Modern Language Review

A journal publishing 4 issues per year

ISSN:
0026-7937 print
2222-4319 online

Modern Language Review is the flagship journal of the Association, and is available to all individual members as part of their subscription. MLR is one of the oldest journals in its field, maintaining an unbroken publication record since its foundation in 1905, and publishing more than 3,000 articles and 20,000 book reviews. The General Editor is Lucy O’Meara.

Each volume consists of four issues, published in January, April, July, and October of each year. Its 1000+ annual pages are divided roughly equally between articles, predominantly on medieval and modern literature in the languages of Europe, and over 500 reviews of books in these areas. All contributions are in English. Articles are chosen not only for their scholarly worth and originality but also, as far as possible, for their potential interest to a wider readership in other disciplines. No correspondence is published, nor are advertisements carried.

Submissions.

The Modern Language Review publishes articles and book reviews on modern and medieval European languages, literatures, and cultures around the globe where European languages are spoken. The journal welcomes scholarship that takes a global or comparative approach as well as articles that appeal to a broad cross-section of scholars working on areas including, but not limited to, literature, the visual and performing arts, sociolinguistics, cultural history, and Translation Studies. We encourage submissions from scholars at all stages, including postgraduate researchers. If you are in any doubt about the appropriateness of your paper for MLR, please take a moment to review previous volumes of the journal. The contents of these issues will give you a good sense of the areas of research which are of interest to us. The complete back issues of the journal can be found at JSTOR (pre-2001) and Project MUSE.

Articles should be submitted to the appropriate section editor in electronic copy sent as an email attachment. Articles should conform precisely to the conventions of the MHRA Style Guide, 3rd edn, 2013 (ISBN 978-1-78188-009-8), obtainable in print or online at www.mhra.org.uk/style. Authors should provide an abstract of their articles with keywords highlighted in bold type. This abstract should not exceed 100 words. At the end of articles and reviews contributors should include, in this order, their affiliation or location; name as it is to be printed; name and postal address for correspondence; and email address. Simple references should be incorporated into the text (see MHRA Style Guide, 10.2). Double spacing should be used throughout, including quotations and footnotes, which should be in the same large size of type as the rest of the article. Articles are typically about 8000 words in length including footnotes, but longer and shorter ones are also welcome. Quotations and references should be carefully checked. Quotations from languages covered by the journal, and from Latin and Greek, should be given in the original language. Latin and Greek passages should normally be translated or at least paraphrased; usually this is not required in the case of modern languages, though it may be helpful where dialects or early forms of the language are cited. However, since the journal has a broad readership, please provide translations or paraphrases of quotations within comparative or general articles (except for modern French). If in doubt, consult the appropriate section editor.

It is a condition of publication in this journal that authors of articles and reviews assign copyright, including electronic copyright, to the MHRA. Permission, without fee, for authors to use their own material in other publications, after a reasonable period of time has elapsed, is not normally withheld. The MHRA supports Open Access under the Green Route, with an embargo of 12 months. Under this model, if your contribution is accepted for publication you may make a ‘closed’ deposit of your accepted manuscript in your academic institution’s digital repository upon acceptance. Full open access to the accepted manuscript is then permitted 12 months after publication.

On publication of each issue of the journal authors will receive, by email, the finalized PDF of their contribution as it appears in the printed volume. Physical offprints are not supplied.

Articles and books for review should be sent to the Editor concerned:

  • General and Comparative. Dr Lucy O'Meara, School of Cultures and Languages, Cornwallis Northwest, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NF (l.e.o'meara@kent.ac.uk).
  • English and American. Dr Adam Hansen, 123 Lipman Building, City Campus, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST (adam.hansen@northumbria.ac.uk).
  • French. Dr Claire Moran, School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen’s University Belfast, 2 University Square, BT7 1NN, Belfast (c.moran@qub.ac.uk).
  • Italian. Professor Guido Bonsaver, Pembroke College, Oxford OX1 1DW (guido.bonsaver@pmb.ox.ac.uk).
  • Hispanic. Professor Duncan Wheeler, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT (d.wheeler@leeds.ac.uk).
  • German, Dutch, and Scandinavian. Dr Seán Williams, School of Languages and Cultures, University of Sheffield, Jessop West, 1 Upper Hanover Street, Sheffield S3 7RA (s.m.williams@sheffield.ac.uk).
  • Slavonic and Eastern European. Professor Muireann Maguire, Department of Modern Languages, Queen’s Building, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QH (Muireann.Maguire@exeter.ac.uk).

Books for review. Each issue of Modern Language Review carries a substantial reviews section. Publishers wishing to submit books for review should send them to the relevant editor (see the table of addresses above).

Annual article prize. An annual Article Prize is awarded to an outstanding article published in each volume. Any piece accepted for publication will be considered. Submissions are evaluated by a panel of the journal’s editors. The winner will receive a cash prize and be interviewed for the MHRA website. At the judges’ discretion, an Editorial Commendation prize may also be awarded. For queries related to the Article Prize, contact the General Editor.

Sample. Originally published in Modern Language Review 97.4 (2002), Peter Davies's article Eine Sprechmaschine bin ich (click on the title to read the PDF) considers the German Communist poet Johannes R. Becher's version of Majakovskij's epic poem 150 000 000.

Editorial. The Assistant Editor, Dr John Waś, manages the production of MLR.

Publication Ethics. If you have any concerns relating to publication ethics, please email the journal via l.e.o'meara@kent.ac.uk.

Publisher's statement. Views expressed in the content of Modern Language Review are those of the respective authors and contributors and not of the journal editors or of the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA). MHRA makes no representation, express or implied, in respect of the accuracy of the material in this journal and cannot accept any any legal responsibility or liability for views expressed or for any errors or omissions that may be made.

History. MLR began in October 1905 under the General Editorship of John G. Robertson, and was initially published by Cambridge University Press. The MHRA, founded in the final months of the First World War, took on the journal's editing from volume 17 (1922) and became the publisher of record from volume 60 (1965). For a fuller account, see Malcolm Cook's introduction to the centenary supplement One Hundred Years of MLR.

Institutional subscriptions. The Modern Humanities Research Association has now transferred subscription administration and distribution for its journals to Intermedia Brand Marketing Ltd. Please send enquiries by email to mhra@subscriptionhelpline.co.uk or telephone +44 (0)1293 312218.

Individual subscriptions. Individual subscriptions are available only to members of the Association. See the Membership page for details, and note that students registered for a higher degree can obtain entirely free electronic access for up to three years by becoming Postgraduate Associates (free of charge).

Editors

  • General Editor: Dr Lucy O’Meara
  • English Editor: Dr Adam Hansen
  • Italian Editor: Professor Guido Bonsaver
  • Germanic Editor: Dr Seán Williams
  • French Editor: Dr Claire Moran
  • Hispanic Editor: Professor Duncan Wheeler
  • Slavonic Editor: Professor Muireann Maguire

Copyright forms. If your article or review is accepted by this journal, then you will be asked to sign this copyright form (follow the link to read it in PDF form). The reasons we ask you to assign copyright to MHRA are as follows:

  • (i) ownership of copyright by the publisher tends to ensure maximum international protection against infringement, libel, or plagiarism
  • (ii) it enables the MHRA to deal efficiently with requests from third parties to reproduce or reprint a Contribution, or part of it, and in accordance with a general policy which is sensitive both to any relevant changes in international copyright law and to the general desirability of encouraging the dissemination of knowledge.
In assigning your copyright you are not forfeiting your proprietary rights, including patent rights. Nothing in the Agreement you sign shall restrict your rights as the Author(s) to revise, adapt, prepare derivative works, present orally, or otherwise make use of the contents of the Contribution, provided that these do not conflict with the MHRA's financial interests. You may do this after obtaining our permission. The MHRA is a charity which has the encouragement and dissemination of scholarship as its object, and permission to use the contents of your work elsewhere will not normally be withheld provided that the MHRA journal is acknowledged as the original source with a full bibliographical reference.

Open access. MHRA supports Open Access under the Green Route, with an embargo of 12 months. Under this model, if your Contribution is accepted for publication you may make a ‘closed’ deposit of your accepted manuscript in your academic institution’s digital repository upon acceptance. Full open access to the accepted manuscript is then permitted 12 months after publication.

Licensing content. All requests for permission to reproduce material first published in MHRA books and journals beyond the scope of fair use/fair dealing and the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements should be directed to: rights@mhra.org.uk. Please give specific details of the proposed new publication and the permission you require, including: media (print/electronic); print run; selling price; market; language.