About the Journal

General Info

Review of International American Studies (RIAS) is the peer-reviewed, electronic / print-on-demand, Open Access journal of the International American Studies Association, a worldwide, independent, non-governmental association of American Studies. RIAS serves as agora for the global network of international scholars, teachers, and students of America as a hemispheric and global phenomenon. RIAS is published twice a year (Fall-Winter and Spring-Summer). The journal is funded from Association’s annual dues as specified in the "Membership" section of the Association’s website. All topical manuscripts should be directed to the RIAS Editors through this website.

Review of International American Studies is listed in the European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH+) as well as in the Index Copernicus Journal Master List with the Index Copernicus Value (ICV) for 2023 of 120.53. As of 2018, the Review of International American Studies is also listed in the Elsevier Scopus database. In 2024, the RIAS has been granted 70 points in the parametric evaluation of the Polish Ministry of Science and Education. Review of International American Studies has also been granted the A-Class category by the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes.

To access all of the available issues of RIAS at no cost whatsoever, simply register and log in as "reader." Should you wish to register as a Reviewer or Author, we recommend that you review the About the Journal page for the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process. Please make sure that you provide all your data, including your affiliation and your academic degree. The journal has no processing or article submission charges.

Manuscript selection procedure: the timeframe

1) The Author receives an automatic confirmation upon his or her submission of their text to the OJS system;
2) Within a month of the closing of the Call for Papers, the Author receives the Editors' decision on the qualification/rejection of the text for the peer-reference stage for a given issue and/or a suggestion to submit the text to a different thematic issue of the journal / different section of the journal;
3) Within three months of the preliminary qualification the Author receives two peer references including possible suggestions for revisions;
4) the qualified and positively evaluated text after corrections and revisions is published within 18 months of the closing of the Call for Papers, unless it has been individually negotiated with the Author that the text should be considered for a different issue of the journal.

Note: submitting his or her contributions to RIAS, the Author consents to license his or her work under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) License.
Enjoy!

Focus and Scope

Review of International American Studies is the online/print-on-demand journal of the International American Studies Association (IASA). IASA, which held its first conference in Leiden in 2003, is organized around the understanding that in the twenty-first century American Studies, however that term is defined, can be properly discussed only from a global perspective. Many different views have been put forward as to what ‘America’ should mean—country, continent, hemisphere?—but the one thing on which most people are agreed is that in an era of increasing global circulation the international dimensions of American Studies can no longer be ignored.

RIAS, available free not only to all members of IASA but also offering all issues for free to the general Americanist public, is designed to facilitate that conversation. National associations of American Studies continue to make very valuable contributions to the subject, but much of their focus is necessarily on matters close to home: the protection of local programs, safeguarding faculty positions, attempting to raise the subject’s profile in often difficult circumstances, and so on. IASA, by contrast, offers the possibility of complementary or contrary perspectives which can expose practitioners of American Studies to intellectual outlooks very different from their own. This is not an ‘export’ model of American Studies, but one based upon the idea of reciprocal interaction, of mutual exchange, and enlightenment. For academics based in North America or Europe, seeing how things appear from Australasia or Asia, Latin America, or Africa, can often appear as a salutary corrective to the insularity of ideas often assumed, wrongly, to enjoy universal validity.

The function of RIAS, as indeed of IASA in general, is to enhance channels of communication among scholars concerned with American Studies in different parts of the world, so as to enable the subject to grow and develop in ways that may not be visible to any of us at the present time. While RIAS has no preconceived academic agenda, it will of course depend crucially for its usefulness on the participation of scholars in many different parts of the world. This e-journal is a venue of global intellectual exchange in American Studies, and, to this end, we warmly welcome contributions from all quarters.
(Based on the address by Paul Giles, IASA Past President)

Peer Review Process

RIAS solicits two types of contributions: commissioned texts (undergoing open peer reference) and non-commissioned submissions (undergoing double-blind peer reference). Each submission is reviewed by two independent referees.

Referee's responsibilities

1) The peer referee shall provide the Editors with information that will allow them to make an informed decision concerning the publication of the material.
2) The peer referee shall provide the Author with relevant information allowing him or her to revise her contribution to meet the highest standards of academic quality or to improve their writing in the future.
3) The peer referee shall deliver his or her review promptly or shall notify the Editor about any circumstances that prevent him or her from the timely delivery of the review.
4) The peer referee shall be impartial in their evaluation of the submission.
5) The peer referee shall express his or her views clearly and unambiguously.
6) The peer referee shall never use ad-hominem arguments.
7) The peer referee shall not use the reference to strengthen their own academic or professional status.
8) The peer referee shall disclose to the Editor any conflict of interest (please, consult the PLoS Policy to identify potential competing interests). The peer referee shall decline the reference upon the discovery of conflict of interest, and shall inform the Editor about such instances.
9) The peer referee shall treat received documents as confidential.
10) The referee is obliged to identify insufficient identification of sources or potential plagiarism, of which cases the referee shall notify the Editor.

Review guidelines
The Referees are requested to fill in all of the fields of the evaluation form below.

1) What is your assessment of the general quality of the submission?
- Outstanding
- Good
- To be modified and resubmitted (without another reference)
- Unacceptable (to be rejected)

2) What is your assessment of the style and intelligibility/comprehensibility of the submission?
- Style and register adequate for publication in RIAS or other high-ranking journals.
- Style is too difficult for readers who are not specialists in the field covered by the submission.
- Style is too colloquial, too many simplifications, etc.
- Style is idiosyncratic and thus makes the submission hard to understand (e.g.: language is too flowery, the syntax is too complex, etc.)
- Too many language errors (vocabulary, syntax, collocations, idioms, etc.) to correct.

3) Does the submission truly contribute to the development of the field of research it addresses?
- Yes, significantly.
- Yes, but to a limited extent.
- Not really.
- The text is derivative, does not contribute any new knowledge, lacks originality

4) What, in your opinion, would be the profile of the readers interested in the submission?
- A broad spectrum of humanities scholars, their discipline notwithstanding.
- Only specialists in the field covered by the submission.
- Hard to say.

5) Please, state your non-ambivalent recommendation:
- I recommend the text for publication in RIAS.
- The text requires some revisions: once the corrections have been implemented, I will recommend the text for publication.
- The text should be rejected.

6) If the submission requires small revisions, then which elements need to be corrected, revised, complemented, etc.?
(The referee is requested to fill in an open field, in which he or she lists items to be revised and includes comments as well as recommendations for the Author to follow)

Note: The Referee may recommend the text for publication, recommend the text for publication with minor revisions, recommend the text for publication on condition that major revisions are introduced without requiring its re-submission for reference, or reject the submission. Should the differences in the evaluation between the two referees be substantial, the final decision rests with the RIAS Editors, who may appoint the third referee to arbitrate the difference.

Publication Frequency

Review of International American Studies is published twice a year: Winter-Spring and Summer-Fall.

Publication deadlines:
1) Spring-Summer: July of a given year
2) Fall-Winter: December of a given year

Submission deadlines:
Review of International American Studies adopts the policy of working on three subsequent issues simultaneously, the Authors are recommended to submit their texts to the system 18 months ahead of the deadline for the publication of a given issue to warrant sufficient time for peer-reference and, on acceptance of the text, sufficient time for the editorial process.

Open Access Policy

Review of International American Studies provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

RIAS Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Review of International American Studies follows the principles of publication ethics and publication malpractice statement mainly based on the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011, download PDF).

Responsibilities of the Editor
1) The editor holds responsibility for the decision as to which of the papers submitted to the journal will be published.
2) The editor shall not consider the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy as pertinent to the selection of the text for publication.
3) The sole criteria for the selection of the text shall include:
- the submission’s relevance to the field of study and to the scope of the journal
- the submission's originality
- the quality of the submission's language
- the clarity of the argument
- observance of all legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.

Confidentiality
Until the moment of the admission of the article for publication, the editor and any editorial staff shall not disclose any information about the submitted manuscript to any third party other than:
- corresponding Author
- peer referees
- members of the editorial team
- the publisher
- copyeditors, proofreaders, typesetters involved in the production of the journal
as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
(please, consult the PLoS Policy to identify potential competing interests)

Unpublished original material submitted to the journal shall never be used by the Editor or any party privy to the material prior to its publication (listed in the "Confidentiality" section of this document above) for their own research purposes without the author's explicit written consent.

Referee's responsibilities

Author's Responsibilities and Obligations
1) Authors shall present original research.
2) Authors shall offer honest and precise descriptions of their research procedures.
3) Authors shall present reliable and intersubjectively verifiable data.
4) Authors shall provide full and honest list of references, crediting all other researchers and other authors whose work has made the submission possible.
5) Authors shall never submit contributions including fradulent data or misrepresented statements.
6) Authors shall offer an impartial, methodologically sound, discussion of the data.
7) Upon request, Authors shall provide raw data for assessment of the Editorial Board supported by an expert in the field represented by the contribution, and shall be prepared to make the data available publically if necessary (if laws allow it and individual, including proprietary and confidentiality rights, are not imperiled).
8) Authors shall submit only and exclusively original work, duly quoting and properly crediting work of others, including works belonging to the canon of the discipline that have influenced the overall orientation of the research presented.
9) Authors shall NEVER submit plagiarized work, be it a plagiarism based on uncredited translation, uncredited citation or reference to someone else's unpublished work, or ideas knowingly harvested from others, including students, whose unpublished work remains THEIRS.
10) Submitting Authors agree that plagiarism is not only a crime, but also the most degrading act in the space of academia and therefore shall take special care that no part of their work should leave any doubt in terms of academic honesty.
11) Authors shall properly cite their sources, credit their mentors and other authors, and document their data with reliable and verifiable source references.
12) Authors shall not submit material published previously elsewhere, except by explicit invitation of the Editors, who see the reprint of already copyrighted material as important to the overall concept of the issue.
13) Submitting the same paper to a number of journals shall be considered unethical, therefore Authors shall not submit contributions considered for review in RIAS elsewhere.
14) Submitting material to RIAS, Authors retain the rights to the published material.
15) If their work is accepted and published, Authors retain the right to the published material, permitting the use of their work under the provisions of the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).
16) Authorship shall be limited to Individuals who made a significant contribution to the study submitted to RIAS, whether in terms of data, conception, methodology, or execution of research. All individuals who did perform work substantial to the contribution shall be given proper credit as co-authors irrespective of their status in the academic hierarchy, assistants and students being thus no exception.
17) No uninvolved individuals shall be listed among the Authors or Co-Authors of the submission.
18) All Authors shall disclose instance of the conflict of interest to the Editors, especially financial or other substantive interests that might influence the results of research or interpretation of data.
19) Authors shall report any fundamental errors or inacurracies that could not have been verified by referees or editors to the Editors, requesting an erratum.

Based on:
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (2011, March 7). Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Retrieved from <http://publicationethics.org/resources/code-conduct>

Funding

The journal, retaining its intellectual autonomy as the official organ of the International American Studies Association, is a title of the University of Silesia of Katowice and is funded from the budget of the University of Silesia Press in Katowice, Poland.

Journal History

The idea of the official periodical of IASA was first formed among the participants of a meeting of the IASA Executive Council at the Rothermere American Institute of the University of Oxford, in September 2004. It was during that meeting that Djelal Kadir, IASA Founding President, Barabara Buchenau and Marietta Messmer (then of Georg-August University) raised the issue of the necessity of launching a newsletter, which would facilitate communications among the IASA members. Yet, it was only in the beginning of 2006, that Michael Boyden (at the time of the University College Ghent, Belgium, now Uppsala University, Sweden) and Paweł Jędrzejko (University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland) submitted a complete proposal to the IASA to launch a periodical, which would cater to the needs of the International American Studies Association to the Organization's Executive Council. In March 2006, the founders were able to present it to Paul Giles, the then IASA President, and Theo D’Haen, then IASA Founding Executive Director, during a seminal meeting at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. As of September 2006, the Review of International American Studies officially became the organ of the International American Studies Association, with Michael Boyden as its Editor-in-Chief, Paweł Jędrzejko as the Associate Editor, Tomasz Adamczewski and Wojciech Liber of the Soft for Humans, Inc., as the Journal’s IT advisors, Karolina Wojdała as its graphic designer and Michał Derda-Nowakowski of ExMachina Publishers as our DTP specialist. The original RIAS Editorial Board consisted of Theo D’haen, Anders Olsson, Liam Kennedy, Sieglinde Lemke, Giorgio Mariani, Ian Tyrrell, Helmbrecht Breinig, Rosario Faraudo, the IASA Founding President and ideological forefather of RIAS, Djelal Kadir. Soon, the President’s decision was ratified by the whole of the Executive Council. As a result, IASA commissioned the design of the RIAS CMS System, which was launched at the end of August 2006 by the Soft For Humans, Inc. At the same time, the first call for papers was sent out to the IASA members. In September 2006, the inaugural issue of the Review of International American Studies finally saw the light of day.

In 2009, the Editors' Team was strengthened by Cyraina Johnson-Roullier (Notre Dame University, USA), who joined the Review as Associate Editor. A year later, after three years of brilliant service, Michael Boyden stepped down, handing the leadership of the Journal to Cyraina Johnson-Roullier. In the same year, Nancy Earle (Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's, Canada), joined the team as the second Associate Editor.

2010 was a year of a radical transformation of the Review of International American Studies. With Ex-Machina changing their profile and the switch from the original CMS to Korora Systems, Paweł Jędrzejko was authorized by the IASA Executive Council to sign a contract with another DTP company, the M-Studio, Inc. The RIAS received a brand new graphic design by Hania Traczyk (then of the M-Studio) and implemented strict procedures of double-blind peer-reference for the feature texts submitted.

In 2011, Nancy Earle stepped down from her position as Associate Editor and György "George" Tóth (then of the Charles University of Prague, Czech Republic) joined the Editors' team in her place. The Editors' work was then supported by the expanded Editorial Board, consisting of Amy Kaplan, Maureen Montgomery, Enikő Bollobás, Ulf Hannerz, Sun Youzhong, Jørn Brøndal, Amanda Lagerkvist, Christopher Saunders, Theo D’Haen, Liam Kennedy, Sieglinde Lemke, Ian Tyrell, Helmbrecht Breinig, Rosario Faraudo, Djelal Kadir, Anders Olsson, and Giorgio Mariani. Two years later, the Editor's team expanded to include Meghan McKinney of the Notre Dame University as Senior Copyeditor.

Since then, the Team published six issues of the Review of International American Studies, including one issue in Spanish and one issue and Portuguese, thus living up to the IASA mission. Beginning with Vol. 7. No. 1 (2014), titled Oceans Apart: In Search of New Wor(l)ds (guest-edited by Agnieszka Woźniakowska and Anna Łakowicz-Dopiera), the journal's production was taken over by the University of Silesia Press in Katowice, Poland, which incorporated it in its online distribution and evaluation systems, thus granting the Review of International American Studies the much-needed visibility, and warranting its readiness for international evaluation. Distributed via the University of Silesia Press network, the RIAS became available through such important institutions as CEEOL (Central and Eastern European Online Library) and BazHum, thus reaching thousands of readers worldwide.

In mid-2016, when Giorgio Mariani's term as President of the International American Studies Association came to its end, the Journal transformed again, expanding its Editors' team. Giorgio, who formerly served as guest-editor and at times as a peer-referee, joined the team as the RIAS Associate Editor, contributing his experience and enthusiasm.

In January 2017, after eight years of dedicated service, Cyraina Johnson-Roullier handed the leadership of the Review of International American Studies to Giorgio Mariani, who, supported by Paweł Jędrzejko (one of the journal's two Founding Editors, performing the responsible functions of Managing Editor and Associate Editor), György Tóth (now of the University of Stirling, UK), and John E. Dean Texas A&M International University, USA, is responsible for the growth of the Review of International American Studies and its continued service to the International American Studies Association and academics specializing in hemispheric and transoceanic American studies worldwide.

In September 2020, the RIAS Editorial Team welcomed three new Associate Editors: Dr. Nathaniel R. Racine of the Texas A&M International University, USA, Dr. Lucie Kýrová of the Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, and Dr. Justin Michael Batting of the RMIT International University Vietnam. The new Associate Editors assumed the duties thus far carried out by Professor John E. Dean and Dr. György Tóth, who have stepped down after many years of dedicated service to RIAS.

In March 2023, the Executive Board of the International American Studies Association resolved that the Editors of the Review of International American Studies apply to the Publishing College of the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, to become the official Publisher of the journal by registering it in the Polish Court. As a result of mutual consent, the Journal would become a title of the University of Silesia Press with full financing of the editorial process, simultaneously retaining intellectual autonomy as the official organ of the International American Studies Association. As a result, a restructuring of the Editorial Team and editorial procedures was implemented, including the expansion of the Editorial Team.

In March 2023, professor Giorgio Mariani, the RIAS Editor-in-Chief stepped down after eight years of stellar service to the Review of International American Studies and the academic community of the International American Studies Association. Professor Mariani was succeeded by two Co-Editors-in-Chief: professor Paweł Jędrzejko (RIAS Co-Founding Editor, former Managing Editor) and Dr. Nathaniel R. Racine (former RIAS Associate Editor). As a result of the structural transformation, the positions of RIAS Managing Editor and Senior Copyeditor were eliminated. The RIAS Editorial Team was strengthened by Professor Eugenia Sojka (Academic Secretary of RIAS) and two new Associate Editors, Dr. J.D. Schnepf of the University of Groningen and prof. Gabriela Vargas-Cetina (Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mexico). It was further expanded by new nominations: Dr. Anna Maj and Dr. Małgorzata Poks of the University of Silesia, and Dr. Anjali Singh of the Mohanlal Sukhadia University, India (Journal Editors).

With our Colleague J.D. Schnepf resigning in 2024, today, the RIAS team consists of Justin Michael Battin, Manlio Della Marca, Paweł Jędrzejko, Anna Maj, Małgorzata Poks, Nathaniel R. Racine, and Anjali Singh, Eugenia Sojka, and Gabriela Vargas-Cetina (alphabetical order).