Submissions

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

New Sociology prioritizes non-white contributors. Thus, if you identify as such, and feel comfortable doing so, please say so in the “comments to the editor” section. Your submission will be prioritized. We also encourage (all) authors to similarly self-identify as trans, disabled, queer and/or femme.
New Sociology only publishes a maximum of 2 academic articles per year and gives priority to non-white contributors, especially Black and Indigenous graduate students. If you are submitting an academic article and are white, and/or not a graduate student, we ask that you be transparent about this fact when submitting. We also strongly encourage Black and Indigenous students to self-identify when submitting academic articles.
New Sociology will only accept submissions from those with a completed PhD, if: 1) their PhD is in STEM or another “non” sociological field, and they belong to at least one of the groups that we prioritize; 2) they have a graduate student(s) or non-PhD as their coauthor; and/or 3) they are a community organizer and/or creative.
The submission is not a revised RMP or an excerpt from an Undergraduate or Master’s thesis.
The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration.
If relevant, the author has clearly indicated that the submission is under consideration for publication with a non-academic book publisher.
All sentences and phrases that are directly from another source must be placed in quotations and must be clearly cited. Ideas paraphrased from an original source must also be clearly cited. Both intentional and unintentional violations of this precept will be considered plagiarism and will render the article unacceptable for publication in New Sociology.
All research involving human or animal subjects must be approved by a Research Ethics Board and may require approval by New Sociology.
All reproduced copyrighted material (e.g., images, figures, tables) has received permission from the copyright owner.
The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
The submission file is in Microsoft Word file format.
Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.

Author Guidelines

What We Publish

New Sociology: Journal of Critical Praxis is a peer-reviewed academic social justice journal conceived by graduate students in the department of Sociology at York University, Tkaronto, which is now maintained by under/graduate and community orientated alumni of the same. New Sociology is an interdisciplinary and community-focused journal that encourages creative, embodied, and alternative submissions that fall within the scope of the social sciences and humanities, including, but not limited to, those pertaining to the following areas: Critical Race Theory, Black Studies and Anti-Racism, Critical Asian Studies, Critical Queer and/or Trans Studies Critical Muslim Studies, Critical Health and Disability Studies, Gender and Feminist Studies (no TERFS/SWERFS), Indigenous Studies and Decolonization, Literary and Cultural Studies, Migration and Transnationalism Coloniality and Postcoloniality, Critical Pedagogy and Education, and Work and Labour Studies

Although we encourage submissions written on topics that are especially relevant to a (so-called) "Canadian" audience, we also welcome submissions from students, artists, activists, and researchers who are writing on/engaging topics beyond the "Canadian" context. At this time, we only accept submissions written in English, however, we can publish translated creative pieces alongside a version of the piece written in the author's native language.

Who We Publish

Our mandate is to advance sociological knowledge production by emergent scholars, scholar-activists, community organizers, and creatives in tandem with the aspirations and ethics of social justice and radical love. We give priority to non-white contributors, in addition to trans, queer, femme, and disabled contributors. We invite submissions from graduate students, independent scholars, activists, community organizers, creatives, and artists, as well as post-docs and academic professionals. We also accept submissions from undergraduate students, but advise them to submit creative or alternative pieces only.

Special Issues: Are you a racialized, Indigenous, and/or third world (i.e., non-white) student, community organizer, activist, and/or creative who wants to propose a special issue with us? Contact our founder and EIC at jade.dacosta@sheridancollege.ca.

Academic Articles

We are currently only publishing a max. of 2 academic articles (15-30 pages, double spaced) per year, with priority going to non-white, especially Black and Indigenous, graduate students writing about white supremacy, colonialism, coloniality, decolonization, and social justice. Page length does not include the abstract, references, etc. Article publication may take up to 1-2 years for priority authors, and 3 or more years for non-priority authors. We encourage the majority of contributors to submit to creative or alternative submissions and discourage the submission of reflection pieces that resemble "short" academic articles. For more information, please email our founder and EIC at jade.dacosta@sheridancollege.ca, and/or check out our past publications.

Creative/Alternative Pieces and Book Reviews

At present, we prioritize the publication of "alternative" or creative works, such as textual and visual media, short reflection papers political commentaries, poems, diary entries, short reflective essays, comics, interviews, short stories, photographic or visual essays, social media posts, and/or other such "alternative" or creative mediums not listed here.

Heavier text-based submissions should be creative and, preferably, multimedia-based (i.e., text and image based). All reflection pieces or political commentaries with text must not exceed a total of 3000 words. Some exceptions are possible, but no text-only pieces over 7 pages, double spaced, will be sent to review. For reference, please check out the reflection pieces in our past issues.

As creative and alternative submissions are diverse, please review our previous publications for some guidance or, more accurately, "inspiration". We strongly invite the submission of new and unforeseen formats. Further, you may contact our EIC at jade.dacosta@sheridancollege.ca for further direction. Similar to academic manuscripts, creative submissions must include a 200-word abstract detailing the scope and aim of the piece, as well as 3-5 keywords at the start of the submission, with a 100 to 200-word author biography at the end of the submission (see below). Please email our founder and EIC (Jade) with your questions. (I usually respond within a very timely manner and truly welcome ALL of your inquiries, there are no dumb questions, promise!).

We also accept book reviews, but they must be no more than 2 pages, double spaced, not including references, etc. Book reviews over 3 pages will not be considered. Please also include an abstract, keywords, author biography, and any acknowledgements for book review submissions. You may review any book that you want. Book reviews are openly reviewed by our EIC.

There are no fees associated with publishing in New Sociology. Neither authors submitting their work nor papers accepted for publication will be charged. There are also no membership costs.

All manuscripts submitted to New Sociology will be considered to be:

1) an original work; 2) not under consideration for publication with another academic journal; and 3) not previously published.

Creative pieces must also be original works that are not under consideration for publication with another academic journal. However, they may be under consideration for publication with a non-academic book publisher. Authors submitting creative works to New Sociology that are under consideration for publication elsewhere must disclose this information during the submission process.

We will assume that all works have been approved for submission by all co-authors, as well as the institution in which the work was carried out. We as the publishers will not be held legally responsible for any claims of compensation.

Online Submission

All prospective authors need to submit their manuscripts online through our website. New Sociology: Journal of Critical Praxis is hosted by York Digital Journals through the Open Journal System (OJS), an open source software platform developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). Authors using OJS for the first time will need to go to the website and create a new account. Information pertaining to your account will only be available to the senior editors of New Sociology, and will not be shared publicly or with third parties. Authors who have previously registered with OJS can use the login page to access their account using their email address and password. All correspondence with authors will either be through email or the website. Any communication between peer reviewers and authors will be mediated through the EIC.

Submission Components

All submissions, including creative pieces, will be submitted with the following components: title, abstract, keywords, main text, author biography, and, if relevant: references, tables and figures, illustrations, appendices, and supplementary material. Do not include a title page or a running head and use page breaks to separate each component. For academic articles, please submit your author biography in a word document separate from the other components.

Authors will submit their manuscript to our online submission page in one document. The manuscript should include the: 1) title, abstract, and keywords; 2) main text; and 3) references in a single Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx format), in that order. The author(s)’ names should be removed from the aforementioned documents and the author biography should be submitted in a second Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx format). For the main manuscript, please use the "page break" function to separate: 1) the page with the title, abstract, and keywords from the main text; and 2) the main text from the references.

Authors are also invited, if not encouraged, to include an acknowledgement section, either upon submission or after acceptance. We invite you to acknowledge your peers, mentors, educators, friends, family, kin, reviewers, editors, etc., and to actively embrace community and solidarity in academia/throughout the publishing process. Acknowledgements should be submitted with the author biography in the second document, and should be separated via the page break function.

Please remove all identifying information from your main manuscript (not including creative/alternative submissions that are 500 words or less).

Adhere to the following:

Within Submitted Documents: Remove author names within documents titles, references, and footnotes.
File Name: Remove author names from the file name.
Document Properties: Use the privacy settings on Word to ensure the program does not record the author of the document.

Along with your manuscript document, academic or creative, please submit a signed copy of New Sociology Authorship Agreement Form, which stipulates obligations and consent required of the author(s).

Please adhere to the following guidelines when you upload the additional files after the submission of the main manuscript:

Author biography: Provide a 100 to 200 word author biography with your name, pronouns, relevant institutions, and any professional or personal information you want to include, in a separate file from the main manuscript. Name the file "Author Biography".,
New Sociology Authorship Agreement: Please upload your signed Authorship Agreement form (.pdf). Name the file “Authorship Agreement [author's name].”
Acknowledgements: If you decide to include an acknowledgement section upon submission, please include it with your author biography document. Acknowledgements should follow your biography and be separated by a page break.

Title, Abstract, and Keywords

Your title, abstract, and keywords should appear together on the first page of your main manuscript, in that order. The title should not exceed 10 words, and the abstract should not exceed 250 words. The abstract should include the paper’s objectives, sample size (if relevant) the methods and theoretical perspective used, the results, and the paper’s contributions. The keywords are needed for indexing purposes, and they should not exceed six words or short phrases, nor should they be a repetition of the title.

Main Text

The main text for academic articles and text-heavy creative pieces (500 plus words) should be double-spaced. Poems may be single spaced. The page layout requires 1-inch horizontal and vertical margins and a justified alignment. The font size should be black, size 12, and in Times New Roman. But authors may propose an alternative font style for creative purposes.

Please use an oxford comma and avoid ableist phrasing, such as "it is possible to see that..", opting instead for sense inclusive language, such as "conceptualize", "consider", "regard", "demonstrate", etc. Further, when referring to an author that you are quoting or citing, make sure that you know their correct pronouns, i.e., do not assume that they use "she/her" or "he/him" by default. If you do not know their pronouns for sure, always use "they/them".

Academic articles should be between 15 to 30 pages in length, double spaced, not including references, as well as keywords, abstract, figures, etc. Articles also cannot exceed 10,000 words total, including reference. Please include your author biography, and acknowledgements, if relevant, in a separate word document file.

At present, creative/alternative manuscripts must be less than 3000 words, including the abstract, references, author biography, and acknowledgments.

All text-based manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the guidelines of the 6^th edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) publication manual. Please refer to and copy the citation and reference style of academic articles that have been previously published by our journal, such as the following. Improperly referenced pieces will be returned without review. Creative pieces may differ from APA, but the author must get permission from the EIC.

The main manuscript should include the title of the paper excluding the name(s) of the author(s), as well as the abstract, keywords, the main text, and (if relevant) references. If tables and figures are not included in the text of the main document, authors should indicate within the main text which positions they expect the tables to be inserted and use MS Excel Format (.xls or .xlsx) for tables and JPG for figures. Author biography and acknowledgements should be submitted separately.

References

All references and in-text citations need to be made in accordance with the stipulations of the 7th edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) and should match articles previously published in the journal. Any manuscript that does not follow this format will be sent back to the author(s) for alteration. Exceptions may apply to creative/alternative submissions.

Please do not use automatic bibliography tools such as Zotero / Endnote in submissions. When directly quoting online content, such as blogs or news articles, cite the paragraph in which the quote appears, using "para" instead of "p." to indicate the placement. For example, if a direct quotation of an article or chapter reads like (Ahmed, 2021, p. 39), than a direct quotation of a blog would read like (Ahmed, 2021, para 39).

In line with our mandate of critical praxis, we ask that our authors practice ethical citational practices. Generally, this involves citating more queer, trans, and femme/non-white scholars than white, cis-straight ones, as well as graduate students, independent researchers, and community organizers/artists (and not just canonized academics). Specifically, we ask authors do not cite Donna Haraway, because of her anti-blackness and we forbid authors from citing Andrea Smith, unless directly calling her out for white supremacy/settler colonialism.

Copyright Notice

All works published in New Sociology: Journal of Critical Praxis are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC 4.0). Under this license, copyright of the original, edited, and derivative forms of the work is retained by the author(s). As such, the author retains the right to reproduce, republish, transmit, and distribute the original and altered forms of the work in all languages as long as the author agrees to credit New Sociology as the first place of publication. Pre-print versions of the work that have been posted online should include a citation and link to the final published version in New Sociology once the relevant issue is made available; post-print versions, which includes the final publisher's PDF, should contain a citation and link to the journal's website.

Privacy Statement

New Sociology: Journal of Critical Praxis is committed to maintaining and respecting your privacy. The type of information that is gathered and tracked, how such information is used, and with whom the information is shared is reflective of the journal’s prioritization of the security of your personal information.

You can visit New Sociology’s web page without disclosing your personal information. The website does not attempt to identify users nor track their usage habits. New Sociology’s web page may contain links to other websites. New Sociology and its editorial and advisory boards cannot be held responsible for the privacy practices or the content on these websites.

Submitting authors will be asked to provide personal information that will be needed for correspondence with editorial staff and peer reviewers. We may collect this data, while removing all personal information, to allow us to evaluate our performance. We will not exchange or sell your email address to third parties unless you give explicit permission to do so.

Any questions regarding this statement or our privacy policies should be directed to our founder and EIC at jade.dacosta@sheridancollege.ca.

By visiting and using New Sociology’s web page, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy. This privacy statement was last updated June 1st 2019.