Submissions

JCS is open for submissions

Register
Log in

Publishing Ethos

Accessibility, inclusivity, and diversity are guiding principles of the journal’s publishing ethos. To enable access, the Journal of Contemplative Studies does not charge publication fees. The journal is ethically committed to the public dissemination of scholarship free of charge to both authors and readers. By providing open access to its publications, JCS seeks to increase access to high-quality scholarship of interest to diverse and interdisciplinary audiences. The journal strives for diversity among its contributors, reviewers, and readers, and is committed to ensuring diverse representation within the scholarly community of Contemplative Studies by members of its Executive and Editorial Boards. Increasing the diversity of voices published in Contemplative Studies is vital to maintaining the rigor, breadth, and relevance of cutting-edge scholarship that is the journals’ mission.

Content Types

The following types of submissions are accepted: 

  • Research Articles on original research and scholarship (up to 15,000 words, not including endnotes and citations) 
  • Book Reviews on new publications (up to 2,500 words)
  • Special Issues on related topics with guest editors
  • Contemplative Currents Submissions in the form of notes, community news, commentary or opinion pieces, new publications, and conference reports (up to 2,500 words)   

Contact the JCS Editors for submissions with different word counts.

Submission Checklist

Manuscript submissions must:

  • Adhere to the Manuscript Preparation Guide
  • Be in a Microsoft Word document
  • Not be under consideration elsewhere
  • Omit references that identify the name of the author(s) for Research Articles that are to undergo peer-review
  • Provide an abstract of the article (150-200 words)
  • Include endnotes and list of Works Cited, if applicable 
  • Include complete captions, credit, and copyright information or authorization to reproduce for all images, if applicable
  • Sign the Author Agreement 

Peer-Review Process

Articles and book review proposals submitted to the journal are first reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief or an invited guest editor of a Special Issue. Submissions that do not fall within the scope of the journal or do not meet our quality standards are rejected at this first stage.

If the submission passes initial review, articles are anonymously peer-reviewed by two ​​independent scholars in the field. These scholars can be members of the Advisory or Editorial Board, but are never on the journal’s editorial team. General article reviews are double-blind, which means the author(s) do not know who the reviewers are, and reviewers do not know the author(s). Peer-review for Special Issue articles is at least single-blind, where the author(s) do not know who the reviewers are, but may be double-blind depending on the issue. All articles go through at least two rounds of peer-review with an optional third round as needed.

Book reviews do not typically go through a separate peer-review process, and are instead thoroughly evaluated by the journal’s editors.

The peer review process is projected to take 10-weeks. Submissions will be accepted for publication only once authors have made revisions or responded adequately to the recommendations made by reviewers.

How to Submit

To submit a Research Articles or Book review, register and follow the process via the JCS Submission portal. 

Thematic Issue proposals are being accepted via the Special Issue Proposal Form. To submit a post for Contemplative Currents, submit directly via the Contact Us form. See the Manuscript Preparation Guide for author preparation instructions about formatting and citation style.

The Journal of Contemplative Studies © 2022 The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. 

Individual articles published by the Journal of Contemplative Studies are copyright of the author(s) and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC-ND), under which:

  • Attributions must give appropriate credit to the author(s) and journal, provide links to the journal source webpage and license, and indicate if changes were made. Attribution should appear as follows: ©YEAR AUTHOR NAME. Originally published and licensed by Journal of Contemplative Studies under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0.
  • Reusers may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses the reuser or their use.
  • Reusers may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted. No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted.