Articles: Article manuscripts should be submitted through the following online system specially designed for DRJ by CUP: URL: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/drj and must be accompanied by written assurance that they have not been published, submitted, or accepted for publication elsewhere.  Queries concerning online submission should be directed to the Co-Editors, Rebekah J. Kowal and Nadine George-Graves, via the DRJ email address: ([email protected]).

DRJ is a refereed journal using a blind review process. The Editor and at least two outside readers evaluate articles. Every attempt is made to notify authors regarding acceptance within three months, however it may take up to six months. The Editor reserves the right to reject or return for revision any material on the grounds of inappropriate subject matter, quality, or length.

Manuscripts should contribute original material: they may be discussions of contemporary or historical dance, theory and methods, critical syntheses, or evaluations of the state of knowledge or methods in the different disciplines involved in dance research.

Authors should submit articles online as indicated above.  DRJ accepts manuscript files in Microsoft Office WORD format (preferably with the .docx file extension). PDF files are not accepted. Prepare the manuscript for blind review by creating a separate title page, including name, manuscript title, contact details and biographical information of four to  six lines that includes current evidence of expertise in the topic of the article. All manuscripts must also be accompanied by an abstract of 50–100 words, plus a maximum of 10 key words. Any references to authors’ previous work and/or publications must be replaced in-text with (Author, Date), and removed entirely from the Works Cited section; these can be re-inserted after the peer review stage.

Manuscripts should be a minimum of 6,000 words and a maximum of 9,000 words, excluding Endnotes and Works Cited. The entire manuscript, including endnotes, references, and indented long quotations, should be double-spaced. Endnotes and references should follow the Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition) author-date citation system. DRJ uses American spelling, punctuation and grammatical conventions. See style and reference guide HERE.

Illustrative materials, such as graphs, maps, and graphic notation, should be done in black ink and should be camera ready. Photographs should have a glossy finish. Illustrative materials may also be submitted in digital form: 1200 dpi for line art and 300 dpi for photographs; TIFF is the preferred format. Authors must obtain permission to publish illustrative materials if owned by individuals other than themselves.

Final Manuscript Approval: Authors of articles will be consulted before editorial decisions are made final. Page proofs will be sent during the production process and should be examined by authors and returned within the specified time.

Artist Speaks: The “Artist Speaks” submission category emerged out of a desire to center the voices of working artists and showcase contributions to scholarly discourse that do not fit the mold of the standard academic journal article due to genre, rhetorical style, word length, critical distance/conflict of interest, or other. “Artist Speaks” articles can take many forms, but the expectation is that they concentrate on an artist, artifact, or creative process, and are written by the artist themself or an interlocutor. Examples might include auto-ethnography, auto-theory, or memoir; a transcript of a roundtable conversation, interview, or oral history; a long-form reflection on the work of the artist; a noteworthy archival discovery or translation of a non-English language text (accompanied by a brief editorial commentary); or creative nonfiction. “Artist Speaks” submissions generally do not undergo a double-blind peer review process but are edited and revised under the direction of the DRJ Editorial Team. 

Examples:

Fensham, Rachel. "An Artist Speaks “The Intellect Travels in Many Different Directions”: Talkin’ with Eleo Pomare (1937–2008)." Dance Research Journal 55, no. 1 (2023): 68-80. doi:10.1017/S0149767723000104.

Osumare, Halifu. "Choreographing Social Change: Reflections on Dancing in Blackness." Dance Research Journal 53, no. 2 (2021): 130-42. doi:10.1017/S0149767721000218.

If this approach speaks to you and your process, we would be thrilled to consider your work under the “Artist Speaks” submission category.

Reviews: Book and media reviews are assigned by the Reviews Editors, Camelia Lenart & Victoria Fortuna ([email protected]) but individuals wishing to review a particular book may submit an inquiry to the Reviews Editor. Reviews in the current issue are the best guide to correct format. The heading should include name of author(s) or editor(s), book title (italicized), place of publication, name of publisher, year of publication, number of pages, number of illustrations, cloth or paper bound, and price. Reviews should be scholarly in orientation and approximately 1,200–1,500 words in length.

Copyright: DRJ publishes previously unpublished original research. Dance Studies Association (DSA) copyrights each issue of the journal as a collective work; individual authors retain rights to their individual works. Authors of individual works published in DSA have the right to republish their own work in whole or in part, and in identical or modified form. As the original publisher, DSA requests a letter to the Chair of the DSA editorial board regarding any republication. All republications, in whatever form, must be credited with one of the following statements:

This article was originally published in Dance Research Journal, Vol. (number), No. (number), (date).

or

An earlier version of this article appeared in Dance Research Journal, Vol. (number), No. (number), (date). 

Complimentary Copies: The Publisher shall supply each first-named author of an article (but not book review) with 2 copies of the issue in which their article is published, as well as a final PDF file of their article free of charge as requested by the author at proof stage. Non-first-named authors will receive a final PDF file of their article free of charge as requested by the author at proof stage.

ADDED 11/1/21: Competing interests 

All authors must include a competing interest declaration in a separate title page. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article. Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations. If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors.

Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author A is employed at company B. Author C owns shares in company D, is on the Board of company E and is a member of organization F. Author G has received grants from company H.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.