Meridians

feminism, race, transnationalism

Submission Guidelines

About Meridians Publications

Meridians seeks to publish original work that is grounded in the particularities of history, economics, geography, class, and culture; that informs the contradictions and politics of women’s lives; illuminates the forms and meanings of resistance, migration and exile and artistic expressions; that provokes the critical interrogation of the terms used to shape activist agendas, theoretical paradigms, and political coalitions; and that is substantive and readable, as well as relevant and useful to researchers, educators, students, and practitioners.

Manuscripts selected for publication will be cataloged into one of the following categories:

Please click on each category to find an example of work published in that category.

ESSAYS are research-based or theoretical scholarly monographs…

COUNTERPOINTS initiate a self-conscious examination of the analytical and political vocabulary of the fields in which feminists work…

IN THE TRENCHES ask where practical application and community activism take women around the world and in what forms these manifest themselves…

CULTUREWORKS include creative work, interviews with artists, photo or art essays, poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and drama…

MEMOIRS/TESTIMONIOS analyze the formation of consciousness and examines the production of racial, sexual, and national subjects…/p>

MEDIA MATTERS focus on the debates, meanings, politics, and uses of visual, musical, or cybernet representations in popular culture…

VISUAL ESSAYS combine images and text to create a social, political, or creative commentary on the visual work of activists, scholars, and artists with the visual elements serving as the primary focus of the argument or ideas expressed…

IN THE ARCHIVES publish documents from institutional or organizational repositories…

INTERVIEWS of and by culture workers, scholars, and activists…

STATE OF THE FIELD essays consider four to five recent scholarly publications anchored by a common theme related to feminism, race, and transnationalism, and analyzes the way contemporary scholarship fits into existing debates and questions essential to the field…

General submission guidelines

The Editor of Meridians invites submissions of scholarly essays, personal interviews, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, visual art, and photo-essays, as well as political manifestos, position papers, and archival documents of continuing interest from national and international communities. The following guideline provides details on formatting, submission materials, and submission review process:

General Manuscript Submission Materials

  • Title Page (incl. author’s name, postal address, phone number, and e-mail address)
  • Abstracts should not exceed 200 words. Without an abstract, the manuscript cannot be considered for publication. 
  • Original Manuscript (including all notes and bibliographical references) should not exceed 9,000 words.
  • Author Biography (~3-5 lines)

PLEASE NOTE: Manuscripts should not contain any author details (including references in the text and endnotes) to preserve anonymity during the peer review process. For examples on how to redact authors details, please review this following guide: Redacting Authors’ Details 

Formatting Manuscripts (including all notes and bibliographical references)

  • Save as Word Document prior to submission. 
  • Double-spaced using a 12-point Times New Roman font. 
  • Have all pages numbered consecutively. 
  • Adhere to author-date system outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, 2017.
    • In this system, references to works are included in chronological order in the text. 
    • The author’s last name and the year of publication are enclosed in parentheses (Davis 1977) and correspond to the alphabetical list of Works Cited at the end of the essay. 
    • Page numbers follow the date, preceded by a comma (Garcia 1997, 57). 
    • When there are two authors the following format applies: (Chang and Williams 1985, 13); for three authors: (Fulcher, Hernandez, and Spikes 1974); and more than three: (Rashid et al. 1993). If the author is not known, the text reference should substitute the title of the article or book for the author (the title may be shortened, but must include the first word).
    • In this system, references to works are included in chronological order in the text. 
    • The author’s last name and the year of publication are enclosed in parentheses (Davis 1977) and correspond to the alphabetical list of Works Cited at the end of the essay. 
    • Page numbers follow the date, preceded by a comma (Garcia 1997, 57). 
    • When there are two authors the following format applies: (Chang and Williams 1985, 13); for three authors: (Fulcher, Hernandez, and Spikes 1974); and more than three: (Rashid et al. 1993). If the author is not known, the text reference should substitute the title of the article or book for the author (the title may be shortened, but must include the first word).
  • Although Meridians otherwise follows the Chicago Style Manual in all other regards, we do not follow their conventions with regard to capitalization of U.S. ethno-racial categories. Instead, since 2020, it has been our policy to capitalize all of the following – Asian-American, Black, Indigenous, Latino/a/x, MENA, and Native American. Whether or not to capitalize “white” will be at the author’s discretion. Unfortunately, staff turnover and circumstances caused by the pandemic have meant that this policy has not been consistently enacted at Meridians over the past three years. It will be in place, however, as of volume 22, number 2, fall 2023.

Supplementary Visual Submissions Guidelines

  • Visual material is allowed (up to 5 pieces) with 6×9 dimensions (or reducible to this size)
  • High Resolution (300 dpi) TIF files
  • Must be publishable in black and white
  • Do not include any images in your manuscript file.​ Instead, please submit each figure in a separate file, and name the files with your last name and figure number (e.g., LastName_FIG1.eps). Please list the figure captions at the end of the manuscript file, include an intext “callout” for each figure (e.g., “. . . as shown in figure 1.”), and indicate where in your manuscript you want it to appear (e.g., <Figure 1 about here>).
  • Must provide proof of permission for all images and significant text excerpts

For more information, please consult the DUP’s Art Preparation and Submission Guidelines for Journal Authors.


General Creative Submission Materials

Poetry, Prose and Non-fiction Manuscripts

  • Title Page (include author’s name, postal address, phone number, and e-mail address)
  • Abstracts should not exceed 250 words. Abstracts are not required for poetry submissions.
  • Original Manuscript should not exceed 7,000 words or 25 pages in length. *Poetry Submissions must range from 3-5 poems*
  • Author Biography (~3-5 lines)

Formatting Creative Submissions (including all notes and bibliographical references)

  • Save as Word Document prior to submission. 
  • Double-spaced using a 12-point Times New Roman font. Exceptions for poems, which should be typed and formatted according to genre conventions.
  • Have all pages numbered consecutively. 

Please note Meridians does NOT allow/accept: 

  • Manuscripts or materials that are under review elsewhere or that have been previously published.
  • Simultaneous submissions, or unsolicited book, film, or video reviews.
  • Emailed submissions.

Submission Process through ScholarOne

To submit, authors are requested to provide the following items: 

1) Manuscript Type selection, Title of Manuscript and Abstract 2) Upload Manuscript, attach a short biography (to be published alongside the manuscript if accepted), and Title Page. Additional files can include: Figures, Audio, Permissions Documents, Video, and other supplemental files (whether or not for review). 3) Provide attributes to manuscript (keywords and subject classifications 4) List all Authors and affiliated Institutions 5) Optional: Reviewer Suggestions (whether you recommend or oppose a reviewer) and lastly, 6) Manuscript Information (Number of (Color) Figures, Tables, Word Count, and other article details). 

Submission Review Process

Meridians has submission deadlines twice a year, March 15th and August 30th.

Submissions for each cycle are sent out for review in the period before the next submission deadline. (For example, a submission received on March 14th would be sent out for review between March 15th and August 30th, whereas a submission received on March 16th would not be sent out for review until after the August 30th deadline.) 

Meridians adheres to a double-anonymized peer review process. This means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. This double-anonymized peer-review process at Meridians aims at enhancing authors’ chances for publication. Authors’ submissions are reviewed anonymously by readers with experience in the appropriate fields.

Upon submission, the readers review the manuscripts and recommend whether each submitted article is:

  • Requires minor to major revision prior to consideration for publication
  • Should be accepted with revisions
  • Should be rejected

Once at least two external reviews are received, the Editors make one of the following dispositions:

  • Revise & Resubmit
  • Accept with Revision
  • Accept as is
  • Reject
  • Recommend submission to another, better-suited journal

A Note on Demographic Data Collection

Meridians is collecting demographic data on authors, artists, and editors in an attempt to track our success in creating a diverse, inclusive journal.  Please find the editor’s statement below:

Dear Meridians contributor,

We ask that you take a moment to complete our demographic survey as part of our effort to document who our authors, artists, and reviewers are. As you know, Meridians is a premier transnational anti-racist feminist journal whose mission is to promote knowledge production by and about women of color focused on feminism, race and transnationalism, while also sustaining a rigorous double-anonymized peer review process. We would like to collect data to check whether our anecdotal sense that ours is a uniquely diverse community of scholarly journal contributors aligns with the demographic facts. Please rest assured that your answers will be confidential and our reporting of the data will be aggregated. Whether you are an author, artist or peer reviewer, we appreciate and would like to visibilize the invaluable contributions this community has made to Meridians success over the past twenty years and beyond.

Thank you in advance,

Ginetta E.B. Candelario, Editor