Submissions

Author Guidelines

Trace — Journal for Human-Animal Studies offers a forum for the discussion of human-animal relations from social and cultural perspectives, minding the viewpoints and interests of other animals. The journal publishes original research articles, overviews, lectiones praecursoriae, and conference reports, as well as reviews on books, art exhibitions, films, and other media. We can also consider shorter commentaries or discussion papers for publication. The journal accepts submissions in Finnish, English, and Swedish.

Trace invites contributions to human-animal studies that deal with a wide range of topics and represent diverse perspectives but hold the perspectives and interests of the other animals as priority. We encourage writers to offer multi- and transdisciplinary contributions which broaden and critically address the conventional ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies applied in human-animal studies. If you are uncertain of the scope of the journal, it is advised you contact the Editor-in-Chief before submitting your paper.

Before submitting for the journal, please make sure that you carefully follow the given instructions.

General Issues

* All research articles undergo a double-blinded peer-review, at least by two experts. Book reviews (etc.) and reports, overviews, commentaries or discussion papers are not peer-reviewed. The editors might comment on the manuscript also ahead of the peer-review process, but the manuscript is expected to be in a finished condition when first submitted.

* After the review, authors may be asked to resubmit their manuscript with a detailed report of the corrections made.

* The manuscript must be unpublished and not currently on offer for another publication.

* If you plan on writing a review or a conference report, please let us know beforehand so we can prevent possible overlaps.

* The author retains the copyright for the published manuscript and can use it for any purpose (See more from the Copyright Notice below).

* Before publication, a detailed publishing contract is made and signed by all the manuscript’s authors. By signing, the author confirms his participation in the writing of the manuscript or in the research described in it.

* In case the manuscript contains material to which the author doesn’t hold property rights, which is not in the public domain or otherwise not legally available for the intended use, the author is responsible for acquiring proper permission.

* The author is responsible for the manuscript’s language. All manuscripts (not just articles) written in English by a non-native English speaking author are expected to have proper English editing done. A manuscript needing notable language correction will be returned to the author.

* Trace doesn’t pay fees.

* There are no charges for authors.

Formatting Guidelines

* Line spacing 1,5; font-size 12 (Times New Roman); 3cm margins on both sides. The length of a research article shouldn’t exceed 50 000 characters (no spaces). This length includes references. For regular reviews and reports, the preferred length is 6000—7000 characters (no spaces), but more extended submissions are welcome, e. g. with reviews of a wider scope (appr. 10 000—12 000 characters).

* Regular reviews and reports don’t have a title or section headings. With articles (and also long reviews), please use section headings. Primary section headings are written in bold, subsection headings in regular and sub-subsection headings in italics.

* In all submissions, use parenthetical references and bibliography as explicated by the author-date-system of the Chicago Manual of Style (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html). Sources are briefly cited in the text, in parentheses, by author’s last name, the date of publication, and the page number when appropriate (Nyman 2003, 24; Weil 2012, 11−35). Full bibliographic references for all items cited are provided at the end of the manuscript. Please make sure your in-text citations and references follow the CMOS guidelines.

* Footnotes may be used, either using Word’s footnotes OR by placing the notes at the end of the manuscript, in which case their place should be marked in square brackets in the body of the text. Don’t use endnotes.

* Separate paragraphs with a single empty row, not with an indent.

 Before submitting

* All material is submitted using the electronic OJS-form found above. Please see to all the text fields requested. In case of technical or other difficulties, contact Jouni Teittinen (jiteit@utu.fi).

* If submitting a research article, write an abstract of no more than 250 words, with 5-6 keywords. If submitting something else, no abstract is needed.

* All manuscripts should be in rtf- or Word-format (not odt or pdf, for example).

* To ensure anonymity in the peer-review process, make sure that your article is in all respects anonymous. All phrasing directly exposing the author must be removed, as well as references to the author in the document information (see introductions from here).

* Don’t leave any author information on the title page either. This information will be asked by the electronic form.

* If possible, place all illustrations, figures, and tables within the text at the appropriate points. If not, carefully mark their locations within the text. IN EITHER CASE send all images, figures (etc.) as attachments along with your submission. The images must be in tiff- or jpg-format, preferably in 300dpi resolution. Figures and graphs can be send as images or in some format directly compatible with Microsoft Office.