About AQ

American Quarterly represents innovative interdisciplinary scholarship that engages with key issues in American studies.  The journal publishes essays that examine American societies and cultures, past and present, in global and local contexts.  This includes work that contributes to our understanding of the United States in its diversity, its relations with its hemispheric neighbors, and its impact on world politics and culture.  Through the publication of reviews of books, events, and diverse media, the journal seeks to make available the broad range of emergent approaches to American studies.

American Quarterly is published four times a year, in March, June, September, and December.  It is available online to ASA members and through Project Muse and JSTOR. 

Submission Guidelines

Authors should submit their manuscripts (preferably) via email to american.quarterly@usc.edu as attached documents in either Word or Word Perfect formats.  Manuscripts are evaluated anonymously, so authors’ names should appear on a separate title page or in correspondence only.  Manuscripts should be in the range of 5,000 – 10,000 words, with a maximum of 10,000 words total, including footnotes, and conform to the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition.  Please note:  we do not require that you format your essay in AQ style before it is accepted for publication, but we do require that submissions be of reasonable length.  Essay submissions over 12,000 words will be returned to authors without being read. 

Please see the Author Info section for more information.

Editorial Policies

Every manuscript that is submitted to the journal is read by the editor and at least one associate editor, who decide if an essay should go out for external peer review.  This process usually takes 4-8 weeks.  (Sometimes we get backlogged and it takes longer than we like.) The primary reasons that essays are returned at this stage are:  they are an inappropriate fit for the journal, they are not adequately situated in relation to the existing literature on the topic, or their arguments are not adequately worked through.  American Quarterly has a broad, interdisciplinary readership, and very limited space.  We are looking for essays that situate their topics in relation to the larger issues of the field of American studies.  A common reason that we reject manuscripts at this first stage is that they are too narrowly focused or would be more appropriate to more specialized journals, such as literature or regional journals.  The AQ editors also sometimes recommend revisions at this stage.  AQ receives approximately 250 submissions per year. 

Manuscripts that are sent out for peer review receive a reader report and a report from the editors, usually in about 4-6 weeks.  This is a blind process, which means that reader does not know the name of the author, and the author does not know the name of the reviewer.  At this stage, the editors make a decision, on the basis of the reports, to reject a manuscript or to send it back for revision and resubmission.

For those manuscripts that have been sent back for revision at this stage:  once the authors have revised their manuscripts on the basis of the reader report, the editors decide whether the manuscript is ready to go to the AQ Board of Managing Editors.  The Managing Board makes the final decision about publication.  They meet 4-5 times a year. 

The Managing Board reviews the revised manuscripts along with the reader reports.  This is a blind review process.  They make recommendations of reject, conditional accept, and accept.  Conditional acceptance means that the Board asks for more revisions which the editors work on with authors, sometimes with select board members reading revisions. 

The peer review process can take anywhere from a few months to a year from submission to editorial decision, depending on the length of time that readers and revisions take. 

New Forms of Writing

Currents
American Quarterly accepts short think pieces for publication for our “Currents” series.  These essays are intended as timely forms of writing that will intervene in contemporary issues of importance to scholars in American studies.  We hope that they will provide a forum for current debates over the directions of the field and how the interdisciplinary field of American studies defines itself and is defined by others. 

These essays are commissioned by the Managing Board and open to submission.  They are subject to editorial review but not blind peer review.  They are read by all the editors, as well as select board members, all of whom provide feedback for revision.  They should be 3,000 – 4,000 words long, including notes. 

Online Components
We are also open to proposals for and submissions of visual essays and essays that include hyperlink and online supplements, such as video and audio clips, additional images, links to online sources for key archival information.  As we continue to build our Web site, we are interested in proposals for essays and reviews that can be published online.

Forums

American Quarterly accepts proposals for short forums, which can be a group of several papers in dialogue with each other or with a commentary, such as a revised conference panel, or a paper with several responses.  Proposals for forums are approved by the Managing Board.  These forums are subject to editorial review, not blind peer review.  They are read by a combination of editors and select board members, who provide feedback for revision.  In general, forums should not be more than 18,000 words total.  We are also open to proposals for forums that can be published online or with online components and supplements.

Special Issues

American Quarterly publishes one special issue per year, in the September issue.  The first special issue is Los Angeles and the Future of Urban Cultures (2004), edited by Raúl Homero Villa and George J. Sánchez; the second (2005) will be Legal Borderlands: Law and the Construction of American Borders, edited by Mary Dudziak and Leti Volpp; and the third (2006) will be The Place of Technology in American Studies, edited by Siva Vaidhyanathan and Carolyn de la Peña. 

Special issues are edited by the guest editors in collaboration with the AQ editors and the AQ Managing Board.  They are comprised of a combination of essays that are solicited by the editors and essays that are submitted to a call for papers.  The process is subject to editorial but not blind peer review. 

The AQ Managing Board is open to proposals for future special issues, including special issues that include online and hyperlink elements. 

Please email your special issue proposal directly to american.quarterly@usc.edu with subject line: “AQ Special Issue Proposal.”

Book Reviews

Glenn Hendler is the AQ Book Review Editor.  He commissions reviews and is open to book review proposals. 

American Quarterly publishes 6-8 book reviews in each issue, with the exception of Special Issues, which have a review essay on the relevant literature.  These reviews, which are on both single and multiple books, are designed to provide an in-depth discussion of the current literature of the field of American studies, broadly defined, and to discuss recent books in relation to the key issues of the field.  Reviews are 2,500 – 3,000 words for single books, and up to 5,000 for multiple books, including notes. 

Please see the Book Review Guidelines for further details.

Event Reviews

American Quarterly regularly publishes reviews of art and museum events (and their event catalogues) that are of interest to scholars of American studies, usually 1-2 per issue.  These include events in historical, cultural, science, and art museums, art and historical organizations, libraries, and other venues.  Because these reviews are often if not usually for events that are no longer on view or that readers will not be able to see, they are intended to address broader issues in the field in relation to material culture, visual culture and museum studies.  Event reviews are 4,000 – 8,000 words in length, including notes.  Proposals for event reviews should be submitted to the editor. 

Please see the Event Review Guidelines for further details.

American Quarterly is open to proposals for reviews of other cultural forms that are of interest to American studies scholars, including reviews of films, television shows, web sites, and CDs.  Please send proposals to the editor.