Proposal Guidelines for Authors and Reviewers for MLA Open Access Publications

The Open Access Editor invites all interested authors to request a preliminary consultation about their project before submitting a full proposal. If you have questions about the process or if you would like to discuss your project before submission, please ask the editor for a consultation. 

OA Proposal Guidelines

Proposals should include the following elements:

• Description of the proposed project, including:
  • Scope
  • Methodology
  • Summary of the relevance and timeliness of project
• Plan and rationale for open access publication, including: 
  • How the project will benefit from being published in an open environment
  • How the project will take advantage of online technologies 
  • Scope of anticipated multimedia elements, if applicable
  • Timeline for periodic revisions, if applicable
• Annotated outline with the scope of each section for publication.
  • Annotations should be brief (100 words maximum)
• Description of your intended audience (for example instruction, collection development, or technical services librarians; library administration/management; general readers; undergraduate or graduate students; scholars; professionals; music librarians in non-music specialties, etc.) and anticipated audience impact
• Anticipated completion date
• Curriculum vitae of the author(s)

Guidelines for Proposal Reviewers

• Does the project meet the guidelines?
• Is the text written clearly and succinctly?
• Is the subject matter comprehensively developed and appropriately defined?
• Does the publication contribute to scholarship with regard to the subject area?
• Could the proposed project be published digitally in a sustainable way that MLA could support?
• Are the description, rationale, outline, and audience clearly defined and aligned to maximize project impact? Should the author consider adjusting them in developing the project? 
• Does the work require periodic revision? Does the author identify and describe a sustainable process for ongoing revision?