Editorial Policy

This editorial policy for the USC Journal of Music Industry (JMI) is designed to ensure fairness in the publication process and eliminate any illegal or unethical practices.

The journal’s editors are responsible for:

- providing guidelines to authors for preparing and submitting manuscripts;
- treating all authors with fairness, courtesy, objectivity, honesty, and transparency;
- protecting the confidentiality of every author’s work;
- facilitating effective and rapid peer review;
- informing authors of editorial decisions regarding the submitted papers in a timely manner;
- ensuring the timely publication of accepted manuscripts.

The USC Journal of Music Industry (JMI) only accepts articles that are not published in any other journals. JMI is an English language journal. The primary criteria for articles that are selected for publication are originality, practical value, as well as properly selected and applied research/citations. Submitted manuscripts need to be prepared according to requirements of the journal (see guidelines for authors). Manuscripts are assessed in terms of conformity to these requirements by the editors and they can be returned to the author(s) for changes if the submitted manuscripts do not comply.

The editors may reject manuscripts without external peer review. The reasons for doing this can include the manuscript being outside the scope of the journal, the manuscript not meeting the journal’s quality standards, or if the manuscript lacks novel information. The authors will be informed about this via email. In the case of a positive pre-review decision, the submitted manuscripts are sent to an external reviewer with expertise in the relevant field. Editors of the USC Journal of Music Industry (JMI) assure the anonymity of reviewers and authors during the entire review process.

Editing Guidelines

The Senior and Associate Editors are responsible for critically reading and evaluating a manuscript in the field of Music Business. They will provide respectful, constructive, and honest feedback to authors concerning their submission. They will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the article, ways to improve the strength and quality of the work, and evaluate the relevance and originality of the manuscript.

When reviewing an article, editors keep the following in mind:

(1) Content Quality and Originality:

Does the article contribute academic discourse relevant to the music industry? Does the article explore contemporary topics, trends, and developments in the music business? Does the article promote the Journal’s goals of inclusion and representation? Does it maintain JMI’s high standards of quality?

(2) Organization and Clarity:

• Title: Does it clearly describe the article?

• Abstract: Does it reflect the content of the article?

• Introduction: Does it describe what the author hoped to achieve accurately? Does it contain a thesis?

• Body: Is the content of the article unique and thought-provoking?

• Conclusion: Has the thesis been adequately addressed? Are there avenues referenced for potential future research/developments? Does the conclusion explain how the article has advanced the body of Music Industry knowledge?

• Tables, Figures, Images: Are they appropriate? Do they properly show the data? Are they easy to interpret and understand?

• Format: Is the article properly stylized according to MLA guidelines? Are in-text citations or footnotes included in addition to a full bibliography?

(3) Scope: Does the article adhere to the goals outlined in the Journal’s mission statement? Is the information presented relevant to the music business?

Submission Standards

Submissions for Issue 3 are due no later than December 31st, 2024. Please submit your work via the following Google Form. Attach documents in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx). 

Your submission should be in English, typed in double spacing (including all notes as footnotes, references, tables, figures and plates). English or American spelling is acceptable provided usage is consistent. Chicago Style format is required by the USC JMI. Notes and asides should be kept to a minimum and placed as footnotes at the end of the page.

Please include a cover page with the title of your paper, the date of completion, and a brief abstract (no more than 250 words). Additionally, please include a full bibliography at the end of your paper, in addition to any in-text citations or footnotes. If your word-processor is capable of doing a word count please use it to print this at the end of the text.

All articles submitted to this journal will undergo a rigorous editing process, based on initial editors' screening and anonymous review by an anonymous reviewer. The reviewer suggests full acceptance of the paper without any revisions, acceptance with minor revisions, acceptance with major revisions, or rejection of the paper. In the interest of anonymity, do not include any references to your name or institution within the body of the article, including cover page, headers and footers. 

Submission of a paper to the journal will be taken to imply that it presents original, un-published, work not under consideration for publication elsewhere. It is acceptable to adapt a paper submitted as coursework for this Journal, given the paper in question has not been otherwise published.

ISSUE 3

Deadline for Preliminary Submissions: December 31st, 2024