Submissions

This page is designed to help you ensure your submission is ready for and fits the scope of the journal.

Before submitting you should read over the guidelines here, then register an account (or login if you have an existing account).

Authors, please familiarize yourself with the author guidelines before submitting.

Submissions to the July 2025 Special Issue, "The Role of Theatre at Historically Black Colleges and Universities:
Please send all inquiries and submissions to Khalid Y. Long, Longky56@gmail.com, and DeRon S. Williams, deronwms@gmail.com

About

The Black Theatre Review (tBTR) is a biannual online, peer-reviewed journal published by the Black Theatre Network (BTN). BTN is dedicated to the exploration and preservation of the theatrical visions of the African Diaspora. The goal of tBTR is to explore scholarship, history, and performance of Black peoples and cultures wherever they are expressed throughout the world.

Focus and Scope

The Black Theatre Review (tBTR) is a biannual online, peer-reviewed journal published by the Black Theatre Network (BTN). BTN is dedicated to the exploration and preservation of the theatrical visions of the African Diaspora. The goal of tBTR is to explore scholarship, history, and performance of Black peoples and cultures wherever they are expressed throughout the world.

Submission Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
The submission file is in Microsoft Word document (.docx) file format.
Where available, URLs and DOIs for the references have been provided.
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references and quotations. Authors should make sure they are correct, in substance and style.
The text is double-spaced; uses Times New Roman, no smaller than 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review (below) have been followed.

Ensuring a Blind Review

To ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to this press, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. This involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties:

The authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "Author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc.
With Microsoft Office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under File in Word), by clicking on the following, beginning with File on the main menu of the Microsoft application: File > Save As > Tools (or Options with a Mac) > Security > Remove personal information from file properties on save > Save.
With PDFs, the authors' names should also be removed from Document Properties found under File on Adobe Acrobat's main menu.

Copyright Notice

Authors retain the rights to their work published in the Black Theatre Review and agree to release their work under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 license. Authors are free to reuse their work and to enter into other agreements as long as they credit the Black Theatre Review as the site of first publication and provide a link to the journal website.

The author(s) are responsible for ensuring their article does not infringe upon any copyright; violate any other right of any third parties; contain any scandalous, libelous, or unlawful matter; or make any improper invasion of the privacy of any person. The author(s) agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the University of Arizona against any claim or proceeding undertaken on any of the aforementioned grounds. Permission to use 3rd party materials e.g. figures, tables, photographs, illustrations, trade literature and data must be secured prior to publication and authors must include these permissions with their final submission.

Peer Review

All research article submissions are initially assessed by an Editor, who decides whether or not the article fits the scope of the journal and is suitable for peer review. Submissions considered suitable are assigned to two independent experts who assess the article for clarity, validity, and sound methodology.

The journal uses a blind peer review process: reviewers remain anonymous for the review process. Submissions should not contain any clues to the identity of the author(s). Double-check manuscripts for (a) self-citations; (b) institution name; and (c) references to institution-specific documents. The review period is expected to take around five weeks. Reviewers are asked to provide formative feedback, even if an article is not deemed suitable for publication in the journal.

Based on the reviewer reports the Editorial Team will make a recommendation for rejection, revisions, or acceptance. Overall editorial responsibility rests with the journal’s Editorial Team, who are supported by the Editorial Board.

Licences

the Black Theatre Review allows the following licences for submission:

CC BY-NC 4.0
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Publication Fees

Journals published or hosted by the University of Arizona Libraries' Publishing Program do not charge author publishing fees. All journals hosted by the University of Arizona Libraries are fully open access, with no charges to access or to publish.

Publication Cycle

tBTR publishes two themed issues yearly, with occasional additional special issues.

Sections

Section or article type	Public Submissions	Peer Reviewed	Indexed
Articles
Performance Reviews
Book Reviews
Artistic Practice as Scholarship
Notes from the Field
Letters to the Editor