The annual Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed annual print publication, is seeking submissions. Scholarly articles in English of up to 8000 words, book reviews and the like are welcomed. We aim to cover all areas of magic, witchcraft, paganism etc, all geographical regions, all academic disciplines that have anything to say on the subject and all historical periods.
Please read the
entirety of this page of guidelines before contacting us, as many common
queries are answered below
Submissions should be sent to Dave Evans via e-mail attachment (to socacademicstudymagicATbtopenworld.com, replacing the AT with the @ symbol. We have had to remove all direct emailing links from the site due to recent relentless spamming). We can no longer accept submissions by snail mail, since the review and typesetting process is conducted entirely over email.
We will only accept pieces of work that fit these
criteria:
Previously unpublished (this includes ‘publication’ on websites and suchlike- we must have original work). Written in English. We welcome articles by people whose first (or second, or third etc) language is not English, but please be aware that we cannot be responsible for the correction or re-writing of articles where the use of language is poor; please enlist one or more friends to help you if this is a problem.
Compiling a cross-disciplinary Journal means that many academic writing styles could be encountered, especially when it comes to citation styles. Issues one and two of the journal were laid out in MHRA Style, but this style seemed beyond many authors, so for Issue 3 we are going to move to a slightly modified Harvard Style, further guidance for this appears on this page, below.
Please submit drafts as e-mail attachments, in Microsoft
Word Rich Text Format (.rtf), or the WordPerfect equivalent. When saving
your file, this can be selected
from the ‘File Type’ option in the ‘Save’ box. It enables the file to be read
on far more types of computer than the regular Word Document (.doc) format, and reduces the chances of
spreading Macro viruses- as we receive many files from strangers the potential
dangers to OUR computers are not worth the risk of opening a Word .DOC file. Do
save in the format you prefer before saving as an RTF file, and please look at
your saved RTF file before sending it to us, as some RTF settings will remove
any endnotes. If there are missing endnotes your file will be returned, since a
proper review cannot be carried out.
Do not send Macintosh format documents (such as Claris
Works), HTML files, PDF files etc. Please
include a brief descriptive title in the file name, for example
"ModernFrenchWitchcraft.rtf" rather than sending in as “document1.rtf”
or “essay.rtf”. As you can imagine, we are sent a lot of files, so a
descriptive name prevents things becoming lost. Thanks.
Due to the volume of submissions received we cannot accept
articles that do not conform to our required layout, style and file format;
anyone who submits work drastically different from the above style will find it
returned unread.
Papers may be submitted at any time for consideration for the next available journal space, however we must keep strictly to our deadlines for production (including sufficient time for any re-writes or amendments to be negotiated and agreed), so any completed articles not received by the relevant deadline may be held over until a future issue. If you submit an article and later decide to withdraw it prior to publication, please let us know in very good time (printing deadlines mean we are often in production mode at least 12 weeks before printing date, so don’t assume you can cancel an article the week before any advertised publication date, as that will be far too late) and we will delete the relevant file. Once an article has been printed it cannot be withdrawn, although any retractions or modifications can be posted on our website, and printed in the next journal issue if necessary.
We are avowedly cross disciplinary and thus would be interested to hear from anyone in ANY academic discipline, at any level who is involved in studies of such subjects. We are also very happy to read scholarly articles by freelance researchers, however we would request those applicants unaffiliated with a university or other academic institution to direct us first to a place where their published writings may be found (on the web or elsewhere), or alternatively to submit a brief sample before sending entire articles, as freelance opinions of what constitutes ‘an academic piece’ will vary. This is not to imply or assume that anyone who is not in academia cannot write well (quite the opposite, as anyone who attended our 2003 conference will testify) but rather to ensure that the focus and style of articles do fall within the remit of what we are able to publish, which should save time for everyone concerned. We have had several ideas and submissions sent to us that are fascinating, but, sadly, completely outside the scope of this Journal.
In most exceptional circumstances longer articles
will be considered, but please send a synopsis and covering email beforehand.
There is no lower size limit for articles, although it is envisaged that the
smaller pieces will be such things as book reviews and summaries of resources
such as specialist museums, libraries, conference reviews, ‘work-in-progress’
pieces etc.
If sending illustrations, photographs etc that are
not your own works please ensure that prior clearance has been obtained from
the copyright owner to reproduce them, and send scans of this permission with
the images, otherwise we cannot use them. We cannot pay permissions for using
copyright images.
If your article uses unusual fonts, such as Greek,
Hebrew, Sanskrit, Enochian etc please check with us well in advance that we are
able to reproduce these in the text. The use of unusual fonts for dramatic
effect rather than of scholarly necessity is strongly discouraged. Other than the
use of specialist fonts for good academic reasons your article should be in
Times New Roman. When using special fonts for legitimate reasons the author may
well be involved in the proofreading process, if the piece is accepted for
publication
Please do not send originals of text, artwork or
anything else original of financial or intellectual value by snailmail.
Although we will take care of everything that we are sent we cannot return
items by post unless return postage is paid in advance, and in any case things
do get lost in the mail sometimes. Submissions of articles by snailmail is also
strongly discouraged, as it causes delays and we will require an electronic
copy for review and typesetting in any case.
For published articles we will require a short
author biography, of no more than 50 words, for inclusion in a list of
contributors for each Journal edition. The format should be of this nature:
“ Name Name is currently Job Title/Position/Student/Freelance researcher/Author
in Subject area at University Name (if appropriate), Country. Other publications include pieces
on subject, subject, in source. (OPTIONAL- their web page is www.***)”
We expect all contributors to submit their own
original work, with appropriate full and honest citations of sources used. A
personal statement by each author to that effect will be required for each
article accepted. Deliberate plagiarism does no-one any favours, and will
result in no further articles being considered for publication by any offending
author, and other actions as are deemed necessary. Copyright of submitted
material remains with the author(s), while editorial, style, layout etc of the
Journal is Ó SASM, JSM and Mandrake of Oxford 2002, 2003, 2004,
2005, etc etc
In common with the vast majority of academic
publications, authors of papers published in the journal do not receive payment,
however they will receive one free copy of the Journal in which their article
appears and rights to several more copies at a substantial discount, plus a PDF
version of their article (the modern equivalent of the offprint) to circulate
to colleagues or to use for their own teaching purposes.
Please read this list carefully before submission to avoid delays which might be incurred by submission of incorrect or unsuitable materials
You should be able to answer YES to all of these questions
before submitting:
Is your article in English? We are simply unable to translate from other languages
into English for publication. Where non-English language quotes, names of books
or journals etc appear in your piece, please include an English translation in
brackets afterwards (and indicate whether the translation is your own or
someone else’s).
Have you spellchecked it?
It would be very useful
if the finished article were run through a spellchecker and a grammar check
before submission, as this courtesy by the author will greatly increase the
likelihood of the piece being accepted, since unreadable articles tend to be
rejected part-way through reading. Please include your bibliography and any
endnotes in the spellcheck, and manually check for common words which are
missed by spellcheckers, such as ‘their/there’ etc.
Is
your article about a subject that we are likely to be able to publish?
The biggest question of all. Please contact us in good time before any deadline, if in any doubt about this: extensive, fascinating but irrelevant (to us) articles which have obviously taken months to write and which arrive ‘out of the blue’ on the last day of the deadline are very sad, and the problem can be avoided by early BRIEF correspondence, suggesting your subject are: we will then be able to offer comments on the likelihood of us being able to publish an article on that subject. We may ask for a 2-400 word synopsis of your proposed article in order to make further decisions. Everyone has their own views, of course, but for our purposes a definition of ‘magic’ so far as what articles we would be able to publish is difficult, and with cross-disciplinary study it is essential to remain flexible. However within the remit of the Journal we include any religious, spiritual or ritualised practices that are participatory, or consist at least in part of active involvement. These include, (but are not limited to) witchcraft, wicca, paganism, sorcery, druidry, Norse traditions, alchemy, shamanism (and any aboriginal-native tradition from anywhere in the world), the Western occult traditions, Kabalah, Thelema, OTO, TOPY, SRIA, Golden Dawn, Chaos magic, spiritualism, Theosophy, divination, etc. We are equally as interested in analysis (within whatever academic disciplines) of historical practices as we are in pieces about modern magic.
Please note: the
over-use of ‘magical’ (or derivations thereof) as a very common descriptive
cliché for some or other phenomena in the world (such as rainbows, holograms,
the microwave oven etc) does not automatically mean that we will wish to
see an article about it; please use discretion in deciding whether to send such
an article to us
Within our remit we do NOT include ‘stage magic’, such as deliberately manufactured illusions and ‘psychic’ feats provided for entertainment-secular purposes (for example the work of David Blaine) rather than magico-religious ones, however a good article on those individuals who have been both ‘stage’ magicians and ‘occult’ magicians would be very welcome, for example the late Franz Bardon.
Although we are interested in some representations of magic in literature, the textual field of ‘Magic Realism’ is outside of our area, and in any case is very well represented by other journals, which you can find by a web search. The same is true for seemingly ‘magical’ new technologies, such as radio, electricity, magnetism, antibiotics etc when they were first discovered; articles and reviews about these areas would probably be better suited to their more relevant science and technology journals.
We are not able to consider articles on UFOs, the ‘X-Files’, the location of Atlantis and/or conspiracy theory, unless there is a specific, major, new, worthwhile AND academic relation to magic of some kind.
We do not publish poetry or fiction such as
ghost stories at all, and articles about ghost or horror stories with
little or no magical relevance would probably be better suited to a literary
journal.
We are also interested in shorter news pieces such as
obituaries of influential/important figures, news of special developments such
as new major research projects, reader’s responses to published articles,
general letters, details of new journals or books being launched, news of
institutions and special collections etc relevant to our subject area,
information on taught academic courses in the field (anywhere in the world),
etc. All of these should be concise and of less than 600 words, and will appear
in the journal and-or this website as seems fitting.
Is this article original, not having been published
elsewhere (including online)? - Our remit is to publish only original and new
work: only in very exceptional circumstances, such as where an article has been
previously printed in very small numbers, or is otherwise ‘rare’ and deserving
of a wider audience, will we consider printing it, so long as copyright is not
an issue. To do otherwise would actually block new pieces from publication,
however much it would make our work much easier, as we could trawl the Internet
and put together a great journal in only a few days, but in the process prevent
new unpublished articles from appearing. If you have submitted your article to
another journal or publisher as well as us we would appreciate being told at
the time of submission, as this can lead to copyright problems if published in
more than one place.
Is the article ‘standalone’ and internally coherent? If you are submitting, for example, a
thesis/dissertation chapter, it must be coherent and have an introductory
passage, rather than (for example) commencing with a discussion of something
that refers the reader to other chapters that have not been submitted- this
happens a lot, and articles of this nature will not be sent on to peer
reviewers, thus removing any chance you have of publication. If you are
in doubt, give it to a friend or colleague, who perhaps knows little or nothing
about your subject, to read, and listen to their remarks before sending
it in to us. Please do not send in an entire thesis and ask “is chapter 3 or
chapter 7 suitable for you?”, as one person did.
Have you done endnotes rather than footnotes? Numbered in the format 1, 2, 3 etc rather than i, ii,
iii, and one and half line-spaced in Times New Roman please.
Is it in Word RTF- Rich Text Format (or the
Wordperfect equivalent)? Even in the 21st
Century we still cannot always get a ‘clean’ conversion of documents submitted
in any other formats, especially Macintosh documents- which have a nasty habit
of changing quote marks to numbers and commas to exclamation marks etc when
translated into Word ….. and the submission of Word .doc files is not permitted
due to the damaging macro viruses that such files can harbour. If we cannot
open a file to read it, or there is potential danger in opening a file, then
your chances of publication are at absolute zero! HTML, PDF and similar web
layout files are of no use to us as they contain hidden coding that will
interfere with the printing process (and they will also imply that your article
has already appeared on the internet, so we cannot use it).
Have you prepared the article in our slightly modified
Harvard style? (see below for style
guidance). We will refuse anything that is not in the required style, simply
because of the workload required to painstakingly convert a journal’s worth of
articles to one format at our end.
Does the article have your name and email address on
the front page?
Also, since in theory a
very early submission might not see print for nearly a year; please keep us
informed of any changes in your email address during that time.
Are the pages numbered? In the format 1,2,3 please, at top right corner of the page
Is the main text one and half line-spaced? (and in Times New Roman 12-point font throughout)
Have you used your real
name? Pseudonyms will only be supported under extreme extenuating
circumstances (and providing we are informed in advance of your real name, and
a compelling reason as to why you wish to appear pseudonymous) and we do not
print anonymous articles at all. If it transpires that any author
deliberately attempts to pass himself or herself off as another, their article
will be rejected, and where necessary, action taken to prevent recurrence. We
do have various ways to check up on any article that we find suspicious.
Is your article of less
than 8000 words, including any endnotes (but excluding the bibliography)
? This is a general maximum; except for under special
circumstances- the wholesale submission of (for example) entire Master’s Degree
or Doctoral theses is thoughtless, lazy and unwelcome, our word limit is to
prevent this re-occurring. Please check with us before submitting articles
larger than this size. 8000 is a maximum, there is in theory no minimum-
shorter articles would include such things as book reviews which should be considerably
less than this, see below:
If you have answered yes to all of the above, the following
will give you more specific details about how to prepare your article
Frequently
Asked Questions:
What about pictures? Clearance of copyright of images is the responsibility of
the author, and
this must be achieved well before our publication process starts. A good way
around this is for the author to use his or her own drawings and/or photographs
if relevant. We cannot pay any fees for helping you gain your copyright
permission. Other images, such as graphs should be relevant, informative and
clearly labelled with an informative caption. Pictures for decoration’s sake
only are to be discouraged. Images
should be in black and white rather than colour, and be visually pleasing in
that form- large areas of black shading do not reproduce well and look horrible
in print! Images should be sent as separate attachments by email, with a locating
comment in text such as “figure one about here”.
Is your article a book review? Before sending it in, drop us an email early in the writing
process to ensure that we do not already have an approved review of that title,
and that it is a title we would be interested in publishing a review of in any
case. Review texts
must have a header including the book title (including any subtitle), author(s)
name(s), publisher, location and date, type of binding (hard or softback), your
name as you wish it to appear in the printed review and the ISBN and ISSN
numbers too. An indication of price, in several
currencies (UK Pounds, Euros, US Dollars if possible) is also helpful. A book review of over 800-1000 words is really too long, and will be
rejected, or severe editing will be requested, unless the review text is of
such a size to warrant a long review (for example a series of volumes, an
encyclopaedia etc). If you have any personal or
professional connection to either or both of the book publisher or author(s)
you will be expected to disclose this in advance. Book reviews of an author’s
work by their current students are not welcome, as there is an obvious
potential objectivity problem. PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SUGGEST A BOOK TITLE THAT
YOU COULD REVIEW FOR US, THE CHOICE IS YOURS TO MAKE.
Bibliography: the
Harvard system requires a separate bibliography; details of which will follow
below
Feedback to Authors: due to the sheer numbers of submitted articles we cannot always give
detailed reasons of refusal for those articles that we are unable to print (for
whatever reason), and while we can sometimes give brief suggestions for the
future, guidelines for areas which could be improved, or suggest alternative
journals (in the latter case perhaps where a submission is of good quality but
not entirely suited to our publication) we are unable to enter into lengthy
communications about this. Suggestion of an alternative journal does not imply
that they WILL publish your piece, merely that in our opinion we think they might
be at least interested- if they are not, we are in no way liable for this. We
do, however, intend to inform all authors of the decision regarding
their work rather than only informing those which we choose to publish. We also
pride ourselves in making such decisions considerably faster than many other
journals. The reviewer(s) who read your article will not be named in cases of
rejection, to avoid canvassing by authors.
Fonts: if you
are using unusual typefaces, such as Greek, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Enochian etc in
your article please let us know well in
advance to ensure that
we are able to properly reproduce the font in print. Use of unusual fonts
creates a lot of work in the publishing and proofreading process, and so should
be justified by the content of the article, and not merely be ‘showing off’.-
or for decorative effect.
Payment: in
common with most other academic publications, authors do not receive payment,
but receive a free copy of the journal in which their article appears, plus the
option of some further copies at a substantial discount, and a printable PDF
file version of their article to present to friends and colleagues. Authors
retain copyright over their individual articles. For the information of authors
in academia where quantity and quality publications are important to
departmental scores in independent Quality Inspections such as the ‘RAE’, this
Journal is a fully peer-reviewed publication whose editorial board comprises
PhDs and higher.
Web references:
please give both the full URL for any sites that you use as sources, and a title; for example: SASM
Website, www.sasm.co.uk.index.html
However please do not ‘hyperlink’ these- when typing
in Word (and similar programmes), anything beginning with “www” is
automatically made into a hyperlink, this is conventionally indicated by
underlining in blue, depending on how your computer software is set up. This
piece of coding attached to the text created by a hyperlink causes some
printing problems for us, so please right click on each hyperlink in your
document and go to ‘hyperlink’ and then ‘remove hyperlink’ for each web
reference that you use. Thankyou.
From
Issue 3 of the JSM we are moving to the Harvard citation system, since it
provides an easier, clearer means to reference works consulted, seems to suit
more of the academic disciplines of authors that we are attracting, and is more
economical on space, thus in theory allowing more articles per journal.
The
following is a brief guide only, with slight modifications to suit our purposes.
If you cannot find information below on the kind of published work you need to
cite, try using the Google search engine www.google.com and search for “Harvard style” plus the item
you are trying to reference, for example
“Harvard
style” radio programme or consult any
of the excellent guides on the internet, usually provided by universities for
their own students (a google search for “Harvard style guide” will provide
numerous hits). Please do this before asking us any questions about
how you should cite something.
Due
to the volume of material we receive, articles sent in which do not conform to
this style will probably be returned unread. In order to be published your
article will have to be in this style, and putting it into the correct style is
the responsibility of the author, not the editors of the JSM, due to the
workload required.
Your
text should be typed in Times New Roman, 12 point, one and a half line spacing
throughout. Do not indent any quotes, as our page size in final publication is
different to the A4-sized page that you will be using, so anything you indent
will have to be undone by us at a later date.
In
general, in your text you should cite everything as either:
Smith
(1994, p 243) wrote that “quote here” …
Or
As Smith
wrote in 1994 “quote here” (p 243) …
And
in your bibliography as follows, with a single space after each comma:
Name of author/s (surname, first name or names) Year of publication, Title in italics NOT UNDERLINED, Publisher name, Place of Publication.
For
example: Smith, Arthur, 1994, neo-Shamanism in modern Europe, Fliegel
Press, Oslo
Where
something is written by two or more authors, the authors names should be given
in the order in which they appear on the title page of the book.
Journal
articles should be cited in text the same way, with precise page number for any
quoted material, and in your bibliography as
Name
of author(s), year of publication, ‘title of article in single quotes’, Journal
name in italics NOT UNDERLINED, publisher
name and location if known, issue and-or volume number, page numbers of article
For
example: in text
Matt
Lee highlighted the instances of this when he remarked that “…quote....” (2003,
p 114)
And
in bibliography as
Lee,
Matt, (2003), ‘Memories of a sorcerer’, Journal for the Academic Study of
Magic, Mandrake, Oxford, 1, 102-130
Where
a book is a dictionary or an encyclopaedia, cite in text as title, date and
page number only, for example World Book Encyclopaedia (1999, p 457) and the
bibliography should be like this:
Title in italics, NOT UNDERLINED , year of publication, Publisher, Place of Publication, Volume number
The World
Book Encyclopedia 1999, 18th edn, Field Enterprises Corp., Chicago, vol. 3
Cite in text as
author and year, for example
Johnson (2003)
and in bibliography
as:
Name of author/s, Year of publication, 'Title of article', in single quotes, Magazine name italicised NOT UNDERLINED, Month/volume/issue number as it appears on the magazine header page, Page number/s.
For example:
Johnson,
Charles, 2003, 'Magical issues in alternative medicine', Aum Hum
Alternatives Magazine, May (Beltane), p. 43.
Where an anonymous
editorial or other article is cited, call it that, for example
Anonymous
Editorial, year, name of magazine, issue details
In
text: (example) according to Encarta 99….
In bibliography: Title in italics NOT UNDERLINED, [specify if CD-ROM, Video or DVD], Year of publication, Publisher, Place of Publication.
For
example: Encarta 99 encyclopedia
[CD-ROM] 1997, Microsoft, Redmond, PA.
Please
do NOT put any inernet links www.internetaddress.com style text within the main body of your
article
In
text: (example) the Merlin’s Cave
website reported that…..
In bibliography: Name of author/s if known, Year of publication, if known, or date you consulted the site, Title in italics, NOT UNDERLINED, [On-line], Internet address,
Mark Jones,
24-4-2004, Merlin’s Cave, [On-line], www.merlinscave.org
If author is unknown
start the citation with the website name and follow that with date, [On-line]
and internet address
Cite
in text as author name and date, for example Dukes (2001) told me that….
And
in bibliography as Name of
author/s, [Personal e-mail or use personal
communication for terrestrial mail] Date sent, or date given on the mail
For example Dukes, Ramsey, [personal communication], 28-3-2001
Name of interviewee (name and position of interviewer if it was not yourself), Position of interviewee, [Interview], Date of interview.
In text
say: in an interview with Hugo
L’Estrange in 2004 he said…..
And in
bibliography:
L’Estrange,
Hugo, (conducted by Jane Sturling, Anglican Church Outreach Consultant) Author
and Satanist [Interview] February 29, 2004
This comes after the end of your article, and after any endnotes, with the title (Bibliography) centred above, in 12-point Times New Roman, and bold.
PLEASE arrange it alphabetically by first author surname, or
title…. For example, Smith, John comes before Smithsonian Institute Website
Please include the bibliography in
your spellcheck, too!
Bibliographies
should be one and a half line spaced, in Times New Roman 12 point font
throughout
In
previous issues of the JSM using our previous MLA format there was substantial
need for endnotes to give citations. Since there is now a full bibliography
under the Harvard scheme the need for endnotes is massively reduced. If
the remark you are intending to make in an endnote is better placed in the main
body of the text, then please put it there, or if it is so removed from the
subject you are discussing that it warrants an endnote comment, then do you
need to say it al all?.
If
you have to use endnotes, these should be sequentially numbered, 1,2,3 etc in
superscript throughout your text, and the endnotes should be endnotes, and not
footnotes at the bottom of each page, and again in Times New Roman 12 point
font throughout, one and a half line spaced.
Failure
to set up your article with these specifications will mean it is sent back to
you for corrections, and if these are delayed beyond our own production
deadlines your article might not be printed in the JSM for another year, so it
is worth doing properly, Thankyou