our review process
MJLC’s Review Process:
Once a submission has been received, it will be reviewed by 1-2 editors assigned to that respective category.
Editors are blind to the identity of the contributors to help safeguard against unconscious subjectivity and bias.
The MJLC incorporates a linguistic justice framework in the review process to approach each piece through a more comprehensive and mindful lens.
Contributors whose pieces are selected will be contacted through the same email used to submit their work and informed of their acceptance. Simultaneously, rejection emails will be sent to pieces we cannot accommodate.
Afterwards, the editors will offer light editing suggestions and collaborate with the contributors to finalize the piece for publication. The contributor will retain the agency to accept or reject suggestions presented by the editing team.*
*The MJLC reserves the right to rescind acceptances in the case of inappropriate conduct, readability issues that may arise, etc.
The pieces we accept are selected based on genre-specific criteria that may include but are not limited to: critical lens, originality, creativity, clarity, and argument. We do not tolerate submissions that target specific groups/identities or include gratuitous violence or explicit content. As a general note, we do not accept works that contain problematic or discriminatory ideologies (e.g., racism, sexism, transphobia, etc.).
Our Managing Editor and Production Director have compiled a list of general resources below. They are not necessary to look at in order to submit; only check them out if you so choose to!
General Resources:
For academic submissions, it may be helpful to reference Purdue OWL's MLA Works Cited Page and MLA in-text Citation Guide. Purdue OWL's website also has resources for MLA formatting as well as APA citations and formatting.
MLA Works Cited general format:
Author. "Title." Title of container (self contained if book), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs and/or URL, DOI or permalink). 2nd container’s title, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable).
Sample entry: Frog, Kermit. “The Rainbow Connection.” Muppets Journal of Swamply Criticism, vol. 1, no. 30, 1974, pp. 130–1974. Muppets Database, doi:10.1234/S0123456789.
In-text citation examples:
Single author, page span: (Smith 7–13)
Single author, non-sequential pages: (Smith 7, 13)
Multiple sources: (Smith 7, 13; Doe 21)
Single source, two authors: (Smith & Doe, 13)
Single source, multiple authors (Smith et al., 13)
Linguistic justice means that we acknowledge the variety of factors that may influence a person’s language usage or departure from standardized style and grammar conventions and embrace effective subversions of these norms. Learn more here.