Submissions and Policies
Semiotic Review (ISSN: 3066-8107) primarily publishes thematic issues, by invitation or by submission by guest editors, that address some semiotic thematic or concept from a number of different perspectives. Theme issues will be announced by a call for papers, and the theme issues will remain open to new thematic additions indefinitely. Contributions to theme issues range from original scholarly articles to interviews, translations, roundtables, and book reviews. To propose a theme issue, e-mail the journal’s editors at semioticreview@gmail.com. To contribute an article to a theme issue, e-mail semioticreview@gmail.com
Beyond its theme issues, in its Varia section (Open Issue), Semiotic Review also publishes original scholarly essays and other interventions on topics that develop critical perspectives exploring semiotic themes. To submit an essay, e-mail semioticreview@gmail.com.
Policies and notes on submissions and the peer-review process
Peer-review process
All submitted manuscripts are first screened by the thematic guest editors and by the editors-in-chief before going through peer review. Manuscripts that are sent out for review are reviewed by at minimum 2 peer reviewers. The peer review process is double-blind anonymous.
Timeline
Semiotic Review aims to have a quick turn-around in the review process, with papers either sent out for review or subject to a desk-reject within 2 weeks time; reader reports returned back to the author within 2-3 months time; and, upon acceptance, published online within 2-3 months time of the issue's publication.
For submitting articles
Please submit manuscripts to semioticreview@gmail.com.
Please send files in Word format, with the title of the article, author name and e-mail address, abstract (up to 200 words), and 3–5 keywords at the beginning of page 1, the text of the article, and any figures or tables at the appropriate spot in the text.
Bibliographical references should be complete and the style rules basic to our journal editing should follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, using the author-date system for citations. See here: https://americananthro.org/
Submissions should generally not exceed 12,000 words, inclusive of endnotes, references, and appendices.
Authors should consult the ethics statement and AI policy below.
Ethics statement
Research published in Semiotic Review must comply with the principles laid out by the best practices of the disciplines in which the study works, such as those set out in the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in its most recent version) for work with human subjects, or the American Anthropological Association’s code for ethnographic research. In addition, research should have been approved by the IRB or Ethical Committee of the institution where the study was performed, as applicable. All research on human and animal subjects should abide by relevant laws and institutional guidelines, especially that informed consent was obtained from human subjects. While ethical codes and procedures may vary according to disciplines and institutions, general principles of ethical research required by Semiotic Review include commitments to transparency, inclusivity, respect, confidentiality, and ensuring research does not harm or endanger participants. Conflicts of interest (e.g., any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that can be construed to influence the results or their interpretation in the research) should be disclosed at the time of submission and in the final published manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed in the published manuscript.
Use of AI
The editors reserve the right to determine if AI-technology use is appropriate or permissible as regards a submitted manuscript or published article.
- AI support need not be declared if it was used for the purposes of checking grammar, spelling, and improving the readability of the article. Translation tools may be used, as well, but these should be verified by the author and, if the author is not fluent in the languages involved, by a person fluent in the source language and target languages and who can verify the accuracy of the translation. Citation tools such as Zotero may be used, but it is the author's responsibility to verify the accuracy of all quotes, page numbers, and citations.
- Authors must declare any use of AI that assists in the critical thinking or development of the argument or for any engagement with others’ scholarship. If AI-technologies are used in developing a manuscript or the research it reports, its use must be described in detail (its purpose, how it was used, how it shaped the argument, analysis, or conclusions, and how the use of AI content was reviewed and verified by the authors). This use of AI should be disclosed both to the editors and reviewers at the time of submission, as well as in the body of the manuscript in a methodology section. It is the author's responsibility to verify that all texts are accurately cited.
- Reliance on AI that is prohibited includes its use to create, alter, or manipulate original research data and results. Artificial-intelligence technologies must not be used for any function linked to the authorship of research (i.e., any aspect of the content of the manuscript for which an author can be reasonably held accountable).
Peer Review and Editing
Reviewers and editors will not use AI for any substantive review tasks when reading, reviewing or editing submitted manuscripts.
Thematic Issues and How to Propose Them
Theme issues of Semiotic Review are centered around a theme or topic that concerns semiotics, broadly construed. They consist of a Call for Papers, an Introductory article, and articles or other scholarly publications (interviews, translations, review essays, roundtables, etc.). Proposals for theme issues are initially evaluated by the Editor(s)-in-Chief, and subject to approval by the Editorial Board. Because they are open indefinitely, by proposing an issue, prospective theme editors are indicating willingness to continue to be part of that issue’s editorial process beyond its initial publication. In order to propose a theme issue of Semiotic Review, please submit a proposal to the Editor(s)-in-Chief at semioticreview@gmail.com.
Your proposal should consist of the following sections:
1. Proposal title
2. Theme Issue Editors: please provide the names and contact of the special editor, or editors, along with a short (2-3 sentence) academic biography for them.
3. Abstract: the proposal should include an abstract (approximately, 500 words) that describes in what the thematic issue will consist; the abstract should indicate the issue's major themes, intellectual goals, and its relationship to any relevant literatures on the topic.
4. Prospective articles/authors. Successful proposals, and issues, involve issue editors already having identified potential contributions, or contributors, for submission (often this is from conference panels, working groups, etc.). In your proposal, please indicate any contributions that you have identified and plan to have as part of the issue (with the authors' name[s], paper's provisional title, topic/abstract, as available) and/or authors you plan to invite to be part of the issue based on their current research and expertise.
5. Finally, if you have ideas for formats beyond the traditional scholarly articles (e.g., roundtables, interviews, translations, review essays), you may describe these in your proposal, as well.
Open access and copyright policy
Open access
Semiotic Review is Diamond Open Access. It does not charge authors an article processing charge (APC) nor does it charge readers for subscription fees or to access articles.
Peer-reviewed articles are born open access with no embargo and with no delay in access.
Readers do not have to register before accessing published content.
Copyright policy
1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term "Work" shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher a nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions: (a) Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.; (b) Noncommercial: Other users (including Publisher) may not use this Work for commercial purposes; (c) ShareAlike: If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
5. Authors are permitted, and Semiotic Review promotes, to post online the preprint manuscript of the Work in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work is expected be updated upon publication to include a reference to Semiotic Reviews’ assigned URL to the Article and its final published version in Semiotic Review.
Upon publication, the above terms are signed by the author and journal to solidify the mutual understanding of the terms. If you'd like to see the agreement, please e-mail semioticreview@gmail.com.
Long term preservation and archiving
The University of Chicago Library will archive and preserve the articles of Semiotic Review in the University’s institutional repository, Knowledge@UChicago.
