The ALAN Review

Those interested in submitting manuscripts for consideration in The ALAN Review should familiarize themselves with the guidelines for authors below. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically to the editorial team.  

ABOUT THE ALAN REVIEW

The ALAN Review (TAR) publishes articles that explore, examine, critique, and advocate for literature for young adults and the teaching of that literature.  Published pieces include, but are not limited to, research studies, papers presented at professional meetings, surveys of the literature, critiques of the literature, articles about authors, comparative studies across genres and/or cultures, articles on ways to teach the literature to adolescents, and interviews with YA authors.

AUDIENCE

Many of the individual members of ALAN are classroom teachers of English in middle and high schools. Other readers include university faculty members in English and/or Education programs, researchers in the field of young adult literature, librarians, YA authors, publishers, reading teachers, and teachers in related content areas. ALAN has members in all 50 United States and a number of foreign countries.

PREFERRED STYLE

Manuscripts should usually be no longer than twenty double-spaced, typed pages, not including references. A manuscript submitted for consideration should deal specifically with literature for young adults and/or the teaching of that literature. It should have a clearly defined topic and be scholarly in content, as well as practical and useful to people working with and/or studying young adults and their literature. Research studies and papers should be treated as articles rather than formal reports. Stereotyping on the basis of sex, race, age, etc., should be avoided, as should gender-specific terms such as “chairman.”

MANUSCRIPT FORMAT

Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout, including quotations and bibliographies.  The names of submitting authors should not appear anywhere in the manuscript. Short quotations, as permitted under “fair use” in the copyright law, must be carefully documented within the manuscript and in the bibliography. Longer quotations and complete poems or short stories must be accompanied by written permission from the copyright owner. YA author interviews should be accompanied by written permission for publication in TAR from the interviewed author(s). Interviewers should indicate to the author(s) that publication is subject to review of an editorial board. Original short tables and figures should be double-spaced and placed on separate sheets at the end of the manuscript. Notations should appear in the text indicating proper placement of tables and figures.

The ALAN Review uses the bibliography style detailed in the Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). Please adhere to that style when including in-text citations and preparing reference lists.

SUBMITTING THE MANUSCRIPT

• A manuscript without references to the author(s) and with name(s) removed in the Properties section under the File menu to ensure the piece is anonymized;

• A title page with names, affiliations, mailing addresses, and 100-150 word professional biographies for each submitting author, as well as a brief statement that the article is original, has not been published previously in other journals and/or books, and is not a simultaneous submission; and

• In order to reduce personal bias and increase personal awareness and responsibility in The ALAN Review, we are asking all our authors to submit a positionality statement along with their manuscript. A positionality statement addresses who you are, how you view the field of young adult literature, and your relationship with the field. We ask that each submitting author writes their own positionality statement. Please consider the following question to craft your statements: How are you positioned in terms of the content you will be reviewing? In other words, what are your social identities (e.g., ability, race, ethnicity, gender, etc.) and your professional expertise in relation to the manuscript you are submitting?

REVIEW PROCESS

Each manuscript will receive an anonymous review by the editors and at least three members of the Editorial Review Board, unless the length, style, or content makes it inappropriate for publication. Usually, authors should expect to hear the results within eight weeks. Manuscripts are judged for the contribution made to the field of young adult literature and mission of The ALAN Review, scholarly rigor, and clarity of writing. Selection also depends on the manuscript’s contribution to the overall balance of the journal.

PUBLICATION OF ARTICLES

The ALAN Review assumes that accepted manuscripts have not been published previously in any other journals and/or books, nor will they be published subsequently without permission of the editors. Should the author submit the manuscript to more than one publication, he/she should notify The ALAN Review. If a submitted or accepted manuscript is accepted by another publication prior to publication in The ALAN Review, the author should immediately withdraw the manuscript from publication in The ALAN Review.

Manuscripts that are accepted may be edited for clarity, accuracy, readability, and publication style. Upon publication, the author will receive two copies of The ALAN Review in which the article appears. Publication usually occurs within 18 months of acceptance.

The ALAN Review AI Policy (based upon: https://taylorandfrancis.com/our-policies/ai-policy/)

The ALAN Review recognizes the potential of Generative AI to enhance idea exploration and language expression, but maintains that authors are solely accountable for the originality and integrity of their work. Authors may use AI for language improvement or literature classification provided they disclose the tool’s name, version, and specific application within the Methods or Acknowledgments section and on the title page. However, AI cannot be used to generate essential content, core research, synthetic data, or manipulated images and figures, as these functions risk introducing inaccuracies, biases, and intellectual property concerns. AI tools must not be listed as authors, as they cannot take legal or ethical responsibility for a manuscript.

In order to protect other’s intellectual property, editors and peer reviewers are prohibited from uploading unpublished manuscripts or associated data into Generative AI systems.

The ALAN Review will continue to update these guidelines to ensure our publishing ethics keep pace with evolving technology.

Those interested in becoming a reviewer for The ALAN Review should read and understand the expectations below as they prepare their response to authors.

The ALAN Review: Become a Reviewer

Thank you for wanting to serve as a reviewer for The ALAN Review! TAR publishes high-quality articles and professional materials that support the learning and development of readers committed to (or wanting to learn more about) young adult literature—its authors, its readers, and its advocates. TAR publishes scholarship and resource materials that build, expand, and challenge readers’ understandings, as well as support them in the daily work they do with the students in their care.Expectations of reviewers are as follows:

1. Read and evaluate manuscripts within three weeks of receipt. Reviewers will provide timely and thoughtful feedback on the relevance of the manuscript to the call/field of YAL, clarity of the writing, and strength of the methods/approaches described. Reviewers will provide evidence for the claims they make about the manuscript and provide specific feedback for the author. We aim for the revision process to be constructive for the author; therefore, we expect reviewer comments to be actionable, clear, and kind.

2. Reviewers ultimately select if a manuscript is: Accept (with minor revisions), Conditionally Accept (accept with necessary revisions), Revise and Resubmit for Review (Substantial revisions necessary; resubmit with no guarantee of publication), Reject (Not suitable for publication in TAR).We appreciate your expertise and support of our authors. We employ a double-blind referee system: identities of the author(s) and the reviewers are not revealed to one another.  However, we include reviewers’ comments (or excerpts) in our responses to submitting author(s).To indicate your interest, please fill out the below Google form with your information and expertise. When we receive manuscripts for each issue, we try to match manuscripts to our reviewer’s expertise. If selected, you will then receive a blinded copy of a manuscript and a Google form to complete the review within 2-3 weeks. To become a reviewer, please fill out this interest form.

If you are new to reviewing manuscripts, the TAR Review Handout may provide you some guidance. It includes an overview of the TAR review process, advice from current TAR reviewers, and example reviews

Those interested in submitting work for consideration to The ALAN Review can read the current call for manuscripts below.

General Interest Submissions

54.3 – Summer 2027: War and Peace in YAL: Civic Education in the ELA Classroom

Call for Manuscripts: Submissions due on or before November 1, 2026 

Young adult literature provides young people with the opportunity to see and contend with the world in a way that is relevant to them. This can include addressing the many conflicts that surround us. More recently, YAL has centered stories of war that have been previously elided or marginalized such as Standing Up Against Hate (Farrell, 2019), We Are Not Free (Chee, 2020 ), and Ruta Sepetys’s Between Shades of Gray (2011), Salt to the Sea (2016), and The Fountains of Silence (2019).

For this issue, we are examining how YAL can provide a space for helping readers make sense of war as well as a place where authors articulate the complexities and histories of conflict. This examination aims to challenge simplistic notions of victims and aggressors, soldiers and noncombatants. We encourage submissions that highlight perspectives of peoples previously overlooked or conveyed as singular (e.g., a simplistic hero/villain narrative), as well as articles that critically engage YAL texts presenting experiences of combat and diplomacy. We are particularly interested in how shared reading of YAL can serve as a catalyst for strengthening conflict resolution and civic education, such that democratic values of tolerance, openness, and pluralism can be practiced by readers.  

We encourage submissions that are connected to transformative classroom practices that actively engage learners in multiple meanings of peace and war, and how exploring these concepts sustain and strengthen democracy and civic participation. We are especially interested in articles that offer a compelling argument for the intentional use of YAL to interrogate, reimagine, understand, and examine the United States’ history of conflict engagement through intersectional and multivocal lenses.      

Authors might consider the following critical questions: 

• How have the YAL depictions of America’s role in historical conflicts changed in ways that tell richer, multivocal, and more nuanced perspectives? For example, consider the different perspectives, voices, and themes across novels linked by the Revolutionary War context: Johnny Tremaine (Forbes, 1943), My Brother Sam is Dead (Collier & Collier, 1974), Chains (Anderson, 2008), Sophie’s War (Avi, 2012), The Fighting Ground (Avi, 1984), and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. I: The Pox Party (Anderson, 2006).
• How does YAL explore the perspectives of adolescents involved in conflict, including military-engaged combatants and victims who seek refuge?      
• What instructional strategies have you found to encourage students to examine and respect multiple perspectives? What strategies and dialogic routines foster productive, respectful conversations in your classroom, especially around complex and challenging historical or political topics?
• How does the current state of conflict influence how educators discuss and/or select texts for discussion of historical events related to war and diplomacy? 
• How do you incorporate conflict-related nonfiction texts, especially speeches, news media, memoirs, and essays into your classroom?      
• What does young adult literature still lack in the realm of diverse perspectives of peacemaking and authentic conveyance of conflict engagements? Why are those elements important, and what prevents them from being represented?

The editorial team is excited to have Dr. Julianna Lopez Kershen join them as a guest editor for this issue. 

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Authors are asked to consider the inclusive language and citations used throughout their manuscripts. Please access the following resources to help determine the inclusivity of your manuscript and your references list:

• University of Idaho Brand Resource Center Inclusive Writing Guide
• The Diversity Style Guide
• GLAAD Media Reference Guide
• National Center on Disability and Journalism Language Style Guide
• Asian American Journalists Association Guide to Covering Asian Pacific America
• National Association of Black Journalists Style Guide
• A Note on Inclusive Citation Practices: if only white scholars are referenced, this is unacceptable; cite multiply marginalized and underrepresented (MMU) scholars and voices (e.g., #CiteASista)

Archives of The ALAN Review are hosted at Virginia Tech and can be accessed from that web site. Please note that archives reflect a two-year delay from the print publication date.