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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures

Editor(s): Christophe Nihan (General Editor), Anna Angelini (Associate Editor), Ian D. Wilson (Associate Editor)

About

FOCUS AND SCOPE

The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (JHS) is an internationally peer-reviewed, open-access journal established in 1996, to foster scholarly research on the Hebrew Bible, ancient Israel’s history, and cognate fields of study.

OPEN ACCESS

JHS provides immediate open-access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

DIGITAL ARCHIVING

JHS is archived with the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) Preservation Network, Scholars Portal Journals, and Érudit. These programs offer decentralized and distributed preservation of, and perpetual access to the authentic original version of the content. The journal also utilizes the LOCKSS system to create an archiving network among participating libraries, and it permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

In addition, JHS articles are included in the ATLA Religion Database, RAMBI, and BiBIL. The full contents of the journal are electronically archived by Library and Archives Canada. And JHS volumes are published in hard-copy by Gorgias Press as part of their series Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures and its Contexts.

AUTHOR SELF-ARCHIVING

Under the terms of the Creative Commons license, authors are permitted to post their work online in institutional/disciplinary repositories or on their own websites. Pre-print versions posted online should include a citation and link to the final published version in JHS as soon as the issue is available; post-print versions (including the final publisher's PDF) should include a citation and link to the journal's website.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The publication of the journal is made possible through collaboration between the University of Alberta in Canada and the Alttestamentliches Seminar at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster, Germany. Over the years, grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) have supported the journal, as have many volunteers who have generously given their time and efforts to ensure the journal's regular publication. The editors would like to acknowledge Hélène Grosjean in particular for her dedication and service to the journal in recent years, and Dustin Nicolaus of WWU Münster, the journal's current editorial assistant.

Contact

Principal Contact

Christophe Nihan, University of Münster

jhseditors@gmail.com

Support Contact

Ian D. Wilson, University of Alberta

jhseditors@gmail.com

Back issues (3 issues)

Permanent archiving of articles on Érudit is provided by Portico.

Editorial policy and ethics

In principle, the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (JHS) endorses the core practices and publication guidelines developed and written by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

The editors of JHS examine each manuscript that is submitted to the journal, to ensure that the manuscript matches the journal’s scope and standards. If the editors deem that the manuscript is acceptable for peer review, the editors send it to at least two qualified scholars in the field of study. The review process is “double-blind,” in that both author(s) and reviewers are kept anonymous to each other. Reviewers are asked to evaluate the manuscript with regard to its originality, methodological rigorousness, and potential to advance research in its particular field. Based on the reviewers’ reports, the editors make the final recommendation to the author(s) concerning the manuscript’s potential for publication. Editors aim to complete the entire peer review process within four months of a manuscript’s receipt. 

RESPONSIBILITIES OF EDITORS

The editors of JHS will:

  • Evaluate manuscripts solely on the basis of intellectual content.
  • Not discriminate against individuals or groups on the basis of race; colour; ancestry; place of origin; religious beliefs; gender, gender identity and gender expression; physical disability; mental disability; marital status; family status; source of income; sexual orientation; age; political beliefs; or any other groups as amended from time to time (as per the University of Alberta’s Discrimination, Harrassment and Duty to Accommodate Policy).
  • Maintain objectivity in reviewing manuscripts, providing authors with constructive feedback that is free of personal criticism.
  • Maintain confidentiality with regard to the identities of authors whose manuscripts are under review. In rare circumstances, editors may share information about an author with members of the editorial advisory board and/or potential reviewers, but only with the express written permission of the author.
  • Ensure that reviews of manuscripts are “double-blind” (i.e., the identities of both authors and reviewers are held in confidence); and that, whenever possible, each manuscript submission is reviewed by at least two qualified peer reviewers.
  • Not request fees of any kind in exchange for the submission or editing of a manuscript; nor will editors accept funds, goods, or services of any kind in exchange for publishing a manuscript.
  • Take responsive action in cases of malpractice, as per COPE guidelines.
  • Reserve the right to accept or reject manuscripts, although final decisions will be based primarily on peer reviews. 

RESPONSIBILITIES OF PEER REVIEWERS

Reviewers of manuscripts submitted to JHS will:

  • Provide reviews in a timely fashion that does not unnecessarily lengthen or hinder the peer review process.
  • Provide accurate and objective reviews that contain constructive feedback and are free of personal criticism.
  • Provide meaningful feedback that contributes to the academic rigour of the paper and that assists the editors in making editorial decisions.
  • Identify instances of unacknowledged sources within the manuscript to the best of their abilities.
  • Alert editors of any potential conflicts of interest in reviewing a manuscript, including conflicts related to the author(s) of a manuscript, content of a manuscript, or funding sources related to the study.

REVIEW ESSAYS

Starting with Volume 21 (2021), JHS will be publishing article-length reviews of books. These review essays can be either submitted to the journal or solicited from its editors. The following guidelines apply to all the review essays considered for publication:

  • Review essays must offer fair and constructive criticism, in order to move the scholarly discussion further. Essays providing insufficient engagement with a given work will not be considered for publication. Likewise, essays which are unnecessarily critical, or excessively laudatory, will not be considered for publication.
  • Each review essay will be peer-reviewed by at least one reader. As part of this process, revisions may be required from the author(s) before the essay is published.
  • The editors of the journal are entitled to refuse publication of a review essay, even if that essay has been solicited by them.
  • In principle, review essays published in the journal will range between 2,000 and 6,000 words (including footnotes).
  • At the moment, review essays will be published only in English. Authors are responsible for ensuring the academic and linguistic standards of their essay before submitting it to the journal.
  • JHS will not publish responses to review essays.
  • As per the journal’s standard policy, a review essay can no longer be edited once it has been published.
  • Authors are and will always remain solely responsible for the contents of their review essays.

Information for contributors

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Authors interested in publishing their work in the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (JHS) should submit article manuscripts using the journal's online submission system. Manuscripts should be submitted in MS-Word format, along with a short abstract. If possible, authors should include a PDF of the manuscript as well.

Please note : all authors are solely responsible for the contents of their articles and reviews.

Authors of manuscripts submitted to JHS will:

  • Ensure that the manuscript is a work of entirely original research, and that the work adheres to the highest standards of academic integrity and ethical practice; this includes (but is not restricted to) citing all sources of information and, if the journal publishes the manuscript, acknowledging the input of anonymous readers as appropriate.
  • Ensure that the manuscript is not being considered for publication in another venue, and that it has not been published already in another language.
  • Alert editors of any potential conflicts of interest related to the manuscript and/or research.
  • Assign to JHS the right to publish the text both electronically and in any other format and to make it available permanently in an electronic archive. The journal’s deposit policy is listed in the Sherpa Romeo catalogue of open-access publications.
  • Read and approve the journal’s Publication Agreement. Authors must download a copy of the Publication Agreement, complete and sign it, and then send the signed copy to the journal’s editors (a scanned copy sent via e-mail is acceptable). By submitting a completed and signed Publication Agreement, authors accept the proofs they have received.

Manuscript Formatting and Style

Language: English. Please note : Upon receipt of a manuscript, the editors will examine it to ensure that the English is fluent and meets academic standards. The editors reserve the right to reject the manuscript before peer review if the English is not fluent and does not meet academic standards.

Fonts:

  • Please ensure that all fonts are Unicode.
  • For Greek and Hebrew, please use SBL Fonts.
  • For transliteration, please use Gentium Plus.

For all abbreviations and scholarly references, please use footnotes and follow the SBL Handbook of Style (2nd edition). For example:

  • Rainer Albertz, A History of Israelite Religion in the Old Testament Period, vol. 2, From the Exile to the Maccabees, trans. John Bowden, OTL (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1994), 373–74.
  • Ehud Ben Zvi, Signs of Jonah: Reading and Rereading in Ancient Yehud, JSOTSup 367 (London: Sheffield Academic, 2003).
  • Adele Berlin, "The Exile: Biblical Ideology and Its Postmodern Ideological Interpretation," in Literary Construction of Identity in the Ancient World, ed. Hanna Liss and Manfred Oeming (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2010), 341–56.
  • Brennan W. Breed, Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History, Indiana Series in Biblical Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014).
  • Alison L. Joseph, "Who Is like David? Was David like David? Good Kings in the Book of Kings," CBQ 77 (2015): 20–41.
  • Martha T. Roth with Harry A. Hoffner Jr., Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, ed. Piotr Michalowski, 2nd ed., SBLWAW 6 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1997).
  • Francesca Stavrakopoulou and John Barton, eds., Religious Diversity in Ancient Israel and Judah (London: T&T Clark, 2010).

When referring to page ranges, biblical chapters and verses, or the like, please use en-dashes between numbers (e.g., 93–111; Num 6:24–26; cols. 1–3; etc.).

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

All authors published in JHS retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License that allows others to share the work, including for commercial purposes, with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. Authors will never be charged to submit or publish a manuscript through Journal of Hebrew Scriptures. 

The JHS Publication Agreement provides additional details and defines the relationship between the journal and its authors. Authors must formally approve the details of the Publication Agreement before any article can be published in JHS.

Editorial board

EDITORS

Christophe Nihan (University of Münster) - General Editor 

Anna Angelini (University of Zurich) - Associate Editor

Ian D. Wilson (University of Alberta) - Associate Editor

 

Editorial team contact: jhseditors@gmail.com

 

ADVISORY BOARD

Peter Altmann (Zurich)

Ehud Ben Zvi (Alberta)

Kåre Berge (Oslo)

William K. Gilders (Emory, Atlanta)

Anja Klein (Edinburgh)

Robert A. Kugler (Lewis & Clark, Portland)

Francis Landy (Alberta)

Niels Peter Lemche (Copenhagen)

Mahri Leonard-Fleckman (Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts)

Mark Leuchter (Temple, Philadelphia)

Oded Lipschits (Tel Aviv)

Hanna Liss (Heidelberg)

John L. McLaughlin (St. Michael's College, Toronto)

Christine Mitchell (Saskatchewan)

Reinhard Müller (Göttingen)

Scott B. Noegel (Washington)

Daniel D. Pioske (Georgia Southern)

Julia Rhyder (Harvard)

Harald Samuel (Göttingen and Leipzig)

Jacob L. Wright (Emory, Atlanta)

 

FOUNDING EDITOR

Ehud Ben Zvi (University of Alberta)