Publishing in the Journal

Manuscripts must be submitted through the journal's submission portal on Scholastica. Please review the "For Authors" page on Scholastica for length and formatting specifications, including anonymity requirements and information for repeat authors.

Received manuscripts that pass the anonymity check are assigned to the executive editor. All submissions are internally reviewed for appropriateness to the journal's mission and adherence to scholarly criteria. Once this phase of review has been completed, authors may be contacted for additional information. Authors may also be informed that the journal has declined to publish the manuscript.

At the conclusion of internal review, manuscripts are sent for external, double-anonymous peer review. Reviewers are advised to follow COPE's Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. Reviewers' identities are not disclosed to the author or to fellow reviewers. In some cases, the second double-anonymous review of a manuscript may be conducted by a member of the journal's Editorial Board.

When the external peer reviews are not in agreement, journal policy is to issue a decision in line with the more critical review, in the belief that manuscripts may be further improved before publication in any venue.

In keeping with the promotion protocols at the majority of our authors' home institutions, we maintain an anonymous process. To this end, we will not facilitate any direct correspondence between reviewers and authors.

Essays will be reviewed in the language in which they are submitted when possible. Essays accepted in languages other than English will be professionally translated by the journal.

Note: For materials requiring peer reviews that deviate from the typical double-anonymous process (e.g., a manuscript containing necessary autobiographical details), a statement detailing the type of review the manuscript received will accompany its publication.

The journal issues four types of decisions: accept; conditionally accept; revise and resubmit for consideration; and decline. Once available, decision letters are communicated to authors through Scholastica. The process following each of these decisions is outlined below.

Acceptance & Conditional Acceptance

An article passes peer review and is advanced for publication; the editor communicates to the author next steps for delivery of final materials. In the case of a conditional acceptance, light revisions in response to reviewer and/or editor feedback are a prerequisite for publication.

Revise and resubmit

The reviewers signal that the essay requires substantive revision, and the author is asked to revise in response to the feedback and resubmit. The author will also be asked to submit a detailed summary of the approach to the revision, which will be read by the editor and shared anonymously with reviewers by request. Upon receipt of a revised submission, the editor will send the essay to the same peer reviewer(s) a second time, contingent on availability. Once the reviewer's report on the revision is received, the editor reads the revised text against the second set of feedback and the author's explanation of changes to determine whether the revised submission can be accepted for publication.

This decision is intentionally issued to essays that the journal wishes to develop, but it does not signal a guarantee that a revised draft will be accepted. In some cases, a peer reviewer will deem that a revision needs to be revised and peer reviewed again, and it is at the discretion of the editor whether to oversee another round of revision and review.

Decline

An essay is found not to be ready for publication, whether the initial or revised submission. In cases where revisions requested by a reviewer are deemed too substantial for the journal to oversee, a submission will be declined. Reviewer feedback will be included with a decline letter when available. When two reviewers are not unanimous in their support of the development of a given submission (meaning one recommends decline), the journal is obliged to decline.

Decisions are issued in line with the journal’s mission, readiness and quality of submitted content, and individual issue capacity relative to the high volume of submissions. The journal office is unable to provide additional feedback on submitted work that is not accepted for imminent publication or selected for development toward this goal.

After final revision and acceptance, each article will be edited and sent back to the author(s) for review before the article is typeset. The editing will correct grammar and implement journal style, which includes inclusive language; beyond that, the editing may address outstanding content-related issues or organizational requirements. Authors are expected to respond to the editing with the same openness and collegial spirit with which they approached revisions during peer review. During this stage, authors should redress any discrepancies or problems with the completeness of their content and references, clarity of argument and syntax, or soundness of context and framing.

Authors are ultimately responsible for the factual accuracy of their article, including captions, crediting, and citations of quoted material, and will be given the opportunity to approve the final version of their text. The copyeditor will not fact check the article. The copyeditor will do a modest spot check for accuracy of the titles of cited sources, but if they find that there is a problem, it is the author’s job to recheck citations. Page numbers in cited sources will not be checked by a copyeditor.

Once the essay is in production, changes to content are not invited; authors will only be able to correct typographic errors at that stage.

Authors may expect to receive a decision within six months from the time of submission. The timeline of peer review ultimately depends on reviewer schedules. The review period is lengthened by additional steps needed for revision and further rounds of peer review, so readiness of the initial submission is key. We recommend that prospective authors ask a colleague to read over the manuscript before submission; a final read-through for grammar and writing style is also advised.

Once accepted, the time to publication is approximately one year, but it may be shorter or longer depending on issue capacity at the time of acceptance. Issue placement will be communicated with an offer of acceptance.

Manuscripts should be formatted as outlined in the “For Authors” page of Scholastica.

Reviewers will evaluate the readiness of a manuscript for publication. Reviewer forms contain the following categories and questions:

• Originality / Relevance of Discussion: Is the article based on original research or arguments, and does it make an important contribution to scholarship in the field? Does it include topics or perspectives historically underrepresented or overlooked?
• Clarity / Quality of the Argument: Is the thesis of the article clearly stated, and are the conclusions fully supported by the author? Is the writing clear and comprehensible?
• Extant Literature: If the article builds upon previous research, does it reference that work appropriately? Are there any important works that have been omitted? Are the references accurate? Does this article engage with primary sources and scholarship by people from the culture being discussed?
• Use of Illustrations (if applicable): Do the illustrations support the author’s argument? Are the selections warranted and adequately discussed in the text of the essay? Do the illustrations reflect cultural sensitivity to the objects or people shown or represented?
• Length: Is the length warranted? Are there superfluous sections or areas in which the author could be more focused or concise? The Getty Research Journal publishes full-length articles (5,000–7,500 words, including endnotes) and shorter notices (1,500–5,000 words, including endnotes); these limits are in keeping with the journal’s open-access format and the reading experience online.
• Do you have any further comments about the quality and importance of the article that the Getty Research Journal’s Editorial Committee should consider when selecting final articles for publication? (Note that only editors will see the response to this question, while responses to all the questions above are passed along to authors through Scholastica's portal.)