Information on Submissions

We welcome submissions from post-graduate students and early career researchers from any Higher Education Institution, in the UK or world-wide. We are looking to publish papers from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives, not limited to literary studies.

The Luminary publishes annually through a call for papers around a specific theme or topic. Our next CFP will be circulated in the Autumn and available on our website.

How to submit your paper

If the theme of the forthcoming issue inspires you, then please email your paper to: luminary@lancaster.ac.uk

You do not need to send us an abstract before submitting the paper; we accept submissions of complete articles. However, please do include an abstract along with your submission. You may receive an email asking you to make some minor corrections to the article before it can be published. If your paper is accepted for publication, you will receive an email confirming when the issue is going to be published online.

What to include with your submission

If you wish to submit a paper, please make sure that you include the following:

• an email including your name, institution, department and current programme of study, with some details about your research project and interests if possible.
• indication as to whether or not you would be happy to have your email contact details made available online, for readers of the journal should they wish to contact you about your research.
• a short abstract of the paper (200 words approx.), either in the email, or as a separate .doc attachement.
• a copy of your paper, submitted as a .doc attachment along with the email.
• a bibliography, either submitted within the same document as the paper or as a spearate .doc attachment.

Style and Formatting

All submissions should be sent in a word-processed format, double spaced, in size 12. (please note that you should send your submission ideally as a .doc file) Make sure your name is displayed clearly on each page of the paper. The format of your paper is to ensure it is readable by the editorial board, but once it is published to the web it will have to be re-formatted, so it does not matter about fonts, headings or images, as long as your paper is clear and legible. If you wish to include any images with your paper, then please send these as separate files (.gif or .jpg is preferable).

For references and bibliography, please use the MLA style - i.e. include the the author surname and page number in parenthesis, with a 'works cited' list at the end of your paper. Examples of how to use MLA in-text citation can be seen at the link below:

http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla

If you wish to employ explanatory footnotes, please use endnotes as these will all have to be reformatted using our web-design software, which is much easier if they are all grouped together in one place in your article. Please keep explanatory notes to a minimum. This is particularly helpful for our readers who will be reading directly from our website. Many thanks.

The Peer Reviewing Process

We employ an anonymous peer review process, involving staff and postgraduate students from Lancaster University, as well as other academics with subject knowledge appropriate to your submission. Your submission will be anonymously reviewed by two reviewers, and you will receive a readers' report once your piece has been reviewed.

Submissions may be returned and minor changes requested before we accept the paper. Or, we will accept the paper without requesting any changes. Either way, we endeavour to inform all contributors as soon as a decision has been made regarding their submission. If you are not successful, you are able to request an appraisal of your paper.

Please click to see a list of members of the editorial board.

Copyright Information

The Luminary is an Open Access journal, so contributors retain copyright over any work appearing in this journal, without restriction. Please note, that if your work has previously been published elsewhere, and the copyright is held by another publication or institutution, you will not be able to submit that work to this journal without seeking permission from the copyright holder.