Submissions

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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.
  • The submission has not been previously published and is not currently being considered for publication by another journal.
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word document file format.
  • The text is written in American English and adheres to MLA citation style (9th).

Author Guidelines

For information about article types published by ACH, please consult the invidividual sections that follow the author guidelines, below. 

First submissions

  • Submit your piece as a Word document without macros.
  • Adhere to the maximum word count specified for the section of the journal (article type) you are submitting to. If you exceed the maximum word count considerably, contact the editorial assistant (or review editor) before you submit. 
  • Apply American English. If you are not a native speaker, we advise you to have your text copy edited by a professional.
  • Use MLA citation style (9th edition) for in-text citations and the reference list (https://style.mla.org).
  • Use footnotes very scarcely.
  • To facilitate anonymous peer review, ensure your article does not include any identifying information such as author name or affiliation (you will be asked to submit these details separately). 
  • Include a separate title page that includes the title of the submission, the author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s), a 350-word abstract, and up to six key words.
  • Organize the text in subsections with unnumbered headings.
  • Include an Acknowledgements section at the end of the main body of the text and before the reference list to recognize contributions to the research, including support from funding agencies. 
  • Where articles are based, or partly based, on data generated through primary research (such as interviews), ethical issues should be addressed in the Methods section. 
  • Be aware of how language is used. We acknowledge that language is always in flux and encourage authors to avoid uncritically reiterating stereotypes through language practices (e.g. 'older people' instead of 'the elderly', or 'person who lives with dementia' instead of 'demented person'). ACH supports the use of inclusive language that avoids ageist, ableist, sexist, racist, homophobic, and speciesist expressions. For guidance in relation to ageist language, we recommend referring to the DEEP guidelines and resources developed by the Journal of Aging Studies, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and AGE Platform Europe.
  • Submit figures as separate TIFF, GIF, or JPEG files that are suited for online publication. Make sure to arrange the copyright for each of the images that you want to use and submit written consent of the copyright owner accordingly.
  • Indicate, in the main body of the text, where figures should be included by inserting figure captions (Figure 1: xxxxx). Ensure that images are referred to in the running text of the article (Fig. 1).
  • Tables should be submitted as separate text format files so they can be edited. 
  • Indicate in the main body of the text where you want to include the tables and provide table captions (Table 1: xxxxx). Do not forget to also refer to the tables in the running text itself (Table 1).

Revised submissions

  • Revised articles should meet the guidelines as described above.
  • Indicate any changes made using yellow highlights or the Track Changes function in Microsoft Word. 

Research Article

We invite rigorous research articles (8,000 words) on topics that investigate the critical intersections of the arts and humanities with the aging process and with age across the lifespan. Areas of investigation and related methodologies include art history and art criticism; communication and new media; critical theory; cultural studies; disability studies; gender and sexuality studies; history; late-life creativity; linguistics; literary criticism; performance studies; philosophy and ethics; race studies; religious studies; and therapeutic uses of humanities and/or the arts. Submissions may also address the anthropological, behavioral, biomedical, gerontological, legal, political, psychological, or sociological dimensions of age or aging relevant to the humanities and/or the arts.

Article submissions are screened by the journal editors. Following a positive screening result, research articles are sent out for double-blind peer review.

Scholarly Position Paper

A Scholarly Position Paper (2,500 words) is a well-theorized essay with a more personal tone on a topical issue related to the study of age, aging, and later life from a humanities and arts perspective. 

Scholarly Position Papers are solicited and reviewed by the journal editors.

Pedagogical Essay

Pedagogical Essays (3,000 words) are brief, well-theorized essays on teaching humanities and arts approaches to age and aging.

These essays are reviewed by the journal editors.

Age Studies in the Disciplines

Age Studies in the Disciplines (1,500 words) refers to a solicited well-informed essay on the study of age from a specific disciplinary point of point.

Review

We invite reviews (700 words) of recent book publications in humanities and arts scholarship relevant to aging and of social science or gerontology scholarship relevant to the arts and/or humanities.

Contact the review editor if you are interested in writing a review for the journal. The review editor will provide you with your selected book and guide you through the publication process. For inspiration, you might consider our list of books available for review. 

Review Essay

We invite review essays (1,500 words) of recent book publications in humanities and arts scholarship relevant to aging and of social science or gerontology scholarship relevant to the arts and/or humanities. In review essays, publications that have affinities in topic, approach, or scope are brought together in a clever way.

Contact the review editor if you want to write a review essay for the journal. The review editor will make sure to provide you with copies of the relevant books and will guide you through the publication process.

Review Response

A Review Response (400 words) is a brief response of the authors of a publication to the review of their work in the journal. Review Responses are solicited by the review editor and the journal editors only.

Featured Theme

A Featured Theme (42,500 words: 8,000 words per article and 2,500 words for the introduction) is a thematic cluster of up to five scholarly articles. It is part of a regular journal issue. Featured Themes are curated by guest editors that coordinate the reviewing and editing process under supervision of the journal editors.

If you are interested in proposing a Featured Theme, please send a description of the theme, an explanation of why it would be a good fit with Age, Culture, Humanities, a list of potential contributors, and an envisioned time path to the journal editors. 

Special Issue

A Special Issue (58,500 words: 8,000 words per article and 2,500 words for the Guest Editors' Introduction) is a thematic cluster of six and more scholalry articles introduced by a Guest Editors’ Introduction. It stands alone as a separate issue of Age, Culture, Humanities. Special Issues are curated by guest editors that coordinate the reviewing and editing process under supervision of the journal editors.

If you are interested in proposing a Special Issue, please send a description of the issue, an explanation of why it would be a good fit with Age, Culture, Humanities, a list of potential contributors, and an envisioned time path to the journal editors. 

Credos, Manifestos, Reflections

Credos, Manifestos, Reflections (5,000 words in total) are a collection of solicited topical pieces that help set the agenda of critical age and aging studies and contribute to the field's further development.

Conversations

Conversations (4,000 words) is a solicited essay based on interviews with scholars in the field of critical age/ing studies and gerontology.

Forum Introduction

A Forum Introduction (1000 words) is written by the guest editors of a Forum and highlights its topicality and relevance to the study of age, aging, and later life.

Copyright Notice

From issue 6 (2022) onward, Age, Culture, Humanities uses the CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 license (CC BY-NC-ND). More information on this license can be found here. Authors retain their copyright. 

For articles published in previous issues (1,2,3,4 and 5) the authors retain their copyright to their articles. Readers can download, read, and link to the articles published in issues 1-5, but they cannot republish these articles. Authors can upload them in their institutional repositories.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered on this site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of the journals and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.  

Information about a user will be saved as long as the user is active. If the user has been inactive for a year, the user will be contacted by e-mail. If the user does not respond to this e-mail, the user account and information about the user will be deleted after 1 month. If the user has participated in editorial work (e.g. as an editor, guest editor, or reveiwer), or has submitted an article to a journal, the user account and information will be saved for 3 years after the last editorial job or submission.