Interested in submitting to this journal? Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step online submission process.
All submissions to Contingent Horizons must pertain to the discipline of anthropology and be in line with the relevant call for papers and issue theme, when applicable.
Submissions to Contingent Horizons are to follow citation and reference conventions of the Chicago Manuel of Style, in line with the American Anthropological Association (AAA) Style Guide.
General Guidelines
Originality
Submissions to Contingent Horizons must be original and authors must own the rights of their work. Contingent Horizons does not accept manuscripts previously published in (or in consideration for) any other journal. Manuscripts emerging from previously unpublished thesis or coursework are acceptable.
Abstracts of papers presented at meetings or conferences and published in the proceedings of such meetings or conferences do not constitute duplicate publication, but should be disclosed by including a note in the cover page, i.e. “Content presented previously at (state meeting) and published as abstract in (give reference).”
Requests for exceptions must be addressed to the Editorial Collective.
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
Contingent Horizons considers plagiarism a serious offense and abides by the York University’s Senate Policy on Academic Honesty.
Consent and Ethics
Contingent Horizons is guided by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) Statement on Ethics.
All research with human participants must be approved by a university or institutional Ethics Committee (e.g. see York University’s Guidelines for Research with Human Participants.)
Consent is required for ethnographic and field research.
Formatting, Style, and References
All submissions (research articles, photo essays, and book reviews) are to follow the Chicago Manuel of Style. All documents should be submitted in 12-point font with 1-inch margins, double-spaced, and in word processor format (e.g. Microsoft Word).
Images
Images should be submitted individually as JPEG files with a maximum file size of 8 Mb (do not compress the images).
Authors are to indicate in the manuscript where each image should appear, e.g. [INSERT IMAGE 1], along with captions that indicate the image source and if you (1) are the creator of the image; or (2) have permission from the copyright holder to use the image; or (3) are using an image in the public domain or an image licensed under a Creative Commons license. Images are NOT to be embedded in the manuscript.
For instruction on photo essay submissions, see below (Instructions for Submission –> Manuscripts –> Photo essays).
Image Ethics
Please ensure that: the author submitting owns the copyright to the images, or has received written permission to use the images; upon submitting a photo essay to Contingent Horizons the author will retain the copyright of the images published; the work follows the research ethics guidelines of the author’s institution; and the work respects the rights of others, including privacy and rights to intellectual property.
Authors are encouraged to visit the following websites for details and FAQs regarding Canadian photographic and copyright laws: The Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators and the CIPPIC Copyright and Privacy in Photography Guidelines.
Instructions for Submission
Submissions are to be submitted through the online submission system.
Submissions must include the following documents: manuscript (anonymized) and any supplementary files, if applicable (e.g. images).
Following review, authors may be invited to revise and resubmit their submission. All re-submissions must include a "Responses to Reviewers" document.
Submissions are limited to one work per author per call for papers.
Abstracts
An abstract of maximum 250 words (single-spaced) is to be included in your submission. The abstract should provide a brief summary of your article that a reader might use to quickly determine its subject matter and purpose. It should address your research question, your methods (for example, ethnographic research, literature review), main findings, and conclusions.
Keywords
Keywords of three to six single words or two-word phrases are required to index the subjects your article addresses. The format of all ‘Keywords’ is all lower case (unless they are proper nouns) and listed in alphabetical order separated by commas. Book reviews do not require keywords.
KEYWORDS: border securitization, humanitarianism, Red Cross, refugees, sovereignty
Submission types
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Research article submissions can include ethnographic research articles, desktop research, and literature reviews, as well as essays focused on theoretical concerns, ethnographic methods, and research design.
Articles must be theoretically informed and ethnographically grounded, thoroughly researched and clearly written. Interdisciplinary submissions must pertain to the discipline of anthropology (i.e. apply ethnographic methods and engage anthropological theory).
The word limit for research articles is maximum 8000 words, including notes and references.
REVIEWS
The journa accepts book reviews as well as reviews of recent ethnographic films, albums, and exhibits of interest to anthropologists.
Book Reviews
Book Reviews can be of a single title, or a review of two or more related titles; for example, two books covering the same area of research or using similar theoretical approaches. Similarly, reviews can be a single publication by one author, or an edited volume that includes the works of several authors.
Book reviews should demonstrate: sophistication of analysis; critical evaluation of the book’s strengths and weaknesses; discussion of the book’s contribution to current debates within the discipline of anthropology; organization, quality, and clarity of writing.
Please ensure that your book review: is of a book (or books) relevant to the discipline of anthropology and published no more than 24 months prior to the call for papers; and is maximum 2000 words, including notes and references.
At the beginning of your book review, include the following information without italicizing the title of the book, or adding any other formatting:
Author. Title of publication. Place of publication: Name of publisher. Year of publication. Number of pages.
Megan Warin. Abject Relations: Everyday Worlds of Anorexia. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 2010. 229 pages.
While Contingent Horizons accepts unsolicited book reviews, we welcome prospective reviewers to contact us with a short list of books they might be interested in reviewing, so that we can ensure we don’t receive duplicate reviews. In some instances, we may be able to assist in obtaining review copies of books.
CREATIVE WORKS
The journal accepts the submission of creative works grounded in anthropological theory, thought, and/ or practice including: photo essays, creative non-fiction, pedagogical tools, interviews, field reflections and other creative writing. For examples of various types of creative submissions, see Cultural Anthropology contributed content.
Submissions must abide by the ethics standards of the institution to which they belong. If the work is based on institutionally sanctioned fieldwork, proof of ethics protocol approval may be requested.
Creative non-fiction and other creative writing
Creative non-fiction are essays or works grounded in anthropological research that explore theoretical themes without relaying on citation. Creative non-fiction takes the shape of narrative storytelling rather than a “traditional” academic essay.
Other creative writing may include fictional stories, personal essays, or poetry that contribute to or engage with the field of anthropology.
The word limit for creative non-fiction and other creative writing is maximum 7000 words, including notes and references.
Pedagogical tools
Pedagogical tools are any resources that the author has created to assist others in the learning and writing process. These must be grounded in the general concerns and goals of the field of anthropology. Any information used within the tools that is not of the authors creation must be properly cited.
Pedagogical tools should be no more than 5 pages in the authors preferred format.
Interviews
Interviews should be submitted in their transcribed and analyzed format. Interview submission must include an introduction to the interview framing it within the field of anthropology.
Authors may be asked to provide a full transcript of the interview or audio recording when available and consented to by the interviewee. Proof of consent for the interview may be requested.
Field Reflections
Field reflections include vignettes and snippets from the field, or engagements with fieldwork after completion.
The word limit for field reflections is a maximum of 2000 words.
Photo Essays
Contingent Horizons invites authors to explore the relationship between words and images, and ethics and aesthetics of ethnographic communication. As a photographic exploration and expression, the photo essay typically unfolds a visual narrative through thoughtful and specific arrangement of interrelated images which are supported or elaborated by an introductory text and captions. Together the image and text should aim to construct (or comment on) themes and generate dialogue, to incite thought about the message and the medium.
Photo Essays should demonstrate: an understanding and compliance with image ethics (for further information see above under Images –> Image Ethics); sophistication of visual narrative and image arrangement (how the images are put into dialogue with each other and with the writing); sophistication of writing (captions and text);quality and creativity of images, composition, writing, and their relationship to each other; and suitability of issues/questions being explored, both to the discipline of anthropology and respective to the current issue theme.
If the work is purposefully unconventional please explain your process and intent in the written component.
This text should detail and support the visual narrative. Please ensure that the text is not a summary or explanation of the image sequence or themes, but rather acts in support or elaboration of the images. Captions can run along the photo essay as descriptive statements or be presented at the beginning or end in an essay format.
Photo essay submissions must include a maximum of 15 images (with a maximum file size of 8 Mb, uncompressed) and an accompanying text of minimum 1000 words, excluding references and notes. Images should be submitted individually as JPEG files and the text should be submitted as a manuscript using word processor format.
Authors are to indicate in the manuscript where each image should appear, e.g. [INSERT IMAGE 1], along with captions that indicate the image source and if you (1) are the creator of the image; or (2) have permission from the copyright holder to use the image; or (3) are using an image in the public domain or an image licensed under a Creative Commons license. Images are NOT to be embedded in the manuscript.
Images and text should be arranged in the intended order and arrangement for publication page to convey a clear sense of the narrative form and essay sequence. Authors may submit a supplementary PDF file of your completed photo essay to inform us of your desired layout. Please note that the final layout is at the discretion of the editorial collective.
Photo essay examples:
Authors are encouraged to visit the following links for examples of photo essays:
Hoffman, Daniel. “Corpus: Mining the Border.”Writing with Light, Cultural Anthropology website, January 31, 2014. https://culanth.org/photo_essays/1-corpus-mining-the-border
Stone, Livia K. and Stone, Abigail C. “As Fluid as a Brick Wall.” Writing with Light, Cultural Anthropology website, November 10, 2014. https://culanth.org/photo_essays/4-as-fluid-as-a-brick-wall
Anonymity
To preserve the integrity of the blind peer review process adopted by this journal, the identities of the authors are to be anonymized on ALL manuscript submission files. This means that authors should take into consideration the following steps with regard to the text and the file properties of their manuscript document:
1. The authors of the document must delete their names from the text. They should be temporarily replaced by the word “Author”. In case of citation of one’s own work, the name of the authors should also be replaced by the word “Author” and year used. The cited articles’ information should also be temporarily removed.
2. The authors should remove any identifier from the properties of the file. In Microsoft Word, click on the following: Microsoft Office Button (File) > Prepare > Inspect Document. Then click on “Inspect”, followed by “Remove All” next to “Document Properties and Personal Information.” Finally, click on “Reinspect” and make sure to save the document. IMPORTANT: Do not click on “Remove All” next to the other four options, which will permanently delete the data associated with them. (Please refer to the support website of Microsoft Office for further details).
Responses to Reviewers
Following peer review, authors may be invited to revise and resubmit their submission. All re-submissions must include Responses to Reviewers in an additional document. This document should explain the major changes made to the submission and detail point-by-point how the author(s) have addressed all reviewer comments and improved their submission.
If you have any further questions regarding your submission, please contact the Contingent Horizons Editorial Collective at contingenthorizons@yorku.ca