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Policies

Contents

Philosophy of Journal of Tolkien Research

For more information, please see Journal of Tolkien Research Aims and Scope page.

Who Can Submit?

Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in Journal of Tolkien Research provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer).

No article submission/processing charges apply.

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General Submission Rules

Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). All book reviews are assigned in advance. For queries contact the Book Reviews Editor at: tolkienreviews@gmail.com. Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to Journal of Tolkien Research, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at Journal of Tolkien Research. If you have concerns about the submission terms for Journal of Tolkien Research, please contact the editors.

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Peer Review Process

The peer review process is handled and recorded via an online editorial system. After a manuscript is submitted via the online system by a researcher, the Editor-in-Chief screens the manuscript and rejects unsuitable or poor-quality manuscripts at this point. Articles deemed appropriate for peer review are sent to 2 - 3 reviewers selected by the Editor-in-Chief and/or members of the editorial board. Reviewers are invited if they are experienced researchers with expertise in the contents of the manuscript. Following acceptance to perform the review, the reviewers are furnished with a copy of the manuscript and the journal’s peer review guidelines, to which they are asked to adhere. The identity of the authors and their affiliation details are blanked out to ensure a blind review. Reviewers are asked to complete the review within 4 weeks. Reviewers submit their reports via the online editorial system with a recommendation on the readiness of the paper for publication. The editor collates the review reports and makes a decision on the status of the paper accordingly.

Manuscripts may be: accepted (subject to minor or no revisions); declined; returned to the authors for revision (to address all reviewer comments in detail, with the possibility of resending for peer review depending on the nature of the reviewer comments); or invited for re-submission altogether. Authors are not made aware of the identity of a reviewer (double-blind approach) unless insisted upon by the reviewer for transparency. Members of the editorial board may be called upon to make additional recommendations.

The Editor-in-Chief has final decision on the acceptance or rejection of all manuscripts. The Editor-in-Chief may assign a rating to reviewers based on the quality of their review, which is entered into the online system for future reference.

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Formatting Requirements

Journal of Tolkien Research has no general rules about the formatting of articles upon initial submission. There are, however, rules governing the formatting of the final submission. See Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details. Although bepress can provide limited technical support, it is ultimately the responsibility of the author to produce an electronic version of the article as a high-quality PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format) file, or a Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or RTF file that can be converted to a PDF file.

It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is such that there are no, and can be no, guarantees that documents in PDF will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.

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Rights for Authors and ValpoScholar

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to Journal of Tolkien Research permission to publish and disseminate the article under a Creative Commons license, but retain all other rights.

Attribution and Usage Policies

Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the published version of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by the Creative Commons license assigned to the Article, requires attribution and citation to Journal of Tolkien Research's original publication.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

People seeking an exception, or who have questions about use, should contact the editors.

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General Terms and Conditions of Use

Users of the ValpoScholar website and/or software agree not to misuse the ValpoScholar service or software in any way.

The failure of ValpoScholar to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between ValpoScholar and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

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