Submissions

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Author Guidelines

Articles submitted here, if accepted after peer-review, will be published at  http://www.euppublishing.com/journal/film 

Communication
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Technical Support
If you encounter any technical issues with this submissions site, please contact the Scholarly Communications Team, Edinburgh University Library: edinburgh.diamond@ed.ac.uk

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
The Editorial Board of  Film-Philosophy  is  committed to equality, diversity and inclusion  and implements reviewing, commissioning and  publishing processes that reflect these values.  Film-Philosophy  endeavours to be a forum  where scholars from diverse backgrounds can  engage in film-philosophical debates. 

Language Use
All submissions must be in English and authors are free to use either American or British spelling as long as this is consistent and respects the original spelling in any direct quotations.

Serial (Oxford) Commas
We ask authors not to use serial (Oxford) commas. So: "Cauliflower, beans and maize" not "Cauliflower, beans, and maize".

General Guidelines

Length 
Article length: Strictly 7,000 - 10,000 words (including bibliography) 
Book Reviews: 750 - 1,500 words 

Title
Avoid using quotations or quotation marks in your title.

Abstract and Keywords 

  • Please include the title, an abstract of 200 words and up to 6 keywords at the beginning of your submitted article (this will be considered part of your word count). 
  • The abstract should be a single paragaph and should not contain any citations or quotations.

Short Author Biography
We ask authors to provide a brief biography as a separate file document.

Citations and References

Initial Submission
Initial submissions may use any accepted referencing style, but, if accepted for publication, the author will need to reformat their article using our style guidelines below. Film-Philosophy cannot provide editorial assistance with such reformatting.

Required Style (on successful acceptance following peer-review)
Accepted articles must use the  APA (7th edition) referencing style. Articles must be reformatted by the author and take into account the variations listed below.  Please see the APA Style and Grammar Guidelines here.

Original Date of Publication
Provide the year the work was originally published at the end of the reference in brackets in the format (Original work published year). Give both years in the citation.

Reference:

Deleuze, G. (1986). Cinema 1: The movement-image (H. Tomlinson & B. Habberjam, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1983)

In-text Citation:

(Deleuze, 1983/1986, p. 26)

 

Translator
All translated works must include the name of the translator (see example above).

Non-Roman Characters and Non-English Languages

  • Please transliterate all non-Roman characters.
  • Use Pinyin transliteration of Chinese if necessary.
  • There is usually no need to include non-English quotations in their original language unless there is a specific point of translation on which you comment and that is crucial to your argument.

In-text Citations 
"Example" (Partridge, 2006, p. 26).

In-text citation guide: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations

Quotations longer than thirty words should be separated from the main text, indented, single-spaced and should have no quotation marks. 

References

Articles should have a References (so titled) section at the end of the article containing only works cited. 

NB: APA 7 does not require city of publication and all titles are in sentence case (i.e. lower case after initial word).

Here are examples of common sources formatted in the APA style. For further examples, please see: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples

Journal article:

Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185

Single authored book:

Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association.

Translated books:

Deleuze, G. (1986). Cinema 1: The movement-image. (H. Tomlinson & B. Habberjam, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1983)

Edited books:

Kesharwani, P. (Ed.). (2020). Nanotechnology based approaches for tuberculosis treatment. Academic Press.

Torino, G. C., Rivera, D. P., Capodilupo, C. M., Nadal, K. L., & Sue, D. W. (Eds.). (2019). Microaggression theory: Influence and implications. John Wiley & Sons.

Chapter in an edited book:

Dillard, J. P. (2020). Currents in the study of persuasion. In M. B. Oliver, A. A. Raney, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (pp. 115–129). Routledge.

Filmography 

  • We do not require a filmography.
  • Please do not include films in your list of references.

Film-Related Guidelines

Film-Philosophy's convention is to use the word "film" rather than "movie". 

When mentioning a film for the first time, italicise the title and include the name of the director and the date of release in brackets (unless this information is mentioned elsewhere in your sentence), e.g., The Grapes of Wrath  (John Ford, 1940).

When mentioning a character's name for the first time, give the actor's name in brackets, e.g., Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep).

Film titles not in English
When referring to a non English-language film, the original title, also in italics, and director and year of production should be listed after the first mention of the film and in parentheses. After this, refer to the film's English title, except where it is more usual to use the original language name. For example:  Divided We Fall  (Musíme si pomáhat, Jan Hřebejk, 2000) but  La Jetée  (Chris Marker, 1962). 

Film, book and journal titles should be italicised throughout the submission.

Avoid reproducing book and article titles unnecessarily in the body of your article as this information will appear in your bibliography.

Inclusion of Images

Film Stills / Frame Grabs
Like other creative works, film stills are protected by copyright and authors should seek permission to use these wherever necessary. 

However, under "fair dealing" we consider it is not necessary to obtain permission to reproduce film stills (which you have captured yourself) as long as they fulfil both of the following criteria: 

  • The stills should be used in the article directly for criticism and/or for review - they cannot be used for purely illustrative purposes.
  • Authors should not use an excessive number of images - authors should use no more than is necessary to demonstrate the point they are making in an article. 

We encourage the inclusion of film stills where specific discussion of such images is a crucial part of the argument (maximum number: 6). 

  • Please include the film still in the body of your text at the most appropriate point (not as part of a list at the end) and treat it much as you would a text quotation.
  • Every image must be explicitly discussed.
  • Each image should fill the page from margin to margin.
  • Number and caption every still below the image as follows:

Figure 1: Wizard of Oz - Dorothy enters a new world.

Refer to the still in your text using (Fig. 1). 

Additional Guidelines

Quotation Marks

  • Quotation marks should be double (") except for quotations within quotations which should be single (').
  • Do not use scare quotes. Quotation marks should only be used for direct quotations.
  • When omitting words from a quotation, please indicate this by using an ellipsis in square brackets: "Example [...] example"
  • https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/quotations

General Formatting

Articles and reviews should be submitted as an A4 Word document (.doc or .docx).  

Articles must be written in clear, grammatical English.  Film-Philosophy  cannot provide any assistance with language editing.

The article should be double-spaced. 

If referring to your submission, please refer to your work as an article and not a "paper", "essay" or "chapter".  

Brackets within brackets should be square (Psycho  [1960]).  

Diacritics (accents) should be added to all names or words where appropriate. 

Do not use endnotes. 

Single authors should not use the pronoun "we". Film-Philosophy accepts the use of "I" to describe an argument (however we discourage unsupported or general expressions of personal taste or opinion).

Subheadings 
You are welcome and encouraged to use section or subheadings (in bold, not underlined) but do not number these.

Do  not use "Introduction" or "Conclusion" as subheadings. 

Footnotes  
Footnotes should not be used for referencing sources.
Please do not use endnotes. 

Abbreviations 
Informal contractions should not be used (e.g., don’t = do not, isn’t = is not , I’ll = I will, etc.) 

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/abbreviations/latin

Please  do not use  ibid. - always give the full in-text reference. 

Please  avoid  etc. 

Words and Phrases to Avoid
We would prefer authors not to use the following terms:

  • Abovementioned
  • Aforementioned
  • Arguably
  • etc.
  • ibid.
  • In my opinion
  • Indeed
  • Interesting / Interestingly
  • It is to be argued
  • Relatable

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it being considered for or awaiting publication elsewhere. 
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx). 
  • The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics for book and film titles, rather than underlining.
  • You have prepared a short author biography as a separate file.
  • The article must begin with a title, a 200 word abstract and 6 keywords (in the submission document itself). The abstract should be a single paragraph with no quotations or citations.
  • Your article is properly referenced using any recognised citation style. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation (If accepted for publication, the author must reformat to APA 7th edition).
  • Do not include your name or contact details in the submission document. If referring to your own published work, refer to yourself in the third person. There is no need to redact such citations but the submission text should not explicitly identify you as the author.
  • This submission is between 7,000 and 10,000 words long including the bibliography. Book reviews have a maximum of 1,500 words. Calls for abstracts require 500 words only.

Articles - Open Submission

We will only consider articles of between 7,000 and 10,000 words including the bibliography and all notes.

At the moment, new open submissions (if accepted) can expect publication only in 2026 or later.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews: 750 - 1,500 words 

Book reviews are not blind peer-reviewed and so should include your name, institution and email address.

Book reviews should only have the details of the book reviewed as their title. Please do not use discursive titles. The format is:

Firstname Surname (Year). Title: Subtitle. Publisher, # pp.

Special Issue: Existentialist Screen-Philosophy - Abstracts

Deadline: 1 February 2025

Please submit abstracts of maximum 500 words only.

You will need to cut and paste your document into the abstract section and then also upload the same text as Word file. Please also include a short academic biography (100 words or so).

Please see our full Call for Papers.

[Invitation only] Special Issue: Critical Race Theory and Film-Philosophy

Unsolicited submissions to this section are now closed.

Please only submit to this section if you have been invited to do so by the Special Issue editors.

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