Manuscript Submissions

General Guidelines

In publication since 1969, the Sixteenth Century Journal (SCJ) publishes twenty to twenty-five articles and hundreds of book reviews a year. As its subtitle, The Journal of Early Modern Studies, indicates, SCJ is an interdisciplinary journal, providing readers with thought-provoking research and inquiry related to the sixteenth century broadly defined (1450-1648) in all fields. Our articles cover subjects from around the world and appeal to a wide range of readers. 

 We review in a double-blind anonymous system. You will not know the identity of the person reviewing your submission and she or he will not know yours. To facilitate this, we ask that you remove any identifying markers from the manuscript. If you quote yourself, for the initial review period, please refer to yourself in the third person. The review process generally takes 3-4 months, and involves at least two reviewers.

While we do not mandate a particular length, our articles are generally 9,000-10,000 words, including notes. Because we believe that the notes represent a significant aspect of an essay’s argument, we cannot review essays without complete notes (even if you promise to “fix” them later). All notes are in Chicago Manual of Style form, not parenthetical references.

Generally, we do not consider or publish essays that are simply a narrative of events or review of secondary literature. Thus, a clearly defined thesis must appear in an essay’s beginning section. A thesis is a statement of the paper’s main argument, not a question or a description of what the article will be about. Situate the paper and its arguments explicitly within the appropriate recent scholarship on the issue, providing citations to the work of others to establish building blocks and points of departure of your work.

The readership of SCJ is international and from many disciplines. While we do not expect every article to be interdisciplinary, we do expect that scholars outside a narrow field of research might be interested in the argument presented. Thus, do provide an explanation about why the issue discussed is important for a better understanding of the early modern era. By about page 4, readers should have a clear sense of why this matters.

Complete Author instructions for preparing a manuscript can be found in Sixteenth Century Journal Author Instructions (PDF).

Online Manuscript Submissions

The Sixteenth Century Journal accepts online submission of articles. To submit your article please go to our submissions website.

To submit online, you will need the following:

• email and physical addresses for all authors;

• a brief abstract of your essay;

• a brief cover letter that will be uploaded to the website;

• your essay that will also be uploaded;

• electronic copies of all figures or tables, these will also be uploaded. (Once the essay and all figures and tables are uploaded they will be gathered together into a single PDF);

• You may recommend a potential reader but that is not necessary. It does not, also, guarantee that we will use that person.

• You may request that we not use a potential reader as well, but again we cannot guarantee this.

When you have finished uploading all of your materials you will approve the final document. After that, you may track your essay’s progress through our review system by simply logging back into the website.

If you run into difficulties with the online submission process, please email sixteenthcenturyjournal@gmail.com. 

For a more in-depth explanation of our review process, please click here.

Books for Review and Book Reviews

Books for review should be sent to:

Book Review Editor, Sixteenth Century Journal
University of Arkansas–Fayetteville
Old Main, Room 502
Fayetteville, AR 72701 USA

All books received will be listed in the Sixteenth Century Journal. Please visit the Book Review Website.

Scholars interested in reviewing should contact Freddy C. Domingues at scjbooks@uark.edu.