Editorial Policies

"Exodus Festival 2003, Australia" - Photo by Saskia Fotofolk.

Focus and Scope

Dancecult is a peer-reviewed, open-access e-journal for the study of electronic dance music culture (EDMC). A platform for interdisciplinary scholarship on the shifting terrain of EDMCs worldwide, the journal houses research exploring the sites, technologies, sounds and cultures of electronic music in historical and contemporary perspectives. Playing host to studies of emergent forms of electronic music production, performance, distribution, and reception, as a portal for cutting-edge research on the relation between bodies, technologies, and cyberspace, as a medium through which the cultural politics of dance is critically investigated, and as a venue for innovative multimedia projects, Dancecult is the forum for research on EDMCs.

From dancehall to raving, club cultures to sound systems, disco to techno, breakbeat to psytrance, hip hop to dubstep, IDM to noisecore, nortec to bloghouse, global EDMCs are a shifting spectrum of scenes, genres, and aesthetics. What is the role of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, religion and spirituality in these formations? How have technologies, mind alterants, and popular culture conditioned this proliferation, and how has electronic music filtered into cinema, literature and everyday life? How does existing critical theory enable understanding of EDMCs, and how might the latter challenge the assumptions of our inherited heuristics? What is the role of the DJ in diverse genres, scenes, subcultures, and/or neotribes? As the journal of the international EDMC research network, Dancecult welcomes submissions from scholars addressing these and related inquiries across all disciplines.


Dancecult is published twice a year.

 

Section Policies

Editorial

Editorials are 1000-6000 words (including endnotes, bibliography, and caption text), and are solicited by the editorial board.

Editors
  • Graham St John, Griffith University, Australia
Unchecked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Feature Articles

Feature Articles are 6000-9000 words (including endnotes, captions and bibliography). Must include a 150 word abstract.

 

Editors
  • Graham St John, Griffith University, Australia
Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Transpositions

 

This section features foreign-language articles, selected for their quality and contribution to EDMC scholarship, in translation into English. While it is currently beyond the logistical capacities of Dancecult to provide peer-reviewing, editing, and the publication of articles in multiple foreign languages, this new translation project promises to introduce prominent and ground-breaking foreign-language EDMC scholarship to a wider readership, while also increasing the international exposure of non-Anglophone scholars. The articles to be translated for this section are usually selected by the Foreign Languages Editor (FLE), in consultation with the Executive Editor; nonetheless, the FLE will gladly accept suggestions of articles to consider for translation. Contact the FLE by email.

 

Editors
  • Luis-Manuel Garcia, University of Chicago
Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Conversations

Conversations are directly solicited by the editorial board, and are designed to provoke dialogue concerning contemporary issues in the field.

 

Editors
  • Graham St John, Griffith University, Australia
Unchecked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

From the Floor

Our "From The Floor" section hosts imaginative submissions reviewed by Dancecult editors (that is, submissions are not typically subject to blind peer-review). Submissions include field reports, mini-ethnographies, photo-essays and interviews. Pieces for this section should be between 750-2500 words in length. Rather than written in the style of an article with formal analysis and many citations, FTF pieces are more conversational or blog-like in style, and may consist of experimental and creative reportage styles across the field of EDM. They may include substantive multimedia components.

Editors
  • Graham St John, Griffith University, Australia
Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Reviews

Book, film, television, music and conference reviews pertaining to the broad field of EDMC studies as it touches upon popular music, ethnography, ethnomusicology, political theory, philosophy, music and technology, subculture and beyond (1500 words maximum).

 

Editors
  • Ed Montano, School of Media & Communication, Building 9 Level 4 Reception, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001
Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed
 

Peer Review Process

Feature Articles submitted for publication to Dancecult are to be subjected to double-blind peer review by two international researchers. Although an attempt is made to complete the peer-review process within six weeks, in some cases it may take longer.

 

Publication Frequency

Dancecult is published twice a year.

 

Open Access Policy

This journal 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.

 

Dancecult Style Guide

Before submitting, all authors must download and read the Dancecult Style Guide (aka "the DSG").

 

Dancecult announcements, discussion list & RSS feed

For announcements of Dancecult publications and discussion on all things EDMC, join our email list for the Electronic Dance Music Research Network, Dancecult-l.

 

All registered users will receive periodic news and announcements via email from Dancecult's editors. Register here.

 

If you use an RSS reader, please subscribe to one of our RSS feeds below, also featured in the sidebar.

 

 

Foreign Language Translations

Dancecult's Transpositions section publishes English-language translations of already-published, foreign-language EDMC scholarship. Articles are selected by the Foreign Language Editor in consultation with the Executive Editor. Authors may nominate their own already-published work for Transpositions by contacting the FLE.

For authors wishing to translate their manuscripts into English, the Foreign Languages Editor (FLE) can provide help in finding a capable professional translator. The cost of translation remains with the author.

Once an article has been accepted for publication, the FLE is available to provide limited editing and proofreading support. Non-Anglophone authors may seek assistance from the FLE during the editing process.

 

Dancecult thanks...

tobias c. van Veen, Dancecult's Managing Editor, who between 2010-2012, undertook the epic task of revisioning journal appearance, and who redesigned the logo, formed an efficient production team, oversaw a server transfer, acted as OJS frontman, overhauled the Dancecult Style Guide, and produced the HTML Production Guide, the InDesign Production Guide, and the Publishing Guide from scratch.


Cato Pulleyblank for a creative and complete redesign of the Dancecult logo, web banner, PDF layout and promotions.

Eliot Bates for launching Dancecult with its original logo design, PDF layout, and fearless wrangling with the OJS installation.

Todd Thille for Dancecult's original web design and banner.

 
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