Presentation
Plan
Haut de pageSupported by the Institut des sciences humaines et sociales (InSHS), part of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Esclavages & post~esclavages / Slaveries & Post~Slaveries is a new digital journal coordinated by the Centre international de recherches sur les esclavages et post-esclavages (CIRESC, PHEEAC, UMR 8053).
The creation of the journal responds to the needs of the scholarly community and to important citizen concerns: the journal’s purpose is to bring scholarly knowledge to bear on a wide-reaching societal issue. It is published on a biannual basis.
The journal is a space for scholarly publishing on a subject that is currently lacking one in the landscape of French-language academic journals. It offers a platform for open thinking on the issue of slaveries across the world, from Antiquity to the present day, so as to explore the specificities of ‘situations of slaveries and post-slaveries’, without however setting aside comparative approaches.
It is resolutely pluridisciplinary, ranging from history to geography, philosophy, economics, sociology, anthropology, art, etc. The ‘~’ sign used in the title questions the links between slaveries and its aftermath from the vantage point of chronology as well as that of the (dis)continuities between systems and representations.
The journal has an editorial board (bimonthly meetings), backed by a scientific committee with an international dimension. The high quality of the journal’s content is guaranteed by double-blind peer review.
The journal is multilingual. It welcomes previously unpublished articles in French, English, Spanish and Portuguese in order to reach out to an international audience.
It is aimed at the scholarly community but also at a wide audience. It is a cross-media project that draws upon the complementarity of different resources (texts, images, video and audio), all of which shed light on the theme of each issue in various ways.
The journal’s philosophy is to make knowledge available to as many people as possible. Content are released in open access and will not be subject to a paywall.
Section overviews
Editorial
Leads: Myriam Cottias, Céline Flory & Ary Gordien.
3,000 characters max.
Writing-based research
Thematic dossier
Lead(s): Guest scientific editor(s).
The dossier comprises previously unpublished and original articles on a topic specified in an earlier call for papers. The articles are selected after double-blind peer review, thereby ensuring that they comply with the journal’s scientific and editorial standards.
4 to 5 themed articles (45,000 characters max.).
Varia
Leads: Cédric Audebert, Jean-Pierre Le Glaunec, Sylvain Mary, Edenz Maurice, Sakiko Nakao & Romy Sanchez.
As part of the journal’s permanent call for papers, the ‘Varia’ section comprises previously unpublished and original articles on subjects other than that of the thematic dossier. The published articles are selected according to the same scientific and editorial standards that apply to the articles in the thematic dossier, that is to say, on the basis of double-blind peer review.
1 to 2 miscellaneous articles (45,000 characters max.).
Archives and terrains
Leads: António de Almeida Mendes, Dimitri Béchacq, Klara Boyer-Rossol & Elisabeth Cunin.
One day, one archive: this section presents an original document and its transcription. A brief note and a short historical commentary outline why the document is worthy of attention. The purpose of this section is also to disseminate accounts of terrains that offer initial avenues for analysis and interpretation, thereby launching research hypotheses and questioning the researcher’s relationship to their terrain, the production of material (whether ethnographic, statistical, cartographical, etc.), and the relationship with actors – in short, issues that do not necessarily appear in a completed article.
1 contribution, which may or may not be themed (10,000 characters max.).
Book reviews
Leads: António de Almeida Mendes, Beatriz Mamigonian, Nicolas Martin-Breteau, Hebe Mattos, Dominique Rogers, Marie-Jeanne Rossignol & Alessandro Stanziani.
This section includes book reviews on recent publications (released a maximum of 2 years before the book review is published). The reviewed publications must be on a topic that falls within the journal’s scientific remit. They must have the potential to further research on the slave trade, slaveries and post-slaveries (history, geography, sociology, anthropology, phil- osophy, art history, etc.). The book reviews may compare several works. The reviews will have a critical dimension, gauging the limitations and the usefulness of the published work with regard to the field or topic in question. In line with its editorial policy, the journal does not review works published by members of its editorial board.
3 to 5 contributions, which may or may not be themed (10,000 characters max.).
Image- and sound-based research
Leads: Audrey Célestine, Cécile Fromont, Charlotte Grabli & Marie Rodet.
Through filmed interviews, this section offers recordings of encounters and conversations with authors. It is also dedicated to the analysis of documents—whether films (reports, fictions, documentaries), photographs, or graphics (posters or adverts)—as well as to the circulation of copyright-free audiovisual materials put forward by researchers. This section will also invite contributors to produce documents by offering a means by which to disseminate films, series (over several issues), audio reports, sound productions, and small multimedia documents.
1 or possibly 2 contribution(s), which may or may not be themed (25,000 characters max.).
Creations
Leads: Jessica Balguy, Lotte Pelckmans, Anna Seiderer & Elvan Zabunyan.
This section explores slaveries and post-slaveries through the ways in which they are materialized, that is to say, as objects, images and literary productions: video installations, paintings, monuments, choreography, novels, etc. Its open format enables the observation of the creative forms from and through which these pasts and their contemporary resonances are constructed and renegotiated in the field of art.
1 or possibly 2 contribution(s), which may or may not be themed (25,000 characters max.).
Code of ethics
Commitments of the journal and its experts
Quality of the journal
The journal is supported by an editorial board comprising French and international specialists. This guarantees the publication’s scientific quality and editorial line. Its role is to ensure, in concert with the editors, that the good practices outlined below are upheld.
The journal also has an international scientific board comprising eminent specialists.
The membership of both committees is renewed every three years.
Review procedures
Submitted articles are subject to double-blind peer review. This ensures that they comply with the journal’s standards.
The author and expert do not know each other’s respective identities. In addition to performing its own internal evaluation, the editorial board decides upon the external experts (at least one). In cases where the experts’ opinions diverge (with reference to the review template), the board may request supplementary opinions.
Interventions from artists (within the ‘Image- and sound-based research’ and ‘Creations’ sections) are evaluated by the section leads and by members of the international board. Book reviews are evaluated by the relevant section leads and discussed with the editorial board.
An article proposal that does not correspond to the journal’s editorial line and does not fall within its remit may be refused by the editorial board without double-blind peer review taking place.
In parallel, the editor carries out a technical evaluation in order to ascertain whether the text can be integrated into the journal’s editorial process.
In the light of the above scientific and technical expert opinions, the editorial board decides whether or not to:
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publish a manuscript in its current form (or with slight modifications);
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publish a manuscript subject to substantial modifications being made: the definitive decision is thus dependent on the author’s reworking the article in line with the experts’ remarks;
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refuse publication: an expert report justifying this decision is sent to the author.
Impartiality and conflict of interest
Manuscripts are reviewed objectively, solely on the basis of their scientific content, without regard to gender, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnic origin, or authors’ institutional affiliation. Experts are asked to provide reasoned opinions; ad hominem criticism is prohibited.
In cases of conflict of interest with regard to an author or the content of the manuscript they have been asked to review, the external experts or editorial board members in question must withdraw from the review.
Any expert (internal or external) who knows that they are inadequately qualified to review a manuscript or that they are unable to do so within a reasonable time frame must inform the editorial committee that this is the case.
Plagiarism and multiple publications
The experts inform the editorial board and the editors of the journal:
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if they notice substantial similarities with other content they know of that has already been published or is in the process of being reviewed;
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if they notice the use of data by other authors without the source being mentioned.
Confidentiality
The entire editorial process is strictly confidential. Correspondence and information relating to it will not be divulged to any person not involved in the process.
No unpublished data contained in the manuscript is used or divulged before its publication without the consent of the author(s).
Editorial processing
Each accepted contribution (either in the form in which it is initially submitted, or after being reworked by the author) is edited in cooperation with the author.
The final version is always submitted to authors for validation before publication (‘final proof’).
Commitments of authors
Originality and plagiarism
Authors undertake to submit an original contribution to the journal, in other words, their contribution should not have been previously published elsewhere or simultaneously submitted to another journal.
The authors guarantee that their manuscript does not amount to counterfeit as defined in the French Code of Intellectual Property. It must not prejudice the moral rights of any other author or entity.
Defamation
Authors guarantee that their manuscript does not exceed the limits of scientific debate and does not contain any defamatory statement that could be interpreted as damaging the reputation of a third party.
Conflict of interest
Authors must inform the editors of the journal of any potential conflict of interest having motivated their approach.
Mentions of authors and references
Authors who submit an article are required to mention, in the list of co-authors, the different authors—and only these persons—who have made a substantial contribution to the development and the conception of the manuscript they are submitting.
Authors must ensure that all the co-authors have given their consent for the manuscript to be submitted and that they see and approve the publication-ready ‘final proof’.
Authors undertake to identify and provide the references for all citations of other works that they include in their study. This also applies to references to personal correspondence: in this case, they will have previously made all necessary efforts to obtain the authorization of those concerned in view of the dissemination of this information.
Requests for authorization to reproduce and feature resources
Authors must take the necessary steps to obtain the right to reproduce and feature, in physical and digital form, the iconographic and/or multimedia resources that are to be reproduced in their article, or must take care to collect copyright-free material (that is now either in the public domain or subject to a Creative Commons licence). They must obtain the explicit, written consent of people shown in photos, appearing in videos and audible in audio extracts.
Authors will pass on these authorizations to the editors in case they may be of use. The journal accepts no responsibility in this matter and reserves the right to refuse resources that may give rise to litigation.
Free and non-exclusive assignment of rights
Authors who submit an article accept the free and non-exclusive assignment of rights to reproduce and feature content to the journal Esclavages & post~esclavages / Slaveries & Post~Slaveries, in any form whatsoever, including in print. This applies to textual, iconographic and multimedia materials of which they are the author and/or rights-holder.
Erratum
If an important error is discovered in an article that has already been published, the authors must provide their corrections to the journal, or on the contrary demonstrate the accuracy of the article in question. If the error is noticed by the editorial team, it undertakes to swiftly inform the authors concerned.
In the case of a proven major error, the authors will cooperate with the journal to retract or amend the article concerned in the form of an erratum statement.