Submissions

We are not yet accepting submissions. We are planning to launch in Fall 2025...more soon.

This page is designed to ensure your submission is ready and that it fits the scope of the journal.

Before submitting, read over the guidelines here and then register an account (or login if you have an existing account).

BMiT welcomes submissions of full-length articles as well as shorter essays. We intend to publish colloquies and symposia, and other publications such as interviews, reports, or reviews. We are also interested in thematic issues. Contact the manging editor if you have a theme that you'd like to pursue. If you’re interested in doing a book review, contact our reviews editor.

 

About

Black Music, in Theory offers a space for thoughtful scholarship on Black music to incubate and flourish. Our goal is to publish topnotch pieces that treat Black music and musical genres with the dignity, humanity, and care that they deserve.

Focus and Scope

Black music, with its numerous genres and styles, is one of the most important musics in American history. Rap and hiphop are currently two of the world’s most popular genres, with local varieties in virtually every country on the planet, while jazz has arguably been America’s most historic and significant homegrown music and musical export. Black Music, in Theory (BMiT) focuses on Black and African American music writ large. In centering the analysis, composition, criticism, history, interpretation, performance, and theory of this music, BMiT also foregrounds previous work done on Black musicians and composers. Our intent is to foreground Black voices with this journal, while inviting everyone to the fold. BMiT welcomes all!

In addition to providing this important new publication venue, we at BMiT wish to problematize how our mainstream academic music journals, and mainstream scholars, have treated Black music in the past. Too often, in order to see work on Black music in these journals one needed to strip the music in question of its Blackness, its humanity, to present it on the main stage of American music theory and musicology. Thus BMiT acts as something of a counterpoint to those mainstream journals while helping them become better versions of themselves. 

BMiT benefits from a rich heritage of prior scholarship by pioneering Black writers and thinkers. From Eileen Southern’s The Black Perspective in Music to Samuel Floyd’s Black Music Research Journal, among others, there has been a vibrant tradition of African Americans publishing scholarship on Black music. However, for nearly a decade, since BMRJ shuttered operations in 2016, there has been a void for Black-led scholarship on Black and African American music in journal publications. We are excited to fill this void and proud to honor these rich traditions with Black Music, in Theory.

Submission Checklist

Submission of articles, essays, reports, and reviews:

Manuscripts should be submitted through the Janeway website and should:

  • be single spaced throughout with 1" margins
  • use Times New Roman 12-point font
  • have numbered pages (page numbers in lower-right corner)
  • conform to the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style
  • use American and not British English
  • use footnote and not endnote citations
  • contain a bibliography or works-cited list at the end of the submission
  • include an abstract of 300 words or less at the beginning of the submission
  • include a brief author bio of 50 words or less, including affiliation and contact information, at the end of the submission
  • be no more than 12,000 words for articles
  • be no more than 3,000 words for commentaries, essays, reports, or reviews

Examples and permissions:

Examples should be submitted electronically at size in jpg or PDF format.

Captions, with copyright permissions if necessary, should appear in the body of the document where appropriate. These captions should also appear separately and submitted as a Word document.

Authors submitting images should be sure to indicate within the text where the image should be placed by inserting the designation “(Example 1),” “(Example 2),” for example, at the end of the sentence referencing the image. Use "example" and not "figure" throughout.

Authors are responsible for obtaining all copyright permissions where necessary. Authors are responsible for all costs related to the use and licensing of images included in their works.

Verification:

The accuracy of citations, including names, titles, dates, page numbers, and quotations, is the responsibility of the author. All information should be carefully verified before a contribution is submitted.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with BMIT maintain ownership of their copyright, and may republish their articles in other venues with appropriate acknowledgement of previous publication in the journal per the terms of CC BY 4.0.

Peer Review

BMiT operates under a doubly-anonymous peer review policy in which neither author nor reviewer knows the other's identity. Articles are reviewed by at least two qualified reviewers assigned by the Editors. Book reviews are solicited and undergo internal review but not anonymous peer review. The Editors reserve the right to accept, reject, or modify submissions. Reviewers are generally given one month to submit their comments and suggestions with specific recommendations of accept as is, accept with revisions, revise and resubmit, and reject. The Editors reserve the right to reject submissions outright without sending out for review if the work is deemed unworthy of such review.

Licences

The following licences are allowed:

  • CC BY 4.0
    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 does not charge any fees to authors.

Publication Cycle

This journal published twice yearly.

Sections

Section or article type

Public Submissions

Peer Reviewed

Indexed

Article