Editorial Policies

ACCESS

Grateful Dead Studies strives to balance the goal of open access with protection and control over its work. Grateful Dead Studies provides its content for free download online to individuals for personal use only; print copies of Volumes 1 – 7 will be available for purchase in early 2027.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

Each manuscript is reviewed by the Editor for general suitability for Grateful Dead Studies. (For more on the type of material the journal accepts, see Previous Issues.) Different types of submissions have different criteria for acceptance.

Essay submissions deemed suitable will be read by two appropriate reviewers from the Editorial Board and other scholarly experts in a double-blind review process. If the two readers have significant differences of opinion, the Editor will mediate and may request a third reader to review the submission. If the readers call for revision, the Editor will work with writers to address those issues.

Reviews are generally commissioned but interested reviewers may contact the Editor to request consideration. Reviews are read by the Editor who may request an outside reader. The Editor will work with contributors if revisions are required. Grateful Dead Studies is not able to provide reviewers with review copies.

SUBMISSION SCHEDULE

Grateful Dead Studies is published biennially (every two years) with final submission deadlines of May of the first year and final publication in January of the second year.

Submissions are treated on a rolling basis, following this schedule:

Initial Editorial Response: 4 weeks after first submission

Reader Responses: 10 weeks after first submission

Submissions Close: May of the first year.

Publication: January of the second year.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

  • Submissions must be in Microsoft Word and submitted electronically
    via e-mail. We do not accept hard-copy submissions.
  • The first page should have your name, the title of the piece, and
    a brief bio (3 or 4 sentences, no more than 100 words). To ensure an anonymous
    reading, there should be no personally identifying information in the rest of
    the paper.
  • Articles should be between 5,000 and 7,000 words, including notes and works cited.
  • Reviews should be 1,000 to 1,500 words.

SUBMISSION FEES

Grateful Dead Studies does not charge authors to submit or publish.

COMPENSATION

Grateful Dead Studies does not pay for contributions.

FORMATTING

  • Text must be in Times New Roman, 12-point.
  • Double-space text and use one-inch margins.
  • Center page numbers at the bottom of the page; start with 1.

HEADINGS

Use no more than three levels of heading (and strive to limit to two):

  • Main Headings: Bold and centered;
  • Subheadings: Bold and left justified;
  • Subsubheadings: Italicized and left justified.

If only using Main Headings, Roman numerals are acceptable, especially for longer articles (e.g., I, II, III, etc.). If possible, simply use an extra space between paragraphs.

GRAPHICS

  • All graphics should be embedded in the text, with appropriate call-outs (i.e., fig. 1, table 1, etc.).
  • Tables must be formatted as tables, not as text.
  • Tables, images, and musical examples must be 300 dpi and no larger than 4.5-inch x 7.5 inches.
  • Attach each graphic as a separate, high-resolution (300 dpi)  file, in TIFF of JPEG format, with your submission. Submissions that do not include high-resolution graphics will not be considered.

LYRIC QUOTATION

Most readings of Fair Use (Section 107 of the Copyright Act) preclude even short quotations of lyrics without permission. Authors are responsible for securing permission to publish all lyrics quoted. For Grateful Dead and associated lyrics controlled by Ice Nine Publishing, the Grateful Dead’s music publisher, Grateful Dead Studies has a blanket permission allowing authors to quote from the band’s songbook without charge.

OTHER PERMISSIONS

Contributors are responsible for all other permissions. If you do not have the rights to a quotation, lyric, or image, do not include it.

Grateful Dead Studies cannot attempt to obtain permissions for contributors. Please include copies of permissions received with your completed author’s agreement.

JOURNAL COPYRIGHT

All contributions to Grateful Dead Studies are governed by the Author’s Agreement available here. Contributors agree to the following terms: Copyright is owned by Grateful Dead Studies. Contributors are granted permission to republish copies of their own work published in the journal (e.g., post it to an institutional repository and/or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in Grateful Dead Studies. Grateful Dead Studies adheres to open access principles.