Submissions and Contributions Guidelines

Content for the PWSA is divided into two primary categories: published works and blog posts. Published works consist of final products that could be a traditional academic journal article or multimedia productions. Blog posts could be works-in-progress, thematic series, or reviews and criticisms. This page contains the guidelines for how to submit for either of these content categories.

Submissions for Publication

The PWSA currently will host academic journal articles and multimedia productions on this site. Before any finished product is published, it must undergo a peer-review process. Each piece will be distributed to two members of the Editorial Board for review; all attempts will be made to match the product with the reviewer who has knowledge of the product’s topic, field, theory, method, and so forth. The peer-review process will make determinations about the fit of the piece for the PWSA as well as any considerations for revisions that need to be made before publication can occur.

To submit for PWSA publication, email your piece to prowrestlingstudies@gmail.com. Such submissions need to be original work. If it is a paper, then submit it as a Word Doc. If it is a multimedia production, then email the editors beforehand to verify the proper format in which to send the piece.

For academic papers, the PWSA accepts submissions from any theoretical and methodological lens, and should be no more than 8,000 words, inclusive of a 200 word abstract and a reference list. MLA citation style is preferred. Any images that are not original need to have copyright clearance. Articles will be converted into PDFs for publication, so hyperlinks should be active.

For multimedia productions, the length depends on the format. Please contact the editors at the email address to discuss submissions of such pieces.

If you have any questions about submissions, please use the email address above. 

Please note: these submissions guidelines will be under review by the Editorial Board and the committee involved in creating the association’s constitution. Thus, these guidelines are subject to change before an article is accepted for publication at this time. These guidelines are current as of June 15, 2017.

Contributions for Blog

If you would like to contribute to the blog, then please contact the PWSA Ringside editor Jessica Fontaine at jessicaelisefontaine@gmail.com or email prowrestlingstudies@gmail.com. In your initial contact, pitch your idea for the blog, whether it is a work-in-process, a thematic series, or a review and criticism.

Works-in-process contributions are a newer form of scholarly communication that provides a space here for a procedural publishing process to this open-access, peer-reviewed process. This publishing process involves the sharing of drafts for open-editing, constructive reviewing. This process has two primary purposes: 1) to help scholars develop their works for potential publication, here or elsewhere, and 2) to demonstrate for young scholars and non-scholars the scholarship process from idea through draft to final product. A work-in-process can be submitted for inclusion on the blog for a piece that is at any stage of development.

If accepted, you will be added to the blog in an Author capacity, which allows you to save but not publish blog posts. Please note that your writings will need to be proofread before they can be published. The proofreading process involves reviewing and editing blog posts for the basics of grammar, punctuation, and spelling (all blog posts need to use accepted guidelines for American English unless worked out otherwise), and to make sure nothing would get the PWSA in trouble; the latter includes properly attributing photos, no obscene language that isn’t justified, properly citing sources, and so forth. The main idea is to be professional in tone.

Please note: any contributor (or editor) who publishes a post or page before having this review done may have their work edited and drastically changed, or even removed, to abide by this proofreading process and the need for a consistent professional tone. These guidelines are current as of June 15, 2017.