Journal of Black Studies
For the last half-century, the Journal of Black Studies has been the leading source for dynamic, innovative, and creative research on the Black experience. Poised to remain at the forefront of the recent explosive growth in quality scholarship in the field of Black studies, the Journal of Black Studies is published eight times per year. This means a greater number of important and intellectually provocative articles exploring key issues facing African Americans and Blacks can now be given voice.
The scholarship published by the Journal of Black Studies covers a wide range of subject areas, including: Society and Social Issues * Afrocentricity * Economics * Culture * Media * Colonialism and Decolonization * Literature * Language * Heritage * Biology
The Journal of Black Studies is a leading source for dynamic, innovative, and creative approaches to scholarship on the Black experience across the globe. JBS welcomes contributions from a wide range of subject areas, including: society and social issues, Afrocentricity, economics, culture, media, colonialism and decolonization, literature, language, heritage, and biology.
Christel Temple | University of Pittsburgh, USA |
Bayyinah Jeffries | University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA |
Taharka Ade | San Diego State University, USA |
Adisa A. Alkebulan | San Diego State University, USA |
Elijah Anderson | Yale University, USA |
Reynaldo Anderson | Temple University, USA |
Arnetha F. Ball | Stanford University, USA |
Herman Beavers | University of Pennsylvania, USA |
Ngarsungu Chiwengo | Creighton University, USA |
Pero Dagbovie | Michigan State University, USA |
Michael Dawson | University of Chicago, USA |
George Sefa Dei | University of Toronto, CA, Canada |
Junot Diaz | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA |
Marquita Gammage | California State University, Northridge, USA |
Michael Gomez | New York University, USA |
Lewis Gordon | University of Connecticut, USA |
Ronald Jackson II | University of Illinois, USA |
Maulana Karenga | California State University, Long Beach, USA |
Yoshitaka Miike | University of Hawaii, USA |
Suzuko Morikawa | Chicago State University, USA |
D. Zizwe Poe | Lincoln University, USA |
Simphiwe Sesanti | University of South Africa, South Africa |
Amilcar Shabazz | University of Massachusetts, USA |
Brenda Stevenson | University of California, Los Angeles, USA |
Christel Temple | University of Pittsburgh, USA |
Michael Tillotson | SUNY Cortland, USA |
Shi-Xu | University of Surrey, UK |
Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh | University of Oregon, USA |
Adisa Alkebulan | San Diego State University, USA |
Abena Amoah-Ramey | Indiana University Bloomington, USA |
Nah Dove | Temple University, USA |
Simone Drake | The Ohio State University, USA |
Amoaba Gooden | Kent State University, USA |
Mawuena Kossi Logan | Univeristy of Louisville, USA |
Joshua Myers | Howard University, USA |
Mope Ogunbowale | SUNY Buffalo, USA |
Townsand Price-Spratlen | Ohio State University, USA |
Reiland Rabaka | University of Colorado at Boulder, USA |
Amilcar Shabazz | University of Massachusetts, USA |
Aaron Smith | Temple University, USA |
Ronald J. Stephens | |
Khonsura A. Wilson | California State University, Long Beach, USA |
III. Books for Review and Annotation
VI. English Language Editing Services
VIII. Editor Contact Information
Important: Please ensure that your submission is polished and adheres to all manuscript guidelines detailed here. The Editor will reject manuscripts that do not meet rigorous standards of clarity, academic use of language, proper citational practice, and/or proper use of grammar. It may be worth consulting a third-party copyediting service if you have concerns about the polish of your submission.
Manuscripts should be submitted electronically at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jbs, where authors will be required to set up an account in the SageTrack online peer-review system powered by ScholarOne. Each submission should consist of the following separate files:
- Title page / acknowledgments
- Abstracts / keywords
- Manuscript text
- Figure files
Title Page: Text files should be submitted in MS Word (Windows Vista users, please save your files as an earlier ".doc" filetype). Include (1) the manuscript title and running head; (2) all author names, affiliations, mailing addresses, and e-mail addresses (indicate who the corresponding author for the article should be); (3) any acknowledgments; and (4) brief biographical paragraphs (50 words or less) describing each author’s current affiliation and research interests.
Abstracts/Keywords: Abstracts should be 100 to 150 words in length. Submit 4 to 5 keywords that will facilitate online searches for your manuscript topic.
The Manuscript File should consist of the body of the text, endnotes, references, tables, figure captions, and appendices, in that order; it should be no longer than 25 typewritten, left-justified, double-spaced pages. All submissions should follow guidelines given in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (APA style). Table and figure locations should be indicated in text by callouts (e.g., "[Insert Table 1 here]") inserted after the respective paragraphs.
Submit Tables as an Excel sheet or MS Word–formatted table, not as an image file.
Figures, charts, and images must be clean, camera-ready copies and should be submitted in the original program in which they were created (JPG, TIFF, or EPS; Microsoft Application Files are acceptable for vector art [line art]). Scanned figures should be set at 1200 dpi for line art and 300 dpi for color or grayscale. Each figure should be in a separate file and labeled/numbered in the order they appear in text.
See below for more on manuscript preparation. Please allow 4-6 months for review of all submitted articles.
II. Permissions
It is the author's responsibility to obtain written permission to reproduce figures, tables, art, and/or extensive quotes taken directly—or adapted in minor ways—from another source, as is payment of any fees the copyright holder may require. Manuscripts should not be under consideration for publication in any other journal at the time of submission. The Journal of Black Studies does not publish, in whole or in part, articles that have been previously published in other journals. Sage’s Permission to Reprint Form can be downloaded and submitted for this purpose.
III. Books for Review and Annotation
Book reviews should be sent to the attention of the Editor (address below). The journal will consider review essays as well as bibliographic articles and compilations. Potential contributors of such material are advised to correspond with the Editor.
Manuscripts should be prepared using the APA Style Guide (7th Edition). All pages must be typed and double-spaced (including references, footnotes, and endnotes). Text must be in 12-point Times New Roman. Block quotes may be single-spaced. Must include margins of 1inch on all the four sides and number all pages sequentially.
The manuscript should include four major sections in the following order: Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References.
Sections in a manuscript may include the following (in this order): (1) Title page, (2) Abstract, (3) Keywords, (4) Text, (5) Notes, (6) References, (7) Tables, (8) Figures, and (9) Appendices.
1. Title page. Please include the following:
- Full article title
- Acknowledgments and credits
- Each author’s complete name and institutional affiliation(s)
- Grant numbers and/or funding information
- Corresponding author (name, address, phone/fax, e-mail)
2. Abstract. Print the abstract (150 to 250 words) on a separate page headed by the full article title. Omit author(s)’s names.
3. Text. Begin article text on a new page headed by the full article title.
a. Headings and subheadings. Subheadings should indicate the organization of the content of the manuscript. Generally, three heading levels are sufficient to organize text. Level 1 heading should be centered, boldface, upper & lowercase; Level 2 heading should be flush left, boldface, upper & lowercase; Level 3 heading should be indented, boldface, lowercase paragraph heading that ends with a period; Level 4 heading should be indented, boldface, italicized, lowercase paragraph heading that ends with a period; and Level 5 heading should be indented, italicized, lowercase paragraph heading that ends with a period.
b. Citations. For each text citation there must be a corresponding citation in the reference list, and for each reference list citation there must be a corresponding text citation. Each corresponding citation must have identical spelling and year. Each text citation must include at least two pieces of information: author(s) and year of publication. The following are some examples of text citations:
(i) Unknown Author: To cite works that do not have an author, cite the source by its title in the signal phrase or use the first word or two in the parentheses; e.g., The findings are based on the study of students learning to format research papers ("Using XXX," 2001).
(ii) Authors with the Same Last Name: Use first initials with the last names to prevent confusion; e.g., (L. Hughes, 2001; P. Hughes, 1998).
(iii) Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year: For two sources by the same author in the same year, use lower-case letters (a, b, c) with the year to order the entries in the reference list. The lower-case letters should follow the year in the in-text citation; e.g., Research by Freud (1981a) illustrated that….
(iv) Personal Communication: For letters, e-mails, interviews, and other person-to-person communication, citation should include the communicator's name, the fact that it was personal communication, and the date of the communication. Do not include personal communication in the reference list; e.g., (E. Clark, personal communication, January 4, 2009).
(v) Unknown Author and Unknown Date: For citations with no author or date, use the title in the signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in the parentheses and use the abbreviation "n.d." (for "no date"); e.g., The study conducted by students and the research division discovered that students succeeded with tutoring ("Tutoring and APA," n.d.).
4. Notes. If explanatory notes are required for your manuscript, insert a number formatted in superscript following almost any punctuation mark. Footnote numbers should not follow dashes ( — ), and if they appear in a sentence in parentheses, the footnote number should be inserted within the parentheses. The footnotes should be added at the bottom of the page after the references, and the word “Footnotes” should be centered at the top of the page.
5. References. Basic rules for the reference list:
- The reference list should be arranged in alphabetical order according to the authors’ last names.
- If there is more than one work by the same author, order them according to their publication date, oldest to newest (therefore a 2008 publication would appear before a 2009 publication).
- When listing multiple authors of a source, use “&” instead of “and”.
- Capitalize only the first word of the title and of the subtitle, if there is one, and any proper names; i.e., only those words that are normally capitalized.
- Italicize the title of the book, the title of the journal/serial, and the title of the web document.
- Manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Black Studies should strictly follow the 7th edition of the APA style guide.
- Every in-text citation must have the detailed reference in the Reference section.
- Every reference listed in the Reference section must be cited in-text.
- Do not use “et al.” in the Reference list at the end; names of all authors of a publication should be listed there.
Here are a few examples of commonly found references. For more examples, please consult APA (7th Ed).
- Books:
Book with place of publication--Airey, D. (2010). Logo design love: A guide to creating iconic brand identities. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
Book with editors & edition-- Collins, C., & Jackson, S. (Eds.). (2007). Sport in Aotearoa/New Zealand society. South Melbourne, Australia: Thomson.
Book with author & publisher are the same-- MidCentral District Health Board. (2008). District annual plan 2008/09. Palmerston North, New Zealand: Author.
Chapter in an edited book--Dear, J., & Underwood, M. (2007). What is the role of exercise in the prevention of back pain? In D. MacAuley& T. Best (Eds.), Evidence-based sports medicine (2nd ed., pp. 257-280). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
- Periodicals:
Journal article with more than one author (print)--Gabbett, T., Jenkins, D., & Abernethy, B. (2010). Physical collisions and injury during professional rugby league skills training. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 13(6), 578-583.
Journal article – 8 or more authors-- Crooks, C., Ameratunga, R., Brewerton, M., Torok, M., Buetow, S., Brothers, S., … Jorgensen, P. (2010). Adverse reactions to food in New Zealand children aged 0-5 years. New Zealand Medical Journal, 123(1327). Retrieved from http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/123-1327/4469/.
- Internet Sources:
Internet – no author, no date--Pet therapy. (n.d.). Retrieved from htttp://www.holisticonline.com/stress/stress_pet-therapy.htm.
Internet – Organization / Corporate author-- SPCA New Zealand. (2011). Your dog may be dying from the heat [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.rnzspca.org.nz/news/press-releases/360-your-dog-may-be-dying-....
- Examples of various types of information sources:
Act (statute / legislation)--Copyright Act 1994. (2011, October 7). Retrieved from http://www.legislation.govt.nz.
Blog post-- Liz and Ellory. (2011, January 19). The day of dread(s) [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/St-Kilda/....
Brochure / pamphlet (no author)--Ageing well: How to be the best you can be [Brochure]. (2009). Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Health.
Conference Paper--Williams, J., & Seary, K. (2010). Bridging the divide: Scaffolding the learning experiences of the mature age student. In J. Terrell (Ed.), Making the links: Learning, teaching and high quality student outcomes. Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the New Zealand Association of Bridging Educators (pp. 104-116). Wellington, New Zealand.
DVD / Video / Motion Picture (including Clickview & Youtube)--Gardiner, A., Curtis, C., & Michael, E. (Producers), & Waititi, T. (Director). (2010). Boy: Welcome to my interesting world [DVD]. New Zealand: Transmission.
Magazine--Ng, A. (2011, October-December). Brush with history. Habitus, 13, 83-87.
Newspaper article (no author)--Little blue penguins homeward bound. (2011, November 23). Manawatu Standard, p. 5.
Non-English reference book, title translated in English--Real Academia Espanola. (2001). Diccionario de la lengua espanola [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (22nd ed.). Madrid, Spain: Author.
Podcast (audio or video)--Rozaieski, B. (2011). Logan cabinet shoppe: Episode 37: Entertainment center molding [Video podcast]. Retrieved from http://blip.tv/xxx.
Software (including apps--UBM Medica.(2010). iMIMS (Version1.2.0) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from http://itunes.apple.com.
Television program--Flanagan, A., & Philipson, A. (Series producers & directors). (2011). 24 hours in A & E [Television series]. Belfast, Ireland: Channel 4.
Thesis (print)--Smith, T. L. (2008). Change, choice and difference: The case of RN to BN degree programmes for registered nurses (Master’s thesis). Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
Thesis (online)--Mann, D. L. (2010). Vision and expertise for interceptive actions in sport (Doctoral dissertation, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia). Retrieved from http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/44704.
IMPORTANT NOTE: To encourage a faster production process of your article, you are requested to closely adhere to the points above for references. Otherwise, a long process of solving copyeditor’s queries may directly affect the publication time of your article. In case of any question, please contact the Editor at cnt15@pitt.edu.
6. Tables. Tables should be structured properly. Each table must have a clear and concise title. When appropriate, use the title to explain an abbreviation parenthetically; e.g., Comparison of Median Income of Adopted Children (AC) v. Foster Children (FC). Headings should be clear and brief.
7. Figures. Figures should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text and must include figure captions. Figures will appear in the published article in the order in which they are numbered initially. The figure resolution should be 300dpi at the time of submission.
8. Appendices. Appendices should be lettered to distinguish them from numbered tables and figures. Include a descriptive title for each appendix (e.g., “Appendix A. Variable Names and Definitions”). Cross-check text for accuracy against appendices.
IMPORTANT: PERMISSION- The author(s) are responsible for securing permission to reproduce all copyrighted figures or materials before they are published in the Journal of Black Studies. A copy of the written permission must be included with the manuscript submission.
If you or your funder wish your article to be freely available online to nonsubscribers immediately upon publication (Gold Open Access), you can opt for it to be included in Sage Choice, subject to the payment of a publication fee. The manuscript submission and peer review procedure is unchanged. On acceptance of your article, you will be asked to let Sage know directly if you are choosing Sage Choice. To check journal eligibility and the publication fee, please visit Sage Choice. For more information on open access options and compliance at Sage, including self/author archiving deposits (Green Open Access), visit Sage Publishing Policies on the Journal Author Gateway.
VI. English Language Editing Services
Authors who would like to refine the use of English in their manuscripts might consider using the services of a professional English-language editing company. We highlight some of these companies at http://www.sagepub.com/journalgateway/engLang.htm.
Please be aware that Sage has no affiliation with these companies and makes no endorsement of them. An author's use of these services in no way guarantees that their submission will ultimately be accepted. Any arrangement an author enters into will be exclusively between the author and the particular company, and any costs incurred are the sole responsibility of the author.
The Journal of Black Studies may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on preprint servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
Visit the Sage Journals and Preprints page for more details about preprints.
VIII. Editor Contact Information
Christel N. Temple
Department of Africana Studies
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
e-mail: cnt15@pitt.edu