Have a great idea for Analog Game Studies? We’d love to hear from you! After having a look around our site, checking out a few essays, and reading our About section, please read through the following guidelines (below) before emailing your piece to us at analoggamestudiesjournal@gmail.com. AGS only accepts submissions in (American) English. 

Submissions should include:

• Title (shorter is better)
• Abstract (200 words or less)
• 5-7 Keywords
• Author Name(s)
• Author Affiliation(s) (if available)
• Author Email(s)
• Author Bio(s) (150 words or less) 
• Essays should be 4000 to 7500 words (including footnotes); book reviews are 750-1000 words
• Manuscripts should be submitted as a Word document (preferable) or PDF, US letter-sized, 1" margins, 12-point Times New Roman font
• Use Chicago style footnotes for references and content notes (see Purdue OWL for format; please limit the number of footnotes whenever/wherever possible for the sake of accessibility)
• 3-5 Illustrations or Images (by the Author, open license, or copyright free; if using copyrighted material, permissions must be obtained by the author); for book reviews, include just the book cover
• Alt Text for each Illustration or Image (see eScholarship's page on Accessibility)

After submitting your essay, one of our editors will contact you in a timely manner.  If you are not sure your essay is a good fit for Analog Game Studies, email us with a brief pitch and sample.  We strongly encourage people from underrepresented groups to apply.

AGS Submission Guidelines

Thank you so much for considering submitting a piece to Analog Game Studies, the journal dedicated to academic and popular study of games containing a substantial analog component.

Before you submit to the journal, however, have you considered…

… if your submission is of the appropriate length?

Our standard article is approximately 4000 to 7500 words long, which is approximately 16-30 double-spaced pages.  This includes all notes, citations, and references.  

… if your piece has a strong argument?

Audiences tend to remember and cite essays with clear arguments supported by compelling evidence.  Make sure yours has both, and make sure your references are recent, relevant, and diverse.  

… if your piece advances broader discussions in the field?

Take a look at some other articles -- both popular and academic -- concerning the topic you’re discussing or the games you're analyzing. Ensure that your point is in dialogue with theirs, rather than ignoring or trying to overwrite the important insights and concessions of the other authors. The negative critique only gets you so far.  The best work is in conversation with other texts and ideas.  

… if your piece offers us something new?

Given other discussions in the field, make sure that the point you’re making is something new, interesting, and useful. We want to publish articles that are worth reading by academic, industry, and popular audiences. Push yourself to innovate and seek the boundaries of previous conversations.

… who are three academics who would be directly interested in your post?

If you can’t name three, your post may not have an audience among scholars.

… who are three game designers who would be directly interested in your post?

If you can’t name three, maybe you’re not reaching the designer segment of our audience. We’d like for you to reach both scholars AND designers, if possible. (Feel free to use other Analog Game Studies authors to answer either this or the above question.)

… thinking beyond a role-playing game audience?

Let’s face it: most of our authors and audience are concerned with TTRPGs and, sure, we’ll give them what they want. But the title of our journal is “Analog Game Studies,” so your argument must have some broader “analog” applicability beyond your narrow field of interest, right? Without getting too ambitious, think about the ramifications of your argument for other sorts of games. Explain the concepts and games involved as if your audience were your grandparent, your English professor, and a board-gamer from your local gaming store.

… the strengths and specializations of the editorial board?

While interdisciplinary, AGS primarily publishes humanities-forward writing and research.  If an essay comes in that falls outside of our editorial expertises, we may seek help from an outside expert.  However, if we feel that we cannot adequately support an essay or writer -- theoretically or methodologically -- we will defer and when possible, we will offer suggestions for other venues for publication.  We greatly value and appreciate active input from our authors, but the editorial board ultimately has the final say on acceptance, revisions, layout, and rejections.  

… if you have a bio on the website?

If you’re a new post author, we’ll need a bit more information from you about yourself (as well as a headshot). Please look at the other bios and provide us with your own short one along with a picture of yourself. Good bios are brief and answer the reader’s question “Why should I care about what YOU have to say?”

Book Reviews

AGS occasionally publishes reviews of new (or recent) analog game studies texts. If you have an idea for a book review or would like to be assigned a book to review, contact analoggamestudiesjournal@gmail.com. Send your name, contact information, and CV to become a reviewer.  Completed book reviews ready for submission should follow the article submission process above.  Book review guidelines include:

• Academic, but accessible for an educated audience
• 750-1000 words
• focus on main ideas, key arguments, strengths
• be a generous reader

AGS does not publish game reviews.  

Special Issues

If you have an idea for a theme or special issue, see the special issue guidelines.

AGS Generative AI Policy

AGS will not accept articles/figures/artwork/other materials that are AI generated. The use of generative AI for accessibility reasons (e.g. assistance in translation into English) will be reasonably accommodated and double-checked by authors/editors. AI generated or manipulated portions must be flagged with a content note and rationale.

See also AGS's ethics statements regarding concurrent submissions, plagiarism, retractions, and other issues.  

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Featured image by Kristina Alexanderson @ Flickr.  CC BY.