Selection criteria

Articles published by Atlantis must be of the “research” type rather than mere re-statements of facts already known to the academic community. Ideally, they should have the following sections, though these need not be explicitly indicated in the text nor appear in this order as independent stages—they can merge into one another:

a. An introduction providing the context of the research and formulating the hypothesis to be substantiated, i.e. what the author intends to prove.

b. A state-of-the-art section containing a brief review of the relevant bibliography and justifying the validity, originality, and scientific interest of the hypothesis in the light of existing scholarship on the subject.

c. The body of the article, in which evidence and facts are marshalled and assessed in order to prove the hypothesis.

d. Some kind of concluding section, in which the contribution made to scholarship is neatly delimited and emphasized.

It is highly desirable that articles should have a single, sharp, clearly-stated focus, rather than a sprawling development. From the very outset, the reader should be aware of what the author aims at, and every word in the article should contribute to convincing the reader that the author’s position is sound.

Reviews

The review should be written according to the usual standards of scholarship in Anglo-American studies. Apart from offering an accurate description of the contents of the book, the review should be a reasoned attempt at assessing its relative value and scope with reference to similar works in the same field. Therefore, a bibliographical revision of previous publications and a balanced judgement of the true contribution of the book under review should never be absent. Formal aspects such as style, layout, critical apparatus, reference system, etc. should also be attended to.

Interviews

An interview is not an academic article, but neither should it be a casual piece of writing where questions and answers have been jotted down without due thought. An acceptable interview should contribute to revealing information hitherto unknown about the interviewee’s work and relevant personal circumstances, and this seems difficult to achieve unless the method of approach has been carefully planned and successfully applied. An interview should never be reduced to a series of hackneyed prompts, followed by the interviewee’s rambling discourse. Apart from this essential concern, referees should also consider whether (a) the interviewee’s personality is sufficiently relevant to the field of Anglo-American studies; (b) the interviewer’s background knowledge allows him/her to conduct a competent and searching interview, and thus glean original information; (c) both the structure and the linguistic composition of the interview contribute effectively to promoting the principles of originality and relevance.