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Palgrave Discourse Publications, edited by DiscourseNet

The DiscourseNet Association | DN Publications | Palgrave Discourse Publications

Editor: Johannes Angermuller (Open University, Milton Keynes, UK / EHESS, Paris, France)
Editorial board: Cristina Arancibia (linguistics; Santiago de Chile), Aurora Fragonara (linguistics; Bergamo, Italy), Péter Furkó (communication, linguistics; Budapest, Hungary), Jens Maesse (sociology; Gießen, Germany), Eduardo Chávez Herrera (linguistics, semiotics; Warwick, UK), Benno Herzog (sociology/philosophy; Valencia, Spain), Michael Kranert (linguistics; Southampton, UK), Jan Krasni (communication, German Studies; Niš, Serbia), Yannik Porsché (sociology; München, Germany), Luciana Radut-Gaghi (communication studies; Cergy-Pontoise, France), Jan Zienkowski (communication studies; Brussels)

As a part of DiscourseNet publications, Palgrave Discourse Publications comprises the Discourse Studies Collection, which publishes fully peer-reviewed articles in the open access journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, and the book series Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse. Edited by Johannes Angermuller together with members of DiscourseNet, Palgrave Discourse Publications welcomes new, exciting, and high-quality manuscripts in discourse research from all disciplinary and geographical backgrounds. DiscourseNet is an international and interdisciplinary network of researchers which is open to discourse analysts and theorists from all backgrounds. You do not have to attend the regular DiscourseNet events to publish in Palgrave Discourse Publications, which is open to all discourse researchers. However, we recommend you to register on http://www.discourseanalysis.net and you'd be welcome to present published or unpublished work at one of DiscourseNet events.

Palgrave Discourse Publications expects your manuscript to be written in good academic English, focussing on intellectually stimulating problems and addressing an interdisciplinary community of discourse scholars. As submissions to the Palgrave Discourse Collection will have to be ready for publication, we strongly recommend obtaining an informed response from experienced members of your field before submitting your article manuscript or book proposal. The Palgrave Discourse Collection does not evaluate work in progress. If you want to publish in Palgrave Discourse Publications, you will send in your journal contribution (in form of an abstract) or your book proposal through the Palgrave submission platform (articles and books). An informed response on first drafts, work in progress or pre-versions can be obtained from DNCWPS (DiscourseNet Collaborative Working Paper Series, which also accepts work in languages other than English).

Making a proposal

Journal article proposals for the Discourse Studies Collection should in the first instance be sent to the editorial team at: palcomms@palgrave.com. Editors will endeavour to provide feedback on your abstract outline within a week. Full article submissions will be subject to double-blind peer review following submission to Palgrave Communications (in line with the journal’s standard policies). On average, the journal provides an editorial decision (that is, a decision following the outcome of peer review) on a paper within approximately 45 days following initial submission, although this may vary slightly due to the availability of reviewers and editors. The journal’s average timeframe from submission to acceptance for publication is approximately 130 days. 

As an open access journal, Palgrave Communications provides immediate, free online access to all articles, published under a Creative Commons attribution licence (CC BY) by default to support maximum dissemination and use. The many benefits of open access are outlined here. The journal uses an Article Processing Charge business model (learn more). Authors who lack Open Access funding via either their institution or funding body are eligible to apply for a discount or full waiver of the fee (this must be discussed with the Palgrave team before submission).

Book proposals for the Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse books series should be concise and right to the point of your project. We suggest you send in your book proposal after having started writing up your project so that you can show substantial work. Usually you would send in a first chapter and/or a draft of the introduction. Please concentrate on the substantial research questions you want to work on and avoid empty rhetoric of academic excellence (e.g. adjectives like ‘timely’, ‘world-leading’).

Articles and books are produced by Palgrave’s high-quality production lines and distributed electronically through the renowned Springer Link platform (books) or nature.com (in the case of the journal Palgrave Communications). If you have any questions, please have a close look at these pages where you should find answers to most of your questions or get in touch with the Palgrave team or a member of the DiscourseNet Publication Board.

Work in progress can be sent to DiscourseNet Collaborative Working Paper Series (DNCWPS), which will produce informed feedback and publish it as an online document on the DiscourseNet website. Contributors are invited to present the work at one of the DiscourseNet events.

The evaluation process 

Research that is deemed to meet the editorial quality criteria for the journal or book series will normally be accepted for publication. The quality and relevance is assessed during the peer review process, which is overseen by academics and managed by Palgrave Macmillan's in-house editorial staff.

Book proposals for Palgrave Discourse Publications

The evaluation of book proposals for the Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse book series leads to a yes/no decision from the Editorial Board and usually comes with short feedback from the Editorial Board. Upon receipt of the book proposal, the Palgrave team will send book proposals to the Editor, who will share them with the members of the Editorial Board. Members of the Editorial Board are usually expected to react within three days. The Editor will then communicate the decision to Palgrave and make suggestions for external double-blind reviewers. The Palgrave team will ask the external reviewers to produce their reviews within 30 days. Upon receipt, Palgrave will decide with the Editor whether to proceed with the publication for the books series.

Journal articles

Concerning submissions to the Discourse Studies Collection in Palgrave Communications, the process is as follows. Authors submit their manuscript, which will need to be ready for publication,  to the journal’s online submission system. The Palgrave team will then send the manuscript to the Editor, who will make an initial decision on whether to send the paper for full review or to ‘desk reject’ (if the paper is not within the collection scope or if there are concerns about academic merit).

Papers selected for review will be assessed in a full double-blind review process. For each paper, the Editor appoints two Handling Editors from the Editorial Board and the Editorial Board members suggest three to five reviewers with relevant expertise. The entire communication with reviewers goes through the Palgrave online platform and is organized by the Palgrave team. The identities of author(s) will not be revealed to the reviewers and author(s) will not be told about the reviewers.

After receipt of the reviews, the Handling Editors will decide on whether the publication should proceed. If there is a strong expectation that the manuscript will be publishable after revision, they will opt for minor or major revision. A minor revision will need to be re-assessed by the Handling Editors only on re-submission. There is usually no more than one major revision, which requires all editors and reviewers to review the entire revised manuscript. Once the Handling Editors have decided that the manuscript is ready for production, they send it to the Editor, who will assess the final manuscript in the light of the feedback received. The Editor will give the green light for fully publishable manuscripts only. The Editor’s decision may override the recommendations of the reviewers, in which case full reasoning can be requested. The authors will normally receive the reviewers’ and Editors’ feedback through the Palgrave team.

Reviewers and Handling Editors are encouraged to support new, ambitious and ‘risky’ papers. The Editorial Board expects all reviewers to point out all problems that may (or may not) be relevant for the decision-making process. A good review focuses on substantial arguments and makes specific points for improvement rather than voices the reviewer’s global opinions. ‘Overly positive reviews’ that gloss over problematic aspects or hide critical points are to be discouraged; as are ‘overly negative reviews’ that fail to identify concrete points that allow the paper to become publishable. Reviews without substantial arguments may slow the decision-making process. Papers will be assessed according to Palgrave’s rigorous scientific quality criteria and the Editorial Board makes sure there is coherence, balance and diversity among contributions and contributors. All authors are considered as potential reviewers and vice versa. All evaluators apply the same quality criteria to the authors irrespective of any involvement in the DiscourseNet community. All processes must adhere to the journal’s editorial and ethics policies.