Submissions

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.

Submit a Paper

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 The other two have a more open and dialogical format and are not peer-reviewed.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. The sections are:

The Long Read / Focus on critical analysis and theory-making
MAX 9,000 words per article, including references, excluding pictures
We welcome papers on theorising resistance and activism in the post-2008 worldwide, being they driven by speculative, case-specific or comparative arguments. Papers should aim for theoretical innovation and conceptual finesse. Papers will be subjected to double-blind peer-review.
Retrospectives / Focus on specific cases, histories, actions
MAX 9,000 words per article, including references, excluding pictures
This section welcomes papers that are oriented at reconstructing, in details, particular histories of movements, organisations and/or actions in the post-2008 scenario worldwide. Paper should aim for historical rigour and depth. Papers will be subjected to double-blind peer-review.
Conversations / Reflections from the field of action and organisation
MAX 6,000 words per intervention
Debate-like pieces, written collectively, to reflect on specific actions and strategies. We welcome reflection on the challenges of particular organising approaches and practices.
Updates / Reviews, provocations, updates on actions
MAX 1,500 words per text
We welcome reviews of books, films & more; and updates on current actions.

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