Write for Us

Thanks for your interest in writing for Soundyngs. This blog exists to create conversations between researchers and students wishing to learn more about the history of Scottish music, and to help to disseminate good quality research activity in this field, and we invite guest contributions that further this goal.  Articles should be short and concise signposts to further information.  Please follow these three steps to submit a piece for Soundyngs:

1. Read Our Guidelines.

It is important to familiarize yourself with the sort of writing we want.  In addition to reading the below guidelines, you may also want to read posts already published on Transpositions.

  • Purpose: Blogposts are primarily intended to signpost to readers emerging areas of historical research, but may also invite conversation. Your contribution may include an url which would take a reader to your home-hosted material, and you are also encouraged to frame any article in such a way that invites conversation or feedback on stated positions or questions.
  • Topic: We are open to considering any topic that is historically orientated and which discusses any genre of music which has found a presence in the past cultural history of Scotland.  While we primarily focus on activity that has taken place within Scotland, we are also interested in hearing about the diasporic transmission of Scottish music.
  • Language and Style: Since we desire to write to both a popular and academic audience, please avoid overly technical language and style, but if using technical terminology is necessary, make sure this terminology is adequately explained. All submissions will be proofread and small editorial changes may be made
  • Length: Articles and reviews should be between 500-1200 words. If submissions exceed this word limit, they may be returned for rewriting, or we may exercise editorial discretion to make exceptions where it best serves the article and readers.
  • Author Bio: If this is your first time writing for Soundyngs, please submit a short, 2-3 sentence bio with your submission, and if you have an ORCID let us know the ID number and we can add an URL pointing to your academic profile.

2. Read Our Terms and Conditions.

It is important that you are familiar with our terms and conditions because you will need to confirm that you have read them when you submit your writing.

  • Copyright and Permissions: By agreeing to publish your work in Soundyngs, you grant an irrevocable non-exclusive Creative Commons Attribution [CC-BY] Licence to publish your Work.  This does not preclude you from republishing your Work elsewhere, although we do ask that you acknowledge publication in Soundyngs in any future publication of the Work – see ‘Reprints’, below. Copyright remains with the author.
  • Reprints: Reprints are permitted after initial publication here at Soundyngs, but we ask that any reprints contain a line indicating the article was first published on Soundyngs. We also reserve the right to rerun your article at a later date.
  • Originality:  We require all submissions to be original works that are not published elsewhere, and that are not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
  • Images: In the event that you would like to include an image authored by someone other than yourself, we ask that you either secure permission from the author to use the image, or images that are licenced for reuse (e.g. under Creative Commons licence). It is your responsibility to accurately attribute copyrighted material to its author or source.
  • Other media (e.g. video or sound recordings): we are not aiming to be a media hosting site, and anticipate that if you wish to signpost recorded music, that you will ensure that any urls in your article will connect to material to which you have established copyright ownership on whatever third party site you use to host your own material.
  • Privacy: The names and email addresses entered in this website will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of Soundyngs and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party, adhering to the provisions of UK law as articulated under GDPR.
  • Remuneration. This is a purely non-commercial platform and therefore at this point we are unable to provide any remuneration for articles.  Your contribution, however, is highly valued and it serves to promote the ongoing conversation between academic researchers, practitioners, and audiences of historic Scottish music.
  • Responsibility: If your article is published, you will be expected to respond to any comments and facilitate the conversation in a timely fashion.

3. Submit Your Writing!

You are welcome to submit a draft (500-1200 words).  As soon as you think your writing is ready for another pair of eyes, email it to us as a WORD .doc format file using the contact email : soundyngs : at : st-andrews.ac.uk uk

If it is accepted and a publication date established, we will send you a permission to publish agreement, and you can expect the edited and final version to be submitted to us no later than one week prior to the publication date.