Submissions Guidelines

Articles for the CLJ may engage theories and praxes rooted in community literacy, which we understand as including multiple domains for literacy work extending beyond mainstream educational and work institutions. It can be found in programs devoted to adult education, early childhood education, reading initiatives, or work with marginalized populations, but it can also be found in more informal, ad hoc projects, including creative writing, graffiti art, protest songwriting, and social media campaigns. 

For us, literacy is defined as the realm where attention is paid not just to content or to knowledge but to the symbolic means by which it is represented and used. Thus, literacy makes reference not just to letters and to text but to other multimodal, technological, and embodied representations, as well. Community literacy is interdisciplinary and intersectional in nature, drawing from rhetoric and composition, communication, literacy studies, English studies, gender studies, race and ethnic studies, environmental studies, critical theory, linguistics, cultural studies, education, and more.

Submissions for the articles section of the journal should clearly demonstrate engagement with community literacy scholarship, particularly scholarship previously published in the Community Literacy Journal. The editors seek work that pushes the field forward in exciting and perhaps unexpected ways. Case studies, qualitative and/or quantitative research, conceptual articles, etc., ranging from 20-25 manuscript pages, are welcome. If deemed appropriate, we will send the manuscript out to readers for blind review. You can expect a report in 8-10 weeks.

The CLJ also welcomes shorter manuscripts (8-12 pages) for two new sections:

Community Literacy Project and Program Profiles will discuss innovative and impactful community-based projects and programs that are grounded in best practices. We encourage community-based practitioners and non-profit staff to submit for this section. Profiles should draw on community literacy scholarship, but they are not expected to have the extended lit reviews that are customary in the articles section of the journal. If you are a community member wanting to submit, and it is your first time writing for an academic journal, we are happy to offer mentorship and answer questions. Pieces co-authored by multiple stakeholders in a project are also welcome.  

Please submit using our online submission system.  Contact the Project and Program Profiles Editor, Vincent Portillo, with questions at vportill@syr.edu.

Issues in Community Literacy will offer targeted analysis, reflection, and/or complication of ongoing challenges associated with the work of community literacy. Potential subjects for this section include (but are not limited to): building/sustaining infrastructure, navigating institutional constraints, pursuing community literacy in graduate school, working with vulnerable populations, building ethical relationships, realizing reciprocity, and negotiating conflicts among partners. We imagine this as a space for practitioners to raise critical issues or offer a response to an issue raised in a previous volume of the CLJ. 

We encourage community-based practitioners and non-profit staff to submit for this section.  If you are a community member wanting to submit, and it is your first time writing for an academic journal, we are happy to offer mentorship and answer questions. Pieces co-authored by multiple stakeholders in a project are also welcome. 

Please submit using our online submission system.  Contact the Issues in Community Literacy Editor, Cayce Wicks, with questions at cwick003@fiu.edu.

 

Manuscript Format: The MLA Style, 8th ed.

• We discourage the use of End Notes, preferring integration of information within the article's text; when absolutely unavoidable, use End Notes, not footnotes
• Images need to be at least 300 DPI for printing
• Images will need some form of attribution and acknowledgment  
• Use pseudonyms and/or anonymous information to protect the privacy of your research sources
• Minimize the use of parentheses and parenthetical phrases
• Have permission to quote from students’ or community members’ work.

Permissions

• We follow the NCTE Guidelines for “Permissions and Consents." There are two kinds of permissions:
• Permission to reproduce published work. For previously published work–writing, artwork, photography–authors are responsible for fees charged for reprinting copyrighted material and must obtain written permission. CLJ staff will be happy to advise you.
• Permission from contributors to your article. Research involving human subjects, samples of student writing, artwork, photographs, observations of teachers and their classrooms–all require consent to publish before they can be used in your published work.

Submissions Preparation Checklist

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word, RTF, or TXT document file format.
3. The submission includes institutional and home mailing addresses, an article abstract of 50-100 words, a brief author bio, 5-7 keywords for indexing, and a manuscript that does not exceed the specified page count for the publication section you choose.
4. Adherence to all Format Guidelines, above.