Submissions

About

C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-century Writings is the journal of the British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies (BACLS). The journal is dedicated to examining the genres, forms of publication, and circulation of 21st-century writings. C21 Literature is a logical development of the explosion of interest in 21st-century writings, seen in book groups, university courses, and the development of online publishing.

Focus and Scope

C21 Literature aims to create a critical, discursive space for the promotion and exploration of 21st-century writings in English. It addresses a range of narratives in contemporary culture, from the novel, poem and play to hypertext, digital gaming and contemporary creative writing. The journal features engaged theoretical pieces alongside new unpublished creative works and investigates the challenges that new media present to traditional categorisations of literary writing.

Articles are encouraged from academics, contemporary writers, publishers and readers. The journal publishes articles on 21st-century writings as well as reviews, features and opinion pieces from academics, readers and writers in the field, papers, review papers, case studies, rapid communications (letters), conference reports and calendars of events and provides a range of advertising opportunities for publishers and academic institutions.

The journal is supported by an interdisciplinary editorial board from North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim under the direction of editor Dr Katy Shaw.

Submissions

C21 Literature welcomes articles, book reviews, opinion pieces, case studies and conference reports. Articles addressing but not limited to the following themes are invited: 21st-century forms, genre and trends; The role of literary prizes and festivals; New authors; Adaptations and innovations; The rise of the eBook; Digital writings; Creative writings; Book Clubs. Articles should be 6000–7000 words and creative pieces 250–2000 words. The journal uses the author/date Chicago style referencing system. Please send all submissions, questions or enquiries to journal editor Dr Katy Shaw.

Submission Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
   
2. Any third-party-owned materials used have been identified with appropriate credit lines, and permission obtained from the copyright holder for all formats of the journal.
   
3. All authors have given permission to be listed on the submitted paper and satisfy the authorship guidelines.
   
4. The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF or WordPerfect document file format.
   
5. All DOIs for the references have been provided, when available.
   
6. Tables and figures are all cited in the text. Tables are included within the text document, whilst figure files are uploaded as supplementary files.
   
7. Figures/images have a resolution of at least 150dpi (300dpi or above preferred). Each file is no more than 20MB per file. The files are in one of the following formats: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS (to maximise quality, the original source file is preferred).
   
8. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines. Please ensure that your article includes a competing interest statement in accordance with our Competing Interest Guidelines.
9. Every effort has been made to ensure that author names are removed from the manuscript. The following link provides information on ensuring a blind peer review.
   

Copyright Notice

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

• Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. If you would prefer to publish your work under an alternative Creative Commons License, please indicate this in the Comments for the Editor box when submitting, providing reasons for your request.
  
• Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  
• Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
  

Peer Review

All submissions are initially assessed by an Editor, who decides whether or not the article fits the scope of the journal and is suitable for peer review. Submissions considered suitable are assigned to one or more independent experts, who assess the article for clarity, validity and sound methodology.

The journal operates a double-blind peer review process, meaning that authors and reviewers remain anonymous for the review process. The review period is expected to take around 2-3 months. Reviewers are asked to provide formative feedback, even if an article is not deemed suitable for publication in the journal.

Based on the reviewer reports the editor will make a recommendation for rejection, minor or major revisions, or acceptance. Overall editorial responsibility rests with the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, who is supported by an expert, international Editorial Board.

The editors make a decision based on the reviewers' advice from among the following options:

Accept: Your submission has been accepted as is.

Minor Revisions: Your submission requires minor changes and will be accepted once those have been completed.

Major Revisions: Your submission needs significant re-working. A new file must be submitted and another round of review will take place.

Reject: Your submission was not accepted for publication with this journal, either because it was not seen to be of high enough quality, or its subject did not match the journal.

Licences

C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-Century Writings allows the following licences for submission:

• CC BY 4.0 - More Information  
  Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Publication Fees

This journal is published by the Open Library of Humanities. Unlike many open-access publishers, the Open Library of Humanities does not charge any author fees. This does not mean that we do not have costs. Instead, our costs are paid by an international library consortium.

If your institution is not currently supporting the platform, we request that you ask your librarian to sign up. The OLH is extremely cost effective and is a not-for-profit charity. However, while we cannot function without financial support and we encourage universities to sign up, institutional commitment is not required to publish with us.

Publication Cycle

The journal is published online as a continuous volume and issue throughout the year. Articles are made available as soon as they are ready to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays in getting content publicly available.

Special collections of articles are welcomed and will be published as part of the normal issue, but also within a separate collection page.

Sections