So You Want to Write About American Indians?: A Guide for Writers, Students, and Scholars

8. Submitting Your Work to Journals

BOB — University of Nebraska Press / Page 87 / / So You Want to Write about American Indians? / Devon Abbott Mihesuah 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 [First Page] [87], (1) Lines: 0 to 22 ——— * 35.37367pt PgVar ——— Normal Page * PgEnds: PageBreak [87], (1) chapter eight Submitting Your Work to Journals Now that you have completed your essay about Indigenous history, culture, or current events (book manuscripts are discussed in the next chapter), where will you send it? How will you send it? Are you aware of the various journals’ guidelines? Meet the Needs of the Journal Look at the journal’s Web page, or request guidelines to ensure that you won’t waste your and the journal editor’s time. I get five or six essays per month that have nothing to do with what AIQ publishes. For example, I have received papers dealing with India, German history, and Viagra. For two years I did not accept essays dealing with specific fiction authors and topics; this information was posted clearly on the AIQ Web page. Yet I still received dozens of papers on those very topics. Receiving unwanted papers means that the editor or assistant editor must spend time writing to authors to remind them of the guidelines. Larger journals often throw away unwanted submissions without contacting the author. Before sending your paper off to a journal and even as you are writing your piece, you need to keep in mind what the editor and reviewers of your paper will look for. Below are the most pertinent instructions for reviewers for AIQ. Although other academic journals have their own comment guidelines, they read pretty much like ours. Read the questions our reviewers answer and ask yourself if your article measures up to these criteria. As an author,you should go through this list and make certain that the answers are positive to the best of your ability. 87 BOB — University of Nebraska Press / Page 88 / / So You Want to Write about American Indians? / Devon Abbott Mihesuah 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 [88], (2) Lines: 22 to 90 ——— * 28.94429pt PgVar ——— Normal Page * PgEnds: PageBreak [88], (2) submitting your work to journals Instructions for Reviewers of American Indian Quarterly E V A L U A T I O N C R I T E R I A In responding to these more specific criteria, please keep in mind that AIQ is an interdisciplinary journal. This means that for any given article, most of our readers will not be specialists in that particular topic area or discipline. We are especially interested in articles that demonstrate a depth of scholarship in a specific topic and discipline but that also have a broader appeal to readers outside those specialties. We also want to encourage alternative approaches to American Indian Studies that do not conform to established disciplinary practices but nevertheless demonstrate sound scholarship. 1.Scholarship — shows originality of thought — makes appropriate use of relevant literature — provides adequate documentation and acknowledgment of sources — presents sufficient interpretive foreground and contextual background — uses an appropriate methodology that is clearly described — is likely to be cited in subsequent works on the same topic 2.Relevance — expands or enriches the knowledge or ideas about that focus is likely to be read by a broad segment of the journal’s readership falls within the general area of American Indian or Native American Studies explores a focus that is of central rather than peripheral significance within the general area 3.Style — is well written — is clearly and logically organized — contains appropriate examples — uses a minimum of jargon — is likely to be understood on a first reading by journal readers who are not specialists in the area 88 BOB — University of Nebraska Press / Page 89 / / So You Want to Write about American Indians? / Devon Abbott Mihesuah submitting your work to journals 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33...