Contemporary Japan

Instructions for Authors

Submission policy for

Contemporary Japan, Journal of the German Institute for Japanese Studies Tokyo

As a general principle, material submitted to Contemporary Japan should be written in English or German and fulfill the following criteria:

1. Submissions should contain original research, new analyses and / or new interpretations focusing on Japan. Authors should not submit articles or substantial amounts of text that already have been published or are forthcoming in other places, or which are included in other manuscripts submitted for review (including online journals) or otherwise committed.

2. Submitted material should demonstrate a familiarity with the Japanese and non-Japanese-language literature on the topic discussed. Priority is given to submissions that utilize both Japanese and other language sources.

3. Authors should endeavor to keep their contributions as self-contained as possible.

4. Submissions must be no longer than 8,000 words, including notes, tables, charts and bibliography. An abstract of up to 200 words should accompany the manuscript.
All contributions will first be evaluated by the managing editors and, if accepted, be passed on at their discretion to two referees selected for their familiarity with the theme or approach of the paper. In general, authors can expect to be notified of the result of this first step of the double-blind review process within eight weeks of submission.

Procedure
CJ only accepts electronic submissions. Please email your manuscript to cj@dijtokyo.org. This website provides information about the required manuscript formatting (see the Style sheet for Contemporary Japan).

In case your contribution is accepted for publication in Contemporary Japan, you will be asked to send in a signed "Copyright Transfer Agreement". The managing editors will provide you with the respective MS-Word-file.

Since a double-blind review system is used, your submission should contain an "anonymous" file of your paper, and a separate title page that includes the full manuscript title, plus names and contact information (mailing address, telephone, fax, e-mail address) for all credited authors in the order their names should appear, as well as each authors' academic rank and institutional affiliation. You may also include any acknowledgements or other author notes about the development of the paper (e.g., previous presentations of the research) as part of this separate title page. In the case of multiple authors, indicate who should be contacted. Manuscripts that are judged to be lacking anonymity will be returned, potentially delaying the review process.

If you have any other questions concerning the submission of papers, please contact cj@dijtokyo.org.