The Review Review
Article Types
Review
Reviews must describe the journal and issue being reviewed and offer an overall assessment of the issue’s contents. Issues to be discussed include any particular aesthetic of the journal, unique editorial approaches or topics of focus, and compelling artwork or accompanying content. Review authors are expected to comment on representative pieces from the journal, and to highlight specific strengths and weaknesses in the issue being reviewed. Ideal length is 750-1000 words, though longer reviews and review essays may be submitted after querying the editor.
This section is peer reviewed.
Interview
Interviews with editors of literary journals or with prominent figures in the industry should reflect upon or offer insight on issues of relevance to those invested in the field of literary publishing. Those topics are wide-ranging, and may include editorial practices, aesthetic or social convictions, economic exigencies, or any number of theoretical or practical concerns. We are especially interested in interviews with editors whose work or journals represent typically marginalized experiences or voices.
Authors interested in submitting an interview should discuss the content with the editor before submitting a manuscript. Interviews are generally 1,500-2,500 words in length.
This section is not peer reviewed.
Views on Publishing Feature
Views on Publishing features should examine issues relevant to readers of The Review Review: strategies for writers seeking to publish in literary journals, topics of importance to editors of literary journals, discussions relevant to students and other readers of journals, as well as history and scholarship of literary journals and little magazines. Though sometimes solicited by the editor, many of the best Views on Publishing features will come from unsolicited queries. These features tend to be no longer than 3,000 words, and are more commonly fewer than 2,000 words.
This section is peer reviewed.
Submission Guidelines
Submission Preparation Checklist
Before submission, please ensure that:
- The submission has not been previously published, in part or in whole, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
- All third-party-owned materials used have been identified with appropriate credit lines, and permission has been obtained from the copyright holder for all formats of the journal. Authors acknowledge their responsibility to gain all permissions prior to submission.
Formatting Guidelines
Jump to:
- Language & Text Formatting
- Data & Symbol Formatting
- Figures & Tables Formatting
- References Formatting
Language & Text
Capitalization
For the submission title:Capitalise all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and subordinate conjunctions (i.e. as, because, although). Use lowercase for all articles, coordinate conjunctions and prepositions.
- Example: Slip-Sliding on a Yellow Brick Road: Stabilization Efforts in Afghanistan
First level headings in the text should follow the same rule as the main title.
For lower-level subheadings, only capitalise first letter and proper nouns.
Headings should be under 75 characters.
Spelling
Submissions must be made in English. Authors are welcome to use American or British spellings as long as they are used consistently throughout the whole of the submission.
- Colour (UK) vs. Color (US)
When referring to proper nouns and normal institutional titles, the official, original spelling must be used.
- World Health Organization, not World Health Organisation
Grammar
American or English grammar rules may be used as long as they are used consistently and match the spelling format (see above). For instance, you may use a serial comma or not.
- red, white, and blue OR red, white and blue
Font
The font used should be commonly available and in an easily readable size. This may be changed during the typesetting process.
Underlined text should be avoided whenever possible.
Bold or italicised text to emphasise a point are permitted, although should be restricted to minimal occurrences to maximise their efficiency.
Lists
Use bullet points to denote a list without hierarchy or order of value. If the list indicates a specific sequence then a numbered list must be used.
Lists should be used sparingly to maximise their impact.
Quotation marks
Use double quotation marks except for quotes within another speech, in which case single quotation marks are used.
Quotations that are longer than three lines in length must be in an indented paragraph separate from the main text.
The standard, non-italicised font must be used for all quotes.
It must be clear from the text and/or citation where the quote is sourced. If quoting from material that is under copyright then permission will need to be obtained from the copyright holder.
Footnotes & endnotes
Use endnotes rather than footnotes (we refer to these as ‘Notes’ in the online publication). These will appear at the end of the main text, before ‘References’.
All notes should be used only where crucial clarifying information needs to be conveyed.
Avoid using notes for purposes of referencing, with in-text citations used instead. If in-text citations cannot be used, a source can be cited as part of a note.
Please insert the endnote marker after the end punctuation.
Data & Symbols
Symbols
Symbols are permitted within the main text and datasets as long as they are commonly in use or have explanatory definition on their first usage.
Hyphenation, em and en dashes
There is no set rule on the use of hyphenation between words, as long as they are consistently used.
Em dashes should be used sparingly. If they are present, they should denote emphasis, change of thought or interruption to the main sentence and can replace commas, parentheses, colons or semicolons.
- The president’s niece—daughter of his younger brother—caused a media scandal when…
En dashes can be used to replace ‘to’ when indicating a range. No space should surround the dash.
- 10-25 years
- pp. 10-65
Numbers
For numbers zero to nine please spell the whole words. Please use figures for numbers 10 or higher.
We are happy for authors to use either words or figures to represent large whole figures (i.e. one million or 1,000,000) as long as the usage is consistent throughout the text.
If the sentence includes a series of numbers then figures must be used in each instance.
- Artifacts were found at depths of 5, 9, and 29 cm.
If the number appears as part of a dataset, in conjunction with a symbol or as part of a table then the figure must be used.
- This study confirmed that 5% of…
If a sentence starts with a number it must be spelt, or the sentence should be re-written so that it no longer starts with the number.
- Fifteen examples were found to exist…
- The result showed that 15 examples existed…
Do not use a comma for a decimal place.
- 2.43 NOT 2,43
Numbers that are less than zero must have ‘0’ precede the decimal point.
- 0.24 NOT .24
Units of measurement
Symbols following a figure to denote a unit of measurement must be taken from the latest SI brochure. See http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pdf for the full brochure.
Figures & Tables
Figures
Figures, including graphs and diagrams, must be professionally and clearly presented. If a figure is not easy to understand or does not appear to be of a suitable quality, the editor may ask to re-render or omit it.
All figures must be cited within the main text, in consecutive order using Arabic numerals (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).
Each figure must have an accompanying descriptive main title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or use of the figure image. A short additional figure legend is optional to offer a further description.
- Figure 1: 1685 map of London.
- Figure 1: 1685 map of London. Note the addition of St Paul’s Cathedral, absent from earlier maps.
Figure titles and legends should be placed within the text document, either after the paragraph of their first citation, or as a list after the references.
The source of the image should be included, along with any relevant copyright information and a statement of authorisation (if needed).
- Figure 1: Firemen try to free workers buried under piles of concrete and metal girders. Photo: Claude-Michel Masson. Reproduced with permission of the photographer.
If your figure file includes text then please present the font as Ariel, Helvetica, or Verdana. This will mean that it matches the typeset text.
NOTE: All figures must be uploaded separately as supplementary files during the submission process, if possible in colour and at a resolution of at least 300dpi. Each file should not be more than 20MB. Standard formats accepted are: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS. For line drawings, please provide the original vector file (e.g. .ai, or .eps).
Tables
Tables must be created using a word processor's table function, not tabbed text.
Tables should be included in the manuscript. The final layout will place the tables as close to their first citation as possible.
All tables must be cited within the main text, and numbered with Arabic numerals in consecutive order (e.g. Table 1, Table 2, etc.).
Each table must have an accompanying descriptive title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or use of the table. A short additional table legend is optional to offer a further description of the table. The table title and legend should be placed underneath the table.
Tables should not include:
- Rotated text
- Color to denote meaning (it will not display the same on all devices)
- Images
- Vertical or diagonal lines
- Multiple parts (e.g. ‘Table 1a’ and ‘Table 1b’). These should either be merged into one table, or separated into ‘Table 1’ and ‘Table 2’.
NOTE: If there are more columns than can fit on a single page, then the table will be placed horizontally on the page. If it still can't fit horizontally on a page, the table will be broken into two.
References
In-text citations
Every use of information from other sources must be cited in the text so that it is clear that external material has been used.
If the author is already mentioned in the main text then the year should follow the name within parenthesis.
- Both Jones (2013) and Brown (2010) showed that …
If the author name is not mentioned in the main text then the surname and year should be inserted, in parenthesis, after the relevant text. Multiple citations should be separated by semi-colon and follow alphabetical order.
- The statistics clearly show this to be untrue (Brown 2010; Jones 2013).
If three or fewer authors are cited from the same citation then all should be listed. If four or more authors are part of the citation then ‘et al.’ should follow the first author name.
- (Jones, Smith & Brown 2008)
- (Jones et al. 2008)
If citations are used from the same author and the same year, then a lowercase letter, starting from ‘a’, should be placed after the year.
- (Jones 2013a; Jones 2013b)
If specific pages are being cited then the page number should follow the year, after a colon.
- (Brown 2004: 65; Jones 2013: 143)
For publications authored and published by organisations, use the short form of the organisation’s name or its acronym in lieu of the full name.
- (ICRC 2000) NOT (International Committee of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 2000)
Please do not include URLs in parenthetical citations, but rather cite the author or page title and include all details, including the URL, in the reference list.
Numeric in-text citations
Every use of information from other sources must be cited in the text so that it is clear that external material has been used. Each time a reference is being cited it should be represented by sequential numbers held within square brackets, within punctuation. Each citation should be a unique number unless it has been previously cited. In such cases, the original citation number should be presented. The reference list at the end of the publication will reflect this numbered list, with full reference data for each entry.
- This is citing an existing source [1].
If citing multiple sources at the same point, separate the citations with a comma.
- This is citing multiple existing sources [2,3,4].
Reference list
All citations must be listed at the end of the text file, in alphabetical order of authors’ surnames/in numerical order [delete as appropriate].
All reading materials should be included in ‘References’ – works which have not been cited within the main text, but which the author wishes to share with the reader, must be cited as additional information in endnotes explaining the relevance of the work. This will ensure that all works within the reference list are cited within the text.
NOTE: If multiple works by the same author are being listed, please re-type the author’s name out for each entry, rather than using a long dash.
NOTE: DOIs should be included for all reference entries, where possible.
Reference format
This journal uses the Chicago ‘author-year’ reference system – see below for examples of how to format (for more information, visit The Chicago Manual of Style Online):
Books- Last name, First name. Year. Title. Place of publication: Publisher.
- Pollan, Michael. 2006. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin.
Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. 2007. The War: An Intimate History, 1941–1945. New York: Knopf.
- Last name, First name. Year. “Chapter title.” In Book title, edited by Editor name, Page numbers, Place of publication: Publisher.
- Kelly, John D. 2010. “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War.” In Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, edited by John D. Kelly, Beatrice Jauregui, Sean T. Mitchell, and Jeremy Walton, 67–83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Last name, First name. Year. “Article title.” Journal title Volume(issue): Page numbers. DOI
- Kossinets, Gueorgi, and Duncan J. Watts. 2009. “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network.” American Journal of Sociology 115:405–50. Accessed February 28, 2010. doi:10.1086/599247.
- Last name, First name. Year. “Article title.” Newspaper title, Month Date. Accessed Month Date Year. URL.
- Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, and Robert Pear. 2010. “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote.” New York Times, February 27. Accessed February 28, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.
- Last name, First name. Year. “Article title.” Newspaper title, Month Date.
Mendelsohn, Daniel. 2010. “But Enough about Me.” New Yorker, January 25.
- Last name, First name. Year. “Title.” Paper presented at Conference name, Conference location, Month Date.
- Adelman, Rachel. 2009. “ ‘Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On’: God’s Footstool in the Aramaic Targumim and Midrashic Tradition.” Paper presented at the annual meeting for the Society of Biblical Literature, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 21–24.
- Organisation. Year. “Title.” Series/publication number. Retrieved from (if online).
- World Bank. 2008. “Textbooks and school library provision in secondary education in Sub-Saharan Africa.” World Bank Working Paper No. 126. Africa Human Development Series. Retrieved from EBL database.
- Last name, First name. Year. “Title.” PhD diss., University name.
- Choi, Mihwa. 2008. “Contesting Imaginaires in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty.” PhD diss., University of Chicago.
- Author/Organisation. Year. “Title.” Accessed Month Date. URL
- McDonald’s Corporation. 2008. “McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy Safety Facts.” Accessed July 19. http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/factsheets.html.