Author Guidelines

The editors invite submission of article-length manuscripts (suggested length 8,000-12,000 words) as well as shorter works of creative writing.   DSQ is a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and international journal of interest to social scientists, scholars in the humanities, disability rights advocates, creative writers, and others concerned with the issues of people with disabilities. It represents the full range of methods, epistemologies, perspectives, and content that the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field of disability studies embraces. We thus invite smart, interesting, and ground-breaking submissions engaged in developing theoretical and practical knowledge about disability and promoting the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in society.

The DSQ Editors do not make preliminary courtesy decisions about the fit of a potential submission for DSQ.  Authors considering DSQ as a potential publication venue should take the critical time and care to peruse the journal for themselves and determine the suitability of their work for DSQ.  Reviewing a few recent issues from the journal would be useful.  Key terms can also be put into the SEARCH bar to see if there are other, similar publications to a prospective author’s potential topic, methodology, approach.

DSQ does not consider manuscripts under review elsewhere or that have been previously published. We also do not accept unsolicited book reviews. All articles and pieces of creative writing published in DSQ are peer reviewed. 

DSQ asks that authors use a consistent and correct citation and reference format: APA, ASA, Chicago, or MLA.

We ask that all authors submitting manuscripts to DSQ:

  • State all sources of funding for research and include this information in either the acknowledgments (if appropriate) or as a footnote/endnote.
  • State in the manuscript, if appropriate, that the research protocol employed was approved by the relevant institutional review boards (IRB) or ethics committees for human or animal experiments and that all human subjects provided appropriate informed consent. Again, this information might appear in the acknowledgments (if appropriate) or as a footnote/endnote.

All submissions must be formatted in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx).  Documents should be submitted as a single file. 

If submissions include images or tables, authors should insert such materials in the body of the articles at the appropriate point.  All images must be accompanied by a text description. To comply with the terms of the publisher's Crossref membership, Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) must be included with references when they are available. To check for DOIs, you can use the Free DOI Lookup form on the Crossref website.

Peer Review Process

All articles and creative works are reviewed by peers who have the appropriate knowledge and expertise. When we receive a new submission at DSQ we read it first, as editors, and then determine 2-4 peer reviewers for each submission.  We contact those reviewers and begin by requesting a review back in 4 weeks time.  Reviewers don't always respond quickly (or even agree to do the review) and thus, additional reviewers, or nudges for initial reviewers, must often follow.  It is not uncommon for the peer review process to take up to 6 months although we do our best to move a new submission through the process as quickly as possible.  

If you have not heard anything back from the DSQ editors on the status of your submission in 8-12 weeks time, you should always feel free to contact us and we will update you regarding the review process for your submission.

Once we have reviews back, we read those reviews and the original submission once again; we make careful consideration in our regular editorial meetings about the next steps forward.  A DSQ Editorial Decision Letter then goes back to the author/s.  If it is a Revise & Resubmit, we indicate the extent of those revisions (and include the original peer reviewer comments).  We generally ask for a revision in 3 month's time; we also ask that such revisions also include a cover letter from the author/s that details the revisions that were made.

Final publication decisions are made by the Editor/s based on information gathered from the peer reviews and the success and extent of the revision that is re-submitted.

DSQ Special Issue Proposal Guidelines

The editors of Disability Studies Quarterly are happy to consider proposals for a special issue.  Proposals should include: 

  1. A 500 word abstract outlining your topic, current research and issues in the field, and the gaps in research your issue hopes to address.
  2. A one page CV of the special issue editor(s).
  3. A one page Call for Papers.
  4. A plan for soliciting and collecting scholarship from a wide range of academics, activists (if appropriate), and independent scholars.
  5. A plan for soliciting participants in the peer review process. 

It is the responsibility of guest editors, once selected, to solicit submissions, arrange for peer reviews, make appropriate selections of quality pieces, copy-edit selected articles, and work within the DSQ database to submit publication ready materials.  It is necessary to acquire full contact details for all contributors.  Guest Editors are expected to update DSQ editors regularly on the progress and process of the special issue.  

Interested parties should send materials to the journal editors' email at: dsqeditor@gmail.com.