Submissions

Author Guidelines

The Journal of Discourse, Culture & Society (JDCS) publishes cutting-edge, peer-reviewed international scholarship at the intersection of language, communication, culture, and society. Before submitting your work, please review the instructions below to ensure it fully aligns with our editorial standards, disciplinary scope, and formatting requirements.

1. Manuscript Preparation & Formatting

• Language & Style: Manuscripts must be written in English. Both British and American spelling conventions are accepted, provided usage is consistent throughout the manuscript. Authors are strongly encouraged to ensure high linguistic standards before submission.
• File Format: Submissions must be delivered as editable Microsoft Word (.docx) or Rich Text Format (.rtf) documents. PDF files are not accepted for review.
• Layout: Use standard margins (2.5 cm / 1 inch) and 12-point standard typography (e.g., Times New Roman) with 1.5 or double line spacing.
• Abstract & Keywords: Empirical and theoretical manuscripts must include a structured, single-paragraph abstract of 150–250 words that summarises the research objectives, theoretical and methodological framework, key findings, and scholarly significance. Provide 4–6 representative keywords, separated by semicolons. Abstracts and keywords are not required for Book Reviews or Commentaries.
• ORCID: Corresponding authors must provide their ORCID iD at submission; co-authors are strongly encouraged to link their ORCID profiles.

2. Anonymisation for Double-Anonymised Review

JDCS enforces a strict double-anonymised review protocol. Authors are responsible for thoroughly de-identifying their submission before uploading:

• Remove all author names, institutional affiliations, contact emails, and biographical notes from the manuscript text, headers, and footers.
• Anonymise references to your own previous publications (e.g., replace explicit self-citations with “Author, 2020” or refer to prior work in the third person rather than “In our earlier study (Author, 2020) ...”).
• Remove personal identifying information embedded in file metadata (File > Properties > Remove Personal Information).
• Acknowledgements, funding statements, ethics committee approvals, and contributor statements must not appear in the anonymised manuscript. Instead, submit these details in a separate Title Page file during submission.

3. Structure & Referencing

• Empirical Studies: Should typically follow a coherent research progression: Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Conceptual/Theoretical Framework, Data & Methodology, Analysis & Findings, Discussion, Conclusion, and References.
• Theoretical Inquiries: May employ structural subheadings tailored to develop their specific conceptual argument, accompanied by clear introductory and concluding syntheses.
• Citation Style: Follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition) strictly for both in-text citations and the reference list.
• Romanisation & DOIs: All cited sources must appear in the Roman alphabet. Non-Latin script references must be transliterated and provided with an English translation in brackets. Active DOI links in the format https://doi.org/10.xxxx must be appended to all references where available.

4. Ethics, Reproducibility & Multimodal Data

• Research Ethics: Submissions reporting research involving human participants (e.g., interviews, field observations, digital community scraping, surveys) must document approval from the institutional ethics committee and informed consent protocols.
• Multimodal Assets & Permissions: Authors are solely responsible for obtaining written permission for any copyrighted visual, audio, or textual material (e.g., high-resolution media stills, artwork, corpus excerpts, advertisements) reproduced in the article.
• AI Disclosure: Any substantive use of generative AI tools for drafting, translation, or data synthesis must be explicitly disclosed in the methodology or acknowledgements.

5. Journal Sections & Word Limits

Word limits include the main text, footnotes, and references, but exclude standalone appendices, figures, and tables. Well-reasoned exceptions to the length limits may be considered following preliminary consultation with the Editors.

• Research Articles (up to 9,000 words — Double-anonymised review): Full-length, original empirical or theoretical contributions advancing knowledge at the intersection of discourse, culture, and society. Submissions must present rigorous data analysis, methodological clarity, and substantive engagement with the current literature.
• Review Articles (up to 9,000 words — Double-anonymised review): Critical, state-of-the-art syntheses—systematic, integrative, or conceptual—that map existing bodies of scholarship, evaluate foundational debates, and delineate future trajectories within the field.
• Theoretical & Conceptual Papers (up to 9,000 words — Double-anonymised review): Substantive papers dedicated to advancing, extending, or interrogating theoretical paradigms, analytical constructs, and conceptual models across discourse studies and the social sciences.
• Methods & Approaches (up to 5,000 words — Double-anonymised review): Methodological contributions that introduce, test, or critically evaluate qualitative, quantitative, multimodal, or computational research designs, tools, or corpus-assisted frameworks.
• Short Reports (up to 4,000 words — Double-anonymised review): Focused, empirical papers presenting concise findings, targeted replication studies, pilot inquiries, or methodological notes requiring rapid scholarly communication.
• Commentaries & Debates (up to 2,500 words — Editorial review): Argument-driven interventions that address pressing controversies, theoretical tensions, policy challenges, or prior scholarship. These pieces are reviewed editorially, and counter-responses may be invited to stimulate academic exchange.
• Book Reviews (up to 1,500 words — Editorial review): Critical, contextual evaluations of recently published academic monographs, critical volumes, or edited collections that align with the journal’s scope. Book reviews are evaluated editorially; prospective authors are encouraged to query the editors before submission.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to verify that their submission complies with all of the following items; submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines will be returned to authors before review:

• Originality: The manuscript is original work, has not been published previously, and is not under consideration by any other journal or conference proceeding.
• Scope Alignment: The topic, arguments, and methodology fall squarely within the stated aims and scope of the Journal of Discourse, Culture & Society.
• File Format & Layout: The submission file is in Microsoft Word (.docx) or .rtf format, features standard margins, 1.5 or double line spacing, and includes continuous line numbering.
• Complete Anonymisation: All direct author identifying details, institutional affiliations, acknowledgements, and file properties have been stripped from the main manuscript file. A separate Title Page containing author metadata, institutional affiliations, and declarations has been prepared for upload.
• Abstract & Keywords: An abstract of 150–250 words and 4–6 keywords are included on the first page of the main manuscript (where required by the section type).
• Reference Style: Citations and references adhere rigorously to APA 7th edition standards, use the Roman alphabet, and include active, persistent DOIs where available.
• Permissions & Approvals: Formal permissions have been obtained for all third-party figures, media captures, or proprietary data, and ethical approvals are documented for research involving human participants.

Copyright Notice

• Diamond Open Access: The Journal of Discourse, Culture & Society provides immediate, permanent open access to all published content worldwide. There are no article submission charges, article processing charges (APCs), or publication fees at any stage.
• Licensing & Author Rights: All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Under this licence, authors retain unrestricted copyright and all proprietary publishing rights. Third parties may share, adapt, and distribute the work in any medium or format, provided appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and to the original publication in JDCS.
• Self-Archiving: Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their submitted version (preprint), accepted version (postprint), and publisher’s version (VoR) on institutional repositories, personal websites, and academic social networks immediately after publication.

Privacy Statement

The Journal of Discourse, Culture & Society (JDCS) is committed to safeguarding the privacy, personal data, and confidentiality of all registered users, including authors, reviewers, editors, and readers.

Collection and Use of Personal Data

Personal data entered into this journal management system—including names, email addresses, institutional affiliations, disciplinary expertise, and ORCID identifiers—is collected solely to support the editorial, peer review, and publication workflows of JDCS. Specifically, this data is used to:

• Manage manuscript submissions, editorial evaluations, and double-anonymised peer review;
• Communicate with authors, reviewers, and editors on manuscript status and publication updates;
• Accurately attribute published scholarly contributions (e.g., author metadata in published articles and in indexing feeds);
• Track editorial metrics and maintain the journal’s historical archive.

Data Protection and Confidentiality

• Personal data collected by JDCS will never be sold, leased, shared, or otherwise distributed to third parties for commercial, marketing, or promotional purposes.
• Author and reviewer identities are treated with strict confidentiality to preserve the integrity of the double-anonymised peer review process. Reviewer details are never disclosed to authors, and unpublished manuscript files are treated as privileged and confidential.
• JDCS and its publisher, Artsürem, handle all personal data in accordance with international and national data protection standards, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK, Law No. 6698).

User Rights and Data Rectification

Registered users retain the right to access, review, update, or request the deletion of their personal profiles and account information at any time via their user dashboard or by contacting the editorial office. However, anonymised peer-review records and published article metadata associated with the scientific record cannot be altered or erased retrospectively.

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