Call for Participation: Special Issue – Gender & Intersectionality

The Centre for the Study of Women and Gender (CSWG) Graduate Seminar Series[1] at the University of Warwick are an established and important location for debate and discussion. The seminars welcome graduate research students from across the UK and beyond to share their work on gender, sexuality and feminism, in a supportive and friendly interdisciplinary environment. The seminars are free to attend and open to students at all stages of study, staff and the general public, and tackle a range of exciting, insightful and original research topics. The seminar series aims to foster discussions on questions of/around gender and feminist studies, alongside providing a safe and comfortable space for students to present their research. They also aim to create opportunities for participants to fine tune presentation skills and conference presentations and potential future publications.

This year the CSWG is delighted to invite all speakers from the seminar series to consider developing their talks as papers for publication consideration. They will appear in an exciting special issue of the Exchanges open-access interdisciplinary journal, anticipated for publication in early 2025.

Additionally, contributors to the seminar series are also invited to participate in the production of the issue as associate editors.

Deadline & Manuscript Submissions

Depending on the format of your article - one of two deadlines applies:

• Criticial Reflections (short articles): 31st July 2024
• Full Articles (peer-reviewed): 31st August 2024

All submissions should be made via Exchanges’ online submission portal during which authors will agree to the journal’s publishing licence.[2]

• exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/about/submissions

Authors submitting should also include a note to the editor signifying the manuscript is to be considered as part of the ‘Women & Gender Special Issue’ submissions. All questions relating to the issue, manuscript formulation and submission should be directed to Exchanges’ Editor-in-Chief (Dr Gareth J Johnson)
(exchangesjournal@warwick.ac.uk). Exchanges regrets that it cannot provide substantive feedback on manuscripts before submission.

The current intention is to hopefully produce two issues linked to the seminar series. The first, will contain shorter critical reflections and as a result will be published sooner. The second coming out some time later, will be reserved mainly for formal academic papers. Hence, authors are advised to consider carefully which kind of paper they wish to submit, against these prospective publication deadlines. Associate Editors Wanted

In creating the special issue, Exchanges offers contributors the opportunity to participate through joining the journal as associate editors. Associate editors manging the reviewing and copyediting stages of editorial production and make recommendations relating to the acceptance and progression of manuscripts towards publication. Editors are expected to regularly communicate with assigned authors, alongside managing the reviewing process.

In return, associate editors benefit through gaining significant academic career enhancing skills, alongside developing their professional networks while broadening their appreciation approaches to scholarly authorship, reviewing and publication. Full training, documentation and support is provided throughout their tenure.

If you are interested in joining our editorial team and helping to produce this issue – please contact the Editor for an informal discussion.[3]

Format Guidance

All manuscripts submitted for consideration should be between 1,000-4,000 words, normally reflecting the content of an author’s presentation. These will be considered under the journal’s flexible and popular critical reflections format, which typically comprise discussions of the key ideas, debates and value written and addressed to a broad, interdisciplinary audience. While scholarly in content, creating a critical reflection piece is intended to be relatively achievable in a short timeframe. Moreover, critical reflections undergo a generally swift editorial-review process helping to ensure a rapid transit to a publication decision, with author revisions normally achieved through a co-productive editorial dialogue.[4]

Critical reflections typically employ elements of critique, rather than present a simple narrative or illustrative recounting. Manuscripts should therefore aim to outline or introduce a topic, explore any key terminology, acronyms and jargon with which readers may be unfamiliar, before exploring any specific elements. Ideally the pieces should conclude with a critique, personal reflections or insights before a brief conclusion reiterating the key arguments, discussions or outcomes from the text.

Authors whose manuscript proposals might fall outside these guidelines are welcome to discuss their ideas with the Editor.

A formatted submission template is available to help authors in shaping their manuscript, although its use is not mandatory. Ahead of their submission, authors may also find it useful to review Exchanges’ policies on authorship, rights retention and conduct:

Author Guidance

exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/guidance

Journal Policies

exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/journal-policies

Readership

Exchanges is typically read by early career and post-graduate researchers across the disciplinary spectrum, along with members of the public with academic interests. Published articles have visible download (access) metrics, alongside altmetrics reflecting the social media discourse related to articles. Authors are strongly encouraged to address their work to people with this expected degree of expertise, rather than to senior peer-scholars. They should also take care to explore, clarify and unpick key domain-specific concepts, jargon or terminology within their manuscript text.

Third-Party Materials & Permissions

Full-colour illustrations, pictures and images are welcome in submitted manuscripts, provided accepted copyright practices are followed and source citations provided throughout. Where there are any potential restrictions (e.g., copyrighted images) authors are personally responsible for obtaining any appropriate permissions or paying clearance fees, as well as providing an appropriate source credit and reuse information for included materials. Please see our author guidance for more on copyright clearance for third-party materials or consult with the Chief Editor.

References & Citations

References can and should be included as necessary and while these should adhere to a single style, there is no requirement to use a specific format in your manuscript’s reference list. However, in text citations should adopt the (Name, Year) or (Name, Year: Page(s)) format where specific page numbers are cited.

Endnotes are permitted, although authors should seek to minimise their use. However, any directly cited or utilised sources must appear in the references list rather than an endnote. Footnotes should be avoided entirely, and any included in a submitted manuscript will be removed or adjusted to an endnote during the later editorial processes.

About Exchanges

Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal (ISSN 2053-9665) is a non-fee charging, open-access, scholar-led, interdisciplinary journal, published by Warwick’s Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) since 2013. It attracts articles from scholars and practitioners around the world, which are read by an international and multidisciplinary audience. Since 2020 it has increasingly published a series of highly regarded special issues, dedicated to particular themes and interests. Exchanges also has a particular mission to support the development of emerging authors, reviewers and editors within the research community. Past authors also regularly contribute insights and publication advice to its companion Exchanges Discourse podcast series, available via most podcasting platforms.

Contact & Further Information

For more information, advice or any questions, please visit Exchanges’ website. Alternatively contact the Editor-in-Chief or special issue lead (Pallavi Joshi). We look forward to reading your submissions.

Editor-in-Chief

exchangesjournal@warwick.ac.uk

Special Issue Lead

pallavi.joshi@warwick.ac.uk

[1] For details see: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/research/gender/calendar/graduateseminars202324/

[2] While authors retain full rights over their submitted work even after publication, they will grant Exchanges the licence as ‘first publisher’ of this work. All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) licence, in line with UKRI and major funder requirements.

[3] Associate editors can, and frequently do, still contribute to the special issue as authors.

[4] Editorial review includes an initial scoping consideration by the Chief Editor, to ensure general suitability for the journal, followed by a more in depth review by one the editorial team and a revision dialogue with the author.