Animation
New Media & Communication Technology
animation: an interdisciplinary journal provides the first cohesive international peer-reviewed publishing platform for animation that unites contributions from a wide range of research agendas and creative practice.
The journal's scope is very comprehensive, yet its focus is clear and simple. The journal addresses all animation made using all known (and yet to be developed) techniques - from 16th century optical devices to contemporary digital media - revealing its implications on other forms of time-based media expression past, present and future.
animation: an interdisciplinary journal is essential and stimulating reading for academics, researchers, students, curators and practitioners in animation, film and media studies, cultural studies, critical theory, architecture, art & design, computer sciences, games studies and visual culture.
"animation: an interdisciplinary journal promises not only an interdisciplinary and international scope, but also - and most significant at this historical moment - to re-mediate and inter-mediate a range of moving image platforms and to re-think the premises that have thus far found it proper to separate the 'mashed potatoes' of film theory from the 'peas' of animation theory and the 'carrots' of digital media theory. Indeed, animation: an interdisciplinary journal promises to provide us an exceedingly full and intellectually satisfying plate." Vivian Sobchack, Professor of Film, Television and Digital Media, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Electronic Access
Animation is available electronically on SAGE Journals at http://journals.sagepub.com/home/anm.
Animation is increasingly pervasive and implemented in many ways in many disciplines. animation: an interdisciplinary journal provides the first cohesive, international peer-reviewed publishing platform for animation that unites contributions from a wide range of research agendas and creative practice.
The journal's scope is very comprehensive, yet its focus is clear and simple. The journal addresses all animation made using all known (and yet to be developed) techniques - from 16th century optical devices to contemporary digital media - revealing its implications on other forms of time-based media expression past, present and future. Special features include new theories and methodologies, radical contemporary practice, microanalyses of individual films, archive news, teaching, learning and research resources and industrial innovations foregrounding specific disciplines and their interrelations with others.
animation: an interdisciplinary journal is a dynamic forum for promoting exchange between a multitude of disciplines and will facilitate a much-needed academic dialogue for the interdisciplinary nature of animation studies. It is essential and stimulating reading for academics, researchers, students, curators and practitioners in animation, film and media studies, cultural studies, critical theory, architecture, art & design, computer sciences, games studies and visual culture. The journal encourages both established and emerging scholars.
| Suzanne Buchan | Royal College of Art, UK |
| Christopher Holliday | Kings College London, UK |
| Caroline Ruddell | Brunel University, UK |
| Colin Williamson | University of Oregon, USA |
| Joon Yang Kim | Niigata University, Japan |
| Aimee Mollaghan | Queen's University Belfast, UK |
| Patrick Sullivan | Texas A&M University, USA |
| Jason Barker | Kyung Hee University, Republic of Korea |
| Scott Bukatman | Stanford University, USA |
| Edwin Carels | KASK, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Hogeschool Gent, Gent, Belgium |
| Noël Carroll | Temple University, USA |
| Alan Cholodenko | University of Sydney, Australia |
| Malcolm Cook | University of Southampton, UK |
| Donald Crafton | DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts, USA |
| Sean Cubitt | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Andrew Darley | Independent Scholar, UK |
| Amy Davis | University of Hull, UK |
| Rayna Denison | University of East Anglia, UK |
| Barnaby Dicker | King’s College London, UK |
| Thomas P Elsaesser | in memoriam |
| Erwin Feyersinger | University of Tübingen, Germany |
| Philippe Gauthier | Université de Montréal, Canada |
| Seth Giddings | University of Southampton, UK |
| Marcin Gizycki | Bielsko College of Business and Computer Science, Poland |
| Jean Paul Goergen | Society for Animation Studies, Germany |
| Tom Gunning | University of Chicago, USA |
| Max Hattler | City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
| Vinzenz Hediger | Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany |
| Eric Herhuth | Tulane University, USA |
| Alastair Herron | University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, UK |
| Annabelle Honess Roe | University of Surrey, UK |
| Fatemeh Hosseini-Shakib | Tehran Art University, Iran |
| Gigi Hu Tze-Yue | University of Oklahoma, USA |
| Lilly Husbands | Middlesex University, London UK |
| Norman Klein | Art Center College of Design, USA |
| Jan Korvink | Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany |
| Esther Leslie | Birkbeck College, UK |
| Lev Manovich | University of California, USA |
| Mihaela Mihailova | University of Michigan, USA |
| Sekhar Mukherjee | National Institute of Design, India |
| Chris Pallant | Canterbury Christ Church University, UK |
| Jayne Pilling | Independent Scholar, UK |
| Bob Rehak | Swarthmore College, USA |
| Jeffrey Skoller | University of California, Berkeley, USA |
| Vicky Smith | University for the Creative Arts,UK |
| Vivian Sobchack | University of California Los Angeles, USA |
| Marc Steinberg | Concordia University, Canada |
| Paul Taberham | Arts University Bournemouth, UK |
| Margrit Tröhler | University of Zurich, Switzerland |
| Stanislav Ulver | Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts, Czech Republic |
| Paul Ward | Arts University College at Bournemouth, UK |
| Karin Wehn | University of Leipzig, Germany |
| Paul Wells | Loughborough University, UK |
| Aylish Wood | University of Kent, UK |
| Sigfried Zielinski | Berlin University of the Arts, Germany |
- Article types
- Editorial Policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship - Publishing Policies
3.1 Publication Ethics
3.1.1 Plagiarism - How to submit your manuscript
- Journal contributor’s publishing agreement
5.1 Sage Choice and Open Access - Declaration of conflicting interests policy
- Other conventions
- Acknowledgments
8.1 Funding acknowledgement - Permissions
- Manuscript style
10.1 File types
10.2 Journal style
10.3 Reference style
10.4 Manuscript preparation
10.4.1 Keywords and abstracts: Helping readers find your article online
10.4.2 Corresponding author contact details
10.4.3 Guidelines for submitting artwork, figures and other graphics
10.4.4 Guidelines for submitting supplemental files
10.4.5 English language editing services - After acceptance
11.1 Proofs
11.2 E-Prints and complimentary copies
11.3 Sage production - Further information
Animation: an Interdisciplinary Journal provides the first cohesive international peer-reviewed publishing platform for animation that unites contributions from a wide range of research agendas and creative practice.
The journal's scope is very comprehensive, yet its focus is clear and simple. The journal addresses all animation made using all known (and yet to be developed) techniques from 16th century optical devices to contemporary digital media revealing its implications on other forms of time-based media expression past, present and future. Special features include new theories and methodologies, radical contemporary practice, microanalyses of individual films, archive news, teaching, learning and research resources and industrial innovations foregrounding specific disciplines and their interrelations with others.
2. Editorial Policies
2.1 Peer review policy
All papers submitted to Animation: an interdisciplinary journal are subject to peer review by members of the appointed Editorial Board and may include members of the Editorial team. It adheres to a double-anonymized peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is routinely withheld from the author unless the reviewer requests their identity to be revealed. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees for the academic content and presentation of submitted articles. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, and an editorial decision is generally reached within 4-6 weeks of submission. Authors may suggest the names, affiliations and contact information of up to three individuals who may be suitable to serve as referees, but the Editors are under no obligation to use all or any of these individuals as reviewers.
All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editors and only those that approach the scientific and editorial standards of the journal, and fit within the aims and scope of the journal, will be sent for outside review.
Submissions to the Interstices section will be peer reviewed by the Editorial team, and in some instances other reviewers may be called upon.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
3. Publishing Policies
3.1 Publication Ethics
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Animation and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of articles published in the journal. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked using duplication-checking software. Where an article is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article (removing it from the journal); taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author’s institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; banning the author from publication in the journal or all Sage journals, or appropriate legal action.
4. How to submit your manuscript
Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you carefully read and adhere to all the guidelines and instructions to authors provided below. Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
The journal welcomes submissions of 6000-9000 words. Initial queries on suitable topics can be emailed to the Editor. Each manuscript should contain a title page with full title and subtitle (if any). For the purposes of anonymize refereeing, the full name of each author with current affiliation and full address/phone/fax/email details plus short biographical note should be supplied on a separate sheet. Submissions formatted according to the Manuscript Submission Guidelines below and including all requested documents should be sent to the Editor in electronic formats as WORD attachments:
Editor: Suzanne Buchan
School of Communication
Royal College of Art
Garden House
Dorando Close
London
W12 7TU
Email: suzanne.buchan@rca.ac.uk
Covering letter: please attach to every submission a letter confirming that all authors have agreed to the submission and that the article is not currently being considered for publication by any other journal, and has not undergone peer review elsewhere.
Two identical copies of the manuscript, each fully numbered, labelled and typed in double spacing throughout, on one side only of A4 or US standard size paper, including low-resolution versions and captions of any figures intended for publication.
Electronic Submissions: Please submit all electronic submissions to the Editor as a WORD attachment.
Associate Editors: Christopher Holliday, Kings College London, UK christopher.holliday@kcl.ac.uk | Joon Yang Kim, Niigata University, Niigata-shi, Japan · joonyangk@gmail.com | Caroline Ruddell, Dept of Social Sciences, Media and Communications, Brunel University, UK · Caroline.Ruddell@brunel.ac.uk | Colin Williamson, University of Oregon, Eugene, USA · colinwil@uoregon.edu
Reviews: Animation: an interdisciplinary journal includes a section in which books, conferences, events and other significant contributions to the field are reviewed. This includes both essay length and shorter contributions. Books for review and manuscripts of reviews (about 800-1200 words) should be sent to:
Reviews Editors:
Aimee Mollaghan, Queen's University Belfast, UK
Email: A.Mollaghan@qub.ac.uk
Covering letter: please attach to every submission a letter confirming that all authors have agreed to the submission and that the article is not currently being considered for publication by any other journal.
Two identical copies of the manuscript, each fully numbered, labelled and typed in double spacing throughout, on one side only of white A4 or US standard size paper, including low-resolution versions and captions of any figures intended for publication, plus an identical CD electronic version of all manuscript materials.
CD: on acceptance of your manuscript for publication, you may be asked to supply another CD (IBM-compatible or Mac) of the final version.
5. Journal contributor’s publishing agreement
Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
5.1 Sage Choice and Open Access
If you or your funder wish your article to be freely available online to non subscribers immediately upon publication (gold open access), you can opt for it to be included in Sage Choice, subject to payment of a publication fee. The manuscript submission and peer review procedure is unchanged. On acceptance of your article, you will be asked to let Sage know directly if you are choosing Sage Choice. To check journal eligibility and the publication fee, please visit Sage Choice. For more information on open access options and compliance at Sage, including self author archiving deposits (green open access) visit Sage Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.
Animation and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of articles published in the journal. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked using duplication-checking software. Where an article is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article (removing it from the journal); taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author’s institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; banning the author from publication in the journal or all Sage journals, or appropriate legal action.
6. Declaration of conflicting interests
Within your Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement you will be required to make a certification with respect to a declaration of conflicting interests. Animation does not require a declaration of conflicting interests but recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Please include any declaration at the end of your manuscript after any acknowledgements and prior to the references, under a heading ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’. If no declaration is made the following will be printed under this heading in your article: ‘None Declared’. Alternatively, you may wish to state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.
When making a declaration the disclosure information must be specific and include any financial relationship that all authors of the article has with any sponsoring organization and the for-profit interests the organization represents, and with any for-profit product discussed or implied in the text of the article.
Any commercial or financial involvements that might represent an appearance of a conflict of interest need to be additionally disclosed in the covering letter accompanying your article to assist the Editor in evaluating whether sufficient disclosure has been made within the Declaration of Conflicting Interests provided in the article.
For more information please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
7. Other conventions
8. Acknowledgements
Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an ‘Acknowledgements’ section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.
8.1 Funding Acknowledgement
Animation requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.All research articles should have a funding acknowledgement in the form of a sentence as follows, with the funding agency written out in full, followed by the grant number in square brackets:
This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number xxx].
Multiple grant numbers should be separated by comma and space. Where the research was supported by more than one agency, the different agencies should be separated by semi-colon, with ‘and’ before the final funder. Thus:
This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Natural Environment Research Council [grant number zzzz]; and the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number aaaa].
In some cases, research is not funded by a specific project grant, but rather from the block grant and other resources available to a university, college or other research institution. Where no specific funding has been provided for the research we ask that corresponding authors use the following sentence:
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Please include this information under a separate heading entitled “Funding” directly after any other Acknowledgements prior to your “Declaration of Conflicting Interests” (if applicable), any Notes and your References.
9. Permissions
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the Sage Journal Author Gateway..
10.1 File types
Only electronic files conforming to the journal's guidelines will be accepted. Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC and RTF.10.2 Journal Style
Animation conforms to the Sage house style. Click here to review guidelines on Sage UK House Style10.3 Reference Style
Animation adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. Click here to review the guidelines on Sage Harvard to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.If you use EndNote to manage references, download the Sage Harvard output style by following this link and save to the appropriate folder (normally for Windows C:\Program Files\EndNote\Styles and for Mac OS X Harddrive:Applications:EndNote:Styles). Once you’ve done this, open EndNote and choose “Select Another Style...” from the dropdown menu in the menu bar; locate and choose this new style from the following screen.
10.4. Manuscript Preparation
The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point.10.4.1 Your Title, Keywords and Abstracts: Helping readers find your article online
The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting Sage's Journal Author Gateway Guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.10.4.2 Corresponding Author Contact details
Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.10.4.3 Guidelines for submitting artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
Tables: tables should be typed (double line-spaced) on separate sheets and their position indicated by a marginal note in the text. All tables should have short descriptive captions with footnotes and their source(s) typed below the tables.
Illustrations: all line diagrams, images and photographs are termed 'Figures' and should be referred to as such in the manuscript and they should be numbered consecutively, and their preferred position indicated in the text with a marginal note. Diagrams must be presented in a form suitable for immediate reproduction (i.e. not requiring redrawing), each on a separate A4 sheet. They should be reproducible to a final printed text area of 205 mm x 130 mm. Illustrations should be supplied as both colour AND greyscale TIF or JPEG files scanned in at high resolution (300 dpi) to a size of 205 mm x 130 mm. Digital images should be provided as separate files, i.e. not embedded in a Word document. All figures should have short descriptive captions typed on a separate sheet that includes a 72dpi low-resolution copy of the image. Further details are available on the journal website [http://anm.sagepub.com] or from Journal Production, Sage.
Authors are responsible for obtaining printed and electronic permissions from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. Signed permission letters must be supplied to Sage. Forms and Guidelines can be requested from the Editor.
10.4.4 Guidelines for submitting supplemental files
Animation is able to host approved supplemental materials online, alongside the full-text of articles. Supplemental files will be subjected to peer-review alongside the article. For more information please refer to Sage’s Guidelines for Authors on Supplemental Files.10.4.5 English Language Editing services
Non-English speaking authors who would like to refine their use of language in their manuscripts might consider using a professional editing service. Visit http://www.uk.sagepub.com/journalgateway/msg.htm for further information.
11.1 Proofs
Authors will receive proofs of their articles and be asked to return their corrections within 5 days.Sage provides authors with access to a PDF of their final article. For further information please visit http://www.sagepub.co.uk/authors/journal/reprint.sp.
11.3 Sage Production
At Sage we place an extremely strong emphasis on the highest production standards possible. We attach high importance to our quality service levels in copy-editing, typesetting, printing, and online publication (http://online.sagepub.com/). We also seek to uphold excellent author relations throughout the publication process.We value your feedback to ensure we continue to improve our author service levels. On publication all corresponding authors will receive a brief survey questionnaire on your experience of publishing in Animation with Sage.
12. Further information
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the Editorial Office as follows:
Suzanne Buchan, Editor
animation: an interdisciplinary journal
School of Communication
Royal College of Art
Garden House
Dorando Close
London
W12 7TU
Email: suzanne.buchan@rca.ac.uk