New Submissions
If you are an author interested in submitting an article for publication consideration, please read the guidelines below for information on manuscript preparation and the peer review process. Please also see the Submission and Resubmission Checklist at the bottom of this page.
Aztlán features a Chicano artist in each issue. If you are an artist who would like to submit artwork for reproduction in the Artist's Communiqué and on the cover, please send a request for information to: submissions@chicano.ucla.edu
If you are interested in writing a book review for us, we gladly consider suggested titles or we can recommend a book for you that matches your field of interest. Please contact our book review coordinator directly at revieweditor@chicano.ucla.edu to inquire about reviews.
Send all other submissions to: submissions@chicano.ucla.edu
Thank you for submitting to Aztlán.
About Aztlán
First published in 1970, Aztlán is the premier journal of Chicano studies. It is an interdisciplinary, refereed journal dedicated to original scholarly research that is relevant to or informed by the Chicano and, more generally, Latino experience. Two issues are published each year.
Aztlán welcomes submissions in the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts. Submissions should speak clearly to their significance within a particular scholarly debate as well as to their more general relevance to Chicano studies and other fields. Aztlán accepts articles in English and in Spanish.
Aztlán publishes three types of articles: essays, dossiers, and reviews.
Essays are substantive, scholarly, original contributions to the field. Essays are research-based and tend to be formal and centered on a single significant idea that relates to current debates. Essay interviews of leading figures must address a scholarly topic, not the figure’s life history. Submissions should advance research in the field of Chicano studies.
Dossiers are journalistic pieces or personal views on timely topics.
Reviews are shorter pieces on books, movies, recordings, events, conferences, exhibitions, and so on. Book reviews are generally of scholarly publications, but reviews of fiction and poetry with wide cultural impact may also be considered.
Aztlán also accepts letters to the editor.
Copyright
Manuscripts are considered with the understanding that they have not been published previously in either print or electronic format and are not under consideration by another publication or electronic medium. A manuscript will be considered previously published if another work has, either singly or in combination: the same title; the same opening paragraph; 25 percent or more of the same content. Manuscripts that are accepted and subsequently found to be previously published will be dropped.
Upon acceptance of their submission, all authors must sign and return a completed copyright agreement.
The author transfers all copyright ownership exclusively to the Regents of the University of California in the event that such work is published by Aztlán. The Regents have the exclusive right to publish, to copyright, and to allow or deny reproduction of the submission, in whole or in part, although authors are usually granted the right to reprint their submission in a collected volume of their own work. In consideration of the transfer of copyright to the publisher, each author receives five complimentary copies of the issue in which the article appears.
Questions or concerns about copyright should be directed to CSRC Press before a manuscript is submitted.
Preparing the Manuscript
All Submissions
This section contains information applicable to all manuscripts submitted to Aztlán. Subsequent sections contain additional requirements for each type of article—essay, dossier, review.
Content of Submission: A submission comprises (1) an email message to the editor, and (2) an attached document file containing the manuscript. The submission may include additional files for illustrations. For information on submitting illustrations for publication, see Preparing Illustrations in Resubmissions.
All text files must be in MS Word.
A note on the capitalization of words identifying race and ethnicity:
The style guide recommends the capitalization of these terms—Black, Brown, Indigenous—unless the lowercase form is more appropriate in context. These three terms join those that have always been capitalized: Latinx and Chicanx (and their variants), as well as Native American, Mexican American, African American, Asian American, and other words that describe national origin. Whether to capitalize similar terms, including white, is left to the author.
Send all submissions to: submissions@chicano.ucla.edu.
Email Message: The body of the email message must include this information:
- Whether the manuscript is an essay, a dossier, or a review
- The manuscript’s scholarly significance
- The word count, including notes and works cited
- Number of illustrations including (photos, tables, graphs)
- A statement confirming that the manuscript has not been previously published and is not under review elsewhere
- A statement confirming that the author(s) is (are) the sole copyright owner(s) of the manuscript
Manuscript: Submit the manuscript as a single electronic file, with components in this order:
- Cover page
- Abstract (for essays)
- Text
- Endnotes (for essays and some dossiers)
- Works cited (for essays and some dossiers)
- Captions (if any)
- Label the manuscript file with title, type of submission (essay, dossier, review), and month and year of submission. For essays and dossiers, use a shortened title (for example: golden age mexican cinema essay 11-08); for reviews, use a shortened title of the work reviewed (for example: chicana art review 11-08).
Cover Page: The first page of the document must list the following information:
- Title of the submission
- Date of submission
- Full name of each author, plus his or her affiliation, department, mail address, email address, fax number, and telephone numbers for office and home
Email is used not only for communication between the author and CSRC Press but also to distribute the copyedited manuscript and page proof. A working email address (or addresses) is essential.
When a manuscript is accepted for publication, it is the author's responsibility to provide CSRC Press with up-to-date contact information, particularly during holiday and vacation periods.
Text, Endnotes, and Works Cited: Aztlán generally follows The Chicago Manual of Style (University of Chicago Press, 2003). Notes appear as endnotes, following the text. Citations are in author-date format, and references are listed in a section of works cited. For more information and examples of accepted style, see the Aztlán Style Sheet in Resubmissions.
Permissions: Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reprint excerpts from all published or copyrighted works that fall outside "fair use." Fair use is determined by the amount of material that is excerpted and how the material is treated. Reprinting a paragraph, with proper citation, to support an argument would be considered fair use; reprinting several pages from a short chapter taken from an edited work would be harder to defend. Poetry and song lyrics are considered special cases, and authors should always request permission for either, regardless of the excerpt's length. See The Chicago Manual of Style for more information.
Authors are responsible for all fees.
Allow sufficient time for securing permissions. Some publishers require a minimum of six to eight weeks to process requests. CSRC Press requires receipt of printed request forms with original signatures; faxes, photocopies, and email communications will not be accepted. CSRC Press will postpone or refuse publication of any article if all permissions have not been secured by the time the copyediting phase of production is completed.
CSRC Press provides a sample letter that can be adapted for requesting permission to reprint text.
For information on requesting permissions for illustrations, see Preparing Illustrations in Resubmissions.
Illustrations: Authors are encouraged to submit photographs, graphs, tables, maps, and other illustrations with manuscripts. Illustrations are printed in black and white. For information on submitting illustrations for publication see Preparing Illustrations in Resubmissions.
Captions: All figures require captions; see Preparing Illustrations in Resubmissions.
Deadlines: Final versions (including revisions, if applicable) of manuscripts must be received by July 1 to be considered for the spring issue and by January 1 for the fall issue. Deadlines for manuscript and proof review will be set by the managing editor; see Resubmissions for more information on the production process.
Essays
In addition to the guidelines for all new submissions, essays have the following considerations:
Length: Essays should have fewer than 12,000 words, including tables, notes, and works cited. Essays accepted for publication in Aztlán are typically in the 10,000-12,000 word range.
Abstract: Append an abstract of no more than 200 words at the beginning of the essay manuscript. The abstract should impart the main argument, findings, and conclusion. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the research. Do not use quotations, equations, diagrams, or footnotes in the abstract.
The abstract is used for online access to the printed journal, so clear writing that contains key words is important.
If the essay is written in Spanish, provide the abstract in English and Spanish both.
References to the Author: Since essays undergo an anonymous review process, the body of the manuscript must not refer to the author(s) by name or contain information that would disclose the identity of the author(s). Authors should cite their own work as they would cite that of another author.
Subheadings: Use topical headings and subheadings to break up the text at logical points. Put subheads in headline style; do not use all capital letters. Subheads are not numbered.
Acknowledgments: After an essay is accepted for publication (see Peer Review below), the author may add acknowledgments in an unnumbered note at the beginning of the endnotes section. All financial and material support for the research should be clearly and completely identified in the acknowledgments.
Dossiers
The overarching goal of the dossier section is to provide a forum for multiple and shorter engagements with a specific theme that examines an aspect of Chicana/o studies; this might be an object of study, theoretical or disciplinary questions, a methodology, or one scholar's work. The dossier section, while still of a scholarly nature, is designed to be exploratory, provocative, or experimental in approach.
Acceptance: The dossier section is compiled by a guest curator or curators, and dossier articles are not refereed. Aztlán will consider working with a scholar who wishes to create a theme and who will help manage development of the dossier. The general guidelines outlined above apply to dossier submissions.
Length: Dossiers should have fewer than 5,000 words, but pieces up to 8,500 words may be considered.
BOOK Reviews
In addition to the guidelines for all submissions, reviews have the following considerations:
Assignment: Reviews are assigned by CSRC Press, and they are accepted at the editor's discretion. Authors who are interested in reviewing for Aztlán, or who would like to review a particular book or event, should contact CSRC Press before submitting a manuscript.
Length: Reviews should have fewer than 2,000 words. A good book review summarizes the book, lists its strengths and weaknesses, and avoids multiple block quotes from the work.
Headnote: Reviews are not titled. A headnote prefaces each review; the headnote follows this format:
The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Mexican Struggle for Independence, 1810–1821. By Eric Van Young. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. 736 pages. Hardcover $75.00, paperback $25.00.
Documentation: Reviews do not contain a separate section of notes or of references. References to other directly related scholarly texts must include the publisher and date of publication in this format: The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Mexican Struggle for Independence, 1810–1821 (Stanford University Press, 2001). Limit the number of these references to two or three titles.
Author Byline: Reviews do not include author profiles. The author's name and university affiliation follow the review.
If you are interested in writing a book review for us, we gladly consider suggested titles or we can recommend a book for you that matches your field of interest. Please contact our book review coordinator directly at revieweditor@chicano.ucla.edu to inquire about reviews.
Peer Review (essay submissions only)
All communication from the Press to authors is via email.
After receiving a submission for an essay, CSRC Press acknowledges its receipt. CSRC Press checks the completeness of the submission and reviews the manuscript to see if it meets minimum criteria for care, scholarship, and topic suitability. If the submission is incomplete or does not meet the minimum criteria, the manuscript is returned with a short explanation. If the manuscript meets the basic requirements, the Press notifies the author that the manuscript will be peer reviewed.
Peer review ensures the quality of the scholarship that is presented in Aztlán. The review process is anonymous: authors are not informed of the identity of those reviewing their work, and referees are not informed of the authors’ identity.
CSRC Press selects at least two specialist readers; usually one reader is a member of Aztlán's editorial board. These referees are chosen for their knowledge in the relevant field. Referees are instructed to disqualify themselves if they note any conflict of interest that might bias their review.
Referees determine whether the manuscript is clear, relevant, well referenced, and well argued, and whether it makes a contribution to the field. Referees then make one of six recommendations that indicate whether a manuscript will be accepted, rejected, or needs further work.
CSRC Press makes the final decision about publication. This decision is based on the quality of the manuscript, the recommendations of the referees, and the number of manuscripts already accepted.
CSRC Press sends a message that explains the decision; referees' comments are attached. If the manuscript needs revision, the requirements are listed. See also Resubmissions.
CSRC Press attempts to return decisions within six months of the date of the original submission and to publish within twelve months.
Submissions are the private property of the authors and all communication about submissions is privileged. CSRC Press does not reveal any information about submissions (receipt, content, status in the reviewing process, referee comments or recommendation, disposition) to anyone other than the author. Reviewers are prohibited from making copies of manuscripts.
Aztlán Editorial Staff
Charlene Villaseñor Black, Editor
Rebecca Frazier, Managing Editor
Heather Birdsall, Assistant Editor
