The RHJ is interested in publishing contributions from individuals and groups concerned with the fight for the right to housing and to the city globally. The Journal seeks interventions crossing disciplinary and institutional boundaries, and welcomes critical scholarship working at the intersection of political-economy, feminist, critical race studies, decolonial thinking, post-structuralism and more. All contributors should be familiar with and embrace the journal’s ethos, as expressed in our manifesto. You can find our open access policy, as well as our copyright and licensing terms here.
Submission Policy
The RHJ accepts submissions all year round. We publish two issues per year, so depending on the time of year you submit and the outcome of the review process, your contribution will fall into one of these two yearly issues. You can either submit a single paper via our submissions portal, or propose a special issue by getting in touch with our Editorial Collective at collective@radicalhousingjournal.org. The RHJ never charges authors for their submissions.
To submit your work for consideration, you can visit our online submissions portal with Open Journal Systems by clicking the “Submit a paper” button below. Please note that you may be prompted to create an account with OJS or sign in to your OJS account if you already have one. Thank you for understanding! And if you have any questions about the submissions platform, please write to us directly at collective@radicalhousingjournal.org.
Kinds of Contributions
The Journal is organised around four sections. The first two host substantive original works and are blind peer-reviewed (by one academic oriented and one activist-based). The other two have a more open and dialogical format and are not peer-reviewed. Aside from these, the Journal will always be introduced by a short Editorial written by the RHJ issue editors. For more information on the journal sections, see below.
- The Long Read / Focus on critical analysis and theory-making. For papers focused on theorizing housing resistance and activism worldwide. Papers aim for theoretical innovation and conceptual finesse driven by speculative, case-specific or comparative arguments. Maximum 9,000 words per article, including references, excluding pictures.
- Retrospectives / Focus on specific cases, histories, actions. For papers oriented towards reconstructing, in detail, particular histories of movements, organizations, and/or actions worldwide. Papers aim for historical rigor and depth. Maximum 9,000 words per article, including references, excluding pictures.
- Conversations / Reflections from the field of action and organization. Pieces written collectively, to reflect on specific actions and strategies. We welcome reflections and debates on the challenges of particular organizing approaches and practices. Maximum 6,000 words per intervention.
- Updates / Reviews, provocations, updates on actions. For reviews of books, films, art and more, as well as updates on current actions. Maximum 1,500 words per text.
The RHJ also accepts proposal for thematic Special Issues. If you have an idea and a set of coherent papers/interventions that you’d like to submit for consideration, please write a 1,500 word proposal including your name(s), affiliation(s), title of the special issue, content table with names of each author(s) and a description of what the special issue is about. In the latter, please make sure to identify why you consider your proposal to be a good fit with the RHJ. To submit your proposal, please send it via email to collective@radicalhousingjournal.org.
Style Guide
The RHJ provides a style guide to help authors prepare their article to matches the journal style. Acceptance of your article will not be based on how well you implement the style guide; however, following this when preparing your article will save time for both you and the journal editors, and we may return articles to you for further work if you have not adhered to the suggestions provided in the guide.
Peer Review Process
We adopt a double-blind peer review policy to encourage our authors to reflect critically on their writing and to assure that only the most insightful radical contributions are published in the RHJ. For more information on the ethos of our review process or to submit a review, check out our peer review page here.
Below is a summary of what the peer review process for articles published in the Long Read and Retrospectives sections entail:
- Editorial assessment of the quality and politics of the proposed contribution. If the contribution does not align to our politics (as expressed in our Manifesto) and/or if the quality is not up to the RHJ standards, the article is desk rejected. Otherwise, it proceeds to the next step;
- The article is sent out to a minimum of two peer reviewers, chosen from the RHJ’s reviewers database (which you can join by sending us a request via email at collective@radicalhousingjournal.org). Each article is assigned to one reviewer who self-defines as “scholar”, and one reviewer who self-defines as “activist” or “scholar-activist”. This is done with the intention of allowing for a more rounded and productive conversation;
- When the reviewers’ reports are back, the Editors decide upon the level of modifications required. The outcome at this stage can include one of the following: desk rejection; major revisions; minor revisions; acceptance without revisions;
- If the paper is not rejected, the author is provided with the reviewers’ comments and with an Editorial letter inviting them to proceed with the revision of their work;
- The resubmission is evaluated by the Editors, who can send the paper out to one or more of the original reviewers, asking for an additional round of revisions. At this point, the paper is returned to the authors with an Editorial commentary and can be either rejected, accepted with minor revisions or accepted without revisions.
Timing
We aim to publish two issues per year, one in April/May and one in October/November. As a rough indication, if you would like for your work to be included in the April issue (v.1), we recommend that you submit it to us by August of the previous year. For the October issues (v.2), we recommend submitting by February of the same year. The production length from submission to publication is roughly 8 months. This includes:
- Editorial assessment
- Double blind peer-review
- Corrections by authors
- Final round of peer review/Editorial comments
- Final corrections by authors
- Production of proofs
- Proofreading by authors
- Publication
The timings indicated above are estimates, and dependent upon the type and quality of content submitted; that is, they can be considerably shorter for non-peer reviewed content and considerably lengthier if a paper requires major revisions.
Submit Your Work
To submit your work for consideration, you can visit our online submissions portal with Open Journal Systems by clicking the “Submit a paper” button below. Please note that you may be prompted to create an account with OJS or sign in to your OJS account if you already have one. Thank you for understanding! And if you have any questions about the submissions platform, please write to us directly at collective@radicalhousingjournal.org.
Ongoing work to improve the RHJ submissions process is supported by an International Workshop Award from the Antipode Foundation.