Submissions

Author Guidelines

A peer-reviewed scholarly journal, BC Studies welcomes the submission of article manuscripts* dealing with all aspects of the place called British Columbia, its water- and landscapes, and its cultural, economic, social, and political life, past and present. The average article length is between 7,500 and 9,000 words.

*Note: BC Studies currently has a twelve-month embargo period before articles become open access. We are in the process of transitioning to immediate open access by 2028.

All use of AI should be documented according to the most recent Chicago Manual of Style.

In recognition of the scholarly imagination, BC Studies also accepts submissions for peer review in a range of other scholarly forms including research notes, case comments, photo essays, scholarly podcasts, soundworks, and digital media.** See details below for specific submission requirements.

**Note: All peer-reviewed works listed below are published as immediate open access.

Research Notes attend to diverse knowledge practices, political projects, alliances and/or engagements in any field of research that relate to British Columbia. These are shorter essays that may include, research stories, works in progress, innovative methodologies, problems or dilemmas encountered during research, etc. We encourage critical (i.e. not solely descriptive) work that is grounded in scholarly literatures within relevant fields of knowledge production. The average Research Note is between 3,000 and 6,000 words, although shorter and longer submissions may occasionally be considered.

Case Comments engage with the scholarship and significance of important legal decisions relevant to British Columbia.  The average Case Comment is between 3,000 and 6,000 words words, although longer submissions may occasionally be considered.

Photo Essays present scholarly findings about some aspect of British Columbia that rely to a large extent on visual evidence.  Photo Essays range in length from 3,000 to 7,500 words and include approximately ten to twelve images.

Scholarly Podcasts extend our commitment to disseminating new knowledge forms from diverse voices and trans-disciplinary perspectives. Scholarly Podcasts may present original research results and/or engage existing scholarship about British Columbia in new ways.  The presentation of research or scholarship should be tailored to the podcast medium. More information about scholarly podcasts is available here.  We accept standalone episodes or short series. Sound files should be cleanly edited and listenable, and may be submitted in any file format. There is no set length; we suggest between fifteen and ninety minutes as a guideline. Podcast submissions should be accompanied by i.) a text that is between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length and that situates the podcast within the relevant scholarly literature; and ii.) a full bibliography of the research behind the podcast (that includes and goes beyond the references cited in the accompanying text). We encourage the submission of transcripts and show notes, as well. Accepted Scholarly Podcasts will be published with the accompanying text and bibliography, as well as transcripts and show notes (if available), in the Podcasts section of the BC Studies website; and the text, bibliography, and URL will be published in the print journal.

Soundworks are peer-reviewed sonic compositions or recordings that extend our commitment to disseminating knowledge about British Columbia, in this case through sound as a form of knowing. Soundworks engage with sonic expressions, phenomena, or explorations of sounds in, about, or of British Columbia. Soundworks may be site-specific and/or related to particular questions, intentions, or creative processes, and may be approached from various epistemological perspectives, including activist, phenomenological, ecological, cultural, historical, artistic, political, or ethical. Possible forms include narrative or non-narrative voice, music, soundscape, storytelling, collected or created sound and noise. Soundworks submissions should include the audio piece and a textual accompaniment. Audio files should be submitted as mp3s and should be accompanied by a short text, between 250 and 2,000 words in length, that directly relates to the audio piece. The text may take a range of forms including essay, poem, or story, and must engage in some way with sound studies (e.g. anthropology of sound, acoustic ecology, musicology, ethnomusicology), storytelling, or another approach that critically addresses the multi-dimensionality of sound. Accepted Soundworks will be published along with the accompanying text in the Soundworks section of the BC Studieswebsite; and the text and URL will be published in the print journal.

Digital Media submissions are our newest category of peer-reviewed scholarship. We encourage submissions from makers of innovative multi-modal scholarship who engage with topics and themes of importance to the region.  Digital Media submissions may include digital storytelling; digital curation online or in museum, gallery, or archival settings; place-based and/or community-led gaming; language revitalization apps; and/or digital mapping including participatory GIS, community or environmental mapping, and story mapping. Digital Media submissions should be accompanied by i.) a short text that is between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length and that situates the digital media within the relevant scholarly literature; and ii.) a full bibliography of the of research behind the digital media (that includes and goes beyond the references cited in the accompanying text). Accepted Digital Media pieces (and/or links to them) will be published along with the accompanying text in the Digital Media section of the BC Studies website; and the text and URL will be published in the print journal.

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Note:

• All submissions should be accompanied by an abstract of between 200 and 300 words;
• Word counts above are guidelines; shorter or longer submissions may occasionally be considered;
• Each full-page table, map, photo, or other illustration is equivalent to 450 words; and each half page figure is equivalent to 225 words;
• Colour images will be printed in colour;
• All submissions should be submitted online through the Open Journal System (OJS)

To make a submission

please visit www.bcstudies.ubc.ca/ojs, register as an author, and follow the submission instructions.

Ensuring a blind peer review

Ensuring a blind peer review

To ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review process for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of authors and reviewers from being known to each other. This requires authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) to take the following steps to delete or remove identities from their text and the document properties. Please ensure that:

• The authors of the submission have deleted their names from the text. For purposes of peer review, any self-citations in footnotes or references should appear as “Author redacted, title redacted, [year of publication].” If the submission is accepted, the full citation will be added following the peer review process, and prior to publication.
• With Microsoft Office documents, all users’ identification should be removed from file properties. Please visit a Microsoft help or support page that explains this process for the version of Word you are using.
• With PDFs, all users’ names should be removed from Document Properties, found under File on Adobe Acrobat’s main menu.

Publication Agreement

Making a submission to BC Studies implies a commitment to publish in this journal. Authors and/or creators of submissions, reviews, and other materials accepted for publication in BC Studies are required to sign a Publication Agreement that formally assigns to the journal all rights in their work. The Publication Agreement also stipulates that only original submissions will be accepted for publication and that neither the submission, nor a version of it, has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere.

Style and format

Text and reference style should follow The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), 18th edition. The following examples are provided to illustrate general rules. Please consult CMS for more detailed information and/or for instances not described below.

Formatting your document

• Use Times New Roman, 12-point font throughout.
• Ensure all text is left-aligned (not centred or justified).
• Double-space all text except block quotes, which should be single-spaced.
• Indent block quotes 0.5 inches.

Citations

• We accept either of the CMS citation styles: “Notes and Bibliography”  or “Author-Date” style.
• If you follow the “Notes and Bibliography” style, do not include a bibliography or works cited, and follow the guidelines for formatting footnotes, giving the full citation at first instance and the shortened citation thereafter.
• If you follow the “Author-Date” style, include a list of works cited.

• Page numbers are not preceded by “p.”
• Italicize book titles: A Crossroad in the Forest: The Path to a Sustainable Forest Sector in BC; The Resettlement of British Columbia.
• Use quotation marks for titles of articles or chapters within a book.
• Cite journal articles by volume and issue number.
• Cite specific page numbers in footnotes.
• Shorten the title of sources that have been previously cited: McDonald, A Long Way to Paradise, 100.
• Repeat author’s name and shortened title instead of using “ibid.”
• In references to newspapers, include article title and page number where it exists: “More New Vessels,” Victoria Colonist, 19 January 1898, 8.
• Italicize the names of statutes and court cases: Agricultural Land Commission Act, Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia.
• Archival materials should be cited in ascending order from most specific to least specific: file, box, fonds, archive.
• Do not italicize non-English words

Spelling

• Please consult the Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2nd edition, 2004) to confirm correct spellings. If the dictionary recognizes alternative spellings, the first one listed is preferred.

Possessives

• Possessives in last names ending in “s” must follow CMS: James’s, Hughes’s, etc.

Punctuation

• For dashes within a sentence, use an em-dash or double hyphens with a space on both sides ( — ).
• For a range of numbers, use an en-dash: (1872–78).
• Include the serial (Oxford) comma before the last item in a series: “Simpson, Ogden, and Douglas.”
• Place periods and commas inside quotation marks: “The legislation was hopelessly inadequate.” Or, if a page number is required: “The legislation was hopelessly inadequate” (119).
• Do not insert spaces between the initials of people’s names in the text, footnotes, or bibliography: E.W. Hamber, k.d. lang, W.A.C. Bennett.

Dates and Numbers

• For dates, the day precedes the month followed by the year: 28 February 2009; 27 September; September 1940 (no comma); 1960s (no apostrophe).
• For year ranges, use two digits in the second year (1872–78), except in an original title or quote (in which no change should be made), or when the century changes, for example, 1858–1914.
• Spell out numbers less than 100 that indicate quantity:
• eighteen kilometres
• fifty-two years
• ninety-nine copper kettles
• nineteenth century
• 127 marten pelts
• Use figures for numbers that do not indicate quantity:
• grade 6
• 8 percent (not %)
• 2 o’clock

Abbreviations

• Use BC when it functions as an adjective: BC politics. Otherwise spell out “British Columbia” in full.
• Spell out First World War and Second World War (instead of WWI, WWII).
• No periods with acronyms (NASA, NATO) or initialisms (US, CBC, BC, HBC).
• Do not italicize abbreviations such as et al., ca., i.e., e.g.

Capitalization

• Generally, only proper nouns and formal titles should be capitalized, except when capitalization is necessary to avoid ambiguity.

Quoted matter

• Quoted matter less than 100 words in length less than four lines long should generally be run into the text.
• Block quotes should be indented 0.5 inches, single-spaced, and left-aligned (not justified).

Metric vs. imperial measurements

• Use metric measurements; where necessary, convert miles to kilometres, feet to metres, acres to hectares, etc.

Geographical terms

• Conventions for some common references include: interior British Columbia, the Interior; coastal islands, the Coast; northern British Columbia, the North; the North Pacific, the northern Pacific.
• Somewhere in the text or main body of your submission (not the notes), please situate your study (regardless of its subject matter) with respect to a relevant Indigenous place names(s), territory, language, and/or Indigenous People(s).

Inclusive Language

• The Chicago Manual of Style (18th online edition) discusses how to use inclusive language, avoid bias, and follow preferred usage around disability, gender, and identity (5.255 - 5.257). Greg Younging’s Elements of Indigenous Style: A Guide for Writing by and about Indigenous Peoples (2nd ed. Brush Education, 2025) provides specific guidance for writing about Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Nationalities and groups of people

• Capitalize specific national, linguistic, tribal, cultural, and other groupings of people: Indigenous, Asian, Italian, Caucasian, Indo-European, Black, First Nations.

Terminology for Indigenous People(s), people, and persons

• Indigenous is the preferred general term and should be used as an adjective (e.g. Indigenous People(s), Indigenous rights). First Nations, Aboriginal (adjective), Inuit, and, Métis may be appropriate in certain contexts. Their usage should accord with their specific constitutional and legal meanings. “Indian” is rarely used, unless for Department of Indian Affairs, Indian Act, Indian Agent, Indian Reserve, etc.
• Unless quoting from another source, use the current preferred autonyms of specific Peoples, e.g., Kwakwaka’wakw (not Kwakiutl), Nuu-chah-nulth (not Nootka), Nlaka’pamux, (not Thompson), and so on. In some instances, it may be appropriate to clarify the correspondence between current and prior terminology. Example: Tsay Keh Dene First Nation (also known as “Tsay Keh Dene Band,” formerly known as “Ingenika Indian Band”).
• Capitalize “People(s)” in “Indigenous People(s)” when referring to entire People(s) with a specific shared collective identity; and/or when referring to one or more distinct Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit, Métis, Native American, etc.) societies in their entirety.
• Do not capitalize “people” in “Indigenous people” when referring to a number of Indigenous persons, i.e., individuals.
• Helpful resources for territories, languages, and current terminology include
• “First Nations in BC” (British Columbia Assembly of First Nations)
• “First People’s Map of BC” (First Peoples’ Cultural Council)
• “First Nations A-Z Listing,” (Government of British Columbia)

Graphics and Images

• BC Studies welcomes the addition of illustrations, maps, graphs, or photographs to your article. BC Studies has a preferred style for illustrations and maps, and may ask for illustrations and maps to be reworked by a cartographer familiar with this style. If your article includes graphs, please be prepared to provide either the original data, .eps, or .tiff files. We encourage the inclusion of photographs with manuscripts. If you would like to use photographs, we require files with a resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch). If you have prints or old-fashioned slides, please scan the image at 300 dpi.
• Provide alt text for any images you would like to include, for example photographs, paintings, maps, tables, charts, graphs, or other illustrations. Alt text is a short written description of an image and should be specific and concise. The following websites include helpful guidelines on writing effective alt text: “Digital Accessibility” (Harvard University); UBC Press submission guidelines; the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C); and the Canadian Radio-television Commission guide to creating accessible documents.

Right and Permissions

• The author or creator is responsible for ensuring that any copyrighted material (text, sound, or images) reproduced in their work is used with permission, and for any costs associated with obtaining rights and permissions. BC Studies may be able to assist with these costs in particular, exceptional cases. Please note that BC Studies is a non-profit organization, thus not-for-profit rates and discounts apply when seeking permissions or prints.