Articles submitted to the journal should be new work that has not been previously published in English or that is under consideration elsewhere.

Submissions Guidelines

Submissions should be attached to an email to musicandpolitics@umich.edu and should include the following:

• Cover page
• Article text
• Additional accompanying files

Cover Page

The Cover Page should be an MS word document that lists author’s name, article title, institutional affiliation, address, phone number, email address, a list of filenames for all parts of the submission, and an abstract that meets RILM guidelines (the details are available online at https://www.rilm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Guidelines_AbstractStyle.pdf).

Article Text

The Article text should be an MS word document that includes the body of the article and footnotes, followed by a bibliography. The body and footnotes must not exceed 12,000 words. Footnotes and bibliographic references should be in conformity with the guidelines given in the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.

Authors should include identifying captions for illustrative examples (musical figures, images, etc.) but not the examples themselves. (Examples should appear separately as additional accompanying files.)

To facilitate anonymous peer review, authors should avoid identifying themselves in this document.

Additional Accompanying Files

Additional accompanying files include examples and other kinds of supporting files (musical figures, sound files, images, video, etc.). Although Music and Politics is published in HTML form, readers are able to download high quality copies of articles in PDF format. To facilitate this, all images should be created with a resolution of at least 200 PPI. Make sure all file names are clear and include the appropriate extension to indicate their type (.jpg, .tif, etc.). Accepted image formats are Photoshop, JPEG, TIFF, and BMP. If you would like to include other multimedia files in your paper, please contact Dorian Mueller for accepted formats.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to use copyrighted material in accepted articles, such as artwork (including figures and tables not of your own making), prose, poetry, lyrics, music, diaries, letters, and maps. For more information, visit the Permissions FAQ of the Association of University Presses.

The Peer-Review Process 

Music & Politics promises an unbiased reading of submitted articles. All articles submitted to Music & Politics are first evaluated by the editor(s) for scope, clarity, and contribution of research to scholarly knowledge. Articles that do not meet the scope or standards of the journal will be rejected at this point. 

Articles not rejected at this initial stage will be sent for peer review. Submissions will be sent to at least two reviewers, both of whom are not affiliated with the author’s home institution. The Journal’s peer-review process is double-blind, meaning that neither the author nor reviewers know each others’ identities.

Based on these reader reports, the editor(s) will make one of four possible decisions: 

Accept as is: Any submission that is deemed acceptable for publication may still require cosmetic changes that could be addressed through copy editing. In all other regards, the article is ready for publication. It is very rare for articles to be accepted as is.

Accept with Minor Revisions: The contribution, research, and methods of the article are very promising, but the manuscript could still be strengthened prior to publication. Examples of issues that might be dealt with through minor revision include increased engagement with an additional body of scholarship, a reframing of the introduction or conclusion to the article, the addition of limitations or caveats to the thesis, additional context to orient non-specialists, or the reframing of a limited number of individual points in the article. Articles accepted with Minor Revisions are typically not sent for an additional round of peer review. 

Revise/Resubmit: In the case of a revision and resubmission, the author will be required to address significant issues in the original submission. The reviewer will be asked to itemize and explain the issues that require revision, and the author will be required to address each issue before the essay can be published. Resubmissions are often sent for additional peer review. 

Decline: If an essay is rejected, the author will not be invited to resubmit the work to Music & Politics.

Decisions of the editor(s) must be treated as final. 

Ethics Statement 

Music & Politics adheres to the Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics of the American Musicological Society (See section II). Per these standards:

• The editor(s) are responsible for securing qualified and appropriate referees and for seeing to it that evaluations of submitted manuscripts are completed in a timely fashion. Editors will solicit additional evaluations if they suspect that any review stems from narrow-mindedness, self-interest, personal antipathy, or hasty and unsubstantiated judgment. 
• Peer reviewers are responsible for declaring any conflict of interest arising from a personal or professional relationship with the scholar whose work is being evaluated. They should decline to participate if they cannot evaluate the work honestly, impartially, and competently.
• Peer reviewers should treat article manuscripts and all communications with editors related to peer review work as strictly confidential. They should not comment on the manuscript on social media or in conversations with colleagues; publish or circulate any part of an unpublished manuscript; or make use of original research without permission.
• Reports provided to the authors from peer reviewers should be treated as confidential correspondence. Although it is common practice for an author to consult with a colleague or mentor about responding to peer reviews, the content of reviews should not be circulated or published, including on social media, unless an author receives permission from the peer reviewer, through the editor. 

Special Issues 

The journal occasionally publishes special issues on themes related to music and politics. Scholars interested in guest-editing a special issue should email an initial query to musicandpolitics@umich.edu, with a brief abstract of the proposed theme. The journal editor(s) will then decide if the proposed theme is viable for the journal. At that point, the journal editor(s) will ask the proposed guest editor to submit a formal proposal including the proposed author names, paper titles, anticipated length of each submission, and abstracts for all the submissions. Any article submitted as part of a special issue undergoes the same double-blind peer review process as a typical submission. 

Book Reviews 

Music & Politics does not publish book reviews. The journal does, however, publish an annual list of new books in the field. For potential inclusion, please email the book citation and brief abstract to musicandpolitics@umich.edu.