Global Black Thought

For Authors

Submit Manuscript

Global Black Thought, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to the study of the Black intellectual tradition. Before preparing a manuscript for submission, please review the journal’s aims and scope page to ensure the draft fits the mission of the journal.

Article types

The journal publishes original, innovative, and thoroughly researched essays on Black ideas, theories, and intellectuals in the United States and throughout the African diaspora. Global Black Thought features historically based contributions by authors in diverse fields of study throughout the humanities and social sciences.

While steeped in historical methodologies, Global Black Thought is an interdisciplinary journal informed by scholarship in Africana studies, feminist theory, and critical race theory. The journal welcomes submissions that feature original research and innovative methods. We also extend an invitation to scholars working outside the United States.

The journal frequently issues calls for articles on specific topics (special issues) and encourage writers to submit to those issues if their work fits within the themes. Authors are also encouraged to submit articles on any topic at any given time.

Submission requirements

Manuscript Format

  • Please submit all manuscripts for consideration through our web-based submission system, Scholastica:
    https://app.scholasticahq.com/submissions/globalblackthought/new. If you are unable to do so, please contact the editorial office at gbtjournal@aaihs.org.
  • Manuscripts, including footnotes, must be between 8,000 and 10,000 words (approximately 30 to 35 pages), in 12-point font (Times New Roman), with 1-inch margins on all sides and double-spaced throughout (please do not justify).
  • Global Black Thought will only consider original manuscripts not published elsewhere.
  • Please eliminate all references that would identify you from the draft to aid the peer review process.
  • All drafts must include a title, an abstract (100 words or less), the main text, and footnotes. An author biography (100 words or less) should be submitted separately with the file.

Document Format

  • The manuscript must be submitted as a Word document (.doc or .docx) with double-spaced with 12-point, Times New Roman font. Please left-align the text and use 1-inch margins.
  • Citations should be formatted as footnotes—single spaced, 10-point, Times New Roman font, and numbered consecutively. Please cut or greatly limit any explanatory footnotes from the manuscript—please incorporate all discussion and argumentation into the body of the article.
  • Page numbers should appear in the top OR bottom of the document.
  • Block quotations should be free of external quotation marks and indented 0.5 inches, flush-left.
  • Submit the manuscript so that it can be edited (do not “lock” the file), remove any comments or other editing marks, and ensure that any field codes from a citation manager are removed.

Style and Citation Guidelines

  • Spelling, punctuation, and other conventions should follow standard American usage.
  • All submissions should be in English. Given the international scope of this journal, single words or short phrases in the original language should be used to enhance an argument or capture a specific meaning.
  • The journal follows the style and citation guidelines of the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, using the Notes and Bibliography format.

Images

  • Authors should obtain permission to reproduce any copyrighted materials (e.g., photographs) they wish to include with their articles. Please submit 300 dpi TIFF files. Scholastica will accept all your files in series. Supply a list of figures and/or tables, including a caption for each, accompanied by a source line and such acknowledgments as are required. If you are unable to submit images in this format, please contact the editorial office.

Copyright and Permissions

  • It is a condition of publication in the journal that authors grant an exclusive license to the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS). Authors will be provided with a copyright transfer agreement that must be signed and returned prior to the publication of any work in the journal. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain print and online permission to quote material from third-party sources and to cover any costs incurred in securing these rights. The editors should be alerted at the earliest opportunity as to any difficulty in securing these third-party rights.
  • Authors may publish Open Access by paying an article-processing charge or completing a waiver. If an article is published Open Access, the author will have the option to maintain copyright or assign it to the AAIHS. Open Access articles are distributed under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC 4.0).
  • Global Black Thought follows the guidelines of Penn Press regarding permissions. Please note that after publication in Global Black Thought, you have the nonexclusive right to republish your journal article in any work of which you are the sole author, provided only that you credit the original publication. The credit should include the copyright notice exactly as it appears in the original Global Black Thought publication. There is no fee for such use. Further information and guidelines are available at http://journals.pennpress.org/archive-and-digital-repository-policy/.
  • The publisher will supply the author of an article with one copy of the issue in which their work is published; additional copies may be ordered at a discounted rate.

Review Process and Peer Review

  • Initial review will be conducted by Global Black Thought’s editorial team, who will then determine which submissions advance to external peer review.
  • The editors will not provide feedback or written reports on submissions that do not advance to external review.
  • Global Black Thought is committed to anonymous and ethical peer review process. Please help us keep the procedure free from bias by removing any identifying information from the manuscript. This includes avoiding the use of first person in connection with references to previously published work, a title that is unique (i.e. does not reflect easily traced information such as bearing too close of a similarity to a dissertation or chapter title; a conference paper; or any other previously published work—the title can always be changed after the review process), and any other personal information (such as acknowledgements) that may be used to identify you.

When considering a manuscript, external reviewers will be evaluating the following:

  • What is the contribution to scholarship on Black intellectual history or global Black thought generally?
  • What scholarly debates do the author/s engage? Is it relevant to the current state of the field? Has it engaged sufficiently with existing works (and if not, what is missing)?
  • Does the sourcing/methodology fit the argument? Should additional (or different) questions guide the project?
  • How successful is the argument? What needs further development?
  • What are the recommendations for revision to help improve the manuscript?
  • Does the piece merit publication in Global Black Thought?