Folk Music Journal is a refereed journal and the cycle from submission to publication involves a number of steps, outlined below. Please bear this process in mind when submitting pieces for consideration.
Timescale
Folk Music Journal is published annually in December. The content is decided at a meeting held thirteen months before publication. In some cases submissions are returned for revision and reconsideration at a subsequent meeting; or, for lack of space, may be held over for a year despite acceptance.
Reviews and other matter are dealt with in a shorter timescale over eleven months.
Material received between September and March can be circulated to the Board for preliminary assessment, so that any comments made can be taken into account before a full assessment is made and decisions taken in November.
| March |
Any articles received circulated to Board for preliminary feedback |
| April |
Board consider articles |
| May |
Board's comments returned to authors with invitation to submit revised version in September |
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| September |
All articles received circulated to Board |
| October |
Board consider articles |
| November |
Editorial Board meeting: decisions made on articles and other content (reviews, obituary) |
| December |
Results (acceptance, rejection, revision) communicated to authors; instruction to provide final copy in March |
| January |
Reviews/obituaries commissioned |
| March |
Final articles sent to Editor |
| April |
Articles prepared for printing |
| May |
Articles sent for printing |
| June |
Reviews etc. sent to Editor; article proofs arrive and sent to authors |
| July |
Article proofs returned to Editor and to printer; reviews etc. sent for printing; cover commissioned |
| August |
Review etc. proofs arrive and sent to authors; second article proofs arrive |
| September |
Review etc. proofs and second article proofs returned to printer, cover artwork delivered; final matter prepared and sent for printing |
| October |
Final proofs arrive and returned |
| November |
Printing and delivery |
| December |
Publication and distribution
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Note that the Journal is issued in December with a publication date of the following year, e.g. Volume 10 Number 1 was published in December 2010 with an issue date of 2011.
Style guide
You can download a printable pdf copy of the style guide.
The citation of Cecil Sharp’s papers is a complex issue on which the Journal has issued specific guidelines, in Volume 8.2 (2002), 132–35, reproduced here.
See also: FMJ Copyright Form.
Online content
Electronic contributions will be accepted in support of articles printed in the Journal from Volume 9, Number 1 (2006)
Electronic contributions may take the form of:
- Sound files
- Video files
- Additional and colour photographs and images
- Supporting source material which cannot be accommodated in the printed article
Articles should always be written so as to be comprehensible without access to the online material.
For purposes of electronic reproduction of images, photographic material should be supplied as JPEGs and diagrams, charts and line art as GIFs, at a resolution of 70 ppi. Images should be at least 280 x 210 pixels. These may be linked to larger images at higher resolution (300 ppi or greater) for important reproductions.
Music notation should be supplied as GIF images.
Sound reproduction and video should be supplied in non-streaming MP3 or MPEG format. Videos should be 320 x 240 pixels and a maximum of three minutes long.
Contributors should make sure they have the necessary rights and permissions to publish the material.
Copyright
The Journal does not require contributors to assign copyright in the articles to the publisher (the English Folk Dance and Song Society), but the Society does require the power to authorise further reproduction of the article in anthologies and in online database services. The form of agreement between contributors and the Society gives the Society the power to use the contribution in the ways it requires, and protects its interests, but leaves copyright in the articles with their authors. The Society retains, of course, copyright in the typographical arrangement of the articles in the Journal, in accordance with the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The form of the agreement is given here. Authors should note that it is their responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce quotations (except where they are covered by the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or are out of copyright), illustrations, and archival or manuscript material.
Please return the form by post or fax to The Editor, Folk Music Journal, English Folk Dance and Song Society, Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent's Park Road, London NW1 7AY, or a scanned copy to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
[ Based on the model grant of licence of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers ]
