The Journal of Cold War Studies features articles based on archival research in the former Communist world, in Western countries, and elsewhere. Criteria for acceptance of articles include: clarity of writing, cogency of presentation, originality, and skillful use of archival materials and other new sources. Some articles offer reevaluations of important historical events or themes, emphasizing the new approaches necessitated by declassified documents and/or first-hand accounts. Other articles draw on new evidence to shed light on arguments in current theoretical debates. The journal encourages the use of new evidence for theoretical purposes, but does not exclude solid historical reassessments.
JCWS also publishes Research Notes, shorter pieces (usually 1,000 to 3,500 words) that either update earlier findings or offer a preliminary look at new findings about a particular topic. They are not meant to offer complete or final coverage of a topic. They mainly let other scholars know about important research that is under way.
Authors must submit their manuscripts as a .DOC or .DOCX file attachment to jcws@fas.harvard.edu. Only electronic submissions will be considered. Please DO NOT mail a hard copy of your manuscript.
The title of the manuscript, the author's name, and an abstract of no more than 150 words should be submitted on a separate title page or in a cover letter. Please include the title on the manuscript's first page, and be certain to remove your name and any first-person references to your published work from the manuscript. Manuscripts should be double-spaced (including all endnotes and quotations).
There is no minimum or maximum length, but most articles range from 6,000 to 16,000 words. The journal does NOT accept simultaneous submissions. Only manuscripts that are not under consideration elsewhere are eligible for submission. An article in the JCWS must not have been published previously in any form before appearing in the journal.
Citations are printed in the journal as footnotes, but may be submitted as either footnotes or endnotes. Because URLs for online sources change frequently, the journal prefers citations to hard copies of publications. Exceptions are permissible only if no hard copy was ever published and the online version is the only one available. Examples of citations for published materials can be found below (please note that if materials are published both in print and online, page numbers for the physical edition must be included in the citation):
Norman M. Naimark, The Russians in Germany : A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), p. 120.
Bela Kiraly, "Hungary's Army: Its Part in the Revolt," East Europe, Vol. 7, No. 6 (June 1958), pp. 3-16.
Ronald L. Jepperson, "Institutions, Institutional Effects, and Institutionalism," in Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell, eds., The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), pp. 143-163.
S. Kovalev, "Suverenitet i internatsional'nye obyazannosti sotsialisticheskikh stran," Pravda (Moscow), 26 September 1968, p. 3.
For archival materials, please specify the title (or type of document), the author and recipient, and the date of the document plus all archival information needed to locate the cited portion:
"Plenum TsK KPSS, Oktyabr' 1957 goda: Stenogramma tret'ego zasedaniya (utrennego)," 27-29 October 1957, in Tsentr Khraneniya Sovremennoi Dokumentatsii, Fond 2, Opis' 1, Delo 266, Listy 4-13.
"Situation Report 1500 Hours EDT," 6 September 1968, pp. 1-2, in Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, Country File, Czechoslovakia, Czech Crisis 8/68, State Situation Reports, Box 182.
After the initial specification of archive names and terms, abbreviations for those names and terms should be used. More detailed guidelines for citations are available from the Editors.
Tables, charts, and maps should be submitted on separate sheets, with the appropriate place for insertion in the text clearly marked within the text. Maps and photographs must be clear and neat for the purposes of reproduction.
After a manuscript is deemed acceptable for review, it is evaluated anonymously by at least three outside scholars. In most cases, at least two of the reviewers are members of the JCWS Editorial Board.
The JCWS welcomes review essays, survey articles, research notes, and letters responding to articles and reviews. Except for letters to the editor (which are posted on the website, not published in the journal), these submissions also are sent out for evaluation prior to a decision on publication. Books for possible review in the journal should be sent to the Editors, who then assign the books to reviewers. The postal address is:
The Editors
Journal of Cold War Studies
Harvard University
1730 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
USA
If you have any questions about the submission process, please contact the managing editor, Tristan Knight, at jcws@fas.harvard.edu.