Call for submissions to online-only journal section

Perspectives, a new online-only section of Language, is aimed at publishing articles that generate written responses. There are two types of contributions—longer ones (‘target articles’) and shorter ones (‘short shots’). Both types will have commentaries published and a summary response from the authors. Target articles will be selected on the basis of quality, readability, and whether they are likely to invite further productive discussion of issues of general interest to the field.

Commentaries up to 8,000 words in length in response to the target articles will be selected on the basis of whether they represent thoughtful perspectives that engage an issue raised by the article; we encourage preliminary submission of commentary abstracts up to three pages, as well as full commentaries. Broadly negative responses are not encouraged—a discussion deepening our understanding of an issue should dominate the presentation. Commentaries are selected on the basis of whether they collectively represent an informative diversity of perspectives. A second round of briefer responses to the commentary articles will be published. ‘Short shots’ are also subject to briefer and possibly sharper commentary, which is limited to a single round only.

Submissions of target articles and short shots, as well as proposals for potential articles, should be sent to language@rochester.edu, clearly identified as intended for the Perspectives section. Manuscripts should follow the general guidelines for contributors to Language as found in the Notes to Contributors (http://www.linguisticsociety.org/lsa-publications/language/notes-to-contributors). All reviewing and decisions will be done by the editors of Language. Current information about target articles can be found at http://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/perspectives.