Submissions

Aims and scope

Danish Journal of Musicology welcomes submissions on any topic of music scholarship. Submissions are not limited to any disciplinary, theoretical, or methodological approach. The journal does not impose a historical or geographic scope, though the journal as a long history of featuring strong scholarship on Danish, Nordic, and Northern European music. The journal is also particularly interested in serving as a publication venue for early-career scholars from Denmark and the Nordic region.

Submission

Manuscripts for articles should be submitted via the submission portal via this website. All authors will need to create an online account in order to submit.

Publication categories

Research article: Peer-reviewed articles that present original research. The journal does not impose any strict length requirements, but authors should contact editors in advance if they wish to submit a manuscript that significantly exceeds 10,000 words (incl. notes).

Special issues/sections: Issues/sections of peer-reviewed articles. Contact the editors if you have a proposal for a special issue for which you wish to serve as a guest editor.

Colloquy: Issues/sections of shorter non-peer reviewed articles, featuring debate, inquiry, and critique pertaining to a particular music or musicological topic. Contact the editors if you have a proposal for a colloquy for which you wish to serve as a guest editor.

Reviews: Reviews of books and other relevant material. The journal does not accept unsolicited reviews. Publishers may send material for review to the journal’s mailing address at the University of Copenhagen.

Reports: Reports on e.g. conferences, research projects, and other relevant events. The journal does not accept unsolicited reports, but please contact the editors if there is a report you wish to propose.

Sources: Danish Journal of Musicology welcomes editions or annotated translations of archival source material that is in public domain (i.e., free of copyright) but which may be difficult to obtain. The journal is also interested in submissions of field reports, interviews, and presentations of other empirical data. Sources pertaining to Danish, Nordic, and Northern European music are of special interest.

Review process

All submitted manuscripts undergo editorial screening. Research articles are selected for publication through a double-anonymous peer review process.

Non-peer reviewed articles (such as book reviews) are subject to editorial review and editing.

Special issues

Suggestions for special issues are welcome and may be directed to the journal editors. Suggestions should include a short description of the contents of the special issue vis-a-vis its scholarly scope, the team of guest editors, and an overview of potential or confirmed submissions to the issue.

The guest editors are responsible for reviewing submissions, organizing peer reviews, and editing the special issue. However, the journal's regular editors must accept a list of peer reviewers for the special issue's submissions, and publication of the special issue is contingent on a final approval by the regular editors.

Languages

The main language for publication is English, but articles in German and in the Scandinavian languages are also accepted.

Style

Danish Journal of Musicology style guide for authors

Manuscripts should be submitted through the online submission portal.

Citation and bibliographic style

The Danish Journal of Musicology uses notes-and-bibliography style, following the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. For the Chicago-style quick-guide see here.

Use footnotes for citations and explanatory notes that need not appear in the main body of the article.

For examples of references see below (final section of this document).

Language and spelling

For English-language articles the author may use any standard style of spelling (UK, US etc.), as long as it is internally consistent to the manuscript.

For other languages (Scandinavian and German), standard spelling is used.

The author is responsible for the proofreading of the manuscript. Authors, particularly those who are not writing in their first language, may wish to have their manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission.

All quotes from primary sources retain their original spelling.

Quotation marks and punctuation

Regardless of language, all punctuation (and other matters of style) follows the Chicago Manual of Style.

English-language texts use the so-called Oxford comma.

Note that double rather than single quotation-marks are used. Single quotation-marks are used for a quotation within a quotation. Manuscripts in English use inverted marks like “this”; Scandinavian uses ”this”; and German „this.”

Note that commas and periods appear inside quotation marks, but semicolons and colons appear outside:

• like “this,” and “this.” And like “this”; and “this”:

A note number should generally be placed at the end of a sentence or at the end of a clause. It should be placed outside the quotation marks and punctuation:

• Like “this.”¹

Hyphens and dashes

All English-language texts distinguish between hyphens (-) and en-dashes (–). Articles in US English further use em-dashes (—).

• Hyphens are used for compound words: “music-theoretical”, “long-term”, “state-of-the-art” etc.
• En-dashes are used to show spans/ranges of years, pages, measures etc: “1999–2001”, “18–23”, “mm. 1–8”
• In British English articles, en-dashes may also be used as a sentence-level punctuation mark used for parenthetical interruptions, emphasis, appositions, etc.: “This result – unexpected at first – reshaped the discussion”
• Em-dashes are used in US English in the same way as above, but without spaces on either side of the em-dash “This result—unexpected at first—reshaped the discussion”.

Articles in the Scandinavian languages and German follow standard punctuation.

Tables, figures, and examples

All musical examples, figures, and tables should be numbered and contain a caption. The manuscript should indicate them by use of a callout, e.g., < FIG. 1 ABOUT HERE >, indicating approximately where each item should be placed in the final version. Callouts should be placed on a new line after the paragraph where the figure, table, or example is mentioned. A separate Word document listing all captions should be included, including a full citation and permissions information, where relevant, for each. Digital images should be uploaded separately in high-resolution.

Contributors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any material for which they do not hold copyright and for ensuring that the appropriate acknowledgments are included in their manuscript. The cost of permissions and of visual reproductions will be the responsibility of the author. 

Musical terminology

Use musical terminology consistent with the language of the manuscript (e.g. quaver for British, eighth note for US spelling etc.).

For terms, titles of works etc., following Grove and the Chicago Manual of Style, titles of works like operas, oratorios, recorded albums etc. are italicized, whereas songs and shorter compositions are set in roman and quotation marks; instrumental works are capitalized, but not italicized (though attached descriptive titles are kept in italics). For example:

• Carl Nielsen’s Symphony no. 3 (Espansiva).
• “Barbie Girl” from Aqua’s album Aquarium.

Examples of references in Chicago style:

For the Chicago-style quick-guide see here.

Journal Articles

Notes

Thomas Jul Kirkegaard-Larsen, “Transformational Attitudes in Scandinavian Function Theory,” Theory and Practice 43 (2018): 87.

Kristine Ringsager and Katrine Wallevik, “Other Ways of Knowing the Danish Music Industry: From Disorientation to Feminist Collective Capacity,” Popular Music and Society 47, no. 2 (2024): 140–41. doi:10.1080/03007766.2024.2367747.

Shortened note

(Note that Chicago style no longer uses “ibid.” but instead uses a shortened note.)

Kirkegaard-Larsen, “Transformational Attitudes,” 89.

Ringsager and Wallevik, “Other Ways of Knowing,” 142.

Bibliographic entry (in alphabetical order)

Kirkegaard-Larsen, Thomas Jul. “Transformational Attitudes in Scandinavian Function Theory.” Theory and Practice 43 (2018): 77–110.

Ringsager, Kristine, and Katrine Wallevik. “Other Ways of Knowing the Danish Music Industry: From Disorientation to Feminist Collective Capacity.” Popular Music and Society 47, no. 2 (2024): 137–57. doi:10.1080/03007766.2024.2367747.

Books

Note that a place of publication is no longer required in book citations.

Notes

Jens Hesselager, Musik i Danmark: Den korte historie (Multivers, 2022), 133.

Knud Jeppesen, Counterpoint: The Polyphonic Vocal Style of the Sixteenth Century, trans. Glen Haydon (Prentice-Hall, 1939), 70–72.

Morten Michelsen, et al., ed. Tunes for All?: Music on Danish Radio (Aarhus University Press, 2018).

Shortened note

Hesselager, Musik i Danmark, 133.

Jeppesen, Counterpoint, 70–72.

Michelsen, Tunes for All?

Bibliographic entry (in alphabetical order)

Hesselager, Jens. Musik i Danmark: Den korte historie. Multivers, 2022.

Jeppesen, Knud. Counterpoint: The Polyphonic Vocal Style of the Sixteenth Century. Translated by Glen Haydon. Prentice-Hall, 1939.

Michelsen, Morten, Mads Krogh, Iben Have, and Steen Kaargaard Nielsen, eds. Tunes for All?: Music on Danish Radio. Aarhus University Press, 2018.

Chapter or other part of edited book

Notes

Anja Mølle Lindelof, “Why Do Broadcasting Corporations Have Orchestras?” in Tunes for All?: Music on Danish Radio, ed. Morten Michelsen et al. (Aarhus University Press, 2018), 241–258.

Shortened note

Lindelof, “Orchestras?” 244.

Bibliographic entry (in alphabetical order)

(The page range for a chapter in a book is no longer required in bibliography entries.)

Lindelof, Anja Mølle. “Why Do Broadcasting Corporations Have Orchestras?” In Tunes for All?: Music on Danish Radio, edited by Morten Michelsen, Mads Krogh, Iben Have, and Steen Kaargaard Nielsen. Aarhus University Press, 2018.

Dissertations

Notes

Daniel Grimley, Nielsen, Nationalism and Danish Musical Style (Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1998).

Shortened note

Grimley, Nielsen.

Bibliographic entry (in alphabetical order)

Grimley, Daniel. Nielsen, Nationalism and Danish Musical Style, Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1998.

Newspaper or Magazine Articles

Note that following the Chicago Manual of Style newspaper articles can be omitted from the References section if necessary.

Notes

Poul Henningsen, “Til Josephine Baker,” Politiken, 28 June 1928.

Carl Nielsen, “Jazzmusik og Revysang,” Hjemmet, 17 June 1925.

Sanne Krogh Groth, “Sound Bath at the Edge of the Headland,” Seismograf, 8 September 2025, https://seismograf.org/node/20814.

Shortened note

Henningsen, “Josephine Baker.”

Nielsen, “Jazzmusik.”

Groth, “Sound Bath.”

Bibliographic entry (in alphabetical order)

Groth, Sanne Krogh. “Sound Bath at the Edge of the Headland.” Seismograf, 8 September 2025, https://seismograf.org/node/20814.

Henningsen, Poul. “Til Josephine Baker,” Politiken, 28 June 1928.

Nielsen, Carl. “Jazzmusik og Revysang,” Hjemmet, 17 June 1925.

Reviews

Notes

Lea Wierød Borčak, “Faber sætter musikken i centrum,” review of Den danske sang, by Phillip Faber, Sang no. 1–2 (2021).

Robin Stowell, review of The Northern Silence: Journeys in Nordic Music and Culture, by Andrew Mellor, The Strad, 10 Jan. 2023.

Shortened note

Borčak, “Faber sætter musikken.”

Stowell, review of The Northern Silence.

Bibliographic entry (in alphabetical order)

Borčak, Lea Wierød. “Faber sætter musikken i centrum.” Review of Den danske sang, by Phillip Faber. Sang no. 1–2 (2021).

Stowell, Robin. Review of The Northern Silence: Journeys in Nordic Music and Culture, by Andrew Mellor. The Strad, 10 January 2023.

Musical Scores

In the References section, scores may be placed seperate from the bibliography, if convinient.

Notes

Niels W. Gade, Works for Male Choir / Works for Equal Voices, Niels W. Gade Works vol. 11, ed. Bjarke Moe (Foundation for the Publication of the Works of Niels W. Gade, 2019).

Højskolesangbogen, 19th ed. (Forlaget Højskolerne, 2019).

Tekla Griebel-Wandall, “Elselil,” Folkevise-Album (Nordisk Musikforlag, 1906).

Shortened note

Gade, Works for Male Choir.

Højskolesangbogen.

Griebel-Wandall, “Elselil.”

Bibliographic entry (in alphabetical order)

Gade, Niels W. Works for Male Choir / Works for Equal Voices, Niels W. Gade Works vol. 11. Edited by Bjarke Moe. Foundation for the Publication of the Works of Niels W. Gade, 2019.

Griebel-Wandall, Tekla. “Elselil.” In Folkevise-Album. Nordisk Musikforlag, 1906.

Højskolesangbogen, 19th edition. Forlaget Højskolerne, 2019.

Sound Recordings

In the References section, recordings may be placed as a seperate discography, if convinient.

Note: Recordings that have since been uploaded to e.g. YouTube should primarily reference the original source. For digital recordings other than compact discs, a streaming service or file format may be noted if relevant but is not required.

Notes

Aqua, “Barbie Girl,” Aquarium, Universal UMD 85020 (1997), compact disc.

Alice Babs and Svend Asmussen, Scandinavian Folk Songs Sung and Swung!, Philips, PHS 600-184 (1964), LP.

Carl Nielsen, Symphony No. 5 Op. 50, New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, Columbia ML 6414 (1963), LP.

Shortened note

Aqua, “Barbie Girl.”

Babs and Asmussen, Scandinavian Folk Songs.

Nielsen, Symphony No. 5.

Bibliographic entry (in alphabetical order)

Aqua. “Barbie Girl.” Aquarium. Universal UMD 85020 (1997), compact disc.

Babs, Alice, and Svend Asmussen Scandinavian Folk Songs Sung and Swung!, Philips, PHS 600-184 (1964), LP.

Nielsen, Carl. Symphony No. 5 Op. 50. New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Columbia ML 6414 (1963), LP.

Liner notes

Sture Wahlberg and Roland Ferneborg, liner notes for Alice Babs and Svend Asmussen, Scandinavian Folk Songs Sung and Swung!, Philips, PHS 600-184 (1964).

Video/film Recordings

Note: YouTube videos (and similar) citations should include in order: the relevant author of the content, the title of the video, the username and date of the upload, the hosting site, full timestamp, and URL. Livestreams should be indicated as such. 

Notes

Jada, “Jada - Lonely – NorthSide Festival 2019,” Erikjmd2. 2 Nov. 2019. YouTube video, 5:17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc4_p6uoMLg&list=RDRc4_p6uoMLg&start_radio=1

Erik Balling, dir. Olsen-banden ser rødt (Nordisk Film, 1976).

Shortened note

Jada, “Jada – Lonely.”

Balling, Olsen-banden ser rødt.

Bibliographic entry (in alphabetical order)

Jada. “Jada - Lonely – NorthSide Festival 2019.” Erikjmd2. 2 November 2019. YouTube video, 5:17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc4_p6uoMLg&list=RDRc4_p6uoMLg&start_radio=1

Balling, Erik, director. Olsen-banden ser rødt. Nordisk Film, 1976.

Websites

As per the Chicago Manual: It is often sufficient simply to describe web pages and other website content in the text (“As of January 12, 2026, the University of Copenhagens website listed…”). If a more formal citation is needed, it may be styled like the examples below. For a source that does not list a date of publication or revision, include an access date (as in example note 2).

Notes

Google, “Privacy Policy,” Privacy & Terms. Last modified 11 Dec. 2025. https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US

Thomas Dinesen, “Lys over turbulent kunstnerægteskab,” Danish Broadcasting Corporation, 6 Jan. 2026. https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/nyt-lys-over-turbulent-kunstneraegteskab

University of Copenhagen, “Musicology,” accessed 12 Jan. 2026. https://artsandculturalstudies.ku.dk/research/musicology/

Shortened note

Google. “Privacy Policy.”

Dinesen, “Turbulent kunstnerægteskab.”

University of Copenhagen, “Musicology.”

Bibliographic entry (in alphabetical order)

Google. “Privacy Policy.” Privacy & Terms. Last modified 11 December 2025. https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US

Dinesen, Thomas. “Lys over turbulent kunstnerægteskab.” Danish Broadcasting Corporation, 6 January 2026. https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/nyt-lys-over-turbulent-kunstneraegteskab

University of Copenhagen, “Musicology.” Accessed 12 January 2026. https://artsandculturalstudies.ku.dk/research/musicology/