Submission Guidelines
Mission
At its core, the collection seeks to create a scholarly, creative, and public community based in Women’s and Gender Studies. We aim to offer a more complete picture of our world by amplifying marginalized voices that are often overlooked or buried. Bringing these perspectives to the front creates the opportunity to build dialogue between feminists across identities, experience, and expertise. The collection lends itself to a practice of interdisciplinary dialogue that builds understanding across disciplines and transformative narratives.
Aim and scope:
The Women’s and Gender Studies Collection is an online, always free, radically open-licensed resource available to everyone: students, teachers, community organizations, activists, and beyond. The collection is unique in that it is both open resource and high quality, making it a trusted resource examining various disciplines through the framework of Women’s and Gender Studies. We welcome a variety of approaches, seeking to highlight the wide array of feminist scholarship and creative expression. The collection uses interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and cross-cultural perspectives to critically examine complex intersectional experiences.
Potential Topics
- Intersectionality Theory and Method
- Transnational and Decolonial Feminisms
- LGB, Queer, Trans, and Sexuality Studies
- Praxis, Activism and Social Movements
- Feminist Identity
- Feminist Teaching and Pedagogy
- Gender, Femme, and Masculinities
- Work, Migration, Family
- Representation and Media
- Violence: Intimate, State, and Hate
Types of submissions
We seek submissions from creators at any stage in their careers including scholars, students, activists, and community members. All submissions should be in the discipline of women’s and gender studies. We welcome all types of submissions, but the following list is offered as a guide. Visual works should include a brief artist statement of no more than 150 words, explaining its relevance to women’s and gender studies. Works with video, audio, or depictions of other people should include confirmation that everyone has given consent to be included in the submission.
Text can include short papers, scholarly articles, essays, short fiction, book reviews, calls to action, and research proposals.
Audio can include discussions, conversations, lectures (public or classroom based), and music
Video can include public lectures, performances, interviews, and event recordings (protests, marches, etc.)
Visual Art: can include paintings, printmaking, photography, visual representations of other creative works, and infographics
Formatting requirements
Writing:
File Type: Word Doc and PDF
Word Count: There is no minimum word count. Max word count is 10,000.
Work should be consistently formatted throughout and use only one format for citations. Authors can choose any formatting and citation style that is appropriate for their discipline.
Audio:
File Type: mp3, mp4
Accurate subtitles
Video:
File Type: mp4, YouTube link
High Resolution
Accurate subtitles
Creative works-art (digitally):
File Type: jpg, png
Language/Image Policy
All wording and content should be clear, concise, engaging, and accessible to a broad audience. If you created this piece for a specific class or conference, please revise it to make sure that it is appropriate for a general audience. In doing this, make sure to define and explain disciplinary specific words, i.e. for those who have not taken a women’s and gender studies course. Avoid generalizing and universalizing statements and use a first person point of view when necessary. All content should be inclusive, respectful, and make no assumptions about the reader/viewer. It should avoid language suggesting hierarchies of supremacy on the grounds of age, gender, race, class, ethnicity, culture, sexuality, ability or health condition. Authors should ensure that writing centers the language and experiences of historically underrepresented groups, such as women, Black, Indigenous and other people of color, queer, trans, and LGB individuals, and disabled people. Language should be free from bias, stereotypes, and references to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions as assumed norms. We allow the use of all pronouns and aim for inclusivity in terms such as the use of cisgender, trans, nonbinary, AFAB, AMAB, etc. These guidelines are meant as a reference to help identify appropriate content and language but are not exhaustive or definitive.
Submission Process
Prior to submission, ensure that your work follows all our guidelines, particularly content guide, definitions, and language. We offer mentorship to all authors, new and established, through all stages of preparing their work for submission and publication. Anyone who seeks guidance on preparing their work is encouraged to reach out.
Submissions should be sent to wgscollection@gmail.com. The following should be included in the body of the email and as attachments:
Body:
✦ Name (as you would like it to be published)
✦ Affiliation (if applicable)
✦ Contact information
✦ A 1-3 sentence author bio
✦ A 2-3 sentence description of work
✦ 1-2 sentences on each:
- What is the argument/point of submission?
- How does this submission draw on and contribute to women’s and gender studies?
- What do you hope for this submission? What is the conversation you hope to be in?
✦ 2-3 Keywords
✦ An image or a description of an image that represents the theme of your submission.
Attachment
✦ Your work
✦ For visual and performance art, please include an artistic statement
Review process
We offer a feminist, blind, peer review process to ensure academic rigor, relevance to the collection’s objective, mentorship, dialogue, and internal checks for reviewer bias that could be identity-based and/or disciplinary-based. These checks include at least two reviews of each piece, with at least one of these having knowledge of and experience with the subject matter and at least one of these having knowledge of and experience with women’s and gender studies. We include individual bias checks in our review template where reviewers can flag sections for discussion and ask for additional reviews with specific expertise. We include collective bias checks in our meetings. We are always available and happy to discuss our review process and advise on subject matter, format, submission process, or any other concerns you may have.
Once reviews are completed, the Collection will email all reviews and the review decision to the submitter. If the submitter receives a ‘revise and resubmit’ decision and if the piece needs help with structure, clarity, and/or organization, they will have access to a 30-minute in person or zoom copy editing consultation as part of the resubmission and mentoring process. All suggestions will stay focused on organizational issues and will preserve the submitter’s voice and agency.
When the submitter is ready to resubmit, they will send a cover letter that explains the changes made to address reviewer comments along with the revised piece. The revised piece will be re-reviewed one time by one of the original reviewers. If the piece is still not appropriate, our communication will explain why and, if possible, will also help identify other appropriate publication venues.
wgscollection@gmail.com