Calls & Submissions

Calls & Submissions

Submission Guidelines

Authors are invited to make a submission to this journal. All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal. Those considered to be a good fit will be sent for peer review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected.

Before making a submission, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any material included with the submission, such as photos, documents and datasets. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author. Where appropriate, research should be approved by an appropriate ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the study’s country.

An editor may desk reject a submission if it does not meet minimum standards of quality. Before submitting, please ensure that the study design and research argument are structured and articulated properly. The title should be concise and the abstract should be able to stand on its own. This will increase the likelihood of reviewers agreeing to review the paper. When you’re satisfied that your submission meets this standard, please follow the checklist below to prepare your submission.

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements:

  • This submission meets the requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines
  • This submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration
  • All references have been checked for accuracy and completeness
  • All tables and figures have been numbered and labeled
  • Permission has been obtained to publish all photos, datasets and other material provided with this submission
    • ↓
    Download Author Guidelines in PDF

    Manuscript guidance for authors

    Anonymization for peer review

  • Please submit TWO versions of your manuscript, one full version and one with all identifying authors and institutional information omitted/redacted.
  • Please check that the author and institutional identifiers for the anonymized version are also omitted from the document/file properties and the manuscript file names.
  • Use [ANON] as a placeholder for any identifying author or institutional information that is omitted.
  • Please redact any identifying information from images

    • Please include the following at the start of your manuscript:

    Category

  • Select one: Research article | Visual essay | Dispatches from industry | Book review | Invited article

    • Article title

  • Please use sentence case

    • Author names (full manuscript only)

  • Please include author names with a link to each author’s ORCID ID (optional)
  • Please include the author’s/authors’ institutional affiliations
  • Please include the email address for the corresponding author (using [at] instead of @)

    • Abstract

  • Word count – between 200 and 300 words
  • Should be unstructured—a single paragraph
  • Avoid using italics if possible
  • Written to avoid citations, as far as possible

    • Implications for practice (for research articles)

  • The implications for practice is a reflection on the content of the article that can be applied in real-world design contexts, outlining specific recommendations, practical strategies, or considerations that practitioners can use to improve design processes, decision-making, or outcomes.
  • Word count (between 100 and 200 words)

    • Keywords

  • Minimum 3, Maximum 6
  • List in alphabetical order
  • Lowercase (except proper nouns)
  • Begin with “Keywords:” (including the colon)
  • Separated by semicolons

    • Style notes and examples for your manuscript:

    Headings

  • Please use sentence case for headings
  • Numbered headings for Level 1 (1.) and Level 2 (1.1.), unnumbered for Level 3

    • Footnotes/endnotes

  • Footnotes are discouraged and should be kept to an absolute minimum.
  • Use * rather than numbering where a footnote is essential.
  • Endnotes are not used.

    • In-text citations

  • Use APA 7th referencing style: (Please see this page [+])
  • Single citation: Waller (2007) or (Waller, 2007)
  • Multiple citations in alphabetical of author surname (Beier, 2016; Waller, 2007)
  • Where a page number is required, please include in the bracket using the following formatting:
  • – – Example 1: (Dyson, 2017, p. 442–468)
  • – – Example 2: Smith et al. (2020) found that “students benefit from spaced practice” (p. 14).

    • Numerals

  • In prose text: numbers up to ten are written in full, digits apply to numbers 11 and over. This applies to centuries too (e.g.20th-century not twentieth-century).
  • In tables, use numerals for all numbers.

    • Spelling and grammar

  • US spelling
  • Dashes: unspaced em dash when used as a grammatical device, unspaced en dash for number ranges, unspaced en dash for connections (e.g. text–image integration)
  • Do not italicize: et al.
  • Italicize: major publication titles, volume number
  • Double quotes for quotations, single quotes for colloquialisms or quotes within quotes

    • Images and tables

  • Indicate figure placement immediately after the paragraph in which the figure or table cross-reference is first mentioned. Use square bracket e.g. [insert Figure 1]. We will do our best to keep figures and tables in close proximity to the relevant text but please bear in mind that figures and tables will be placed at the top and bottom of pages.

    • Caption example:

  • Figure 1. Caption starts with initial capital and ends with a full stop regardless of whether it is a full or partial sentence.
  • Always provide a cross reference in the text: e.g. Figure 1 shows … or, if at the end of a sentence (Figure 1).
  • The same formatting and cross referencing guidance applies to tables e.g. Table 1.

    • Quotations

  • Use blockquotes for quotations that are longer than 40 words.

    • Please include the following at the end of your manuscript:

    References

  • Heading: References (unnumbered level 1 heading)
  • Use APA 7th referencing style: (Please see this page [+])

    • Author bio

  • Please include an author bio (of fewer than 100 words) for each author under the heading Author (sole author) or Authors (co-authored).

    • Please include the following at the end of your manuscript, when applicable:

    Acknowledgements, funding and conflicts of interest:
    These sub-sections should be omitted from the anonymized version.

  • Acknowledgements: Authors are welcome to include a short statement of acknowledgements, if appropriate.
  • Funding: If you are reporting on funded research, please disclose all sources of funding that supported the research, including grant numbers and sponsoring organizations.
  • Conflicts of interest: If applicable, please provide a statement outlining any potential conflicts of interest—financial, personal, or professional—that could have influenced the work.

    • If your submission is accepted for publication, you’ll be asked to upload images as separate files:

    Image specifications

  • Figures must be uploaded as separate images (not combined in PDF) in PNG or TIFF formats.
  • Figures to be named with their order in the article (Figure 01, Figure 02.etc.).
  • Labels in images must be capitalized (sentence case).
  • All figures must be 300ppi resolution.
  • Figures should be delivered in both RGB and CMYK colour modes.

    • Download Author Guidelines in PDF

    Latest

    Submissions for Volume 60 issue 1

    Volume 60 | Issue 1

    Visible Language invites submissions for Volume 60 issue 1 to be published in April 2026. This is an open call for scholarly papers aligned with the journal’s remit, which can be viewed here. Manuscripts that are submitted by Wednesday 5 November 2025 will be best positioned for inclusion into the April issue through regular peer review. Some articles are released as early views in advance of indexing. Manuscripts should follow the submission guidelines of Visible Language and should be submitted online by 5 November 2025.

    Visible Language is the oldest peer–reviewed design journal, first published in 1967. It is now published open access, and Scopus-indexed, to ensure wide access to design research. Our latest issue Visible Language 59.2 is available here.

    Ready to submit? Please click here to begin the submission process.

    Previous

    Special Student Issue

    Volume 59 | Issue 3

    Word | Image | Space | Materiality | Experience

    Visible Language is looking for submissions for an issue to include student articles on research into digital, graphic and typographic design. In particular, we welcome submissions and using methods that can be broadly categorised as either collections-based approaches or participant studies. The objective of the special issue is to allow students to experience the publication process. The research might be on a smaller scale than would normally be published. Accordingly, studies may involve smaller numbers of artefacts or participants, as appropriate to an exploratory study. The research would need to meet the criteria for a rigorous study including: [Read More]
  • A clearly stated research question
  • Well-articulated scholarly foundations
  • Appropriate research design or framework for analysis
  • Valid interpretation of findings
  • Relevance to design practitioners and future practice
  • Ethical approval for the study and/or copyright permissions to reproduce relevant images, as relevant to the research

    • Visual essays are welcome, provided a robust, scholarly and reflective approach is demonstrated and the copyright permissions are in place. In line with the aims of the journal, we wish to actively support emerging scholars and therefore encourage supervisors/tutors to be involved in the publication process with joint authorship where appropriate. Following the practices of the journal, we are willing to liaise with authors to advise on what is suitable for submission, make suggestions, and provide feedback. Please contact Associate editor, Jeanne-Louise Moys (j.l.moys[at]leeds.ac.uk) or Editorial manager, Matthew Baxter (m.g.baxter[at]leeds.ac.uk) well in advance of the submission deadline with any questions about the submission criteria or process and for advice.

    1. Submission requirements

    A student for the purpose of this special issue is someone who, at the time of submission, is enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate programme or who has graduated within the last five years. If graduated, the study being reported must have been done while a student.

    2. Criteria for acceptance

    Criteria for acceptance of a submission to the special issue are:

  • The submission was received on or before the date specified in the call for submissions (3 September 2025)
  • The submission must fall within the scope of the Call for Papers
  • The submission must not be under review or have been published elsewhere
  • The contextual foundations, limited to 1500–1800 words, must be scholarly, relevant to the objectives of the study and cite the most relevant literature
  • Polished academic writing
  • While the special student issue editors will be looking for quality work, the standard against which the papers will be judged may not be the same as manuscripts by more experienced researchers
  • Any revisions requested are carried out to a level accepted by the editors and within the specified timescale

    • For participant studies, it is also expected that:

  • The method(s) used to collect any data included must meet standards for ethical research, validity and reliability
  • Any statistical procedures used and interpretation of results must be appropriate
  • The conclusions drawn from the results of the study must follow from the method and any statistics used in the study

    • 3. Submission length and structure

    The submission should be no longer than 7000 words for a research paper and no longer than 4000 words for a visual essay. For research papers, structure should include (as appropriate):

  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Contextual foundations (including literature review, rationale and objectives)
  • Method (including examples of visual material, as appropriate)
  • Findings
  • Discussion (including interpretation of results and Implications)
  • References in appropriate form (submission guidelines of Visible Language [+])

    • If you are submitting a visual essay, please contact Associate editor, Jeanne-Louise Moys (j.l.moys[at]leeds.ac.uk) for further discussion about the appropriate structure.

    4. Submission schedule

    The closing submission deadline is 3 September 2025 with projected publication in Visible Language Volume 59 Issue 3 (December 2025) issue. Submissions will be blind-reviewed by two people and feedback provided by 25 September 2025. Any revisions to the manuscript will be required by 9 October 2025. Final acceptance will be notified by 31 October 2025. The acceptance of a submission will be determined by the Visible Language Managing Editor, Maria Lonsdale and Associate Editor, Jeanne-Louise Moys.

    5. How to submit a manuscript

    Manuscripts should follow the submission guidelines of Visible Language and should be submitted online by 3 September 2025.

    Dr Jeanne-Louise Moys
    Associate Editor
    Visible Language
    School of Design
    University of Leeds, UK

    Ready to submit? Please click here to begin the submission process.