A publication of the American Musicological Society, the Journal of Musicology Pedagogy (JMP) publishes original research on all aspects of the teaching and learning of musicology and musical cultures across all educational levels, audiences, genres of music, interdisciplinary areas, and practitioner perspectives. The Journal seeks to present a balance of practitioner-based research and thoughtful essays on educational theory, curriculum development, and practical pedagogy. JMP is peer reviewed, made freely available online, and indexed in RILM, the Music Periodicals Database, and other periodical indexes.
Submission Materials
Authors should submit the following materials through the submission portal.
- Main Text: The main text of the article complete with footnotes formatted according to the Journal’s citation practices (see below). Double spaced, with margins of at least one inch. 5,000–8,000 words max., inclusive of footnote citations. To allow for anonymous review, authors should refrain from identifying themselves in any way in the main text.
- Supplementary Materials: All musical examples and figures (continuous tone and line illustrations) as PDFs or JPGs and tables and captions as Word files (.doc or .docx). The position of all examples, figures, and tables should be indicated in the main text.
- Cover Letter: An accompanying cover letter containing the full title of the submission and all relevant contact information, including the author’s name and email address.
- Abstract: A one-paragraph abstract. 250 words max.
- Contributor Bio: A brief biographical sketch. 100 words max. Should there be more than one contributor, bios must be provided for each contributor.
Style Guide
The Journal uses The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition (University of Chicago Press, 2024) as its style guide with citations in numbered footnotes on each page. Bibliographies need only be submitted if the author feels a summary of sources furthers the argument of the submission. Authors are strongly encouraged to consult and model their citation practices after currently published content in the Journal. Authors are required to provide URLs for references where they are available, including DOI numbers of scholarly journal articles.
Peer Review Process
After an article has been submitted, the editorial team facilitates double-blind peer review. The editorial team mediates all interactions between reviewers and authors. After consulting the peer reviews, the Editor-in-Chief will provide the submitting author with a decision and anonymized copies of the peer reviews. An initial submission can receive one of the following three decisions: Accept with Revisions; Revise and Resubmit; or Reject.
If an author receives a “Revise and Resubmit,” the revised manuscript will undergo a second round of peer review. During this process, the Journal attempts to engage at least one original reader and one new reader. In the case that no original readers are available, two new readers will be engaged. A resubmission can receive one of the following decisions: Accept with Revisions or Reject. Authors are allowed only one opportunity for revision of their original manuscript.
Authors are required to treat peer reviews as confidential correspondence. The content of reviews should not be circulated or published, including on social media, unless an author receives permission from the peer reviewer through the Editor-in-Chief. The JMP editorial team is bound to hold those consultations in the same confidence.
To ensure the integrity of the anonymous peer review process, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. This involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who share documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties:
- The authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with “Author” and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors’ name, article title, etc.
- With Microsoft Office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under File in Word), by clicking on the following, beginning with File on the main menu of the Microsoft application: File > Save As > Tools (or Options with a Mac) > Security > Remove personal information from file properties on save > Save.
- With PDFs, the authors’ names should also be removed from Document Properties found under File on Adobe Acrobat’s main menu.
Reviews of Scholarly Work
The Journal reviews selected books, multimedia, and related works pertinent to musicology pedagogy. Reviews are commissioned by the Editor-in-Chief, but authors are also invited to propose a review by communicating with the Editor-in-Chief directly at editor-jmp@amsmusicology.org. Authors are advised to communicate with the Editor-in-Chief about their review before submitting a draft.
Roundtable Conversations
The Journal periodically publishes a collection of brief essays by multiple authors who offer diverse perspectives on a specific topic, question, or emergent methodological approach. Unlike full-length article submissions, roundtable proposals should be sent directly to the Editor-in-Chief at editor-jmp@amsmusicology.org.
Proposals for roundtables should include the following materials:
- Overview: An overview written by the convenor(s) that consists of a summary introduction, a brief contextualization of the topic, any stated goals of the roundtable, and an explanation of the significance of the project and/or its relevance to the general readership of the Journal.
- Authors: A list of committed authors with a two- or three-sentence summary of their individual contributions.
- Bibliography: A select bibliography of relevant literature.
Initial proposals are read and evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief. After this initial reading, the Editor-in-Chief will provide the convenor(s) with a summary of that evaluation. At this stage, the Journal will either extend an invitation to submit a completed roundtable or revised proposal that responds to the feedback provided or will decline publication. Once submitted, the roundtable will undergo the peer review process detailed above.
Permissions and Warranties
It is the author’s responsibility to determine whether the published work includes material that requires written permission for publication, including any material that is supplementary to the publication, such as musical examples or figures; to obtain such permission, at the author’s own expense, from the copyright owner; and to submit that permission to the editorial team in writing. If using any personal details, the author agrees to have obtained written permission or consent from the individual(s) in question (or, where applicable, the next of kin).
Editors may ask for a statement of IRB approval or exemption for articles that use research with students, faculty, or other human subjects.
Publication Terms
Upon acceptance for publication, authors who publish in the Journal will be required to complete a publishing agreement, the terms of which are summarized below.
- Exclusivity: Authors grant to the American Musicological Society (AMS) the exclusive right to publish and distribute the published work for a period of two (2) years after initial publication, after which the AMS shall retain the non-exclusive right to publish and distribute the work and the author shall be able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of all or part of the work’s contents (e.g., in a published compilation, textbook, anthology, book chapter, or other such forms, whether electronic, online, or in print).
- Acknowledgement: Should any substantial part of the article be reproduced or republished by the author, the author agrees to acknowledge the AMS as the first publisher of the work.
- Copyright: The author shall retain copyright over the published work for the full term of copyright. Moreover, the author shall be free to use and make copies of the published work for internal educational, classroom purposes; for research purposes of the author’s own institution or company; to share a URL link to the published work via the author’s personal website, social media, or email; to submit the published work in the author’s institutional or subject repositories; and, as applicable, to post the published work in the archive of the author’s funding body.
- Creative Commons: Authors agree that their published work shall be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and first publication in the Journal.
