You are here

Journal of Contemporary History

Journal of Contemporary History


eISSN: 14617250 | ISSN: 00220094 | Current volume: 59 | Current issue: 1 Frequency: Quarterly

"An excellent international publication" International Herald Tribune

"The Journal of Contemporary History is one of the outstanding learned journals of history in the English-speaking world." Times Literary Supplement

The Journal of Contemporary History is an international forum for the analysis of twentieth-century history. Now over fifty years old, the journal has long been established as essential reading for all scholars in contemporary European and international history.

The Journal of Contemporary History publishes articles covering a broad range of historical approaches including social, economic, political, diplomatic, intellectual and cultural. It is noted both for its intellectual rigour and the accessible style of its contributions.

To learn more about the journal, please see co-editor Richard J. Evans' 50th anniversary issue article The Journal of History contemporary History and its Editors, which explores the history of the journal and its founding editors.

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

INDIVIDUAL BOOK REVIEWS

JCH includes reviews of individual books, in addition to review articles covering a range of books within the compass of a single critical essay. The Review Editors are Dr Luc-Andre Brunet, of The Open University, UK, and Dr Emma Lundin, of the Malmö University, Sweden, as Joint Review Editors. They commission review articles and individual reviews individual reviews as well as review articles.

Publishers please send books for review and postal marketing material to:

Journal of Contemporary History Book Reviews,
Toynbee Editorial Services Ltd,
Lings,
Great Easton,
Essex
CM6 2HH,
UK

E-marketing materials by email to: reviews@jch.org.uk.

Potential reviewers please email the Joint Reviews Editors directly: reviews@jch.org.uk.

All issues of the Journal of Contemporary History  are available to browse online.

The Journal of Contemporary History (JCH) is a quarterly peer-reviewed international journal publishing articles and book reviews on twentieth-century history (post-1930), covering a broad range of historical approaches including social, economic, political, diplomatic, intellectual and cultural. Now over forty years old, the journal has long been established as essential reading for all scholars in contemporary European and international history. It is noted both for its intellectual rigour and the accessible style of its contributions.

Publishers please send books for review and postal marketing material to:

Journal of Contemporary History Book Reviews,
Toynbee Editorial Services Ltd,
Lings,
Great Easton,
Essex
CM6 2HH,
UK

E-marketing materials by email to: reviews@jch.org.uk.

Editors
Richard J Evans University of Cambridge, UK
Mary Neuburger University of Texas, USA
Review Editors
Luc-Andre Brunet The Open University, UK
Emma Lundin Malmö University, Sweden
Editorial Board
Jean Allman Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Paul Betts University of Oxford, UK
Andrea Chiampan University of Toronto, Canada
Celia Donert University of Cambridge, UK
Juliane Fürst University of Bristol, UK
Simon Hall University of Leeds, UK
Violetta Hionidou Newcastle University, UK
Marko Hoare Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Julian Jackson Queen Mary, University of London, UK
Claudia Kedar The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Alexander Keese Université de Genève, Switzerland
Rana Mitter University of Oxford, UK
Martina Steber Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany
Mary Vincent University of Sheffield, UK
Lori Watt Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Founding Editors
Walter Laqueur Institute of Contemporary History, UK
George L Mosse University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
Associate Editor
Jeremy Toynbee Freelance Editioral Office, UK
  • Academic Abstracts FullTEXT Elite
  • Academic Search Elite
  • Academic Search Premier
  • America: History and Life
  • Arts & Humanities Citation Index
  • British Humanities Index
  • Business Source Corporate
  • CD-ROM - International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • CD-ROM - International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Lterature on the Humanities and Social S
  • CD-ROM International Bibliography of Periodical Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • CD-ROM International Bibliography of Periodical Literature on the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • CSA Political Science & Government: A guide to Periodical Literature
  • CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Current Contents / Arts & Humanities
  • Current Contents / Social and Behavioral Sciences
  • Current Contents/ Arts & Humanities
  • Current Contents/ Social and Behavioral Sciences
  • EBSCO: Humanities International Complete
  • Expanded Academic Index
  • Family Index
  • Family Index Database
  • Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
  • Historical Abstracts
  • History On-Line
  • Humanities Index
  • Humanities International Index
  • IBZ: International Bibliography of Periodical Literature
  • IBZ: International Bibliography of Periodical Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature on the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
  • International Political Science Abstracts
  • Journal Citation Reports Social Sciences
  • Journal Citation Reports/Social Sciences Edition
  • MasterFILE Elite
  • MasterFILE Premier
  • MasterFILE Select
  • MasterFILE full NET
  • Middle East Abstracts & Index
  • Online - International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Online - International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature on the Humanities and Social
  • Online - International Bibliography of Periodical Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Online - International Bibliography of Periodical Literature on the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Periodical Abstracts
  • Research Alert
  • Social SciSearch
  • Social Science Source
  • Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)
  • Social Services Abstracts
  • Sociofile
  • Sociological Abstracts
  • Southeast Asia Abstracts & Index
  • Vocational Search
  • Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Journal of Contemporary History

    This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

    Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jch to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

    Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Journal of Contemporary History will be reviewed.

    The Journal of Contemporary History only considers papers on the period from 1930 to the present.

    There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

    As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Journal of Contemporary History  may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.

    If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

    1. What do we publish?
      1.1 Aims & Scope
      1.2 Article types
      1.3 Writing your paper
    2. Editorial policies
      2.1 Peer review policy
      2.2 Authorship
      2.3 Acknowledgements
      2.4 Funding
      2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
      2.6 Research Data
    3. Publishing policies
      3.1 Publication ethics
      3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
      3.3 Open access and author archiving
    4. Preparing your manuscript
      4.1 Formatting
      4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
      4.3 Supplemental material
      4.4 Reference style
      4.5 English language editing services
    5. Submitting your manuscript
      5.1 ORCID
      5.2 Information required for completing your submission
      5.3 Permissions
    6. On acceptance and publication
      6.1 Sage Production
      6.2 Online First publication
      6.3 Access to your published article
      6.4 Promoting your article
    7. Further information

     

    1. What do we publish?

    1.1 Aims & Scope

    Before submitting your manuscript to Journal of Contemporary History, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

    1.2 Article Types

    Articles
    The Journal welcomes articles with subject matter covering the period 1930 to the present. Manuscripts should not exceed 8000 words, excluding footnotes, which should number no more than 100.

    The Book Reviews Editors wish to encourage the following types of review, but request that authors contact them in advance by email (reviews@jch.org.uk).

    Review articles
    The Book Review Editors encourage scholars interested in writing a review article, which provide a synthesis of recent literature in a particular field, to contact them about their ideas. The Editors do not accept unsolicited complete review articles.

    Book reviews 
    The Journal does not accept unsolicited book reviews. The Book Review Editors commission individual and double book reviews (800 and 1200 words, respectively). They welcome espressions of interest from scholars who would like to review for the Journal in their field of expertise.

    1.3 Writing your paper

    The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.

    1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

    When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

    Back to top

    2. Editorial policies

    2.1 Peer review policy

    All manuscripts considered for publication will be submitted to external review following an initial evaluation by the editors.

    JCH operates a strictly anonymous peer-review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and, the author’s name from the reviewer. The reviewer may at their own discretion opt to reveal their name to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for both identities to remain concealed. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, and an editorial decision is generally reached within (e.g.) 10–12 weeks of submission.

    2.2 Authorship

    All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

    Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

    2.3 Acknowledgements

    All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

    Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

    2.3.1 Third party submissions

    Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

    •    Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input 
    •    Identify any entities that paid for this assistance 
    •    Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

    Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

    2.3.2 Writing assistance

    Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

    2.4 Funding

    Journal of Contemporary History requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

    2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

    Journal of Contemporary History encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

    2.6 Research Data

    The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

    Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

    • share your research data in a relevant public data repository
    • include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
    • cite this data in your research

    Back to top

    3. Publishing Policies

    3.1 Publication ethics

    Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

    3.1.1 Plagiarism

    Journal of Contemporary History and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

    3.1.2 Prior publication

    If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

    3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

    Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.

    3.3 Open access and author archiving

    Journal of Contemporary History offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

    Back to top

    4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

    4.1 Formatting

    The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

    4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

    For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

    Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

    4.3 Supplemental material

    JCH does not currently accept supplemental files.

    4.4 Reference style

    JCH uses Footnotes as detailed in the JCH house style. Click here to review the guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

    4.5 English language editing services

    Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

    Back to top

    5. Submitting your manuscript

    Journal of Contemporary History is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jch to login and submit your article online.

     IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

    5.1 ORCID

    As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

    The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

    If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

    5.2 Information required for completing your submission

    You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

    5.3 Permissions

    Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

    Back to top

    6. On acceptance and publication

    6.1 Sage Production

    Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. 

    6.2 Online First publication

    Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

    6.3 Access to your published article

    Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

    6.4 Promoting your article

    Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice. 

    Back to top

    7. Further information

    Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the The Journal of Contemporary History editorial office as follows:

    Jeremy Toynbee
    Assistant Editor
    office@jch.org.uk

    Individual Subscription, Print Only


    Institutional Subscription, E-access


    Institutional Subscription & Backfile Lease, E-access Plus Backfile (All Online Content)


    Institutional Subscription, Print Only


    Institutional Subscription, Combined (Print & E-access)


    Institutional Subscription & Backfile Lease, Combined Plus Backfile (Current Volume Print & All Online Content)


    Institutional Backfile Purchase, E-access (Content through 1998)


    Individual, Single Print Issue


    Institutional, Single Print Issue