Initial Manuscript Guidelines
If Press staff review a proposal and think it has potential as a West Point Press book, someone will contact the author and request a full manuscript. The press discourages the unsolicited submission of complete manuscripts; a proposal should be provided, and approved, before a manuscript is submitted.
The manuscript should be submitted as a single, fully paginated Microsoft Word document. While manuscripts being sent out for peer review do not need to be print-ready, they do need to reflect an attention to detail that will allow reviewers to focus on/evaluate the quality of the scholarship. Authors are encouraged to review the style and submission guide prior to submitting their manuscript for peer review.
For the purposes of peer review, there is no need to submit written permissions, high-resolution images, manuscript checklists, or marketing questionnaires (these materials will be required only once the manuscript successfully passes peer review and editorial committee approval).
The West Point Press does not review manuscripts currently under review with another publisher. Authors who submit a manuscript to the Press are implicitly acknowledging that the work is not under review elsewhere.
The Press will send the full manuscript to two appropriate peer reviewers for evaluation. The Press employs a single-blind peer review process, which is informed by the Association of University Press’ “Best Practices for Peer Review”. Peer reviewers are individuals who are published authors themselves, who are knowledgeable about the subject matter of the manuscript, and who are experienced in evaluating a project’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as its sales potential. These peer reviewers remain anonymous to the author. The peer review process usually takes 6-8 weeks and helps Press staff ensure the integrity of each title it publishes.
Upon receiving feedback from the peer reviewers, one of three outcomes is possible:
The reviews do not support the publication of the submitted work. In this case, the Press will notify the author of the rejection and they are free to seek publishing options elsewhere.
The reviews are tepid or mixed, identifying strengths in the manuscript but noting that work needs to be done to realize its promise. In this instance, the Press will contact the author and request that they revise and resubmit the manuscript. At this point, the author may decline and withdraw the manuscript from consideration or decide to follow the readers’ and editor’s advice and revise and resubmit. If the author does revise and resubmit, then the revised manuscript will be sent out for peer review once again.
The reviews support the publication of the work. In this case, the Press will provide the author with the peer review feedback (anonymous) and ask for a detailed response to the reviews. That response, along with the reviews, will be considered by the Press’ Editorial Board for final approval.