Reviews of Peer-Reviewed Journals in the Humanities and Social Sciences

We give you the scuttlebutt on academic journals—aiding you in selecting the right journal for publication—in reviews that are sometimes snarky, sometimes lengthy, always helpful. Written by Princeton University graduate students and Wendy Laura Belcher.

Journal of the Society for American Music

For those interested in publishing articles about the music of the Americas.

The Journal of the Society for American Music (JSAM) is published four times a year by Cambridge University Press as an official publication of the Society for American Music (SAM) . The journal encourages submissions that engage with musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, and/or other interdisciplinary fields.

The music covered in JSAM need not be from the United States; articles on music from all parts of the Americas are accepted. Therefore, due to ‘American music’ being a large umbrella term for many genres, the breadth of the journal is impressive. In any given issue, one may read about musical theater, popular music, classical music, jazz, and well as international iterations of these musical areas. Additionally, the journal advertises itself as welcoming “international dialogue.” To that end, the journal has a reputation among academics for representing a diverse array of voices and perspectives.

It still bears many similar attributes to the more restricted musicology journals, however. The average article length, for instance, is still fewer pages than JAMS, but the two journals are still quite lengthy compared to other disciplines. For instance, the average article length in JSAM is about 25-30 pages long. It does bear mentioning, though, that often, several of these pages are filled with musical examples.

Another interesting factor is that, although issues of many music journals have equal numbers of original research articles and reviews, JSAM has far more reviews; JSAM typically contains 3-4 original research articles, 5-8 book reviews, and 2-3 media reviews.

Finally, as the the journal is published four times a year, which is a lot for the field of music, it presents more opportunities for younger scholars to be published.

Useful for Submission
Word Count : 5,000-10,000 words (excluding notes)
Issues per year : 4
Current volume number in 2019: 13
Articles per year : 3-4 articles, 5-8 book reviews, and 2-3 media reviews
Citation style : The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition
Abstract length (if required): 200 words max
Relevant Editors : Loren Kajikawa; Holly Roberts; Travis Stimeling; Dana Gorzelany-Mostak; William Gibbons; Mark Davidson
Open Access : No
Online : Yes (on the Cambridge University Press website) but one needs institutional or membership access

About Wendy Belcher

Associate Professor, Princeton University, Department of Comparative Literature and the Center for African American Studies. Author of Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success. Instructor of Deep Reading Journals as Publishing Praxis.

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This entry was posted on May 20, 2019 in Humanities Journals, Music Journals.