Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word (preferably .docx) document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is double-spaced; uses a 11-13 point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.

Author Guidelines

General Information

FOCUS: Papers in English Literary and Cultural Studies is an annually published periodical with a focus on literary and cultural studies in English-speaking cultures. The journal was launched in 1998, and was biennially published until the 2022 issue. With the 2024 issue, the journal switches to annual publication in Open Access format under a new ISSN number, using the Open Journal System. The submitted essays should not be simultaneously submitted to other journals. For more information see https://journals.lib.pte.hu/index.php/focus.

Scope

The journal invites original contributions relevant to the broadly defined area of literary and cultural studies in English-speaking cultures, including essays, book reviews, and interviews. Past issues were usually organised around a specific theme, with occasional issues of a more general scope. The actual call for contributions will include information on the theme (if any) and focus of the upcoming issue.

The submission process

Papers should be submitted through the online submission system available at https://journals.lib.pte.hu/index.php/focus/submission/wizard. In order to submit a paper, you are supposed to register at the journal website (https://journals.lib.pte.hu/index.php/focus/user/register). You can use your ORCID identifier for simpler access.

Publication fee

Focus charges no publication fee or any other fees associated with the editorial process and the publication of submissions.

The review process

The journal uses a blind review process. Accordingly, submitted essays will be read by external referees who decide about the quality of the submissions, and whether they can be accepted, with or without changes, or rejected for publication. Expect a decision in a maximum of 60 days from the date of submission. The papers will be forwarded to the reviewers in an anonymised format. Reviewers may suggest minor or major revisions to the submissions; in this case, Authors will receive the reviewed document with comments and suggested revisions and a new deadline for the submission of the revised paper.

Plagiarism Policy

The journal routinely screens all submissions for plagiarism using plagiarism checking software (Turnitin).

Essays

Essays submitted to the journal should follow the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook (for more information and examples, see https://style.mla.org/).Where possible, please provide URLs to the references even if MLA does not require that.

Following the principles of MLA, the essays should use in-text references keyed to a Works Cited section. The Works Cited section can only include works that were actually cited or referred to in the paper. Submissions should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words in length, and they should be submitted in .doc or .docx format. Please follow the MLA’s recommendations regarding the specifics of formatting (Times New Roman, font size 12, double-spaced, with indented paragraphs and block quotes), and refrain from using excessive visual emphasis (like underlining, bold, all caps etc.). Where necessary, submissions may include relevant illustrations, which should be sent in the form of high-resolution images attached to the submission.

For essays, a short abstract between 150-300 words is also required (this should be added during the online submission process, see below).

Reviews

Book reviews should be between 1,000 and 2,000 words, covering scholarly books about Anglophone literary or cultural subjects published not more than three years before the date of the issue for which the submission is offered.

Copyright Notice

FOCUS: Papers in English Literary and Cultural Studies follows the principles laid down by Creative Commons, which provides guarantees for the Author’s copyright while also ensuring that intellectual properties are made available for the wider public in a digital form. All papers submitted to the journal apply the following licence conditions (indicated on the journal’s website as well as in individual publications):

“© This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.”

You are free to:

  • Share, copy and redistribute the material included in the journal in any medium or format under the following terms:
  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit to the Author, and indicate the original place of publication [FOCUS: Papers in English Literary and Cultural Studies, Issue nr., page numbers.].
  • NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
  • NoDerivatives — You are not allowed to remix, transform, or build upon the material.
  • The above conditions must always be indicated if the journal material is distributed in any form.
  • The above conditions must always be met, unless a written permission signed by the Author and the Editor-in-Chief states otherwise.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.