Call for Papers
Watcher Junior, a refereed, online journal for undergraduate student scholarship in Buffy+ Studies, is currently accepting papers for future issues.
Editors Deborah Overstreet and Elizabeth Rands invite your submissions for publication in Watcher Junior.
We welcome completed essays and research papers by undergraduate students on any aspect of of texts connected with Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Dollhouse, The Cabin in the Woods, Marvel's The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Much Ado about Nothing, and more. We’re interested in both traditional scholarship and scholarship in other formats (e.g., video essays). We’re also interested in perhaps shorter scholarly essays.
Please send submissions to Elizabeth at [email protected].
We’re also interested in compiling a list of those of us who teach classes related to these works or even those who include these works in other classes. If you teach anything related to these texts, would you let us know at [email protected].
Please read the Watcher Junior FAQ for answers to questions before contacting the editors.
Editors Deborah Overstreet and Elizabeth Rands invite your submissions for publication in Watcher Junior.
We welcome completed essays and research papers by undergraduate students on any aspect of of texts connected with Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Dollhouse, The Cabin in the Woods, Marvel's The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Much Ado about Nothing, and more. We’re interested in both traditional scholarship and scholarship in other formats (e.g., video essays). We’re also interested in perhaps shorter scholarly essays.
Please send submissions to Elizabeth at [email protected].
We’re also interested in compiling a list of those of us who teach classes related to these works or even those who include these works in other classes. If you teach anything related to these texts, would you let us know at [email protected].
Please read the Watcher Junior FAQ for answers to questions before contacting the editors.
Submission Guidelines
Length and Focus:
Submitting:
Upon acceptance of a paper, the author must complete and return a Publication Permission Form to the editors (download here). Authors retain copyright of published material.
- Nibbles. 1800+ words. These shorter pieces will use fewer outside references and will focus on narrower topics (e.g., one aspect of Whedon's work, one moment from a text, one specific theoretical lens illustrated with a single example).
- Big Bites. Up to 5500 words. These longer, more traditional essays will employ multiple scholarly references. Articles that are longer than 5500 words will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Submitting:
- All submissions to Watcher Junior should be submitted as email attachments in either Word (.doc/.docx) or Rich Text format (.rtf).
- The text of the submission should not identify the author or institutional affiliation, but authors should include contact details (name, institutional affiliation, and email) and a brief biographical statement (of less than 75 words) in the body of their email.
Upon acceptance of a paper, the author must complete and return a Publication Permission Form to the editors (download here). Authors retain copyright of published material.
Style Guide
Watcher Junior follows the conventions of the MLA style (www.mla.org), except where there are specific requirements for the nature of the journal. Submissions using other styles will be considered, but upon acceptance of a paper the author will be required to revise the work in compliance with the following guidelines.
Layout:
Paragraph format:
Quotations:
Titles cited in-text:
In-text citations:
Layout:
- All submissions should be double spaced, using Times New Roman, 12-point font.
- Do not use formatting such as underlining or bold type in the article: for emphasis use italics.
Paragraph format:
- Each paragraph should be numbered sequentially at the beginning of each first line using the format [6], [18] (note square brackets). This practice is to ensure that a second party can provide an accurate citation of the work.
- All paragraphs should be first-line indented with a hard-line break at the end of each paragraph.
Quotations:
- All quotations and references to another author's terms should appear in double quotation marks, "like so." Single quotation marks are used to indicate "quotes 'within' quotes." All short quotations must be integrated into a sentence of your own making.
- Indent block quotations longer than three full lines
Titles cited in-text:
- All book, program, film, and journal titles should appear italicized in the body of the text (e.g Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy, Firefly, Slayage, The Avengers). Titles of articles and chapters in books should be given in double quotation marks.
- Where episode titles appear in the body of the text they should appear in quotation marks appended with the season and episode number in parentheses. For Buffy, episode numbers should be preceded by the letter 'B' (e.g., "Restless" (B4022); for Angel, episode numbers should be preceded by the letter 'A' (e.g.. "City Of . . ." (A1001); Firefly episode numbers should be preceded by the letter 'F'; Dollhouse episode numbers should be preceded by the letters 'DH.'
In-text citations:
- Follow the MLA style. Citations within the text should give the author's name and page number(s) in parentheses, e.g. (Kaveney 36). See here for an online guide to in-text citations. Do not use endnotes or footnotes for citations.
Referencing
All submissions must include a Works Cited page with references in the format identified below (use hanging indent).
A book:
Jowett, Lorna. Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2005. Print.
An edited collection:
Wilcox, Rhonda V., and Tanya R. Cochran. Investigating Firefly and Serenity: Science Fiction on the Frontier. London: I.B. Tauris, 2008.
Print.
Article in an edited collection:
Tonkin, Boyd. "Entropy as Demon: Buffy in Southern California." Reading the Vampire Slayer: An Unofficial Critical Companion to
Buffy and Angel. Ed. Roz Kaveney. London: Tauris Parke, 2003. 37-52. Print.
A print article:
Bishop, Kyle. "Technophobia and the Cyborg Menace: Buffy Summers as Neo-Human Avatar." Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 19.3
(Fall 2009): 349-363. Print.
An online article:
Millman, Joyce. "Twenty Ways the Nineties Changed Television." Salon. Salon Media Group, 22 Dec. 1999. Web.
An article from an online journal:
Wilcox, Rhonda V. "T. S. Eliot Comes to Television: Buffy's 'Restless.'" Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies 2.3
(Dec. 2002): n. pag. Web. .
Film:
Serenity. Dir. Joss Whedon. Perf. Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, and Morena Baccarin. Universal Pictures, 2005. DVD.
The Cabin in the Woods. Dir. Drew Goddard. Perf. Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, and Jesse
Williams. Lionsgate and Mutant Enemy, 2012. DVD.
Episode of a television series on DVD:
"Briar Rose." Dollhouse: The Complete First Season. 20th Century Fox, 2009. DVD.
Compliance with this guide will ensure that the interim between acceptance and publication of a paper is kept to a minimum.
A more complete resource can be found here for referencing.
Please visit the FAQ for more details.
A book:
Jowett, Lorna. Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2005. Print.
An edited collection:
Wilcox, Rhonda V., and Tanya R. Cochran. Investigating Firefly and Serenity: Science Fiction on the Frontier. London: I.B. Tauris, 2008.
Print.
Article in an edited collection:
Tonkin, Boyd. "Entropy as Demon: Buffy in Southern California." Reading the Vampire Slayer: An Unofficial Critical Companion to
Buffy and Angel. Ed. Roz Kaveney. London: Tauris Parke, 2003. 37-52. Print.
A print article:
Bishop, Kyle. "Technophobia and the Cyborg Menace: Buffy Summers as Neo-Human Avatar." Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 19.3
(Fall 2009): 349-363. Print.
An online article:
Millman, Joyce. "Twenty Ways the Nineties Changed Television." Salon. Salon Media Group, 22 Dec. 1999. Web.
An article from an online journal:
Wilcox, Rhonda V. "T. S. Eliot Comes to Television: Buffy's 'Restless.'" Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies 2.3
(Dec. 2002): n. pag. Web. .
Film:
Serenity. Dir. Joss Whedon. Perf. Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, and Morena Baccarin. Universal Pictures, 2005. DVD.
The Cabin in the Woods. Dir. Drew Goddard. Perf. Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, and Jesse
Williams. Lionsgate and Mutant Enemy, 2012. DVD.
Episode of a television series on DVD:
"Briar Rose." Dollhouse: The Complete First Season. 20th Century Fox, 2009. DVD.
Compliance with this guide will ensure that the interim between acceptance and publication of a paper is kept to a minimum.
A more complete resource can be found here for referencing.
Please visit the FAQ for more details.
Published with the support of the Association for the Study of Buffy+ and the University of Maine at Farmington. All material contained within this site is copyrighted by the identified author. If no author is identified in relation to content, that content is ©Watcher Junior, 2022. We believe images, including images altered by an artist to create a derivative artwork, and song lyrics may appear in Watcher Junior under fair use under U.S. copyright law. Such images, quotations, music and lyrics are fair use because:
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