Submission tips: multiple submission limits

The editors of the Journal of Modern Literature have instituted a new policy on multiple submissions by the same author, limiting submissions to one per author per 12-month period.

That is, once an author has submitted a piece, they may not submit any others for our consideration for a period of 12 months. We will automatically decline any submission not in compliance with this policy.

Submission Tips: The Role of a "Cover Letter"

Our "author anonymous" policy on submissions is very often misunderstood. It merely means that the essay you attach to your email should not identify you by name. Your name should not appear in the file name, as a byline, or in headers or footers; any references to your previous publications in the essay should be made in the third person or redacted.

It does NOT mean to send us a cryptic email with the subject line "submission" that has a file attached, but no email body text whatsoever. Such messages are extremely likely to end up in our "spam" folder and because of the volume of spam email a published email address like ours receives, disappear unseen by us within a month. 

One of the best ways to ensure your submission isn't filtered as spam is to write an appropriate covering email. 

Here are some elements to include: 

A salutation 

Emails addressed specifically are less likely to be spam filtered. "Dear Journal of Modern Literature Editors" is better than "Dear Editors." "Dear Ms. Garver" is better than "Dear Managing Editor" or "Dear Editorial Office." 

Vague salutations like "to whom it may concern" may become spam filtered. "Dear Sir" indicates an assumption that the editors are all male, and is therefore offensively sexist and should be avoided. 

A body paragraph

Your email body paragraph should indicate 

• The title of your submission 
• A statement that you are submitting it to be considered for publication in the Journal of Modern Literature. 
• The word count for the ENTIRE submission package including ALL elements (When using the Review > Word Count menu in MS Word, be sure to click the box "include textboxes, footnotes and endnotes.")
• A statement attesting to the fact that the submission is original, that you are the author, that it has not been previously published, and that it is not under review at any other journal at this time.
• An observation of why you think the submission is a fit for us. You might find it helpful to read some back issues on JSTOR or Project Muse, look at tables of contents published on this blog or read some of the "Read for FREE" pieces we link.

Signature

It is essential for our record keeping that we know your name, so please be sure to include it at the close of your letter. Your name is not shared with the editors until after acceptance. They will never be informed of the identity of authors whose works are rejected or returned for revision.

If your culture's naming convention is to use the family name first and the familiar name second, it is helpful if you capitalize the family name, indicating this is how you should be addressed. 

This is also where to let us know your preferred prefix (Dr., Prof., Mr., Ms., Mx.) as well as preferred pronouns, so that we know how to address future correspondence to you. 

Finally, include your academic affiliations, both current and previous, so that we can find objective peer reviewers who are not your colleagues or previous instructors. The COPE guidelines require that double blind reviewers not have conflicts of interest.

Examples:

Regards,

Ms. Jane Doe

(she / her / hers)

PhD Candidate, Stanford University

BA and MA, Penn State University

Sincerely,

Dr. ZHANG Bai

(he / him / his)

Professor of Foreign Literature, Shenzhen University

PhD, Yale University

What NOT to include

We don't need a list of your publications or other accomplishments. Submissions are read double blind on their own merits. When a piece is accepted you will have an opportunity to share this information in a biographical note.

English submissions, please!

A quick clarification: Journal of Modern Literature is an English-language journal. While we consider studies ABOUT literatures in all languages, we do not consider submissions themselves that are not in English. 

All non-English passages you quote must have English translations provided. See MLA 8th edition, section 1.3.8, for formatting details.

See also our detailed submission guidelines here: https://journalofmodernliterature.blogspot.com/p/submission-guidelines.html

Works cited in MLA 8th edition

We receive a great deal of submissions with incorrectly formatted citations. JML uses MLA 8th edition, NOT 7th edition, Chicago, APA or any hybrid thereof.

The most thorough primer on MLA 8th edition style is available from Purdue University's Online Writing Lab.

For your convenience, we offer sample citations from some of our published essays to help you better see how to correctly format your citations.

Periodicals in MLA 8th edition

Scholarly journal essay
O'Brien, Valerie. “‘A Genius for Unreality’: Neurodiversity in Elizabeth Bowen's Eva Trout.” Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 42, no. 2, Winter 2019, pp. 75-93.

Book review
Furbank, P.N. “No One Is Incapable of Boiling a Kettle.” Review of Eva Trout, by Elizabeth Bowen. The Times, 25 Jan. 1969, pp. 22.

Online periodical
Yezzi, David. "These Are the Poems, Folks: On the Relationship between Poetry and Joke-telling." Contemporary Poetry Review, 12 October 2011. www.cprw.com/these-are-the-poems-folks-on-the-relationship-between-poetry-and-joke-telling-by-david-yezzi. Accessed 1 June 2019.

Dictionary entry
“lacuna, n.” Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford UP, 2016. Accessed 6 June 2016.


Books in MLA 8th edition

Original texts
Ellmann, Maud. Elizabeth Bowen: The Shadow across the Page. Edinburgh UP, 2003.

(Note our house style to abbreviate "University Press" as UP. The same idea applies when the words are in a different order: U of Chicago P.)

Multi-author
Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. Elizabeth Bowen and the Dissolution of the Novel: Still Lives. St. Martin’s, 1995.

Republications
Bowen, Elizabeth. Eva Trout. 1968. Anchor Books, 2003.

Multiple books by same author
Bowen, Elizabeth. Eva Trout. 1968. Anchor Books, 2003.
---. “How to Be Yourself—But Not Eccentric.” 1956. People, Places, pp. 412-16.
---. People, Places, Things. Edited by Allan Hepburn. Edinburgh UP, 2008.
---. “The Thread of Dreams.” 1969. People, Places, pp. 416-17.

(Note the use of three hyphens NOT dashes or underlining. Note the ordering by title NOT date. Note also the two cross-referenced essays from a collection.)

Single-author works with other contributors
Deleuze, Gilles. The Logic of Sense. Edited by Constantin V. Boudas. Translated by Mark Lester with Charles Stivale. Columbia UP, 1990.

(Note the periods and capitalizations.)

Multi-author collections
Walshe, Eibhear, editor. Elizabeth Bowen. Irish Academic P, 2009.

Essays in collections
O’Toole, Tina. “Angels and Monsters: Embodiment and Desire in Eva Trout.” Elizabeth Bowen, edited by Eibhear Walshe. Irish Academic P, 2009, pp. 162-78.

(Note comma and use of lowercase "edited" for collections. Note our house style places a period before the publisher, no matter what precedes it.)

Essays in collections that have been already cited (cross reference citation)
O’Toole, Tina. “Angels and Monsters: Embodiment and Desire in Eva Trout.” Walshe, pp. 162-78.

Conference presentations
Valente, Joseph. “Is the Au in Autism the Same as the Au in Autonomy?” Modern Language Association Convention. Chicago. 9-12 Jan. 2014.

Archival documents
Oppen, George. Letter to Ezra Pound. 1 May 1930. Louis Zukofsky’s Papers. TXRC98-A11 Box 33, Folder 7. Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin.