December 03 2024

Write for RSN

Religious Studies News welcomes original submissions from all AAR members that display disciplined reflection on religion—both from within and outside of communities of belief and practice—and seeks to enhance its broad public understanding.

We’re looking for a range of submissions, including:

  • Articles examining professional and student issues in higher education, religious studies, and critical theology: teaching critical approaches in the study of religion to undergraduates, employment and hiring practices, career preparation, academic publishing, etc.
  • Analysis of the role of religion and religious identification in domestic and world events
  • Interviews with scholars and administrators who are approaching the field in novel ways or with notable methodologies and research
  • Explainers: News outlets often leave out crucial background facts that would help contextualize stories. Do you have an expertise in an area that will help readers better understand a news story or ongoing event?   
  • Photo essays and visual documentation of research

Have a great idea not included here? Pitch it to us! 

After reviewing the submission guidelines, authors can submit their articles or proposals online or by contacting the editor. Prior to publication, authors submissions must accept the author agreement. Through the agreement, authors transfer rights of the article to the AAR, but they will nevertheless retain the right to republish the content in future books, anthologies, or collections of essays and to distribute the content for use in an educational, research, or nonprofit setting. In each instance, the author agrees to attribute the material's first publication to the AAR. Third parties will be able to share content under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

Pitching a proposal or submitting a complete article does not guarantee publication in RSN. The editor maintains the right to edit all submissions for length and content, to ask the author to make revisions, and to reject submissions that are inappropriate or that do not conform to our writing standards. Opinions are welcome, but personal or ad hominem attacks are not. Authors are responsible for the veracity of facts and figures provided in their articles. Articles reflect the views of their authors. Articles are not necessarily endorsed by RSN or the American Academy of Religion nor do they necessarily reflect the organization’s opinions. 

Submission Guidelines

AUDIENCE AND LENGTH

RSN is not a scholarly journal, so articles and other types of submissions should pique the interest of the general audience and should not be overly specialized or inundated with references. While RSN’s primary audience is AAR members, various subfields do not share the same research terminology or canonical works. Keep that in mind as you write and write accessibly. Authors may incorporate endnotes and include citations where necessary using the author-date system of the Chicago Manual of Style. 

Articles should typically range from 500–1,500 words in length broken down into subsections with headers every 400–700 words. Longer pieces or series should be discussed with the editor.

WHAT TO INCLUDE 

In addition to the full text of the article, authors should include:

  • a working title for the article. This may be changed by the editor for purposes of publication;
  • a short author bio of 100 words or less (required) and a headshot (optional);
  • if possible, a suggested featured image to run with the article. Images must come with permissions, either provided by a Creative Commons license or with written permission from the owner (either the author him or herself or a third party). 
  • any other media (images, audio, video clips, etc.) to run with the article. We strongly encourage authors to submit multimedia content that they have express permission to use in the RSN publication. Please provide a caption and proper credit information. Creative commons and public domain images with proper attribution are perfect. Unless a piece of media is your own, you must provide a link to its original file location. RSN authors agree to obtain and submit to RSN all necessary permissions for media prior to their article's publication. The RSN editor has the right not to include author-submitted multimedia if it is inappropriate or is not properly attributed.

EDITING PROCESS AND PUBLICATION SCHEDULE 

It is not possible to show authors every edit before the article is published. After submission, the RSN editor will review the article and will notify the author of its acceptance or rejection. Each piece is edited for style and consistency according to the Chicago Manual of Style. The editor reserves the right to edit your piece for content clarity (to the benefit of authors and readers), length, and format. She will contact you if major revision, rewriting, clarification, and/or amplification is necessary. She will not notify authors about grammar, style, clarity, or length edits ahead of publication.

Once an article is submitted, its review, editing, and publication can take two weeks to a month. Publication is also scheduled on an individual basis with consideration to maintaining a regularity of newly posted content, the time sensitivity of the content, and the diversity of other content on the publication schedule. Contributors are welcome to suggest a publication timeframe with the understanding that the editor will ultimately decide the optimal date for publication.