NOTES ON EDITORIAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

American Studies' editorial process is designed to encourage dialogue, colleagueship and communication without regard to disciplinary boundaries.  Editors and readers attempt to assist contributors by suggesting ways in which manuscripts might be improved, and by prodding them to think of the relationship between what they have done and ideas and hypotheses developed in other sectors of American Studies.

Few articles are ever accepted without having gone through at least one round of substantial revisions.  Many authors report that they have enjoyed the interchange with our staff and reviewers and the stimulation of connecting their often specialized work with the interests of scholars in contiguous, or more distant fields.
Ideally an article is reviewed by an outside specialist, an editorial board member familiar with the field, and an editorial board member from outside the academic discipline who reads for broad interest.  The non-specialist's review is weighed equally with that of the specialist, for the goal of American Studies is to cross academic disciplines and to expand dialogue beyond narrow fields.  We would like to make research accessible to the widest band of scholars.  Essays are sometimes sent back with the warm invitation to place the argument within the larger context of American culture, and then resubmit.
     Because we use specialist consultants not on our staff, our processing of articles is somewhat slower than some other journals.  We expect an article returned from a reviewer within six weeks.  Often, the delay in processing is caused by our hunt for a specialist who is willing to review.  If an author has not heard from us within four months, we encourage them to write or phone us for an explanation.
     We do not accept "multiple submissions." We ask our referees to provide in-depth reviews and offer extensive critique and comments to the author.  This is a time consuming process, and we consider multiple submissions exploitive of us and our reviewers.

We expect from reviewers not only a detailed and thoughtful response to a manuscript, but also an evaluation of the significance of the piece, its potential, and most importantly, whether or not the author would be capable of revising it for publication in American Studies.  It is important to keep in mind, however, that publishing in American Studies is only one goal of the journal.  We are also committed to helping scholars improve their work, and the readers' reports forwarded to the authors nearly always offer detailed critiques and suggestions for improvement.  Even when manuscripts are turned down, we hope that authors will have had a constructive engagement with other scholars through American Studies.
     When the editors invite revision and resubmission, they send the revised manuscript to the same readers who read it previously.  We always send back the reviewer's comments to the author, and invite the author to respond to criticisms by informally "talking back" to the referees in appended notes or explanations.  We like to share the comments of our reviewers directly with our contributors, and we hope that contributors and reviewers are thick-skinned enough to take criticism without bitterness.  Our goal is to be helpful and to give a personal and detailed response to each submitted piece.

American Studies currently processes about 75 articles a year and prints about 10.  Many are finally turned down not because of their quality, but because they are too narrow.  Articles that do not ultimately answer the question "What does this study tell us about society or culture in the United States?" are almost never printed.  We strongly advise prospective contributors to read through a few recent issues to familiarize themselves with American Studies and our readers' interests.
     American Studies does not use "quotas" and generally has no backlog.  Articles are accepted or rejected on their own merit, and not because we have run too many or too few on given subjects.  We try when there is a larger than usual number of accepted essays in the shop to find the funds to get all in print within the year.  This accounts for the occasional oversized issue.

The editors and editorial board members of American Studies often invite scholars to submit pieces to the journal.  Invited manuscripts, however, go through the same review and decision process as unsolicited ones. American Studies uses a double blind-review process, and requires four non-returnable manuscripts without the author's name on them.

Please mail your manuscript to:

Ailecia Ruscin , Assistant Editor
American Studies
The University of Kansas
1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 213
Lawrence, Kansas  66045-7590
telephone: 785-864-4883
e-mail: asjo@ku.edu