---
name: jaar-submission
description: Use when running the final pre-submission preflight for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JAAR) via ScholarOne / Manuscript Central — anonymized main document plus separate title page, the broad-significance framing, length and abstract limits, in-text citation style, and house conventions. Final checks; it does not draft content.
---

# Submission Preflight (jaar-submission)

The last check before submitting through **ScholarOne / Manuscript Central**
(`mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jaarel`). The two most common avoidable failures at JAAR are a **subfield-only
framing** (returned before review) and an **under-anonymized** document (it is double-blind). Verify
volatile specifics on the official page first.

## When to trigger

- "Submitting tomorrow" — last pass before upload
- Unsure which files Manuscript Central expects (anonymized main document + title page)
- Confirming framing, length, abstract, citation style, and anonymity are in order

## Process facts (verify volatile items on the official page)

- **Owner / publisher:** American Academy of Religion (AAR) / Oxford University Press.
- **Portal:** **ScholarOne / Manuscript Central**, `mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jaarel`. Upload uses a
  **Main Document (anonymous)** designation plus a separate **Title Page** (and Figure/Table/
  Supplementary as needed).
- **Review:** **double-blind (double-anonymous).**
- **Length:** roughly **8,000–12,000 words including references and footnotes** (待核实 exact range).
- **Abstract:** **≤ 150 words.**
- **Framing:** the article must address a question of **broad and fundamental interest to the study of
  religion** and reach beyond its subfield, or it is **returned for reframing before review**.
- **Citations:** **in-text author-date**, NOT footnote citations; footnotes for substance only;
  alphabetized year-keyed reference list (see `jaar-citation-and-style`).
- **House conventions:** gender-neutral language, serial comma, italicized foreign terms, consistent
  transliteration.

## Preflight checklist

### Framing & fit
- [ ] Introduction states broad, field-level significance (passes the reframing gate)
- [ ] The essay "has a point" — a contestable thesis, not description

### Length & abstract
- [ ] Within ~8,000–12,000 words **including references and footnotes**
- [ ] Abstract ≤ 150 words

### Anonymity (double-blind)
- [ ] **Anonymized main document** — no author name/affiliation; self-citations neutralized ("a prior
      study," not "my prior study")
- [ ] **Separate title page** with author info prepared as its own file
- [ ] Identifying **file metadata stripped** (document properties)
- [ ] Acknowledgments/funding moved off the anonymized document

### Style & files
- [ ] **In-text author-date** citations; footnotes substantive only; reference list keyed and alphabetized
- [ ] Gender-neutral language, serial comma, foreign terms italicized, consistent transliteration
- [ ] Images (if any) with permissions; high-resolution where reproduced

### Ethics
- [ ] Original work; not under review elsewhere
- [ ] Fieldwork consent/positionality handled (see `jaar-sources-and-evidence`)

## Anti-patterns

- A subfield-only introduction (triggers the pre-review reframing return)
- Author identifiers left in the main document or its metadata (breaks double-blind)
- Footnote citations instead of in-text author-date
- Abstract over 150 words; manuscript over the length range with bloated notes
- Planning an unsolicited book-review submission (not accepted)

## Output format

```
【Framing】broad field-level significance + a "point"? [Y/N]
【Length/abstract】within ~8,000-12,000 incl. notes/refs; abstract ≤150? [Y/N]
【Anonymized】main doc + self-cites + metadata clean; separate title page? [Y/N]
【Citations】in-text author-date; footnotes substantive only? [Y/N]
【House conventions】gender-neutral + serial comma + foreign-term italics? [Y/N]
【Next】await decision → jaar-revision-and-response
```

## Desk-return ledger: why JAAR submissions bounce before review

The editorial office of the AAR/Oxford University Press flagship returns manuscripts at upload or
pre-review for a recurring set of reasons. Clear all of these before you press submit.

| Bounce trigger | Pre-empt by |
|----------------|-------------|
| Subfield-only framing | Open with field-level stakes (`jaar-topic-selection`) |
| Author identity in the main file | Anonymize body + strip document properties |
| Footnote citations | Convert to author-date (`jaar-citation-and-style`) |
| Over length / bloated notes | Prune notes; cite in-text |
| Abstract over the limit | Trim to the limit (≤150 words, 待核实) |
| Unsolicited book review | Don't — reviews are commissioned only |
| Wrong fit (advocacy or pure area study) | Re-pitch as analytic study of religion, or choose another venue |

## Worked vignette: a clean preflight on a comparative essay

The comparative-offerings article is ready. The author runs the two-file check that ScholarOne /
Manuscript Central expects for double-anonymous review:

- **Main Document (anonymous).** "In my 2019 study" becomes "in a prior study"; the acknowledgments
  and a grant line are removed to the title page; document properties are cleared so no author name
  rides along in the metadata.
- **Separate Title Page.** Author name, affiliation, contact, acknowledgments, and funding live here,
  as their own file.
- **Framing line.** The first paragraph names what the comparison teaches the study of religion (the
  transactional-devotion analytic), so the office does not bounce it to reframe.
- **Style sweep.** In-text author-date throughout; serial commas; *dargah* and *ex voto* italicized
  and glossed; one transliteration system; abstract trimmed to the cap.

Hedged calibration: the portal (ScholarOne / Manuscript Central at `mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jaarel`),
the AAR/Oxford University Press ownership, and the double-anonymous model are stable anchors; the exact
word range, the abstract cap, file-designation labels, and ethics/data statements are volatile — verify
each on the journal's current submission guidelines before this final pass, as the prompt requires.

## Supplementary resources

- [`../../resources/external_tools.md`](../../resources/external_tools.md) — reference managers and study-of-religion research tools
- [`../../resources/official-source-map.md`](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — official JAAR URLs behind every fact in this pack