Renaissance Quarterly – Articles Report (March 2014)
Nicholas Terpstra
The number of articles submitted remains at a very healthy level. Through the course of
2013 a total of 120 articles were submitted. Of these, 9 have been accepted and 94 rejected;
the remaining 17 were returned to authors with the invitation to revise and resubmit, and/or
are still under review. Some authors accept the invitation and some do not, but it is worth
noting that all articles undergo revision and resubmission before final acceptance. In some
cases a single manuscript will undergo multiple revisions and resubmissions before
acceptance. Our reviewers typically offer very detailed assessments offering specific critiques
and suggestions. They are also quite expeditious, with the result that the average time from
submission to first decision in 2013 was just under 56 days.
RQ’s international profile is demonstrated by the fact that we are attracting more
submissions from outside the United States. Roughly one third of our membership lives
outside the USA, and just over 38% of our manuscripts are submitted from outside the
USA.
As numbers rise, we are aiming to find ways of making room for more articles in
RQ. We will run fewer of the very long articles that we have featured in the past, and we are
negotiating with University of Chicago Press on issues around format and page count. Issues
of RQ normally carry 4 articles, a number which has not changed for decades even though
our membership is now double what it was in 1999, and even though submissions are rising
steadily. We currently have 15 articles scheduled for 2015; if we are not able to find a way
to publish more articles in each issue, the wait time between an article’s acceptance and
appearance will extend from the current 12-16 months to 24 months or more.
Authors can list a number of subject classifications for their articles (rather than just
one), and the list below gives an idea of the interdisciplinary nature of most submissions. All
areas are represented, though Literature, Art History, and History continue to lead in
disciplines; Italy and England also continue to lead as the geographical areas under study.
We are making an effort to increase submissions dealing with other parts of Europe and the
globe, and aim to ensure that a variety of disciplines and areas are represented in each issue.
The RSA Discipline Representatives, who constitute RQ's Editorial Advisory Board, can be
invaluable in recruiting authors, articles and reviewers.
We continue to commission Field Review essays from mid-career and senior
scholars. They offer personal assessment of recent developments in the area and the most
promising new directions. Some of those received included "Migration and Mobility in the
Sixteenth Century Hispanic World" (Ida Altman, University of Florida), and "Dreams and
Dreaming in the Early Modern World" (Leslie Tuttle, U of Kansas and Ann Plane, UCSB),
“Dance in Renaissance Europe” (Jennifer Nevile, University of New South Wales), and
“Recent Trends in the Study of Music” (curated by Patrick Macey with contributions from
Elizabeth Eva Leach (Oxford), David Fallows (Manchester), and Kate van Orden (Harvard).
Forthcoming subjects commissioned include Emotions, Women in the Ottoman Empire,
Food, Encyclopedism, and Iconoclasm. Your suggestions for areas that RQ ought to cover,
and for authors whom we ought to approach, are gratefully received.
While the University of Chicago Press publishes Renaissance Quarterly, production and
copyediting are handled by the RSA office staff, who work expeditiously and professionally,
and sometimes have to field unusual questions from puzzled or irate authors. Over the past
few months Erika Suffern has been on leave, and so Tracy Robey has taken on her work of
communicating directly with authors, editors, and press to ensure a smooth editing process
of editing and the high quality of each issue. Last summer our long-serving Copy Editor
Timothy Krause left after over a decade of service in order take up another position.
Editorial Assistant Colin Macdonald has moved up to his position as Copy Editor, while
Joseph Bowling is taking up the position of Editorial Assistant.
Submissions by RSA Discipline Representative Areas (2012 - 2013)
Please note that authors can list more than one subject area when submitting their articles:
Americas
Comparative Literature
Emblems
English Literature
French Literature
Germanic Literature
Hebraica
Hispanic Literature
Music
Neo-Latin
History
History of Art & Architecture
History of the Book, Paleography,
Ms Tradition
History of the Classical Tradition
History of Medicine & Science
History of Political & Legal Thought
History of Religion
Humanism
Italian Literature
Performing Arts & Theatre
Philosophy
Rhetoric
Women and Gender
Total
2012
4
6
2
25
7
1
2
1
4
4
31
28
12
2013
7
10
0
32
14
1
1
5
8
6
47
36
17
13
12
9
19
17
12
6
12
7
18
250
14
11
9
28
32
16
8
12
9
18
341
Submissions by Author's Country of Origin (2012-2013)
2012
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Chile
Denmark
3
1
4
1
1
2013
1
4
2
1
9
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Malaysia
Netherlands
New Zealand
Poland
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
TOTAL
1
2
1
1
1
1
6
6
1
2
1
1
1
3
1
3
1
1
1
3
1
1
8
68
113
2
13
74
120
Forthcoming articles
“Machiavelli and History” John Najemy
“Diseased Bodies, Defiled Souls: Corporality and Religious Belief in the Reformation”
Charles H. Parker
“Getting a Head in the Renaissance: Mementos of Lost Love in Boccaccio and Beyond”
Guido Ruggiero
“The Homeric Question in the Sixteenth Century: Early Modern Scholarship and the Text
of Homer” Tania Demetriou
“Inca Architecture from the Andes to the Adriatic: Pedto Sancho’s Description of Cuzco”
Michael. Schreffler
“Counting the Dead: Traditions of Enumeration in the Italian Wars” John Gagne
“From Satura to Satyr: Francois Rabelais and the Renaissance Appropriation of a Genre”
Bernd Renner
“The Business of Prostitution in Renaissance Venice” Paula Clarke