About the Journal

Aims and Scope

Museum & Society is an interdisciplinary journal with a wide-ranging interest in all issues associated with museums and other places of public culture concerned with collecting, exhibiting and display. 

Museum & Society appears three times a year (March, July, November) and is open access and free to all individuals and institutions. However, we request that users who wish to take advantage of the free access facility register with us first. Those wishing to receive e-mail updates on forthcoming volumes, events and associated publications may also wish to register.

Museum & Society will publish articles covering a wide range of social science, humanities and practitioner research including:

  • Museums in society
  • Museum practice, funding and management
  • Conservation
  • Collecting and collections
  • Museums, identity and difference
  • Museums and social inclusion
  • Audience research
  • Access provision and practice
  • Museums and education
  • Politics and display
  • Heritage studies
  • History of museums/collections
  • Government policy and museums
  • Reviews of temporary exhibitions
  • Book reviews

We welcome submissions of articles and reviews in these and related areas of museum research. All articles submitted to the journal are peer reviewed before being considered for publication.

Open Access policy

We are a fully open access journal: all articles are open access immediately on publication. We do not use article processing charges or charge submission fess: publishing in Museum and Society is free for all authors.

Peer Review policy

Museum and Society follows a double-anonymised review policy for article submissions. The names of the authors are not known by the reviewers, and the names of the reviewers are not known by the authors.

Each submission is assigned by the Production Editor to a member of the Editorial Board. That editor is responsible for locating three appropriate peer reviewers for each submission, based on the latter’s experience and the subject of the submission In extraordinary cases, authors may ask to exclude ONE possible reviewer. This request may be made in the notes accompanying submissions. No reasons need to or should be given.

Once the editor handling a submission has received all three reviews, that editor will make a decision based on reviewers’ recommendations. This decision about publication will be conveyed to the author, together with comments from the reviewers. Authors may be asked to amend or re-write sections of the submission. The time allowed for minor amendments is 1 month. For major rewrites or a revision of the whole submission, the editor may allow 6 months in the first instance. At the discretion of the editor a longer period may be allowed if there are extenuating circumstances.

If authors do not agree, or do not adhere to, the timetable, the submission will be regarded as an entirely new submission, assigned to a new editor and a new peer-review process will begin.

Authors may request additional time to complete amendments or rewrites and the editor may agree based on an assessment of the author’s commitment to completing the process within an agreed schedule.

When submitting revised articles, authors are strongly encouraged to include a summary of changes, with an explanation of what was done (or not done). Revised articles may be sent out for additional review based on the recommendations of the original reviewers and the scope of the revisions; in cases where only minimal changes are necessary, a revision will not go out for another round of reviews.

Requests for revision and rejections are part of the scholarly review process. Authors should understand that pieces may not be accepted for a variety of reasons, some of which have little to do with the quality of their work, as when a piece does not fall within the scope of our journal. Appeals of the review process should only be made after serious reflection. In such cases, authors should write the chair of the editorial board a brief letter explaining why they are appealing the decision, and specifying the ways in which the reviews failed to recognize the merits of the article.

Appeal procedure

Our appeal procedure provides authors with the opportunity to respond to the editorial decision on their manuscript. Authors have the right to appeal to the editor against any decision taken on their manuscript at any stage; an appeal will be considered at the discretion of the editors

How do I appeal?

  • Step 1: Send a rebuttal letter to the editor via the journal email. Your letter should explain clearly why you disagree with the decision on your submission, and should include a detailed response to any reviewers’ comments
  • Step 2: The editor will consider your appeal. All appeal requests are handled on a case by case basis and the editor's decision is final.

If your appeal is granted

  • Step 3: Your manuscript will undergo further assessment by an independent reviewer.
  • Step 4: The editor will make a final decision on your manuscript.

Author copyright and licencing 

Author(s) retain the the copyright to their published articles.

We publish articles under the default licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.  If you have a funder requirement to publish under a different licence, please let us know at the submission stage.

Publication Frequency

Museum and Society is normally published three times a year, in March, July and November. There may also be extra Special Issues.

Indexing and Abstracting 

Our articles are indexed in DOAJ, Google Scholar, Scopus, Art Full Text and Dimensions. Our metadata is deposited with CrossRef. 

Archiving

Our content is archived with the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) for digital preservation. 

Publisher

University of Leicester Open Journals

Sponsorship

School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester 

Journal History

Museum & Society was launched in March 2003 by Gordon Fyfe, Kevin Hetherington and Susan Pearce as an independent peer reviewed journal which brings together new writing by academics and museum professionals on the subject of museums. It is both international in scope and at the cutting edge of empirical and theoretical research on museums. The journal is a successor to the series New Research in Museum Studies which was published by Athlone Press from 1990 to 1997.