Barnboken: Journal of Children's Literature Research publishes articles and reviews by researchers with a PhD and PhD students.
Submission to Barnboken is taken to imply that the same manuscript is not under consideration by another journal or has been previously published.
Manuscripts submitted to Barnboken will be reviewed by the editorial board. In the next step, articles are refereed to two external reviewers. Manuscripts may be rejected directly by the editor-in-chief if judged to be out of scope or if scientifically or formally sub-standard.
Manuscripts will be judged on the basis of their relevance to the stated aims of Barnboken, rhetorical and communicative quality, critical insights, use of theory and method, and adherence to submission guidelines. The motivation for writing the article and the objectives of the study should be set out clearly, as well as the interest the author hopes the published work will evoke. The relevance of the study, both general and within the research context, should also be clearly purported.
It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that acknowledgements are given to other authors/works who are cited, paraphrased or otherwise referred to in the article to avoid plagiarism.
The submitting author will be the principal contact for editorial correspondence, throughout the peer review and proofreading process.
Publication in Barnboken is free of charge until further notice.
General Guidelines
Length Maximum 40,000 characters, including space between words, bibliography, and captions for pictures/graphs/charts.
Title page Organize the title page in the following way: 1) name of author(s) 2) title 3) abstract 4) keywords. See more detailed information about each section below.
Title If the article is written in Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish, please provide an alternative title in English.
Abstract Articles must include an abstract in English of a maximum of 300 words.
Keywords 5–10 keywords should be provided below your abstract. Avoid using the same words as in the title. All keywords should be in English.
Biographical details Provide a short bio of 4–5 lines in the same language that the article is written in. It should include your full name(s), current professional affiliation, and important publications and/or other relevant merits.
Format Use 12-point Times New Roman and double-spacing throughout your manuscript.
MLA format All articles should follow the MLA guidelines (9th ed.) for in-text citations and Works Cited. For information on MLA style, please see style.mla.org.
In-Text Citations
In-text citations For in-text citations, the author’s last name and page number should be provided within parentheses. Please provide full page numbers rather than using ibid/ff or similar. If more than one work by the same author is cited, please add the title of the work in question, e.g. (Anderson, Children’s Literature 10). For more information on in-text citations, please see style.mla.org.
Quotation marks Double quotation marks should be used throughout, and single quotation marks should only be used for quotes within quotes.
Titles Original, unabbreviated titles should be used throughout and should only be translated (within parentheses) the first time they are mentioned in the abstract and in the main text respectively. If the title of a work includes a subtitle, the subtitle should only be included the first time the title is mentioned in the abstract and main text. If there is a reason to use the translated title instead, for example if you are analyzing a translation rather than the original text, please explain this in the text or in a note.
Translated quotes Always include translations of quotes in languages other than English, as well as the original quote, when quoting from primary sources. In articles written in Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish, it is not necessary to translate quotes from any of these three languages. Please include the original quote in the main text and place the translation within parentheses. You may use published translations of secondary sources. If you provide your own translation of a secondary source, please put the original quote in a note and include the translation in the main text instead.
Block quotes All quotes longer than 40 words should be formatted as block quotes.
Notes Notes should be used sparsely, and when applicable these should be provided as endnotes rather than footnotes.
Works Cited
General All sources, both primary and secondary, should be listed in the same Works Cited. For more information on how to format your Works Cited, please see style.mla.org.
Books Books should be listed in the following way: Author(s). Title. Publisher, year of publication.
Articles Articles should be listed in the following way: Author(s). “Title.” Title of Journal, volume, issue, year, pages.
E-books Please use e-books with fixed pagination unless the digital version is the research subject.
Date of access Please provide a date of access for online sources with no publication date.
DOI If applicable, DOIs should be provided for articles in the Works Cited.
Figures, Graphs, and Images
Format Upon acceptance, please supply figures in JPG or PNG format (300 dpi) as separate attachments.
Copyright Please note: If the figures have been taken from sources not copyrighted by the author, it is the author’s sole responsibility to secure the rights from the copyright holder to reproduce those figures/graphs/images for both worldwide print and web publication. It is also the author’s responsibility to make sure there is no time limit to any granted copyright permissions. All reproduction costs charged by the copyright holder must be borne by the author.
Captions and references When figures/graphics/images are reproduced, a parenthesis should be added to the caption: (Reproduced with permission from xx.) All figures/graphics/images used should be numbered and referenced in the text.
Barnboken also publishes reviews of critical literature. Reviews should be between approximately 10,000 and 15,000 characters, including space between words.
Do you have suggestions on new books to review in Barnboken? Please contact barnboken@barnboksinstitutet.se for more information.
About the Journal
Barnboken: Journal of Children's Literature Research is a scholarly Open Access journal that publishes academic articles on children’s literature. All content is free from access barriers, allowing for global distribution. Barnboken has readers all over the world and the journal is indexed by numerous large international databases. The journal applies a thorough peer review process and has no publication fees (Diamond Open Access).
