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Founded in 1969 by Robert Chrisman and Nathan Hare, the BLACK SCHOLAR (TBS) is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the exploration of cultural, political, social, and economic issues affecting Black Americans and other peoples of African descent across the world. To provide full range for the development of Black thought in a climate where fora are still limited, we emphasize writings by Black authors. The journal retains its policy of publishing both academic and non-academic intellectuals from a variety of professions and walks of life and its choices are the sole responsibility of its editorial staff.
We are committed to interdisciplinary conversation with an interested public who may not be as intimate with the professional language or styles of certain academic trends and discourses. Publication in TBS provides a rare opportunity to reach a broader audience, so please keep in mind the breadth of Black readership that will be eager to engage the work. The goal here is to elucidate as well as inform, without compromising scholarly credibility and intellectual merit. As a cutting-edge venue, TBS is tolerant and inviting of different modes of expression, but authors should submit with this mandate in mind.
Language that fetishizes itself and the author’s primary academic micro-community may not pass muster. It is also important that authors resist the clichés that have emerged in contemporary Black cultural criticism and political ideology. For example, work that merely depends on the oppression/resistance binary, or that generates laudatory but uncritical and romantic celebrations of ideas like radicalism or blackness but does nothing to ground those ideas in material examples or more contradictory realities, also may not pass muster. There is much more to Black intellectual and cultural production than such gestures, and TBS insists on going beyond even the limits Black thinkers may put on themselves.
Information about reprints and permissions can be accessed via the “Reprints and Permissions” tab above each article on our publisher platform. Direct all inquiries to permissionrequest@tandf.co.uk
Submissions Guidelines
To avoid having your submission returned or rejected, please read the above mandates and comply with the below guidelines. Submissions that do not adhere may be delayed in processing.
Submissions to TBS must be original, unpublished work not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Prior to submission, authors should familiarize themselves with both the past and current scholarship found in TBS. We welcome submissions in English (and in translation) from anywhere in the world as long as they meet the criteria articulated in our guidelines and in the journal’s archives. We publish articles, essays, interviews, and reviews. We do not publish unsolicited fiction and poetry. Our archives can be found here.
Full-length scholarly articles for peer review must range in length from 5,000-7,500 words maximum. Literary essays or public commentary articles that are not for peer review must range in length from 3,000-5,000 words maximum. Guest edited issues may have a smaller word count range for all manuscripts, so contact your guest editor for more information or refer to the CFP. Depending on varying factors, the peer review process can take anywhere from two to eight months.
General Information:
- All manuscripts (scholarly articles, essays, interviews, etc.) must be submitted to our publisher’s submission portal. We only accept manuscripts in Word format (see below for images requirements). To submit, go to our journal’s landing page on Taylor & Francis and press “Submit an article.”
- Contact PRSHelp@tandf.co.uk about any technical issues you might have while using the submission portal.
- Total word counts are inclusive of images, which count as ~200 words each, and endnotes.
- Please submit an abstract of 100–200 words that clearly states the nature and point of the article/essay. (Note: Abstracts and keywords are for peer review purposes only, will not be published, and do not count towards word count.) 3-5 keywords must also be submitted. A biographical statement of 50–75 words, must accompany all submissions.
- Replication of third-party material (including but not limited to illustrations, tables, audio, video, quotes and images from social media, film stills, lyrics, poetry, purely illustrative quotes, screenshots, oral conversations or interviews, and musical notation) may require written permission to use. Authors should refer to both the copyright holder’s policies as well as our publisher’s detailed information on third-party material and permission requirements here. Proof of permissions must be included in your submission file or forwarded to the managing editor. In their statement (via email or signed attached document), rights holders must grant The Black Scholar and Taylor & Francis (both entities must be mentioned) permission, specify the content being used, and agree to the terms listed under the “Permission to Publish template” here (the full terms, or a link to them, must be included in your email to rights holders). We cannot publish copyrighted material with time limitations on the reproduction. 1) For using quotes and images from social media (including YouTube, Soundcloud, etc.), please refer to the platform’s usage guidelines and the above link to info on third-party material as use likely requires written permission from rights holder. 2) Written permission to use copyrighted images (see Images, Tables, and Figures below), quotes from Twitter, lyrics, and poetry, is always required. 3) Fiction quotes, including screenplays/TV/film or scripts/plays, that are more than nominal in length (short run-in quotes are usually acceptable) require permission to use. 4) Epigraphs, unless they are clearly referred to in the main body of the manuscript and used critically, are considered purely illustrative by our publisher and therefore require permissions. 5) Interviews and quotes from oral conversations require consent to publish/participate from participants (if you do not have IRB approval, please contact the managing editor to request the forms required by our publisher). Consent forms, or IRB approval forms, for publishing identifiable interviewee information must be submitted with manuscripts, or forwarded to the managing editor. 6) Getting permissions from rights holders can sometimes take months. Submitting your manuscript before obtaining written permission for copyrighted material may delay the processing of your manuscript. Please keep in mind that our publisher is in the UK, so US Fair Use and other laws may not apply. Responsibility for obtaining permissions and/or finding out if permissions is needed for certain material, lies solely with the author and should be sorted prior to submission. If you need more information about using third-party material, are not sure if permission is needed, or have any questions, please review this page and use the “Contact Us” feature to reach the permissions department with our publisher.
- Unless we’ve peer reviewed the manuscript, we do not give feedback on rejected submissions.
- For more information, you can review our publisher’s instructions for authors and editorial policies.
- For general questions about submitting to TBS, contact the managing editor at hanks@theblackscholar.org.
Style Guide
Our required guide is the latest Chicago Manual of Style. Here are a few general pointers:
- We require endnotes for all bibliographic information, elucidation, etc. This includes page numbers, which should not be in parentheses except in book reviews. Endnotes must correspond to superscript numerals in text, placed outside punctuation. Use 1,2,3, etc., not i, ii, iii, as superscript numerals. Do not submit a bibliography, reference list, or works cited section. Full details must be given in an endnote at first mention of any work cited. Subsequent citations can then use the short form or a cross-reference. Our required reference style is further explained here.
- Keep your format clean and simple. All submissions must be in 12 point Times New Roman, double spaced, with 1″ margins. Do not underline, or use multiple fonts/font sizes or text colors. Remove all mark ups from Tracking Changes.
- TBS capitalizes Black.
Images, Tables, and Figures
- Visual material must be well considered and accompanied by discussion or assessment within the text. Authors will be asked to remove any images that are not contextualized or do not strengthen the submission.
- Written permission from rights holders to reproduce copyrighted images must be obtained by authors prior to submission and included in the manuscript file. Rights holders must list the title of each work that they are granting permission for. They must also state that TBS can use the image/s in both online and print versions of the issue. If images are in the public domain, authors must state this in their submission file and must still attribute it properly. Generally, but especially when using images in the public domain or with questionable copyright, contributors should read additional copyright information from our publisher here. If the images are your own (and not photographs of someone else’s work), you must note this in the image/figure placement marker (see below).
- Images, tables, and figures must be submitted in separate JPEG (preferred), TIFF, or EPS files (one image per file, with files named “Figure/image/table 1” etc.) of a high resolution not lower than 600 dpi for grayscale, or 300 dpi for color. Do not submit images in a Word document. More information on submitting artwork can be found here. Note: All images in the print edition of the journal will appear in grayscale. Color figures will be reproduced in color in the digital edition of the journal free of charge. If it is necessary for the figures to be reproduced in color in the print version, a charge will apply.
- Each image, table, and figure must have an image placement marker in the manuscript with “INSERT [figure/image/table] 1 here”. Image description and/or titles and credit/source/date must follow image placement marker in the manuscript.
- All figures and images must be numbered in the order in which they appear in the manuscript (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2). In multi-part figures, each part should be labelled (e.g. Figure 1(a), Figure 1(b)).
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Book Reviews
The Black Scholar welcomes reviewers and will help in providing books for review. Published manuscripts from the last 2-3 years will be considered for publication in our journal. To better understand what TBS is looking for, please see the guidelines below.
Reviewers must adhere to the following format for bibliographic information (to be placed at the top of the review):
Title, by Author. Publishing Location: Publisher, Year. Hardcover Price, Paperback Price. Page Length.
Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity by E. Patrick Johnson. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003. $109.95. Hardcover, $29.95 paperback. 384 pages.
Reviewed by XXX
Guidelines
- Book reviews must be approximately 750-1,500 words with review essays between 1,500 and 3,000 words. Please note: Review essays should be submitted to our editor-in-chief at ChukWu@theblackscholar.org and will only be considered after a proposal stating what books will be discussed and why they are important has already been submitted and approved.
- Book citation format should be parentheticals, no footnotes or endnotes.
- Reviews should appeal to the readers of the Black Scholar, focusing on race and ethnicity that includes but is not limited to Black studies, Latinx studies, LGTBTQI+ studies, the African Diaspora, and the works of or about authors of color.
- TBS looks for reviewers for recent scholarly manuscripts from the following presses: Duke University, New York University, Oxford University, Cambridge University, University of Michigan, Stanford University, Harvard University, Verso, Routledge, University of Minnesota, Harvard University, University of Chicago, and University of North Carolina. This is not a complete list of publishers, but is demonstrative of publishers TBS would be excited to receive.
- In addition to reviews of scholarly manuscripts, TBS is interested in works across media including novels, films, and plays. However, contributors should verify the fit of any review before submitting drafts for consideration.
- Review of music compositions (albums, music videos, live performances) and poetry will depend on the discretion of the editors. Reviewers should submit such suggestions only with a clear understanding of why the material should be considered for publications by TBS. That is, works and authors recognized for their accomplishments in the field, not simply their popularity. Music reviews in particular will require a high bar to be considered for publication.
- Although TBS welcomes books from across the publishing world, self-published scholarly texts lacking peer review will not be considered.
- Written permission to use copyrighted images (see Images, Tables, and Figures below), quotes from Twitter, and all lyrics or poetry, must be obtained before you submit your review and must be included in your submission file or forwarded to the managing editor. In their statement, rights holders must specifically grant TBS use of the named/listed material in both online and print versions of the issue. Fiction quotes, including screenplays or scripts, that are more than nominal in length (short run-in quotes and paraphrases are acceptable) also require permission. Information on permission requirements can be found here. Submitting your manuscript before obtaining written permission for copyrighted material will delay the processing of your manuscript.
- Reviews should strive to inform readers through summary and analysis of the text. To this end, reviewers should avoid superlatives and overt praise. Although many texts may take on poetic, or ornate language, reviewers should seek clarity for readers who may be new to the material.
- Please attend to where the book fits within the larger context of scholarship. Reviews can mention specific texts but should avoid formal citations and notes from other texts.
- Reviewers should consider conflicts of interest, such as reviewing works by advisors, mentors, and colleagues.
- Unsolicited reviews will be queued after scheduled book reviews and publishing deadlines.
- Book reviews should initially be submitted to our book reviews editors, Ashley Howard and Paul J. Edwards. After working with our editors, if your review is accepted, you will then be instructed to submit the final version using the “Submit an article” tab on our journal’s landing page. Please note: Reviews that are submitted to our submission portal but have not already been submitted directly to our book reviews editors and accepted by them first will not be considered.
- Reviewers can contact the book review editors to coordinate the physical or electronic delivery of review materials.
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Submissions to The Black Scholar Blog
The Black Scholar welcomes original thought pieces and editorials on topics of contemporary or historical interest that are relevant to the mission of TBS. The goal of the blog posts are to inspire traffic, and to bring a real-time or current voices of TBS into dialogue with mainstream or newsworthy happenings, as well as invite and encourage new voices in Black Studies to provide commentary on timely topics. Your post should be geared towards our primary audience of academics and the public interested in current and historical issues of concern to Black Studies.
Guidelines
• All blog submissions must follow the above style guide for journal submissions.
• Short, well-written and high-quality original articles related to basic issues confronting Afro-America, the diaspora, and Africa. We ask that all content be original and not be published elsewhere, although we will consider reposting on a case-by-case basis at our discretion.
• As long as the vision aligns with our mission, we are open to more creative submissions that may fall outside the typical article format.
• If you would like to include a photo, audio, or video that is relevant, please make sure to have the appropriate attribution included and a permanent link to the media artifact. All images must be in jpeg and at least 300 dpi. Permission to use copyrighted images, audio, or video must be acquired beforehand and included in your submission email.
• Please include a 50 word max bio. We also welcome links to your personal website and social media accounts. You must include a photo of yourself attached in a separate jpeg file of at least 300 dpi.
• Blog posts should range from 750-1500 words.
• Submission must be in a Word document.
• TBS reserves the right to edit and adapt your guest blog content as needed, particularly to fit our formatting or space constraints. We will be sure to work with you on any suggested changes or edits.
Please email your completed article to ChukWu@theblackscholar.org, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
