Author Guidelines

1. Aims and scope

Kalanjiyam publishes original scholarship on the Tamil language, literature and culture, in Tamil and in English. We welcome work on classical (Sangam) and medieval literature, modern and contemporary writing, grammar and linguistics, folklore and oral traditions, performing and visual arts, history, epigraphy and archaeology, religion and philosophy, translation studies, and the Tamil diaspora. Comparative and interdisciplinary studies that engage with Tamil sources are also welcome.

Article types

Research Article

Original research that makes a new argument or presents new evidence, textual, linguistic, historical or field-based.

Review Article

A critical survey of scholarship on a topic, text, author or method that identifies trends, debates and gaps.

Case Study

A close study of a single text, manuscript, performance, community, institution or practice.

Short Communication

A brief report of a new finding, source, inscription or reading that deserves quick publication.

Length

Research and review articles: 4,000–8,000 words. Case studies: 3,000–6,000 words. Short communications: up to 3,000 words. Word counts include notes and Works Cited but not the abstracts.

We do not consider work that has been published before (including in conference proceedings with an ISBN, or as a book chapter) or that is under review at another journal. Theses and dissertations may be developed into articles, but the article must be substantially rewritten and the thesis acknowledged.

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2. Before you submit

Use this checklist before you start the form:

• Your work fits the journal's scope and one of the article types above.
• It is original, not published before, and not under review anywhere else.
• Every co-author has read the final version and agrees to its submission.
• You have the English title, an English abstract of 150–250 words and 4–8 keywords ready — and, if possible, the Tamil title, abstract and keywords.
• The text is typed in Unicode (see Language and Tamil text).
• Every source cited in the text appears in Works Cited, in the order first cited, and every entry in Works Cited is cited in the text.
• You have permission to reproduce any image, map, photograph or long quotation that is still in copyright.
• You have your declarations ready: conflicts of interest, funding and, where relevant, data availability and author contributions.
• You know each author's institutional affiliation, and the corresponding author's email address and ORCID iD.
• The body text does not reveal who you are (see Peer review).

Tip: Write and proof-read your manuscript in a word processor first, then copy each section into the form. The form also keeps a draft in your browser as you type, so you can close the page and come back on the same device.

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3. Language and Tamil text

You may write your article in Tamil or in English. Whichever language you choose, the article needs an English title, English abstract and English keywords, so that it can be found in international indexes. We warmly encourage a Tamil title, abstract and keywords as well; for articles written in Tamil they are expected.

• Unicode only. Type Tamil in Unicode (for example with the keyboards built into Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, or tools such as NHM Writer or Azhagi+ in Unicode mode). Text in older non-Unicode fonts such as Bamini, TAM or TAB turns into unreadable characters on the website and in indexes, and cannot be accepted.
• Quoting Tamil in an English article. Give the quotation in Tamil script, followed by an English translation. Say whose translation it is; if it is your own, write "translation mine" once in a note or the methodology.
• Transliteration. When you write Tamil words in Roman letters, use one scheme consistently — ISO 15919 or the scheme of the Madras University Tamil Lexicon — with diacritics (for example, Kuṟuntokai, Tolkāppiyam, akam, puṟam). Familiar names of people and places may keep their usual spelling (Chennai, Madurai).
• Clear, careful prose. Please have the text checked for spelling and grammar before you submit, in whichever language you use. Reviewers find it hard to judge an argument hidden by errors.

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4. How to submit

All manuscripts are submitted online. You do not need to format your manuscript in the journal's template: the form asks for each part separately and builds a properly formatted Word manuscript in the journal's layout for you.

1. Create an account (recommended). Register on the journal dashboard with the email address you will give as the corresponding author's. With an account you can follow the review, read the reviewers' comments, upload revisions and download your files in one place. You can also submit without an account and follow your article with its Article ID and email address.
2. Open the submission form. Use Submit a manuscript, or "New submission" in your dashboard.
3. Fill in each part. The form is arranged in these parts: Article details, Abstract & keywords, Manuscript, Manuscript file, Declarations, Works cited. Fields marked * are required. The whole article goes into one editor, much like a word processor: section headings, bold, italic, lists, quotations, links, tables and figures. You can paste the text from Word — formatting and tables come across; add images with the Figure button. Check the result before submitting.
4. Confirm the author declaration and submit. By ticking the declaration you confirm, for all the authors, that the work is original and not under consideration elsewhere, and that you agree to publication under the journal's licence.
5. Keep your Article ID. You will see an Article ID such as KAL-2026-0001 straight away. The corresponding author also receives it by email, with a tracking link and a copy of the formatted manuscript. If the email does not arrive within an hour, check your spam folder.

Please submit each manuscript once. If you notice a mistake after submitting, do not submit again — write to the editorial office quoting your Article ID, and the correction can be made during review or copyediting.

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5. Manuscript structure

The article itself goes into the "Article content" editor on the form. Organise it under the section headings below, in this order, using the editor's "Section heading" style; the Outline button inserts them all for you. Leave out a section your study does not need — empty sections are removed automatically. Textual and literary studies fit this structure too: say in Methodology which texts and editions you read and how, and put the argument in Analysis and Discussion.

After the article, the form asks for these separately, and prints them under their own headings:

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6. Title, authors and affiliations

• Title. Concise and informative (up to 300 characters), naming the text, author, period or feature studied. Avoid abbreviations. A subtitle after a colon is fine.
• Authors. List everyone who made a substantial intellectual contribution and takes responsibility for the work, in the agreed order, with names as they should appear in print. Use the ¹ ² ³ buttons to link each author to an affiliation, and put * after the corresponding author. Example: K. Meenakshi¹*, R. Selvam²
• Affiliations. Department, institution and city for each number, separated by semicolons. Independent scholars write "Independent Researcher, City". Example: ¹Department of Tamil, Example Arts College, Madurai; ²Department of Linguistics, Example University, Chennai
• Corresponding author. One author handles all correspondence. Use an email address that will keep working for at least a year; the Article ID and this address together give access to the tracking page.
• ORCID iD. We strongly recommend an ORCID iD (free at orcid.org). It is shown with your name on the published article and helps indexes credit your work correctly. Enter it as 0000-0000-0000-0000.
• Changes to authorship. Adding, removing or reordering authors after submission needs the written agreement of all authors, sent to the editorial office by the corresponding author, with the reason.

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7. Abstract and keywords

• Abstract (English), 150–250 words. One paragraph stating the background, the aim, the sources and method, the main findings and the conclusion. No citations, footnotes or undefined abbreviations. The form counts the words for you.
• Keywords (English), 4–8. Words or short phrases separated by commas, most important first. Include the main text, author or period, and the key concept or method — terms a reader would search for. Example: Sangam literature, tinai, landscape, Tamil short fiction, intertextuality
• ஆய்வுச் சுருக்கம் (Abstract in Tamil) / திறவுச் சொற்கள் (Keywords in Tamil). A Tamil version of the abstract and keywords, printed after the English ones. It should say the same thing as the English abstract, written naturally in Tamil rather than translated word for word.

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8. Formatting, tables and figures

• Headings. Use "Section heading" for the main sections, "Subheading" for sub-sections and "Minor heading" below that. Do not number headings by hand.
• Emphasis and special characters. Use italics for titles of books and journals and for transliterated words; use bold sparingly. Superscript and subscript are available for ordinals, chemical or phonetic notation. The Ω button has transliteration letters (ā ī ū ṅ ṭ ṇ ḷ ḻ ṟ ṉ …) and other symbols.
• Lists. Use the numbered and bulleted list buttons rather than typing numbers by hand.
• Tables. Insert tables with the Table button (or paste them from Word or a spreadsheet), with a short caption. Tables are numbered automatically — Table 1, Table 2 — in the order they appear; refer to each in the text by its number. The table tools add or remove rows and columns, merge cells and set the header row. Keep tables simple: no tables inside tables, and no images in table cells.
• Figures. Insert images with the Figure button (or drag them into the editor), with a caption and a short description for readers who cannot see them. Figures are numbered automatically — Fig. 1, Fig. 2 — and placed where you insert them. Use JPG, PNG or GIF, up to 5 MB each and at most 40 per article; large images are resized to 1,600 pixels. Photographs of manuscripts, inscriptions or people need the permission of the owner, archive or person shown, and the caption should give the source.
• Notes. Please avoid footnotes. Put the information in the text, or in the Acknowledgements or Data Availability statement where it belongs.
• Numbers and dates. Give dates as 12 March 2024 and centuries as "the twelfth century CE". Use BCE/CE consistently if you use eras.

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9. Citations and Works Cited

The journal uses numbered citations. Number sources in the order you first cite them and put the number in square brackets in the text. A source keeps its number every time it is cited again. Add page numbers inside the brackets when you quote or refer to a specific passage.

In the Works Cited box, type one reference per line, in the same order as the numbers. The numbers [1]. [2]. … are added for you, so do not type them. Follow these patterns (based on the MLA style):

• Put titles of books and journals in italics in your own files; the journal applies italics during copyediting.
• For Tamil sources, give the reference in Tamil script and add a transliteration (and, if helpful, a translation of the title) in square brackets, as above.
• Add the DOI as a full link (https://doi.org/…) whenever a source has one.
• Cite only what you have read, and check every reference against the source. Cite your own earlier work only where it is directly relevant.

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10. Research and publication ethics

The journal follows the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and expects authors, reviewers and editors to do the same.

Originality and plagiarism

Submissions may be checked for similarity with published work. Using others' words or ideas without credit, including translating someone else's work without acknowledgement, and reusing large parts of your own published work, will lead to rejection or, after publication, retraction.

Authorship

Everyone listed as an author must have contributed substantially and approved the final version. Gift and ghost authorship are not acceptable. Describe each author's role in Author Contributions.

Conflicts of interest and funding

Declare anything that could be seen to influence the work — funding, employment, personal relationships, or a stake in the texts or organisations studied. The form asks for these statements and prints them with the article.

Fieldwork and people

Research with living people — interviews, recordings, surveys, photographs — needs their informed consent, and the approval of an ethics committee where the institution requires it; say so in the Methodology. Respect the wishes of communities about sacred or restricted knowledge, and anonymise informants who ask for it.

Cultural heritage

Name the collection, archive, temple or owner of any manuscript, inscription or object you study or reproduce, and follow their conditions of use.

Use of AI tools

AI tools cannot be authors. If you used a generative AI tool for anything beyond spelling and grammar checks — for example to translate, summarise or draft text — say which tool and how in the Methodology or Acknowledgements. You remain responsible for the accuracy of everything in the article, including quotations and references.

Data and sources

Keep your notes, transcriptions and data, and share them with the editor if questions arise. Use the Data Availability statement to tell readers how to consult them.

Corrections and retractions

If you find a significant error in your published article, tell the editorial office at once. Corrections are published as notices linked to the article; the original stays on record.

Appeals and complaints

If you believe a decision was based on a misunderstanding, you may appeal once, in writing, explaining why. Appeals and complaints are handled by an editor not involved in the original decision.

Please write to editor@ngmtamil.in about any ethical concern.

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11. Peer review

All research and review articles go through double-blind peer review. Reviewers do not know who the authors are, and authors do not know who the reviewers are. Reviewers receive a copy of your manuscript without the author names, affiliations, acknowledgements and author contributions, and you see their reports as "Reviewer 1", "Reviewer 2".

The stages

1. Editorial check. An editor checks that the manuscript fits the scope, is complete and follows these guidelines. Manuscripts that do not may be declined without review, so that you can submit them elsewhere without delay.
2. Peer review. The editor invites independent reviewers with expertise in the subject. Reviewers are asked to complete their report within 21 days, though finding willing reviewers can take longer. They recommend one of: accept, minor revisions, major revisions (with a new round of review), or decline.
3. Decision. The editor weighs the reports and makes the decision: accept, revisions required (minor or major) or decline. The decision letter and the reviewers' comments are emailed to the corresponding author and appear in your dashboard and on the tracking page.

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12. Revising your manuscript

If revisions are requested, log in to your dashboard, open the submission and use "Submit revision". You will need:

• The revised manuscript — a Word (.docx or .doc), OpenDocument (.odt), RTF or PDF file of up to 20 MB. Start from the Word copy of your manuscript that was emailed to you or that you can download from the dashboard. Word is preferred, as it is needed for copyediting.
• A response to the reviewers — answer every comment in turn: what you changed and where, or, if you disagree, why. A clear, courteous response makes the next round much quicker.

Please send your revision as soon as you can; if you need more time than the decision letter suggests, tell the editorial office. After major revisions the manuscript goes to a new round of review, normally with the same reviewers. After minor revisions the editor usually decides without further review.

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13. After acceptance

1. Copyediting. The editors correct language, style and references for consistency with the journal's style. If there are questions, you will be contacted; a copyedited file may be shared in your dashboard for you to check.
2. Production. The article is typeset as a PDF, given page numbers and a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) registered with Crossref, and scheduled into an issue. Please check any proof you are sent carefully and reply quickly; only corrections of errors can be made at this stage.
3. Publication. When the issue is published you are notified by email. Your article gets its own page with the abstract, the PDF, ready-made citations (and BibTeX and RIS downloads for reference managers), and metadata for Google Scholar and other indexes.
4. Certificate of publication. Once the article is published, certificates of publication for each author can be downloaded from the dashboard. Each carries the DOI, the Chief Editor's signature and a QR code linking to a verification page, so anyone can confirm it is genuine.

Please share your published article: link to its page or its DOI rather than uploading a copy elsewhere, so that views and downloads are counted.

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14. Open access, copyright and licence

KALANJIYAM is an open-access journal: every article is free for anyone to read, download, print and share, with no subscription or registration. Articles are published under the CC BY 4.0 licence, which lets anyone copy, share and adapt the work for any purpose, provided they credit the authors and the original publication in the journal.

Authors keep the copyright in their work. They grant the journal the right to publish it first and to keep it available, and they license it to readers under the licence above. The published article carries the line "Copyright © [year] by the author(s)".

You may deposit the submitted, accepted or published version of your article in an institutional or subject repository, or on a personal website, at any time — please link to the published version.

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15. Tracking your submission and contacting us

• Journal dashboard: your submissions, their status, decision letters, reviewers' comments, revisions and files (log in with the email you submitted with).
• Tracking page: the status and history of an article from its Article ID and the corresponding author's email address — no account needed.
• Editorial office: editor@ngmtamil.in. Please quote your Article ID in every message.

Please do not send manuscripts by email; use the online form so that your submission is recorded and can be tracked.

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