Author Guidelines

Article Submissions

To submit an article or to check the status of any prior submissions, you need to already have or register for an Exchanges account (profile).

Personal data (names, email addresses, etc.,) entered into this site, will be exclusively used for the journal’s stated purposes, and will not be made available for any other purpose or disclosed to third parties. For further details see also the Privacy Notice below, or contact the Chief Editor.

Article Formats & Word Limits

Exchanges has a heritage of fostering new voices and emerging domain experts within all academic disciplines. We welcome high-quality submissions from researchers working in all academic fields globally, especially first time or early career authors. As a journal with a broad readership, we especially encourage manuscript submissions embracing an interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary research approach, or on specific topics written for a broad audience. The Editor and Editorial Board invites prospective authors who may be uncertain of their work’s suitability for publication in the journal to engage in conversations with us, prior to submission.

All author submissions should be suitable for a broad interdisciplinary readership rather than niche disciplinary communities. Manuscripts which do not account for this consideration may be declined.

We invite author manuscripts within the following article formats:

Original research articles: Describing the outcomes, application or impact of any original, unpublished research, on any topic (4,000-6,000 words).
Themed research articles: Original research articles addressing the core topic within a thematic call for papers, from any disciplinary realm, area or perspective (4,000-6,000 words).
Review articles: Overviews summarising the current state of understanding of a topic, highlighting key literature, trends and authors (4,000-6,000 words).
Critical Reflections*: Focused, critical appraisals typically concerning areas of emerging research, a key event or crucial new text (1,000-4,000 words). Find out more [Blog Post] [Podcast Episode]
Conversations*: Contextualised dialogues with significant research figures in any field. Ideally these should include a particular focus on their subject's interdisciplinary contributions and key publications (1,500-3,500 words). [Blog Post] [Podcast Episode]
Book Reviews*: Brief critical appraisals and descriptive evaluations of a topical or recent academic text, designed to offer an introductory overview to the work to unfamiliar readers. (1,000-2,500 words) [Blog Post]

*These formats normally do not undergo external peer review, but if accepted for consideration rather proceed via a more extensive editorial review process instead. Exceptions are made at the Editorial Board’s discretion.

We acknowledge some research fields typically produce articles outside of these word limits. If you are considering submitting an article, which does not conform to our standard requirements, please contact us before submission. Manuscripts should be addressed to a broad, interdisciplinary audience. This means key domain-specific concepts, jargon or terminology will usually require exploring, clarifying and unpicking within the text.

Additionally, authors considering a critical reflection, conversation or book review article may find it helpful to discuss their proposed contribution with the Chief Editor prior to submission.

For all queries concerning potential submissions please contact the Editor-in-Chief. For manuscripts already under consideration by the journal, please contact your assigned supervising editor in the first instance.

Deadlines

While Exchanges makes periodic themed and special issue calls for articles, the Editorial Board are happy to receive submissions throughout the year. Pending successful completion of the review and copyediting process, your manuscript will normally be scheduled for publication in the next available journal issue, with the exception of those destined for special issues. For more on our current calls for contributions, please see our most recent issue's editorial or announcement page.

Publication Fees

Exchanges does not charge any author publication fees (APCs) or levy any reader access tolls (subscription charges). As a scholar-led, diamond open access title, operating and management costs for Exchanges are largely met by the Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick, supported by intellectual labour contributions from our peer reviewers, Editorial Board and associate editor programme members. We gratefully acknowledge their invaluable contributions to our journal.

Journal Policies

Authors are advised to review our operational policies ahead of submission. In particular, they may wish to review the Selection, Rights Retention, Authorship & AI Tools and Contributor Conduct policies. Please contact the Chief Editor with any policy related questions.

Third-Party Copyrights & Permissions

All manuscript contents, including endnotes, titles, tables, and quotations, must be prepared according to our Style Guide. Additionally, authors are responsible for obtaining permission where necessary from copyright owners (rights holders) for reproducing within their articles any illustrations, tables, figures or extensive text extracts previously published elsewhere. This is commonly termed obtaining Third-Party copyright clearance. Authors are also responsible for clearly crediting the source and rights information of any included items in the accompanying captions. Most rights holders will grant permission when asked, although it is possible some may require a clearance fee which authors are responsible for paying themselves. Exchanges regrets we are unable to seek rights permission on an author's behalf.

Rights clearance for third-party materials is not required at the point of submission but must be completed before a manuscript can be accepted for publication following review and copyediting. Where any concerns remain at this late stage about rights clearance, authors must make their editor aware of this as soon as possible. Manuscripts where the Chief Editor identifies any outstanding copyright concerns will be withheld from publication until these issues are resolved to their satisfaction.

Where clearance is not granted, the third-party material may need to be removed ahead and a suitable note explaining its exclusion added in the published article. In some limited cases a fair dealing defence may be claimed for the purposes of criticism and review, which may permit inclusion of copyrighted material without explicit permission. However, this should not be assumed as it can be legally challenged and if relied upon may lead to later difficulties for the author.

For further advice on seeking permissions speak with your organisation’s Copyright Advisor, often to be found based within your institutional library. Alternatively, make your editor aware of any concerns during copyediting or speak with the Editor-in-Chief for additional guidance.

Author Rights Retention

Exchanges authors retain rights over their submitted work. For further details of how authors retain their copyrights over their published work and the details of the licence granted to Exchanges in return for publication, please see our Author Copyright Retention Policy

Authorial Quality

While Exchanges has a rich heritage of providing a publishing platform for first-time and ECR authors, an expectation still remains that submitted articles are constructed to a sufficiently high degree of publishable academic quality. While minor typographic, syntax or grammatical errors are common within draft manuscripts, where these are systematic this may be identified as a reason to decline the submission. Likewise, any manuscripts generally not meeting a professional authorial standard are likely to be declined from consideration.

Hence, authors are strongly encouraged to exercise good proofreading practices in refining their drafts ahead of submission to avoid disappointment. Authors may also wish to explore local proofreading and advice services available at their own institutions. During the manuscript review and revision processes the Editorial Board can and will offer constructive suggestions for improvements. However, Exchanges does not offer a redrafting service and authors will be expected to refine their manuscripts themselves. Authors are therefore encouraged to consult the Style Guide and Peer Reviewer Guidance for further advice on structuring their manuscripts ahead of submission.

Originality

Accepted manuscripts will normally be published on the understanding they are an original and previously unpublished piece of work. At the initial submission, all manuscripts undergo automated originality checking, and additionally editors and peer-reviewers also frequently scrutinise manuscripts to this end too. At any editorial stage where any significant ethical concerns relating to originality, insufficient citation of incorporated works or outright plagiarism are identified, manuscripts are likely to be declined from further consideration, at the Chief Editor’s discretion. The Chief Editor endeavours to communicate with authors of all declined manuscripts. They usually offer guidance on manuscript revisions which may potentially allow for resubmission for future consideration by Exchanges or advise on alternate publication destinations.

Manuscripts based on a previously published articles designed for a different, field-specific audience, or as translations from non-English originals, may be considered for publication, at the Chief Editor’s discretion. For example, an article previously published in a specialist journal title may be considered, but with an expectation that it has been significantly redeveloped for a non-specialist academic audience, as discussed above. Articles published in a non-English language journal may require less reworking but must be accurately translated at the very least. In any of these cases authors are responsible for checking any permission or citation requirements with the editors at the original publishing journal. In some case their explicit permission may be required before we can consider the revised manuscript. The author must also highlight in their submission to Exchanges, usually in a note to the editor, that their piece is a development, modification or remix of a prior publication. Failure to notify Exchanges of this, will likely see the manuscript declined during the originality checking process as above.

AI & Originality

Authors considering or using artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the preparation of any element of their papers, are strongly advised to review the journal’s policy with respect to their deployment, use, identification and citation.

Lead Authors

We accept submissions from individual or groups of researchers worldwide. As a journal with an explicit mission to foster quality early career researcher (ECR) publication, where possible we encourage early career researchers to be the lead author in any collaborative piece authored with more senior collaborators. All editorial communications are normally handled through the lead (submitting) author. Where there is any change in lead author during the editorial process, please notify your assigned editor as soon as possible.

References & Media

Authors are encouraged to be selective but broadly inclusive in their use of references. All citations to included works should be contained within the text itself and should not appear in the abstract. We encourage authors to consider including media or illustrative material where possible in tailoring their work for a broad audience, assuming appropriate copyright permissions have been sought. Hence, manuscripts may incorporate tables, diagrams and even links to external audio-visual media, photographs. Typically, though manuscripts should not include external links (e.g., URLs or DOIs) within the main article text, and instead these resources should be fully cited and appear in your references.

See our Style Guide for more on including media and images.

Writing Assistance

If you need further support in developing an effective scholarly voice or effective academic writing techniques, seek out the local researcher training courses at your institution. Additionally, the following resources may also be of use:

Production Schedule

To ensure articles published in Exchanges are of sufficiently high academic quality, all manuscripts undergo a series of reviews, revisions and editing processes. For some articles this may be a more time-consuming process, especially where specialist peer-reviewers need to be located and deployed or major reviews are requested from an author. Ideally, the better the initial quality and formatting of your submitted manuscript and the more readily an author responds to editorial requests, the easier any progression to publication becomes. As noted elsewhere, Exchanges currently publishes two regular issues annually (late April and October), and articles accepted for publication will normally appear in the next available issue. If you have any concerns over the time to publication, please contact your assigned editor, or the Chief Editor, as required.

The following is offered as an aid to authors in understanding Exchanges’ editorial procedures and their manuscript’s progression towards publication.

Submission	The manuscript is reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief for scope, suitability and originality. It is also reviewed to ensure key elements relating to our Style Guide have been sufficiently addressed. Submissions failing to sufficiently meet these criteria will be declined and returned to their author with advice. Manuscripts passing this stage are accepted for consideration and review.
Editor	Manuscripts accepted for consideration will be assigned to a supervising editor to guide it through the review/peer-review and copyediting process. Each editor will conduct an editorial review and consider a manuscript's suitability for further consideration. For editorially reviewed formats (e.g., non-peer-reviewed), they will offer direct revisions advice to authors at this stage.
Identifying Reviewers	For peer-reviewed submission formats editors are also responsible for locating and engaging peer-reviewers (minimum 2). Locating suitable and willing reviewers may take some considerable time for any manuscripts dealing with new, emerging or unusual disciplinary areas. Potential peer-reviewers are under no obligation to accept an invitation to review. Hence, many different scholars may need to be approached before a sufficient number of them accept the assignment.
Review	Once peer-reviewers have accepted, the anonymized article is released to them to review. Normally, they have just under a month (4 weeks) to complete the review, but as many of our reviewers are busy academics, on occasion, they may require extensions to this period. Editors will endeavour to notify authors when there is a lengthier than anticipated delay in obtaining review feedback.
Author Revisions	Editors will collate reviewer comments, and in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief as necessary, decide whether to: accept the manuscript for publication, require author revisions, seek further reviews or decline from consideration. Where minor or major revisions are required, editors inform the authors of recommended amendments required to their manuscripts. Authors are normally expected to resubmit their work within either a 2-4 week (minor revisions) or 4-8 week (major revisions) period. Authors requiring an extension on this timescale, for personal or professional reasons, should discuss this with their editor. For major revisions, once the author resubmits their amended manuscript, it is normally returned to the original reviewers to consider if it has been sufficiently improved and offer further suggestions for improvements. Authors will then have a further opportunity to revise their text, after which the editor normally makes a final publication decision. For minor revisions, this decision will happen following the author’s first revised text resubmission.
Editorial Decision	Following review feedback, along with any required author revisions, and normally in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief, a decision will be made whether to accept the manuscript for publication or decline it as unsuitable. The Editor-in-Chief's decision is final, although authors will be offered advice on any further modifications needed before a manuscript could be reconsidered by Exchanges.
Copyediting	Manuscripts successfully accepted for publication move to be copyedited and formatted for publication by their editor. This involves the text, and any additional content, being placed into Exchanges’ publication template. Editors may also offer recommendations for further improvements for clarity and will consult with authors over making these final modifications. After this stage the editor will perform a final proofread and then declare the manuscript pre-publication ready.
Production	Ahead of the issue's publication, the Editor-in-Chief reviews the pre-publication ready manuscript and makes any final layout adjustments to harmonise it with Exchanges' publication standards. This includes: adding page numbers, DOIs and any further biographic or metadata information on each author. They will also check that copyright permissions requirements have been observed on included third-party materials. On occasion they may need to contact an author if there are any aspects which require clarification.
Publication	Finally, the fully-formatted manuscript will be published as an article in the next available issue of Exchanges. However, manuscripts submitted for publication in response to one of our themed or special issues calls must wait until that issue's scheduled publication date. Once your article has been published, you will receive an email to notify you of its publication along with an invitation to offer feedback on the publication process. Authors are also invited to participate as guests on our podcast series.

At any stage if you are unsure as to your manuscript's current status check your dashboard (account) for updates or contact your assigned editor to request more information. Alternatively, you may wish to contact the Editor-in-Chief directly.