Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

For Authors

Submit Manuscript

Article types

The JSAMES is committed to publishing a range of scholarly and creative writing that brings scholars, creatives, and practitioners into shared conversations. We welcome a range of contributions and are especially keen on publishing creative, cutting-edge work in the al-Maydan section of the journal. Research article contributors are welcome to submit their essays at any time without having contacted the editor or managing editor. They are certainly welcome to do so if they have any questions or would like pre-submission feedback. Contributors to any of the other sections of the journal should contact the editor or managing editor before submitting.

Research Articles:

  • Original research articles or theoretical contributions that advance the journal’s vision
  • 7,000 - 9,000 words, inclusive of notes and bibliography
  • Double blind peer-reviewed

Forum Essays:

  • Original research articles published as part of a special ‘Research Forum’
  • 4,000 words, inclusive of notes and bibliography
  • Double blind peer-reviewed, by invitation only

al-Maydan:

  • Creative or non-scholarly contributions, such as research notes, photo essays, interviews, film reviews, source/collections analysis, exhibitions reviews, profiles, reprints (with appropriate permissions), retrospective essays
  • No more than 2,500 words
  • Editor reviewed; by invitation only. Please fill this form to demonstrate your interest of contact managing editor directly to pitch ideas

Book Reviews:

  • Critical engagements with texts in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
  • 1,000 - 1,500 words
  • Editor reviewed; by invitation only. Please fill this form to demonstrate your interest or contact managing editor directly to pitch ideas

We are deeply committed to publishing writing from early career and Global South scholars and have created several opportunities for mentorship and pre-submission feedback from the editor and editorial board.

Submission requirements

Manuscript Guidelines
All manuscripts must be submitted via Scholastica at https://jsames.scholasticahq.com/for-authors All submissions must include a title, an abstract (250 words), no more than 5 keywords, and contact details. Articles can be submitted in .doc, .docx, or .pdf formats.

The journal aims to attract a global, interdisciplinary audience. All contributions should demonstrate engagement with regional contexts and expertise through fieldwork, archives, language competence, and/or citation of literature in local languages or from scholars based in the region. We encourage authors to consider how certain forms of knowledge from within the region have been marginalized or excluded from the structures of knowledge production about South Asia and the Middle East and to think expansively about what materials, sources, languages, and texts they draw on in their scholarship. All articles published by scholars based in Global South institutions will be made Open Access (OA) for JSAMES readers.

All submissions should be original and not considered for publication in another outlet. Exceptions will be made for reprints of articles or essays. All use of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) must be disclosed when articles are submitted. Any use of GAI for submitted text cannot be considered for peer review. Similarly, peer reviewers are requested not to use GAI for any part of their reviews.

Submissions should clearly state any funding sources, conflicts of interest, and institutional review board (ethics board) approvals.

Style and formatting
The JSAMES uses the 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style.

In formatting papers for submission, follow a notes and bibliography system citing sources in numbered endnotes. Use Times New Roman font in size 12. Use double-line spacing throughout the entire file, including notes and works cited listed. Keep margins at least 2.5 cm (1 inch) and all the pages numbered. Use bold for your article title, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns. Indicate the abstract paragraph with a heading and by reducing the font size. If you choose to use headings and subheadings for your article, please number them hierarchically as 1, 1.1, 1.1.1.

All illustrations (figures) and tables included in submitted manuscripts should include a number, a title and a caption and should be included in the main body of the article. For images, only high-resolution quality (300 PPI or higher) will be accepted, captions should include a credit line including who made the image and/or where it is archived. Authors will be responsible for demonstrating that the Journal has copyright permission to print any images. Please submit images in .jpeg or .tiff formats.

Quoted material of more than a paragraph (five lines or more in length) is best set off as a block quotation. A multi paragraph block quotation should generally reflect the paragraph breaks of the original, with one notable exception: The first quoted paragraph should begin flush left, even if the original text has a first-line paragraph indent. Subsequent paragraphs in the quotation should be indicated either by first-line paragraph indents or (less desirably) by extra line space between the paragraphs.

We accept the use of American English only. Accents and any other special characters must be in place throughout the manuscript, especially when containing language other than English. For transliterated Arabic text, follow systems set out by the ALA-LC Romanization Tables or the International Journal of Middle East Studies, and stick to it with as few exceptions as possible.