Call for Papers

Submissions now closed for Issue Four. WJ is currently accepting papers for Issue Five until the deadline of January 1, 2010.

David Kociemba, editor of Watcher Junior, invites your submissions for publication in WJ, a refereed, electronic journal for undergraduate student scholarship in Buffy Studies.

Completed essays and research papers will be reviewed by two members of the board. Essays that do not receive approval for publication will be returned with feedback for re-submission.

We welcome completed essays and research papers on any aspect of BtVS, Angel, or both programs. All papers should exhibit familiarity with previously published scholarship in Buffy Studies. Submissions should follow the conventions of the WJ style guide (see below)

Submit your work electronically as an e-mail attachment in Microsoft Word (.doc) or in Rich Text Format (.rtf). Be sure to number your paragraphs in the text you submit. Send it to David Kociemba at david.kociemba[at]gmail.com

Read the WJ FAQ for answers to any questions before contacting the editors.

Submission Guidelines for Watcher Junior

Word Length: 3,000 - 4,000 words. Longer articles will be considered, but please consult with the editors prior to submission.

Submitting:

• All submissions to Watcher Junior should be submitted as email attachments in either MS-Word or MS-RichText format.
• The text of the submission should not identify the author or institutional affiliation, but authors should include contact details (name, institutional affiliation, email and surface mail addresses) and a brief biographical statement (of less than 75 words) in the body of their email.
• Author biographies should include information such as name, institution, research interests, and any recent publications or academic achievements. See the Contributors page for examples.

E-mail copy should be sent to the editor at: david [dot] kociemba [at] gmail [dot] com

Upon acceptance of a paper, the author must complete and return a publication permission form to the editors (downloadable from here). Authors retain copyright of published material.

Style Guide

Watcher Junior follows the conventions of the MLA style (www.mla.org), except where there are specific requirements for the nature of the journal. Submissions using other styles will be considered but upon acceptance of a paper the author will be required to revise the work incompliance with the following:

Layout:

• All submissions should be 1.5 or double spaced, using a serif font such as Times New Roman.
• Do not use formatting such as underlining or bolding in the text of the article: for emphasis use italics.
• Do not use tabs or extra whitespace at any time.

Paragraph format: each paragraph should be numbered sequentially at the beginning of each first line using the format [6], [18] (note square brackets). This is to ensure that a second party can provide an accurate citation of the work.

All paragraphs should be preceded by a hard break or carriage return so that there is a blank line between paragraphs.

Quotations: All quotations and reference to another author's terms should appear in double quotation marks, "like so." Single quotation marks are used to indicate "quotes 'within' quotes."

Indent quotations longer than two lines

Titles cited in-text: all book, programme, film, journal titles should appear italicised in the body of the text e.g Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy, BtVS, Slayer Slang, Slayage. Titles of journal or other articles and chapters in books should be given in double quotation marks.

Where episode titles appear in the body of the text they should be italicised and appended with the season and episode number e.g Restless (4022), Intervention (5018). For Angel, episode numbers should be preceded by the letter 'A' i.e City Of...(A1001). Use the Slayage Episode Guide for episode titles, season and episode numbers.

In-text citations: Should follow the MLA style. Citations within the text should give the author's name and page number(s) in parentheses, e.g. (Kaveney 36). See here for an online guide to in-text citations. Do not use endnotes or footnotes.

Referencing

All submissions must include a Works Cited page with references in the format identified below.

A book:

Adams, Michael. Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

An anthology:

Tonkin, Boyd. "Entropy as Demon: Buffy in Southern California." Reading the Vampire Slayer: An Unofficial Critical Companion to Buffy and Angel. Ed. Roz Kaveney. London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2003, 37-52.

An article:

Schele, Linda. "Reading Mayan Images." Americas Mar. 1987: 38-43.

An online article:

Millman, Joyce. "Twenty Ways the Nineties Changed Television." Salon. 22 Dec. 1999. http://www.salon.com/ent/col/mill/1999/12/22/tvdecade/.

An article from an online journal:

Wilcox, Rhonda V. "T. S. Eliot Comes to Television: Buffy's 'Restless'." Slayage 7 (2002). http://www.slayage.tv/essays/slayage7/Wilcox.htm.

Film or video:

Serenity. Dir. Joss Whedon. Perf. Nathan Fillian, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk and Morena Baccarin. Universal Pictures, 2005.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Dir. Fran Rubel Kuzui. Perf. Kristy Swanson, Luke Perry, Donald Sutherland and Paul Reubens. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 1992.

Do not create a bibliographic reference to the Mutant Enemy programme episodes quoted in the text.

Compliance with this guide will ensure that the interim between acceptance and publication of a paper is kept to a minimum.

A more complete resource can be found here and here for referencing media.

Please contact David via email with questions and visit the FAQ for more details.