PRISM call for submissions

PRISM is a new annual Museums Victoria journal focusing on interdisciplinary humanities research. PRISM will explore the rich and diverse stories, ideas and histories contained within our First Peoples, History & Technology, library and archival collections at Museums Victoria.

We are delighted to announce our first call for submissions.

The formal submission period will run from 20 January 2025 to 3 March 2025. The first edition of PRISM will be published in June 2025. Submission details are provided below.

We are interested in original articles that explore historical and contemporary perspectives on peoples, places, events and objects, including First Peoples communities and cultures, Australian social, cultural and political histories, immigration and diversity, technology and design, collection management practices, museology and conservation.

PRISM seeks to reflect a cross-section of humanities research, so these topics are not intended to be restrictive. We encourage broad-ranging and diverse submissions, particularly where examples of interdisciplinary practice and interpretation are featured, including across the natural sciences.

PRISM will include three distinct article types:

• Short collection-centric articles, focusing on particular objects, management practices or stories (1000 to 1500 words)
• Medium-length articles addressing any relevant topic, with an emphasis on originality, scholarship and creative approaches to contemporary disciplines (3000 to 4000 words, including references)
• Longer articles addressing critical issues, with an emphasis on originality and scholarship, which will be peer-reviewed (up to 7000 words, including references)

We also welcome jointly-authored articles and non-traditional submissions, including photo essays and submissions incorporating graphics, extensive images or artwork.

Please follow the conventions of the attached style guide and ensure the appropriate elements are included in your submission.

Queries can be addressed to [email protected] and [email protected].

To submit

Please email your submission to [email protected].

Your submission will need to contain:

• An article in Word document format
• Including an abstract of up to 250 words (not needed for short articles)
• A short ‘about the author’ bio of up to 70 words
• Include ORCID if applicable
• Contact information
• First and last name
• Institution and role
• Email
• Postal address or phone number
• Declaration of any real, perceived or possible conflicts of interest

Please mark clearly which article type you are submitting and follow the submission guidelines below.

Submission guidelines

Overall content of submission

1. Article type
2. Title, subtitle (both in sentence case) and author
3. Abstract (up to 250 words, except for short articles)
4. Keywords (for search engine optimisation)
5. Body text (with heading to signify where it starts. Body text contains all footnotes, cited sources and bibliographical references. The body text should be structured by section headings as needed)
6. Section headings (bold)
7. Footnotes (not endnotes) including bibliographic references in APA 7th edition style; no bibliography. DOIs should be included where possible.
8. Captions & Copyrights

Submission layout

• Font, body text: Arial 11pt and 1.5 spacing
• Font, footnotes: Arial 9pt and 1.0 spacing. Footnotes end with full stop in all cases.
• Margins: 3cm on all sides
• Text left justified
• No page numbers
• Between sentences: single space, not double
• Between paragraphs: double line spacing
• Short quotations (more than two words): in italics, with single inverted commas (MV requires italics)
• Long quotations: in separate paragraphs, in italics, without inverted commas (unless within quoted text), indented 1.25
• Section headings should be bold, in sentence case; no more than three levels
• Reference numbers in text: outside punctuation – as noted by Smith.1
• No bibliography at end; references within footnotes

Further information on Museums Victoria’s style can be found at Museums Victoria style guide - Museums Victoria (mvweb.vic.gov.au) (MV access required).