Number of copies: Of the first version only one copy should be sent by email.
Typing: Articles submitted for publication must be typed double spaced throughout.
Length: The recommended length is 7000 words, including footnotes and references with an abstract of up to 150 words and up to 10 key words.
Titles: Titles and section headings should be clear and brief.
Quotations: Lengthy quotations (over 40 words) should be displayed, indented, in the text, without quotation marks. Short quotations in the text itself should be marked as such, either with quotation marks or by italics.
Language and Spelling: Only papers in English are published. Quotations of text fragments in othere languages should be followed by an English translation. Consistent UK or US spellings may be used.
Tables and figures: Tables and figures should have short descriptive titles and all artwork should be at least 300 dpi.
Notes: Essential notes should be indicated by superscript numbers in the text and typed at the end of the text.
References: References cited in the text should read: Brown (1987: 63–4), Brown and Smith (1984, 1989). Use ‘et al.’ for more than two authors. The letters a, b, c, etc., should be used for different works by the same author in the same year. All text references should be listed alphabetically after the notes, as follows: Books: Van Dijk, T. A. and Kintsch, W. (1983) Strategies of Discourse Comprehension. New York: Academic Press. Articles: Billig, M. (1988a) ‘Rhetorical and Historical Aspects of Attitudes: The Case of the British Monarchy’, Philosophical Psychology 1(1): 191–217.
Biography: Authors should supply an auto-biography of 50–100 words.
Cover sheets: The paper should have a "cover sheet" with the following information: full name; institutional, private and email address; address for proofs and offprints; telephone and fax numbers; short title and size in words and bytes. The cover sheet should be part of the same file as the paper.
Offprints: Authors receive proofs and a final pdf of their papers plus one copy of the journal and are responsible for obtaining copyright permission for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere.
Discussion section: Contributions to this secrtion of the journal should be 1000 words maximum with a short descriptive title (not ‘Comments on . . .’) and a cover sheet with details listed above for article submissions. Proofs will not be sent but each author will receive a pdf of the final version.
Mailing instructions and editorial address: First versions of papers should be sent by email only, in one file (including figures, tables, and appendices) preferably in WORD (formats .doc or .rtf), to the editor at the following address: journals[at]discourses.org. Please write on the subject line: Paper for DISCOURSE & SOCIETY. The file should be attached to an accompanying message, in which you should identify yourself with your full name and address, and address the editor by name, one of the ways to distinguish your submission from --unfortunately all too frequent -- SPAM. For the same reason, it is also strongly recommended that you add your full name to your email address in the header of your message when that address does not clearly identify who you are; if necessary please edit the settings of your email program accordingly. Do not attach your paper to a message without a personalized letter to the editor.
Questions and information: For questions about submissions and editorial policy, write to the editor: journals[at]discourses.org.
Preferred Papers for Discourse & Society
Contributions to Discourse & Society should satisfy the following criteria:
1. Systematic discourse analysis. Discourse & Society is primarily a discourse analytical journal. That is, articles should provide a detailed, systematic and theoretically based analysis of text and talk. It is insufficient to merely quote, summarize or paraphrase such discourse. Articles should focus on specific structures or strategies of discourse that are not self-evident to the casual reader. These may include grammatical, stylistic, rhetorical, narrative or argumentative structures; cognitive processes and mental representations; pragmatic, conversational or interactional dimensions of socially situated talk; or the political or cultural functions or implications of such discourses, among many other properties of communicative events. Discourse & Society does not publish exclusively theoretical papers, but each paper should feature a prominent theoretical section and a critical review of the relevant literature as a foundation for empirical research. Theoretical notes or short discussion pieces are welcome for the D&S Forum section. It goes without saying that both theory and analysis should make an original contribution to the field.
2. Explicit social analysis. As its title suggests, Discourse & Society particularly welcomes articles that study the social contexts of discourse, the discursive dimensions of social structures or any other relation between discourse and society (including politics and culture). Social and political analyses should be explicit and theoretically based. Ideally, D&S articles should provide a unique integration of discourse analysis and social analysis. Among other aims, Discourse & Society encourages work that critically studies relevant social, political or cultural issues and problems, such as the discursive aspects of various types of domination, inequality and resistance.
3. A sizeable corpus of data. Articles are preferred that are based on a sizeable corpus of interesting texts or talk collected by the author(s) themselves, and not merely on a few discourses. Authors are expected to have a thorough knowledge of, and experience with, the corpus, domain or genre of discourse being analysed, for instance as a result of an extended research project, so as to facilitate empirical generalizations. Analyses should be illustrated by several extracts quoted in the text.
4. Multidisciplinary, multicultural, international. The study of the relations between discourse and society takes place in several disciplines, in many countries and by women and men from many different cultural backgrounds. Discourse & Society highly values this diversity and particularly invites contributions which reflect such diversity in their authorship, theories, methods, data and the use of scholarly literature.
5. Accessibility. Discourse & Society aims to be accessible to readers from a broad range of disciplines, and of various levels of specialization and expertise, especially including students. For theoretical, methodological, pedagogical and social reasons, therefore, contributions should be well-organized, have a clear style, avoid esoteric jargon, and explain unfamiliar or new technical concepts.
Editorial address
Manuscripts should be submitted by email attachment to the editor, Teun A. van Dijk, at the following address: journals[at]discourses.org.
Authors who have no access to email can send their manuscript to: Teun A. van Dijk, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Facultat de Traducciò, Rambla 32, Barcelona 08002, Spain.
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