next »

[peitho]

I've been preparing an article to submit to a journal.  I've even got one picked out. 

But my submission is far too long.  I've got about 14000 words (not counting footnotes), which is twice the length of my other articles, and I'm pretty sure most humanities journals set the max as about 9000 words.

While I also recognize that this is a happy problem, no amount of careful editing is going to cut this sucker down to size.  It represents two years of research, I've presented on the topic twice (to different audiences), and I'm ready to stop. 

Some material is new, but it's mostly a polished version of the conference talks with a more theoretical framework (with which my target audience is only vaguely familiar) that sets up the genre study.  If additional research on  related topics works out, some material can be recycled into a book, but it can't be a book on its own merit.

Do I split it into two articles or look for a different journal that will publish longer pieces?    I'm not opposed to having two articles on the topic (I'm pre-tenure), but if I do, I'll have to repeat the theoretical framework in each piece.

Suggestions?

[southerntransplant]

I'd cut it up if you can do it in a manner that yields two complete papers, rather than a paper and a half.

[sagit]

I agree.  Splitting it seems to be a good plan if you can get two coherent articles out of this.  I don't see why repeating the theoretical framework is a problem though maybe there is a difference in fields.

[jacaranda_]

I'm in lit and I do a lot of interdisciplinary work, and there are quite a few journals that do not set any limit at all.  You just send them what you've got.  Here are some with no cap on length:

ELH
differences
Criticism
Journal of Social History
Diacritics

For better or for worse, this means that I just published a 50-page article (that perhaps no one will read), but it couldn't be split in two, so I'm happy a good journal was willing to take that on.

Log in to Project Muse which lists many (all?) humanities journals by title, and has a link for each one with info. about submission guidelines.  I don't know why I didn't do this during my 3rd year of grad study, but boy, I wish I had.  I now have a folder listing basic info (MLA or CMS citation style, and length limits) on a few dozen journals.  It's actually a good psychological exercise:  just looking at that list actually makes me feel like, "Hey, surely I can get this sucker published somewhere!"

(I'm in the same pickle, by the way.  But the place that I need to send it to first caps at 10,000 words and the current ms is 18,000.  It's killing me.)