General Submission Guidelines

Please review the submission and style guidelines carefully before submitting.

• Use concise titles.
• Do not use notes for referencing.
• Provide acknowledgments under a separate heading.
• Provide page numbers for all quotations.
• Reference lists should include full names (not just initials) of authors.
• Do not capitalize titles, subtitles, or referenced book titles.
• Follow Focaal style of reference (see samples in Style Guide).

Theme Section Proposals

Proposals should include:

• A 1-page introduction outlining original contribution/theoretical intervention of theme section
• A list of abstracts of proposed articles
• Short biographical notes of authors and theme section editor(s)

Theme Section

• Will be 40,000 words maximum (all included -- i.e. including abstract, notes, references, author bios and acknowledgements). This means  3 to 5 articles plus an introduction, with each article itself being 8000 words max. Theme section articles should cohere in an obvious and interesting manner.
• Will include an introduction that lays out substantively the intellectual program behind the theme section: how does the theme section intervene in existing debates in anthropology?
• Will include a picture for the cover of the volume, referred to in the introduction. The picture should be:

  • of good technical quality (pixel density suitable for printing, well-composed)
  • reflect in an interesting and original manner the theme of the section as well as the general mission of the journal (as stated in the journal blurb)
  • available in terms of copyright

• Theme section articles should include:

  • an abstract of 125 words (no verbatim sections from text)
  • list of 5 to 8 keywords
  • biographical note of 100 words
  • contact e-mail of author

General Articles

Articles should be 8,000 words maximum (all included -- i.e. including abstract, notes, references, author bios and acknowledgements) and include:

• an abstract of 125 words (no verbatim sections from text)
• a list of 5 to 8 keywords
• a biographical note of 100 words
• contact e-mail of author

Forum Articles

Articles should be 5,000 words maximum (all included -- i.e. including abstract, notes, references, author bios and acknowledgements) and include:

• a biographical note of 100 words
• contact e-mail of author

Style: few references, more free essayist and assertive, experimental writing, including much local detail in the narrative and presenting a more personal voice. Authors are encouraged to bring forward a strong intellectual/political statement, accompanied by reportage.

Review Articles

Review articles are expected to provide a balanced discussion of the works reviewed, taking into account their intrinsic value. Although the editors welcome critical contributions to ongoing debates, we discourage inappropriate remarks, such as gratuitous or personal attacks, and reserve the right to reject reviews deemed unfitting or unsubstantial. Fairness is a paramount criterion in Focaal reviews.

Reviews should be submitted electronically to Focaal's book review editor, Christopher Krupa, at chris.krupa@utoronto.ca. We ask reviewers to check for acknowledgment of receipt within two weeks. The book review editor, sometimes assisted by other members of Focaal or experts on the topic, will go through the submitted reviews and ask the reviewer for revision of the article where necessary.

Focaal's policy is to commission review articles to specialists on a given topic. In some cases, authors of the works reviewed may also be invited to send in a response for publication in Focaal. We do welcome spontaneous offers of reviews/responses that are relevant to Focaal. We ask contributors, however, to coordinate such initiatives with the book review editor.

When writing your review article, please follow the following guidelines:

• A review article should be 3,000 words max (all included -- i.e. including abstract, notes, references, author bios and acknowledgements).
• At least two books should be discussed. We encourage the review of works with contrasting approaches to a given topic.
• For reasons of fairness, articles should first offer a sensitive commentary on the main argument of the different books before engaging in critical, comparative debate with the authors on their theoretical or ethnographic conclusions.
• Rather than simply summarizing or listing each chapter of the books or edited volumes, we expect the reviewer to offer substantive reflections on, for example, the soundness of the theory and methodology, the style of argumentation, the possible impact of the work on ongoing debates, the ethical/political implications of the chosen approach, or the relevance of the work for particular research agendas. When reviewing an edited volume, do not feel that you must write about, or even mention, every chapter. Instead please describe the overall focus of the volume, pick a few significant contributions, and discuss those in detail.
• We ask reviewers to avoid lengthy direct quotations.
• For correct referencing, placement of notes, and other style guidelines please see the Style Guide for samples.
• Though we welcome the review of books from any social science discipline, we do ask authors to be explicit about the relevance of works from outside the discipline of anthropology to ongoing debates within anthropology broadly defined.

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Please submit manuscripts and address all editorial correspondence to:

Tilde Siglev, Deputy Managing Editor
E-mail: siglev.focaal@gmail.com

Have other questions? Please refer to the Berghahn Info for Authors page for general information and guidelines including topics such as article usage and permissions for Berghahn journal article authors.

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License Agreement

As part of the Berghahn Open Anthro initiative, articles in Focaal are published open access under a Creative Commons license.

Authors must visit our License Options page to select and download their preferred license agreement. Completed and signed forms should be sent to copyright@berghahnjournals.com.

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Ethics Statement

Authors published in Focaal certify that their works are original and their own. The editors certify that all materials, with the possible exception of editorial introductions, book reviews, and some types of commentary, have been subjected to double-blind peer review by qualified scholars in the field. While the publishers and the editorial board make every effort to see that no inaccurate or misleading data, opinions, or statements appear in this journal, they wish to make clear that the data and opinions appearing in the articles herein are the sole responsibility of the contributor concerned. For a more detailed explanation concerning these qualifications and responsibilities, please see the complete Focaal ethics statement.