Full articles should aim to be a maximum of 5,000 words, including all elements (title page, abstract, notes, references, figures). This is not an uncompromising rule, and papers will not be rejected based on length alone. We expect and understand that the review process may change the word count number in either direction.
We also welcome book reviews of recently published titles (not earlier than three years before the issue that hosts the review). Such contributions will feature in a designated section of our journal.
Peer review process
Two members of the Editorial Board will read the submitted manuscripts. Make sure your article properly emphasizes the proposed thematic cluster of the UBR issues you are submitting it for. Only submissions that seem most likely to meet our thematic and editorial criteria are sent for formal review. Those manuscripts judged by the editors to not comply with the given year’s thematic cluster, to be of insufficient general interest or otherwise inappropriate are rejected promptly without external review although these decisions may be based on informal advice from specialists in the field.
Manuscripts judged to be of potential interest to our readership are sent for formal review, typically to two reviewers. At the end of the review process, the editors make the final decision of acceptance or rejection and are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published, based on the reviewers’ reports. Such decisions are always driven by the importance of the work in question to researchers and readers. The editors are guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.
Authorship
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status.
Please note that AI chatbots should not be listed as authors. If Generative AI tools (e.g. Chat GPT) or any large language models have at any point been used in the preparation of the manuscript, the authors have to clearly disclosed the use in the manuscript, including the full name of the tool used (with version number), how it was used, and the reason for use. For more information see the COPE Guidelines on Authorship and AI Tools.
Preparing your manuscript for submission
Since 2010, we have gone from a simple/open blind peer-review to a double-blind peer-reviewing system in order to ensure the quality of our published material.
Therefore, all submitted articles must be kept anonymous at all times during the reviewing process.
Articles should be sent at the email address UBRpublication@gmail.com
Structure. Your paper should be compiled in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, discussion (with subdivisions); acknowledgments (if any); works cited; funding (if any); declaration of interest statement.
1. Author details. Your name and a biographical statement of 75-100 words should be attached as a separate electronic document to your email, in order to preserve the anonymity of the author. All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the title page of the manuscript. Where available, please also include ORCiDs. One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF and the online article. Authors’ affiliations are the affiliations where the research was conducted. If any of the named co-authors moves affiliation during the peer-review process, the new affiliation can be given as a footnote. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after your manuscript is accepted.
2. Please also include at the beginning of the article an abstract of 250-300 words and a list of carefully chosen 5-7 keywords, so as to optimize engine search and make the article more discoverable.
3. Main text introduction (including a critical evaluation of the material, demonstrating knowledge and understanding of the academic literature on the specific topic placed in context), followed by the discussion proper, using subdivisions rather than running text.
4. Acknowledgements (optional). All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support. Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of the article prior to funding details (if any), the Declaration of Conflicting Interests, and the Works Cited.
5. Funding details. Please supply all details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies as follows:
For single agency grants: This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx].
For multiple agency grants: This work was supported by the [Funding Agency 1]; under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency 2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency 3] under Grant [number xxxx].
6. Declaration of conflicting interests. UBR encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends a review of the good practice guidelines on the Ethics and Malpractice Statement. This should be added in a separate section before the reference list. If no conflict of interest exists for all participating authors, the corresponding author should use the following wording: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Formatting. The preferred format for manuscripts is Word, but .rtf files are also accepted.
Reference style. University of Bucharest Review adheres to the MLA reference style. View the MLA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style for editing and citing. All submissions must adhere strictly to the MLA Style for editing and citing.
Please also note the following requirements from the Editors:
Title. Use Times New Roman 14, Bold, single spacing, centered for the title of the article. Book titles should be marked in Italics, while titles of poems, plays, short stories and essays published in anthologies should be enclosed within double quotation marks.
Keywords and abstract. The title should be followed by an abstract and a list of 5-7 keywords (separated by semicolon).
Body of the article. Use Times New Roman 11, single spacing, justified alignment for the body of your article.
Quotations:
1. Indent block quotations and use single spacing, justified alignment.
2. Use double quotation marks for quotations in running text (single quotation marks for a quotation within your in-text quotation) and no marks for block quotations.
3. Differentiate between double quotation marks and single quotation marks ‘…’ for special use of words. E.g. In this article, I am using the term ‘presence’ to ….
Footnotes:
Footnotes should be used instead of endnotes. They are not mandatory and contain only marginal explanations and supplementary information. Please do not include editorial data in the footnotes; use the MLA in-text citation system only. Use Times New Roman 10, single spacing, justified for footnotes.
Punctuation:
1. Place punctuation marks outside quotation marks, unless they are part of the quoted material.
2. The ellipsis mark in quoted passages should be represented by three dots with spaces in between: “. . .” (instead of […] or (…)).
3. Leave no spaces with your slashes, e.g. and/or (not and / or).
In-text citations:
1. In-text or parenthetical citations are placed after the quoted material and usually contain the last name of the author and the cited page: (Blake 5).
2. In case of in-text citations that refer to websites, the last name of the author should be followed by a comma and a shortened version of the title of the section (not the website) from which the material is borrowed: (Kellner, “Critical Reflections”). If the author is unknown, use only the shortened version of the title (“Critical Reflections”).
3. When citing multiple works by the same author, the in-text citation should include the author’s last name followed by a comma, a shortened version of the work’s title (not the year of publication) and the page number: (Blake, All Religions 5), (Blake, There is No 16), (Stoppard, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern” 15), (Stoppard, “The Real Inspector” 10).
4. When citing woks by different authors with the same last name, please include the first letter of the first name as well: (A. Assmann 250), (J. Assmann 119).
Works cited:
1. Primary and secondary works should not be distinguished in the Works Cited section.
2. If two or more consecutive entries in the Works Cited section have the same author, replace the name of the author with three continuous hyphens “—” in all but the first entry.
3. The addition of DOI (Digital Object Identifier) numbers is recommended but not essential.
Photos: We are sorry we can accept no more than 3 photos per article. They should be saved in the .jpg format. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any illustrated material for which they do not hold the copyright.
ORCID
ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from one another, even those sharing the same name, and supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized. If you already have an ORCID, please associate it to your submission. ORCID iDs are published alongside articles so that fellow researchers reading them can link to the authors’ ORCID profile and their other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one.
Permissions for third-party material
You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article. The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission. If you wish to include any material in your article for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission.
Guidelines for Book Reviews
University of Bucharest Review publishes reviews of current books that showcase a potential appeal to the journal’s main audience: an international readership of scholars and students interested in literary and cultural studies (broadly defined). Given the cross/multi-disciplinary nature of the journal’s scope, reviews should focus specifically on the relevance of the book(s) in question to the journal’s scope (rather than to the author’s “home” discipline(s)).