The Oxfordian: Guidelines
Information for Authors
Submission Guidelines (revised April 2026)
The Oxfordian seeks articles up to a maximum of 10,000 words. Unless what you have written is truly ground-breaking and especially compelling, we will not publish anything that exceeds this limit.
The Oxfordian is published once a year, in the Fall. Accordingly, for an article to be eligible for publication it should be submitted no later than May 31st of that year.
Article submissions to The Oxfordian must be emailed as an editable attachment in Microsoft Word format (.DOC or .DOCX), or in Rich Text Format (.RTF). Portable Document Format files (.PDF) or mailed hard-copy paper manuscripts will not be considered.
The submission should be anonymized, with the author’s name removed, and any potentially identifying information in the text or headers redacted or phrased in the third person.
All submissions first go through a desk review by the Editor to determine whether or not they are ready for external peer review. This stage checks for clarity, structure, scholarly contribution, and fit with the journal’s scope. Desk review helps ensure that manuscripts entering peer review meet a minimum standard of readiness and do not place unnecessary demands on reviewers’ time.
Possible Outcomes of Desk Review
- Sent to peer review
- Returned to the author for revision
- Desk rejected with constructive feedback
To keep the process fair and efficient:
- Most manuscripts receive one opportunity to revise for desk reconsideration.
- A second round may be offered if the manuscript shows strong potential and the author has made meaningful progress.
- More than two rounds is not normally offered. If the manuscript is still not ready for peer review, it will be declined at the desk stage.
If an article passes this stage, it goes through a double-blind review process: peer reviewers will not be told the name of the author, and authors will not be informed who reviewed their submissions.
Papers must adhere to the MLA format, with in-text citations indicating relevant sources and endnotes used only for explanatory content. Modernized spelling is preferred in most quotations from old sources.
Book Reviews
Book reviews may be lightly edited for clarity, style, and length. Editors may adjust wording or paragraph order to improve readability, but will not change the reviewer’s evaluative judgment or meaning except in cases of potentially legally sensitive or defamatory statements. If any edit could affect substance or tone, the revised version will be returned to the reviewer for approval before publication.
Proposals for articles and book reviews are welcome, and letters to the editor are encouraged. Please contact Editor Michael Dudley at oxfordian@shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org
Statement on the Use of Artificial Intelligence
If artificial intelligence tools have been used in the preparation of a manuscript for research purposes or data analysis, or for editing and/or proofreading, authors must acknowledge this in an author’s note, specifying which tools were used and in what manner.
