About Readings

Readings is a peer-reviewed journal intended to be read by both scholars and the general public; it was founded by Alexandra Berlina. Like other journals, we look for academic quality and originality. Unlike most, we also care for high readability and the potential interest of literature-loving non-scholars. The journal is open-access. We welcome submissions on all aspects of world literature (be it canonical or contemporary, children’s, “genre” or “literary”  fiction). Articles can also address the interplay of literature and other media as well as issues of translation and reception.


Do you like the idea? Here are three things you can do:

  1. Publish with us! Why?
    • Readings is doubly-blind peer-reviewed. The articles will be indexed with all major databases and archived responsibly.
    • Readings aims to keep the decision process very fast thanks to a network of efficient reviewers.
    • Every article is published immediately after acceptance (with the exception of the first batch of articles which will appear together as a first issue). Thanks to electronic publication, there is no upper limit to the number of articles per issue.
    • Accepting articles from 1000 to 7000 words in length, we provide a platform to share discoveries and insights succinctly and quickly.
    • Last but not least: we are working on establishing a name for the journal not only among scholars but also among students and all eager readers.
  2. Become a reviewer! Why?
    • Though the reviewing process is anonymous, if an article is accepted the reviewers can choose to reveal their names and publish their comments alongside the article.
    • Our goal is to attract well-written articles of short to moderate length. We will only contact you if a submission corresponds to your current interests – and we hope that you’ll actually enjoy reading it.
    • You’ll help a new idea to take flight!
  3. Subscribe to our newsletter (in the right sidebar) and be the first to learn when the first issue is published. We promise not to spam you. Recommend Readings to your colleagues – and your friends outside the literary academia.

 Where do we see ourselves?

A Comparative Chart based on Popular vs. Scholarly Publications by Hunt, Mardikian and Vecchioli

popular scholarly Readings
purpose to inform and entertain the general reader to communicate research and scholarly ideas both
audience general public scholars and students both
coverage broad variety of public interest topics, cross disciplinary narrow, specific subjects literature in all its aspects which might interest a well-read non-scholar
publisher commercial academic, non-commercial academic, non-commercial
writers employees of the publication, freelancers (paid) scholars, researchers, experts (unpaid) scholars, researchers, experts (unpaid)
article features little technical language or jargon, summaries of background information, few or no cited references, no bibliographies, articles commissioned or selected by editors widespread use of technical language and jargon, little or no background information,       use of citations and bibliographies, peer review, editorial board = popular:< technical language           > background information= scholarly:double-blind peer review, editorial board, citations and bibliographies