Submissions

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Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines for Submission:

Matrix aims to publish research articles normally between 5000 and 10,000 words in length, including bibliography. Longer pieces might be considered for publication at the discretion of the Editorial Collective.

Research Notes, or shorter contributions between 3000 and 5000 words, including bibliography, are welcome. There is a separate Research Notes section in the journal.

Twice per year, a Call for Papers will be issued with a submission deadline. Current and past Calls are hosted on the Matrix website.

Submissions not relating to a particular Call for Papers may be submitted for consideration at any time of the year to the Editorial Collective. Material received will be considered for the next available issue where suitable. The Editorial Collective reserves the right to hold back material for subsequent issues when necessary.

As a publication based in Canada, Matrix publishes material in English and French. Submissions made in languages other than English or French must be translated into English or French by the author.

We encourage submissions in the language of the community addressed by the article and will consider publishing it alongside the English or French translation.

Prospective authors should be aware that original papers published in Matrix: A Journal for Matricultural Studies are subject to rigorous peer review by multiple referees. The number of referees consulted will depend on the nature and scope of the submission. See Blinding Your Article for Double Blind Peer-Review Process, below.

On occasion, Matrix will commission the reprinting of articles relevant to the journal's themes which have been previously published elsewhere, where they (a) retain currency for researchers regarding either the history of research and/or current ideas, and (b) hitherto have not been fully available to researchers in a digital medium and/or a readily accessible venue.

Comments by referees may remain confidential at the discretion of the Editorial Collective.

Every effort will be made to maintain the anonymity of referees.

Authors will be expected to accept Matrix's copyright agreement once the article has been accepted for publication.

Charges or Fees

Authors of articles, notes, reports, book reviews and other submissions will not be subjected to any charges or fees, and will receive no remuneration from this open-access publication.

Submissions

  1. Submissions of articles should include an abstract of no more than 200 words, a list of up to five keywords, and a brief biography of the author(s). The abstract should not include references or refer to illustrations within the articles itself.

  2. The font size should be 12 point. The beginning of each paragraph should be demarcated by an extra line space.

  3. We accept numbered footnotes or endnotes. All pages must be numbered.

  4. Papers must be accompanied by a scheme indicating the divisions of the text and the relative importance of the various headings, sub-headings, etc (a small Table of Contents, if you will). A list of figures and their approximate locations should also be included.

  5. Both line drawings and photographs must be numbered in a single sequence within each paper and should be given a number in the text, thus (Fig. 9). Tables should be separately numbered, thus (Table 4).

  6. The author(s) should certify in writing that they have written the manuscript in its entirety and that it contains only original and accurate information.

  7. The editing and peer review process of an article requires a substantial commitment of time by Matrix's Editorial Collective and reviewers. There is NO paid managing editor or staff working for the journal. Submitting an article to Matrix implies a commitment by the contributor(s) to publish in the journal. The author(s) must certify in writing that neither the article submitted nor any version of it has been published, nor it is publicly available online, nor is it being considered for publication elsewhere, nor will it be submitted elsewhere for consideration for publication while the manuscript is under review by the Editorial Collective of Matrix: A Journal for Matricultural Studies. Such certification should accompany the manuscript.

Blinding Your Article for Double-Blind Peer Review

To ensure the integrity of anonymous peer-review, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. This involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties:

  • The authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "Author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc.
  • The authors of the document have removed personal information from the file properties by taking the following steps:
    • Microsoft Word for Windows:
      • Go to File
      • Select Info
      • Click on Check for Issues
      • Click on Inspect Document
      • In the Document Inspector dialog box, select the check boxes to choose the type of hidden content that you want inspected.
      • Click Remove All
      • Click Close
      • Save the document
    • Microsoft Word for MacOS:
      • Go to Tools
      • Click Protect Document
      • Select Remove personal information for this file on save
      • Click OK and save the file
    • Open Document Text (ODT)
      • Go to File
      • Click Properties
      • Click Reset Properties (not Reset)
      • Click OK and save the file
    • PDF:
      • Go to File
      • Select Properties
      • Remove any name in the author field
      • Click OK
      • Save the document

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • This submission meets the requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • This submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration.
  • All references have been checked for accuracy and completeness.
  • All tables and figures have been numbered and labelled.
  • Research articles have been blinded according to the process above.
  • Permission has been obtained to publish all photos, datasets and other material provided with this submission.

Research Articles

We encourage submissions from scholars around the world who are ready to work from a matricultural heuristic. That is, to take a new look at the ways in which people - historically and currently - have organized meaningful relationships amongst themselves and with the natural environment, the myths, customs, and laws which support these relationships, and the ways in which researchers have documented and perhaps mis-labeled the matricultures they have encountered.

All research articles will pass through a double-blind review process before publication, in which authors and reviewers are not identified to each other. This process aims to enrich and strengthen the submitted texts. Reviews will be made by external professionals whose field of expertise relates to the topic of the article; reviewers are encouraged to provide constructive comments.

Creative Contributions

Matrix encourages creative artworks in any media and community contributions which focus on the theme of the issue. As an online journal, any medium suitable for inclusion will be of interest.

Contributions to Creative Contributions will be reviewed by members of the Editorial Collective.

Personal Reflections

Matrix welcomes essays which are personal reflections on the theme of an issue. These personal reflections are not peer-reviewed, but offer ideas, opinions, thoughts, or analyses which may suggest new directions for research, subjective conclusions regarding research, or, simply, expand our consciousness about the topic.

Contributions to Personal Reflections on (issue theme) will be reviewed by members of the Editorial Collective.

Research Notes

Notes or reports on research which are not review-ready. Interesting ideas with some promise.

Book Reviews

Matrix is interested in reviewing books pertaining to the subject matter of the journal. Authors are welcome to inquire about the possibility of a review, which the Editorial Collective will co-ordinate, and reviewers are welcome to submit their review for consideration in an upcoming issue.

Letters to the Editor

All good scholarship inspires discussion and respectful debate is crucial to the advancement of knowledge. Matrix invites responses, feedback, comments, and constructive criticism to the material we publish. With permission, letters to the Editorial Collective may be published in an upcoming issue.

To submit a Letter to an Editor, contact lrowlatt@networkonculture.ca. Letters will be reviewed by the Editorial Collective.

Copyright Notice

This open access journal is published under Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivatives 4.0 International copyright licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

This means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or her/his institution. You are allowed to read, download, copy, print, search, link to the full texts of the articles, and share them in any format. If sharing, you must give appropriate credit and provide a link to the license.

If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

Republication is conditional upon prior permission from the publisher or the author(s), provided that appropriate credit is given to the author and this publication as first publisher, that a link is provided to the license, and that you indicate if any changes were made.

Also, you may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything this license permits.

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 - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) that allows others to share the work in any medium or format under the following terms:

  • appropriate credit must be given to the author and this journal as first publisher
  • a link to the license must be provided, and
  • any changes which were made must be indicated.

Authors may make changes for republication in a reasonable manner, but not in any way which suggests that the author, this journal, or this publisher endorses you.

If authors remix, transform, or build upon the material, they may not distribute the modified material under this license.

Authors may not use the material for commercial purposes.

For more details, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (for example, to post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book) with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered or registered with 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.