices, after which the manuscript is sent to an external copy editor and then to the compositor. Authors may receive queries at each stage in this process: 1) during our in-house editing, 2) following external copy editing, and 3) after copy is set by the compositor. Authors should carefully re-read their manuscripts following each of our queries since, at the final stage, the press charges $5 to change a word and $10 to charge a line. In short, authors must pay for any changes they request after their articles have been set by the compositor.
All authors of articles receive two copies of the NWSA Journal in which their article appears, and all book reviewers receive one copy.
Because we are committed to a mentoring process for academic writing, we try hard to give authors positive suggestions for strengthening their manuscripts. Sometimes, therefore, manuscript decisions are delayed. We hope authors will remember these considerations as their manuscripts proceed through this careful process.
We welcome your comments and queries. We are always looking for additional manuscript readers, book reviewers, and, of course, your excellent manuscripts of new scholarship in women’s and gender studies. Thank you for helping the NWSA Journal become the very best journal it can be.
