College Literature: A Journal of Critical Literary Studies

To view College Literature Author Guidelines, please visit their website at: http://www.wcupa.edu/arts-humanities/collegeLit/submissionGuidelines.asp

The Hopkins Press Journals Ethics and Malpractice Statement can be found at the ethics-and-malpractice page.

Peer Review Policy

College Literature: A Journal of Critical Literary Studies publishes original and innovative scholarly research across the various periods, intellectual fields, and geographical locations that comprise the changing discipline of Anglophone and comparative literary studies. It invites studies that explore how changing structures of social experience call on us to rethink existing critical assumptions, conceptual terms, and historical frameworks. The journal is also interested in asking how we are to orientate critical inquiry once those assumptions are brought into question, and in examining the resources for historical understanding and rational critique that may yet be available. Consequently, alongside work that reconsiders “traditional” or “conventional” critical orthodoxies, College Literature also welcomes scholarship that questions the “new orthodoxies” which themselves developed as radical critiques of those existing positions, but which are also embedded within specific intellectual trajectories and historical configurations of experience.

The journal welcomes essay submissions that fall within the scope of this editorial policy. It does not accept simultaneous submissions, and all submissions must be original and unpublished work. Essay manuscripts should be between 8,000 and 12,000 words. After initial screening to ensure that the essay has been submitted properly to ScholarOne and conforms with the submission guidelines, essays are reviewed by members of the editorial team (Editor and Associate Editors) to determine if their content accords with the editorial policy. Members of the editorial team then review their suitability for peer review, keeping in mind the following questions peer reviewers are asked to address: Does the manuscript contain new and significant information to justify its publication? Is the main argument of the essay concisely stated, and does the body of the essay support it? Is adequate reference made to work in the field? Is the writing at an appropriate level for academic scholarship? How would you rate its priority for publishing (1-10)? This preliminary editorial review process typically takes four–six weeks.

Essays are then either declined or sent for double-blind peer review. The journal’s graduate assistants identify appropriate peer reviewers and the Editor approves all peer reviewers. Upon receipt of the peer review reports, the Editor determines if an essay should be declined, revised (with no commitment to publish), or accepted. This process typically takes three–four months. Revisions are sent to the original readers for additional comment, after which the Editor decides if the revised essay should be declined, accepted or—on rare occasions—sent for a second revision (with no commitment to publish). This process typically takes no more than two months. Second revisions are typically assessed by the editorial team, at which point they are accepted or declined.

Once an essay is accepted and a final version is submitted, we strive to publish the essay within a year, though on occasion a delay of a few additional months can occur. Final essays are copyedited by graduate assistants, and the Editor reviews and copyedits all essays as well. First proofs are reviewed by the author, the graduate assistants, and a proofreader contracted by Johns Hopkins University Press. Second proofs are reviewed by the graduate assistants and Editor.

Please note that all special issues of College Literature also follow the double-blind peer review process, but the timeline from submission of proposals to publication of accepted essays can vary. The journal also considers commentary or opinion pieces on issues of importance to contemporary literary scholarship. Authors of these pieces should contact the Editor prior to submission. Commentary and critical forum essays are approved by members of the editorial team and, when relevant, Guest Editors (they are not sent for peer review). Book reviews are assigned and edited by the Book Review editorial team, with the Editor having final approval.

To view the most recent College Litetrature Editorial Board, please visit their website at: http://www.wcupa.edu/arts-humanities/collegeLit/editors.asp

To view College Literature Book Reviews, please visit their website at: http://www.wcupa.edu/arts-humanities/collegeLit/submissionGuidelines.asp

Review copies received by the Johns Hopkins University Press office will be discarded.

To view the most recent College Literature Abstracting & Indexing, please visit their website at: http://www.wcupa.edu/arts-humanities/collegeLit/onlineAccess.asp

0.1 (2023)
0.2 (Five-Year Impact Factor)
0.00024 (Eigenfactor™ Score)

Rank in Category (by Journal Impact Factor):
Note: While journals indexed in AHCI and ESCI are receiving a JIF for the first time in June 2023, they will not receive ranks, quartiles, or percentiles until the release of 2023 data in June 2024.

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Published four times a year in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall

Readers include: Scholars and students of literature

Print circulation: 62

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Half Page: (4.75 x 3.5") – $338.00

2 Page Spread – $675.00

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Winter Issue – November 15

Spring Issue – February 15

Summer Issue – May 15

Fall Issue – August 15

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