Guidelines for Authors

The editors of Analytical Approaches to World Music welcome submissions that engage the analytical, theoretical, and cultural aspects of the panoply of world musical traditions. These may take the form of articles of moderate length (approximately 5000–20,000 words), as well as shorter essays, research notes, interviews, editorials, reviews, or any other innovative mode of scholarly discourse. We particularly encourage submissions that take full advantage of our online format by including sound files, video clips, photos, animations, interactive examples and hyperlinks.

Submissions are subject to initial screening to ensure that they are consistent with the aims of the journal. Every suitable submission is then evaluated by two readers using a double-blind review procedure, such that the authors and readers do not know each others’ identities. If one reader recommends rejecting the submission and the other reader recommends acceptance, an evaluation by a third reader, or in some cases by the journal editors, is employed to break the tie. The review process typically lasts approximately four months; however, mitigating factors may increase or decrease this duration. Any manuscript that is accepted remains subject to editing for style and content, and the editors reserve the right to require substantial revisions prior to publication.

Submissions to Analytical Approaches to World Music should consist of original research and should cite prior work appropriately. Authors are responsible for notifying the journal if they discover factual errors in the content of their work after publication.

Authors do not pay any fees to publish in Analytical Approaches to World Music, and authors retain the copyright of individual articles and all associated media that they publish in the journal.

Analytical Approaches to World Music is an open-access journal, meaning that the content is freely available to all users. Users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles without requesting permission. The following conditions apply to distribution of articles in the journal:

1. The author of the article and the name, volume, issue, and year of the journal must be identified clearly.
2. No portion of the article, including audio, video, or other accompanying media, may be used for commercial purposes.
3. No portion of the article or any of its accompanying media may be modified, transformed, built upon, sampled, remixed, or separated from the rest of the article.

Any exceptions to the above limitations require prior, written permission from the authors and advance notification of the journal editors.

Submissions should conform to the following guidelines:

1. Manuscripts submitted to AAWM should not have been published elsewhere, nor should they simultaneously be under review or scheduled for publication in another journal, book, etc. Furthermore, if an author submits a paper to AAWM that is based on material closely related to that in other published or submitted papers or books, the author should explain the relationships among them in a cover letter to the editors.
2. All manuscripts and supporting files, as well as an abstract of 250 to 400 words and a list of 4 to 8 keywords, should be submitted electronically to managingeditor@journal.iftawm.org.
3. Manuscripts must be in English and should observe United States conventions of usage, spelling, and punctuation as outlined in The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. The AAWM journal maintains the principles of gender-neutral discourse and the editors thus request authors and reviewers to adhere to these practices. AAWM has adopted a set of guidelines developed by the Society for Music Theory (SMT), which may be found at http://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/nsl.html.
4. Manuscripts must be submitted as MS Word (.doc or .docx) files. All text should be double-spaced. The main body of the text should be typed in a 12-point font. Please leave 1″ margins on all sides, with only the left-hand margin justified. Authors should employ footnotes rather than endnotes.
5. In order to maintain the integrity of the blind review process, authors should refrain from using any self-identifying information in any submitted files and documents. Citations of the author’s previous work within the submission should be redacted (e.g., by replacing the in-text citation and bibliography entry with “[source removed for anonymity]”).
6. All citations should employ the author-date system as set forth in Chapter 15 of The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. For examples of the correct formatting of citations and bibliography entries, please refer to the “Author-Date” section of the Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide and to recent issues of AAWM.
7. Acknowledgments should be presented in a separate paragraph following the main body of the text.
8. Any images or audiovisual examples that accompany the text must have a numbered title (e.g., Figure 1, Example 1, Video Example 1) and caption. In addition to including a title and caption, every example must also be referred to by its title in the body of the text (e.g., “As Figure 1 shows…,” “Example 1 demonstrates that…”).
9. All graphical figures such as maps, photographs, music scores, software screenshots, and other visual material should be submitted in the text document AND as separate files, ideally in one .zip container. File names of separate graphics must match their figure number and caption in the text document (e.g., figure1_map_Africa.tif, figure2_transcription_song1.eps). COLOR and GREY SCALE images should have a minimum of 300dpi, related to their targeted size in the document, and should preferably be in the Tagged Image File format (.tif) or in Bitmap Image File (.bmp) without compression. Joint Photographic Experts Group format (.jpg) is also possible, but less preferred. LINE ART, i.e., true BLACK-AND-WHITE graphics (e.g., transcriptions and scores; for grey scale see above!) should be in a vector format such as Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg) or Postscript (.ps, .eps). If a vector format is not available, the bitmap resolution should be 1200dpi related to the targeted size of the image in the document.
10. If work is accepted for publication, contributors are responsible for obtaining permission to include any copyrighted material that falls outside the doctrine of fair use.
11. AAWM can accommodate most common media file formats, including MP3, WAV, AVI, MPG, MP4, WMV, MOV, etc. Authors should contact the editors regarding the use of other less common formats.
12. Authors are encouraged to provide access to any unpublished audio or video recordings, numerical data, mathematical proofs, or other source materials that are cited as the basis for claims made in their articles. Such materials may be hosted on the journal website as supplementary media or documents, or may be made available to interested readers by contacting the author. If a satisfactory means of providing access to such materials cannot be found, authors may be asked to remove portions of their submissions that depend on these materials. The journal editors recognize, however, that some source materials cannot be made available, for reasons that include protecting the privacy of research participants.

SPECIAL ISSUES

In addition to individual submissions, the editors of Analytical Approaches to World Music invite proposals for special issues of the journal centered on a topic of particular interest and relevance. To propose a special issue, submit to managingeditor@journal.iftawm.org a one- to two-page document that offers a rationale for the issue by providing clear evidence that the field is ripe for an issue on the topic—in other words, that the topic can attract enough submissions to populate an issue of the journal. Optionally, the proposal may include any number of fully fleshed out article submissions, each prepared according to the above guidelines for individual submissions and ready for peer review. If articles are included, the rationale document should also highlight the contribution of each individual submission.

The journal editors will evaluate the proposal and, if the topic is compelling and suitable for the journal, will review separately each article submission that the proposal includes according to the same process of blind peer review that individual submissions receive. Thus, each article submitted for the issue may be accepted or rejected on its own merits. Irrespective of the number of article submissions that a proposal includes and of the review decision for each submission, the journal editors may also elect to solicit additional contributions to the special issue by circulating a call for submissions.

The rationale document from the proposal will be published as an introduction to the special issue, subject to revision and expansion by the author as appropriate once the articles that make up the issue have been determined.

AAWM GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF ETHICAL CONDUCT AND RESEARCH INTEGRITY

The Analytical Approaches to World Music abides by and promotes the following basic principles of ethical conduct:

• freedom of inquiry and the widest possible access to information of use to scholars, including to those working under repressive governments and colonialist regimes
• honesty and integrity in all aspects of research, including scholarly investigation, evaluation and transmission of the research results
• scrupulous care in research practice, including respect for diverse points of view and the potential worth of scholarship on any aspect of music analysis, theory, or any related subject
• recognition of the intellectual property rights of others (including informants, performers, composers, scholars, institutions, and publishers), and acknowledgment of the principle of fair use
• advocacy, care and respect for all participants in and subjects of research beyond the fieldwork setting: researchers have the ethical obligation to honor the long-term commitment to the rights and interests of research participants and their communities and to advocate on their behalf
• transparency and open communication
• fairness and honesty in evaluations of colleagues and students
• accountability both for one’s own research integrity and that of others

EDITORIAL PROCESS

The Analytical Approaches to World Music is committed to anti-racism, embedding diversity, removing barriers to inclusion, and promoting equity at every stage of the publishing process. We do not discriminate against authors, editors, or peer reviewers based on personal characteristics or identity. Following the principle of inclusion and access for all, we actively seek and encourage submissions from scholars of diverse backgrounds, including race and ethnicity, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, ideology, and field of scholarship.

Articles submitted for publication are initially reviewed by the AAWM Editors and Research Editors, who may also consult relevant Associate Editors or subject specialists. If the article is suitable for consideration, the article will be sent to a minimum of two peer reviewers. The peer reviewers’ assessments are used to inform the editor’s decision as to whether or not to recommend publication.

PEER REVIEW

Peer review is paramount to maintaining the standards of AAWM publications. We:

• facilitate rigorous, fair and effective peer review for all our publications
• encourage our editors and peer reviewers to familiarize themselves with and act in accordance with relevant best practice guidelines on peer review
• expect those who oversee the peer review process to be able to recognise warning signs of fraudulent or manipulated peer review, and to raise any concerns by emailing the editor
• support our peer reviewers in investigating and acting on any suspected cases of manipulation or fraud
• protect the confidentiality of participants in the peer review process.

AUTHORSHIP

The Analytical Approaches to World Music believes that authors have an ethical responsibility to disseminate fieldwork materials and research results in ways mutually acceptable to research participants, researchers, and institutions. Authors must consider the potential impacts of results of the publication and recognize their responsibility to anticipate potential misuse.

PLAGIARISM

AAWM does not tolerate plagiarism in any of our publications, and reserves the right to check all submissions. Submissions containing suspected plagiarism, in whole or part, will be rejected. We expect our readers, reviewers, and editors to raise any suspicions of plagiarism by contacting the editors.

DUPLICATE/REDUNDANT PUBLICATIONS

AAWM does not support duplicate, redundant publication (“self-plagiarism”), or substantial overlap between publications. If an article, or substantial part of an article, is published more than once by the author(s) of the article without appropriate cross-referencing or justification for the overlap, the article will be rejected. This applies unless it is felt that the publication will strengthen the academic discourse; AAWM receives clear approval from the original publication; and the original source citation is included.