About the Journal

The Southeast Review of Asian Studies (SERAS, formerly called the Annals) is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal published annually since 1979 by the Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (SEC/AAS). We welcome submissions of articles, scholarly notes, and book reviews that relate to the regions of Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, or Southeast Asia from perspectives within such diverse fields as anthropology, art history, cinema studies, cultural studies, economics, education, ethnomusicology, gender studies, history, language and linguistics, literature, philosophy, political science, religious studies, and sociology. All authors should take care to address the interests of our broad, multidisciplinary readership by raising larger questions that reach beyond individual research specialties.

As the publication of a regional conference, SERAS is designed to promote and support research on Asia by authors with affiliations within our region: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Submissions from authors outside this area are also welcome, but potential contributors are encouraged to present their research at an SEC/AAS annual meeting, a three-day event featuring scholarly panels, teacher workshops, and book exhibits.

Copies of the journal are distributed to SEC/AAS members at the annual meeting and may be ordered from the editor. (See “Ordering Information” link, below.) Copies are also mailed to a selection of major university libraries, primarily at schools in the Southeastern United States. Contents of the current and past volumes (since 2004) are available online (see below) and are indexed by International Information Services and Thomson Gale.

The editor is supported by an associate editor, book review and scholarly notes editor, manuscript reviewers, and editorial advisory board. Former and current editors are as follows:

Editors of Annals: Howard M. Federspiel Vols. I-V (1979-83)
  Hal W. French Vols. VI-X (1984-88)
  Kenneth W. Berger Vols. XI-XV(1989-93)
Editors of SERAS: Lawrence D. Kessler Vols. XVI-XXI (1994-99)
  James T. Gillam Vols. XXII-XXV (2000-03)
  Daniel A. Métraux Vols. XXVI-XXVIII (2004-06)

Steven E. Gump
 Vols. XXIX-XXXI (2007-09 )

Li-ling Hsiao & David Ross
 Vols XXXII- (2010-)

Contributors may draft their submissions as articles or as briefer scholarly notes. Also, we welcome reviews of recent (published within the last two years) scholarly monographs, edited volumes, works of literature, or other works that address issues pertaining to Asia. English-language reviews of non-English-language works are especially welcome, as are reviews of works written, edited, or translated by members of the SEC/AAS. Please let us know if you have recently published a relevant work; we would be happy to find a qualified reviewer for you.

Submission deadlines are March 1 for articles and June 1 for scholarly notes and book reviews. Please consult and follow the specific preparation and submission guidelines below.

General Manuscript Preparation

Prepare manuscripts in 12-point type with 1-inch margins, double spacing throughout (including notes and references). If possible, format your manuscripts for letter-size (8½ × 11–inch) paper. Please adhere to the word limits indicated for each type of submission. Include notes in the word count, but exclude the abstract, references, tables, and figure captions (if applicable).

With the exception of book reviews, provide your manuscript with a short, descriptive, and—ideally—interest-piquing title. Include descriptive headings and subheadings to help readers follow the organization of the piece. (The headings “Introduction” and “Conclusion,” although “descriptive,” are not particularly helpful. Please use headings reflective of the actual content, not the rhetorical structure, of your presentation.)
Notes should be as few as possible and should appear at the end of the text. Use parenthetical in-text citation and author–date formatting for references, as per the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), pp. 620–24. Please consult with the editors (seraseditors@hotmail.com) if you are preparing a piece better suited to an alternative method of citation. A full list of works cited within the manuscript (headed “References”) should follow the text. Ensure that this list is complete and includes only items cited within the manuscript itself.

On the title page of your manuscript submission, please include the word count of your submission as well as your name, affiliation, e-mail address, and complete mailing address. This page will be removed before sending the document (electronically) for double-blind reviewing.

Except for names or terms already well known in English, please use the following Romanization: Pinyin (Chinese); Hepburn (Japanese); Revised (with respect to Korean romanization). Note also that Asian scripts are supported by the SERAS. For purposes of education and information, please include them in your texts, especially following names and transliterated terms, phrases, or expressions.

Specific Guidelines for Articles

In addition to following the general manuscript guidelines, preface your article submission (word count range of 5,000–7,500 words) with a 100–150-word abstract, a concise summary that conveys the central focus of the piece. If your piece is substantially shorter than 5,000 words, consider submitting it as a scholarly note. If your piece is longer than 7,500 words, either consider a different venue or shorten it before submitting it to the SERAS. The submission deadline for articles is March 1.

Please direct all article-related inquiries to the editors (seraseditors@hotmail.com).

Specific Guidelines for Scholarly Notes

Pieces in this section generally present brief introductions to Asia-related topics or issues but may also provide Asia-related commentaries, editorials, or descriptions of research in progress; the tone may be either academic or reflective (or both). Submissions should be fewer than 3,000 words, and shorter submissions are most welcome. The deadline for scholarly notes is June 1.

Please follow the general manuscript guidelines, and direct all scholarly notes-related inquiries to the associate editor (littlejohnr@mail.belmont.edu).

Specific Guidelines for Book Reviews

The SERAS accepts reviews of books published within the past two years. (Reviews submitted by June 1, 2009, for example, should be of books published no earlier than 2007.) Reviews of single works should be approximately 1,000–1,500 words (though shorter reviews are accepted); thematic essay reviews of multiple, complementary works should be no longer than 3,000 words. Preface each review with full citations, including numbers of pages, for the book (or books) under review. Examples for a monograph and edited volume are below.

Theodore Jun Yoo, The Politics of Gender in Colonial Korea: Education, Labor, and Health, 1910–1945. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. xii + 316 pages.
Michael Hitchcock, Victor T. King, and Michael Parnwell, Eds., Tourism in Southeast Asia: Challenges and New Directions. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008. 368 pages.

Internal citations to the work (or works) being reviewed should be made parenthetically, providing only the page number (in the case of a monograph or work of literature) or the author and page number (in the case of an edited volume). All direct quotations from the text or texts reviewed should be followed by citations. The submission deadline for book reviews is June 1; and the general manuscript guidelines also apply to these submissions, with the exception that any external citations should be made in notes. (Reference lists do not accompany book reviews or review essays.)

Additional book review suggestions and guidelines are available here.

Submission Process & Expectations

Submit manuscripts electronically to the appropriate editor as Microsoft Word attachments by the appropriate deadline:

Articles (March 1): Li-ling Hsiao and David Ross, seraseditors@hotmail.com

Book reviews & scholarly notes (June 1): Ronnie Littlejohn, ronnie.littlejohn@belmont.edu

Tables, figures, and images, all of which must include titles or captions, should not be embedded in the manuscript file but rather should be sent as separate attachments, each on its own page. Only low-resolution images should be sent with manuscript submissions; high-resolution versions will be requested after acceptance.

Contributors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any materials, including photographs and illustrations, for which they do not hold copyright and for ensuring that the appropriate acknowledgements are included in the manuscript.

If electronic submission is not possible, please contact the appropriate editor for further instructions.

Submissions will be acknowledged by e-mail within one week of receipt, with article decisions normally sent by the last week of April and book review and scholarly notes decisions normally sent by the second week of July. Authors of article submissions will receive written feedback from reviewers along with the decision letter. Authors of accepted article manuscripts will have approximately two months to revise their manuscripts according to comments from the reviewers and editors. In late summer, final versions of accepted articles will be edited for accuracy and style; page proofs will be sent (electronically) to authors for review prior to publication. The SERAS is printed in late autumn, and copies are mailed to contributors before the end of the year. The journal is distributed to attendees of the SEC/AAS annual meeting the following January.

Authors whose manuscripts are accepted for publication will be expected to submit a brief (50–75-word) biographical statement for the “Contributors” section. Examples of past bionotes can be found in previous SERAS issues or are available, upon request, from the editor. 

Manuscripts submitted to the SERAS should not have been published elsewhere and should not be under review for publication elsewhere. Articles in the SERAS represent neither the views of the Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (SEC/AAS) nor those of members of the SERAS editorial board. The editor is responsible for the final selection of content and reserves the right to reject any material deemed inappropriate for publication. Responsibility for opinions expressed and the accuracy of facts published in articles, reviews, and scholarly notes rests solely with the individual authors.

Inquiries

Please direct any general or article-related inquiries to the editors:

Dr. Li-ling Hsiao & Dr. David Ross
Department of Asian Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
319 New West House, CB #3267
Chapel Hill, NC  27599-3267
U.S.A.
seraseditors@hotmail.com

Inquires specifically related to scholarly notes or book reviews should be submitted to the book review and scholarly notes editor:

Dr. Ronnie Littlejohn
Chair, Department of Philosophy
Director, Asian Studies
Belmont University
1900 Belmont Boulevard
Nashville, TN  37212-3758
U.S.A.
ronnie.littlejohn@belmont.edu

Tables of Contents and Cumulative Author Index, Annals & SERAS

  Full Text of SERAS, 2004-2009 (Volumes XXVI-XXXI)

Occasional Papers of the SEC/AAS

Ordering Information