NAIS publishes:
- Original scholarly manuscripts from all the areas encompassed within Indigenous Studies’ interdisciplinary range, including creative writing;
- Notes from the Field;
- Teaching Native American & Indigenous Studies;
- Reviews
All empirical studies must document: (1) the use of accepted ethical protocols for research with human subjects; and (2) site-specific approvals when required, including research and/or institutional review board approvals required by Native nations, tribes, or bands.
Manuscripts that are not anonymous or appropriately formatted will be returned. Authors must certify that the manuscript is not being considered by another publisher. NAIS reviews only one feature-length, Notes from the Field, or Teaching NAIS manuscript at a time from an author (or co-author). If a manuscript is under review, the Editorial Team cannot accept another manuscript (either single-authored or co-authored) until the first manuscript clears the editorial review process; Reviews are exempt from this policy. If a submitter has previously published in NAIS, the editors will not consider another manuscript until three years after the initial publication; Reviews, Notes from the Field, and Teaching NAIS manuscripts are exempt from this policy. The Editors use iAuthenticate software to check all feature-length, Notes from the Field, and Teaching NAIS manuscripts for evidence of inappropriate overlap with published sources. For more on the journal’s guidelines for ethical publication, see our Editorial Policies.
All manuscripts must be submitted electronically to journal@naisa.org
Formatting:
All submissions should be double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font (including Reference List and Notes) with 1-inch margins all around. NAIS requires that all manuscripts be prepared according to Chicago Manual of Style, either Author-Date or Note-Bibliography style.
Click Author-Date for appropriate samples, under the Journal heading, from the Chicago Manual of Style official website. Click Notes and bibliography for samples in Chicago Manual of Style.
Please note that both styles require a bibliography, that is, a reference list.
All headings should be flush left, with headline-style capitalization.
Level 1 or A: FLUSH LEFT, BOLD, ALL CAPS
Level 2 or B: Flush Left, Upper and Lower Case, Bold
Level 3 or C: Flush Left, Upper and Lower Case, Italicized
Feature-length Manuscripts:
Original scholarly manuscripts should be anonymous for peer review, length 10,000 to 12,000 words including endnotes and reference list. Submit:
(1) double-spaced, anonymous manuscript as one Word document (do not send a pdf), including the title and abstract (150-200 words). Do not include author name(s) on or in the manuscript. Click to download a PDF regarding how to make a manuscript anonymous. Click to read about writing an effective abstract.
(2) Any illustrations, figures, or artwork should be sent as individual files (such as tiff or jpeg) not embedded in the manuscript file. Tables may be embedded within the text of the manuscript. Please include figure captions and credits in your text. If figures were produced by the author, indicate if the images have been published before.
(3) In a separate document, biographical statement(s) for each author (50 words each), and contact information for each author, including name, affiliation, email address, physical mailing address, and phone number.
Notes from the Field:
Notes should be anonymous for peer review, length 7,000 to 9,000 words including endnotes and reference list. Notes from the Field offers a forum to report on issues of debate within the field; ongoing projects of research or practice; and descriptive, evaluative, or policy-oriented analyses of innovative models or practices within Indigenous Studies. Submit the same documents (including abstract) as described under Feature-length manuscripts.
Teaching Native American & Indigenous Studies:
Teaching NAIS offers a forum to address all aspects of the teaching and learning process focused on Indigenous studies, inside and outside of classrooms. We encourage manuscripts that focus on education in the home and community as well as within institutional settings such as schools. Possible topics could include curriculum development, pedagogical methods, learning outcomes, institutional settings and policies, best practices, program development, student-centered inquiry, and more – topical areas are open. Manuscripts might take the form of an original scholarly research article (10,000-12,000 words) or Notes from the Field (7,000-9,000 words).
Reviews:
NAIS publishes reviews of books and other materials such as films, plays, or exhibits on topics relevant to our field. The journal does not accept unsolicited reviews. To see materials that are available for review, follow us on Twitter (@review4NAIS) and like our page on Facebook (NAIS: Native American and Indigenous Studies).
Reviews should be no more than 750 words and submitted in 12-point double-spaced Times New Roman font. Please cite all direct quotes from the source being reviewed with page numbers. We will consider essays of greater length that review multiple books, films, or other materials on a particular topic, theme, or area, but please communicate with NAIS editorial staff before undertaking such an essay.
Terminology:
Please use the term most appropriate to the Indigenous group or people to whom the manuscript refers. When referring to a specific group, it is usually preferable to use the term they use to refer to themselves. Preferred general terms vary around the world; when in doubt, consult with the Editorial team.
Notes:
Use endnotes, not footnotes. Follow Chicago Manual of Style.
Artwork, photographs, maps, illustrations:
Do not embed these materials in the text of your manuscript document. Save each one (labeled by Author last name and numbered) as a separate file (such as a .tiff or .jpeg file). Use “Call outs” in the text to place each figure, in the form:
[INSERT FIGURE 1 NEAR HERE]
Each figure requires a clear caption; the captions should be included in the manuscript text. Be sure to include the source to be credited and any additional information requested by the source or creator, including copyright. The Press requires high-quality, high-resolution images (preferably 600 dpi, no less than 300 dpi) for clarity of reproduction in the print process. For fair use, see Permissions below.
Permissions:
Consult the University of Minnesota Manuscript Preparation Guide for information on copyright requirements to use artwork, photographs, poetry, song lyrics, long excerpts from previously published work (usually if it involves 10% or more of the original), and similar materials. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain all necessary permissions before an accepted manuscript can be published. Contact the NAIS Editorial Office if you have any questions.
Tables:
Tables may be embedded within the text of the manuscript. Tables can provide an efficient format for presenting information, especially quantitative measures. One drawback, however, is that Tables can be difficult for assistive technologies to read. Consider carefully how to best present or describe the information you might put in a table.
Narrative Tips:
- Use referential pronouns as sparingly as possible. Be specific. Avoid beginning a sentence or a paragraph with a referential pronoun.
- Avoid constructions such as “it is” or “there were.” Identify the actor and make that the grammatical subject; identify the action and make that the (preferably active) verb.
- Avoid qualifiers and conjunctions (and, but, yet, however, moreover, indeed, etc.) at the beginning of sentences.
- Use dates rather than relative time referents such as “recently” or “last year;” once published, your article will be read for years, even decades.
- Rephrase constructions such as “this paper argues” in more direct assertions.
- Avoid very long and grammatically complicated sentences with multiple clauses, prepositional phrases, and verbs: break it up, simplify.