Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • I, the author, represent and warrant that the material I am submitting for publication (the Work): a) does not contain any libelous or unlawful statements; b) does not infringe on any copyright, privacy rights or any other proprietary rights; c) has not been previously published elsewhere in its entirety. In the event, the Work contains material that has been previously published, such excerpted material has been attributed to the proper author(s) and identifies where it has been previously published; and d) is my sole, original work, or in the case the Work is prepared jointly by more than one author, I warrant that I have been authorized by all co-authors to submit the Work on their behalf.
  • I agree to hold harmless, indemnify and defend the journal publishers, its employees, contractors and agents from any and all losses, damages, expenses, claims, suits and demands of whatever nature (including legal fees and expenses on a solicitor client basis) resulting from any breach of the above warranties.
  • By submitting the Work, I agree that the right to reproduce and distribute the Work has been given to the journal publishers and they may authorize third parties to republish, index or share the Work, or portions or derivatives thereof in alternate formats. However, I agree, that I as author, will retain copyright of the Work and may reuse and redistribute the Work.

Author Guidelines

Submissions

The Trumpeter welcomes submissions from across the range of the environmental humanities and theoretical social sciences: philosophy, ethics, Indigenous studies, literature and film studies, creative writing, theology and religious studies, history, psychology, political science, sociology, geography, anthropology, or interdisciplinary combinations thereof.

We encourage past contributors to continue submitting pieces in the genres that have characterised the Trumpeter since its inception, and we encourage both past and new contributors to submit work that will allow us to represent a wide range of approaches, perspectives, insights, and methodologies.

We especially encourage submissions concerning or inspired by deep ecology, eco-phenomenology, ecofeminism, eco-primitivism, or other forms of ‘radical’ environmentalism.

With respect to genre, the Trumpeter publishes scholarly research articles, essays and narratives (including fiction and creative non-fiction), poetry, book and film reviews, and occasionally art. If you have a submission that you do not think fits into these rough categories, please contact the Editor-in-Chief (trumpeterjournal@gmail.com) to see if your work might be suitable under another category.

Book and film reviews should not be submitted without consulting with the book review editor (Wendell Kisner at wendellk@athabascau.ca) first.

All scholarly articles received for publication are subject to double-blind peer review. Poetry, essays, narratives, opinion pieces, artwork, book reviews, and other non-peer reviewed materials will be adjudicated by the relevant section editor(s).

Generally, we do not publish material that has been previously published, however, if the editor believes an article which has received limited previous exposure is important to the Deep Ecology movement, we will make exceptions.

Submission Policy and Criteria

The Trumpeter welcomes electronic submission of manuscripts through the journal's online submission system. We do not accept emailed, faxed, or hardcopy submissions. To submit your work, you must first register an account with our journal's website. After registering you may upload submissions by following the prompts after clicking 'New Submission.' If you have multiple roles in the journal (for example, author, reviewer, editor, etc.), make sure the 'Author' role is selected in the 'Submit As' part of the submission form. All submissions must be in Word or RTF format. MAC users must convert all submissions to Word or RTF format, prior to submitting. If you are unable to register, upload submissions, or otherwise have troubles with the journal's website, please contact the Editor-in-Chief at trumpeter.journal@gmail.com to see if alternate arrangements can be made.

General policies regarding documentation (citation) and style (formatting and layout) are included below. Specific submission policies for scholarly research articles, essays and narratives, poems, or book and film reviews can be found by clicking on the respective links.

Documentation

The Trumpeter uses a slightly modified Turabian/Chicago style to govern academic references. Authors may decide to use either footnotes or author-date parenthetical references (but not both). If author-date parenthetical references are used, a works cited list is required. If notes are used for references, a works cited list may be provided but is not necessary.

All notes, whether for references or other remarks, should be footnotes rather than endnotes. Please refer to a recent issue of The Trumpeter for samples of correct citation and referencing. Authors should ensure that all references and bibliographical materials are correct prior to submission.

Style

The Trumpeter makes extensive use of commas to avoid ambiguity (e.g., use commas to mark subordinate clauses and parenthetical phrases, along with other standard uses), including the Oxford/serial comma. Unnecessary formatting, hyperbole, polemics, and the like are discouraged. The use of emphasis markers (underlining, italics, bold face) should be kept to a minimum. When text is set apart using a hyphen or hyphens, use em dashes. Avoid extensive use of quotation marks to suggest irony or special usage. The text and context of the writing should make clear what is important. Although we invite pieces that may require technical language, technical terminology and jargon should be used only where needed and, in those cases, explained as clearly as possible for an intelligent lay audience. Use gender neutral language (i.e., they/them/their/theirs) unless referring to a specific gendered person or other gendered being.

Use the following formatting techniques: use 12 pt Calibri font for body and 10 pt Calibri font for footnotes; use line spacing of 1.15; use double quotes to mark concepts, terms, titles of articles, and direct quotations; use single quotes to mark quotations within quotations; direct quotation of more than 40 words should be set off in separate, indented paragraphs; italicize book and journal titles and foreign words; fully justify text, including footnotes (with the exception of poems and works cited sections). Pictures (photographs, line art, or scans) may be included provided they are clear, in focus, relevant to the material, and free of copyright restrictions. DO NOT: 1. create a title page for your submission 2. include your name or affiliation in the submission 3. paginate the submission.

Articles

Scholarly research articles should not exceed 10,000 words in length, unless prior approval has been granted by the editor. Within that upper limit, articles should be substantial pieces of analysis and criticism that demonstrate thoughtful reflection, evaluation, and embody a critical and conceptual argument in which various angles of the question are explored in fairness and at length. Articles should conform to relevant standards of disciplinary rigour and be ready to pass a double-blind peer review process, including having all information that could identify the author(s) removed from the text body and the document’s file properties. Articles must have an abstract. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words in length and entered directly into the online submission portal’s metadata along with any keywords, rather than including them in the submission document itself.

Submission of a manuscript implies the work is previously unpublished and not simultaneously under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Requirements for manuscript formatting and layout can be found here: https://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/about/submissions

Essays and Narratives

The essay and narrative section of The Trumpeter invites works of both fiction (short stories) and nonfiction (personal essays, narrative or hybrid nonfictions) that enact, embody and/or reflect on human relations to the natural world. We are especially interested in works whose form is integral to and develops their ecosophical content; in works that demonstrate innovative, narrative engagements with ecological science, philosophy, and natural history; and in works that engage respectfully with non-Eurocentric traditions of ecological knowledge.

Submissions to this section should normally be between 3,000 and 5,000 words but shorter works may also be considered (e.g., a series of flash fictions or nonfictions). We encourage, except where absolutely necessary, minimal use of notes and citations. Full requirements for manuscript formatting and layout can be found here: https://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/about/submissions

Submissions to this section are not peer-reviewed and do not require abstracts. The section editors will evaluate works in terms of the quality of both form and content. Authors should expect to revise in response to editorial advice before final acceptance. Authors must notify the section editors if the submission is accepted for publication elsewhere and withdraw it.

Poetry

The Trumpeter accepts unsolicited submissions of previously unpublished poetry in English, or translations of poetry into English, in any form. We are looking for poetry that deals with, or reflects upon, the human connection to the natural world. We are especially interested in poetry that pushes the boundaries of traditional nature writing. Submit 3-5 poems in a single PDF or Word document. Long poems (over 3 pages or sequences of over 3 poems) will be considered but we may publish only excerpts. Poems should be single-spaced (double-spaces will be interpreted as spaces or stanza breaks). Include the poet’s name and email address on each page. The first page of the submission should be a short cover letter with a biographical statement of no more than 100 words. Poets are invited to submit once each calendar year. Simultaneous submissions are fine but please inform the poetry editors immediately if your work has been accepted by another publication.

Book & Film Reviews

The following are some general guidelines for book reviews submitted to the Trumpeter.

Avoid the following two extremes

Uncritical endorsement that overlooks problems.
Unfair criticism that either

  1. fails to address arguments the author presents which may allay the concerns raised, or
  2. faults the author for not doing something s/he wasn't trying to do in the first place.

Word limit

Most reviews tend to be between about 500 and 1500 words, with a 3000 word upper limit. Once a book review exceeds 3000 words, it begins to look more like a critical response paper than a book review and should be submitted as an article instead. Try to eliminate tangential discussions not directly related to the content of the book being reviewed. Alternatively, write a critical paper that more carefully develops the reviewer's own arguments, then submit it as a paper for publication rather than as a book review. Please contact the editor-in-chief (trumpeter.journal@gmail.com) regarding longer critical review essays if you think your work would be better categorised as such rather than as a research article.

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