The Journal of Sixteenth-Century Music is being launched in Autumn 2025, and will produce two issues a year, in Spring and Autumn. Published by the Cambridge Institute for Renaissance Studies, J16CM is an international peer-reviewed Open Access digital journal dedicated to all aspects of Renaissance music and culture, including musicology, organology, theory, analysis, pedagogy, biography, performance practice and reception history, during the period from the 15th through to the 17th centuries. The authors will include university academics, independent scholars, performers, organologists, instrument makers and editors. The Editor for the launch issues will be Francis Knights. 

The journal’s content falls into four categories: formal Research articles; Observations (including responses, discoveries, state-of-the-subject essays and pedagogical material); Reviews; and Event reports, News and Listings. There will be a print-on-demand facility for those wishing to have paper copies of each issue.

Publication philosophy

J16CM is committed to providing an efficient, quick and personal service for both authors and peer-reviewers; there will be no need to create an account, access a portal, or conform to any house style at the point of submission. The workflow goal will be to have a first response to authors in approximately two months, with accepted articles moving forward to publication in the next available issue. There are no charges of any kind, copyright remains with the author and published material may be circulated immediately on appearance.

Boards

There are three separate expert Boards at J16CM: a UK-based Editorial Board, an International Editorial Board and a Consultant Editors board.

Editorial Board

Dr David Allinson (Canterbury)

Prof John Bryan (Huddersfield)

Dr Katherine Butler (Northumbria)

Dr Barbara Eichner (Oxford)

Matthew Gouldstone (Cambridge)

Dr Louisa Hunter-Bradley (London)

Dr Francis Knights (Cambridge)

Prof Christopher Marsh (Belfast)

Prof Jaime Savan (Birmingham)

Prof Thomas Schmidt (Manchester)

Dr Hector Sequera (Durham)

Prof David Smith (Northumbria)

Prof Jo Wainwright (York)

Dr Edward Wickham (Cambridge)

Editorial Guidelines

Description

Two pdf issues a year are published by the Cambridge Institute for Renaissance Studies, an independent non-profit educational association based in Cambridge, on 15 March and 15 September (Spring and Autumn issues). The final submission deadline for each copy is three months before these dates.

The subjects covered by J16CM include all aspects of Renaissance music and culture (15th to 17th centuries inclusive), including musicology, organology, theory, analysis, pedagogy, biography, performance practice and reception history.

Prospective authors are welcome to inquire about topics for submission, to make proposals for themed issues, or suggest review material.

There are three main sections in each issue:

• Research articles of 4,000-10,000 words (longer by arrangement), to receive expert peer-review.

• Observations, of 1,000-4,000 words (these may include responses to articles, news of discoveries, state-of-the subject essays, provocations, research reports, historiographical studies, pedagogical material, bibliographies and discographies), reviewed in-house.

• Reviews (books, music, recordings), Event reports (conferences, festivals), News and Listings (obituaries, conferences, festivals, organizations).

Submission

Submissions should be emailed directly to editorj16cm@gmail.com, and will be acknowledged to authors shortly afterwards. There is no portal, or any need to create an account. Our goal is to have a constructive response to authors in approximately two months, with accepted articles moving forward to publication in the next available issue. 

Responses to authors will be in the form: Accept; Minor revisions; Major revisions; Revise and Resubmit; or Reject. Authors are welcome to inquire as to the progress of a submission once the initial two-month period has passed. We then hope to receive any revised submissions requested within two months (longer by arrangement).

Material may be submitted in Word or pdf format, in any standard style or formatting; only the final version of any accepted material needs to conform to J16CM house style.

Authors should assign a primary filename using the following format: that day’s submission date, in reverse (yymmdd), followed by a single keyword related to the title. At the head of the text itself should be the title, followed by the author’s name and email address (phone number, postal address, website and institutional affiliation are optional), then an Abstract of 150-200 words. A second file should be prepared by adding the suffix ‘A’ (for ‘Anon’) to the primary filename, and this version for the peer reviewers must remove all references to the author’s name from the text. The pair of files would then be labelled (for example) ‘240913 Byrd’ and ‘240913 Byrd A’.

Publication

All material is Open Access, and there are no publication charges of any kind. Copyright remains with the author, and published material may be freely circulated immediately on appearance, and placed on personal websites or in institutional repositories. Proofs will be provided several weeks before publication, with the expectation of seven days for turnaround by the author. There will be a print-on-demand facility for those wishing to buy paper copies of each issue.

Note that some institutions, employers and research funders have very specific requirements for how and where academic material should be published, and in what format (for example, particular types of Open Access) in order to comply. Please check with us in advance if you have any queries or concerns. At present J16CM does not have an ISSN or DOI facility, but intends to acquire these.

Style Guide

1. British spelling is used, including ‘z’ not ‘s’ in words such as ‘recognised’. For those writing in English as a second or third language, having an external reader to look over the text before submission may be useful, to make sure the prose is clear and idiomatic.

2. Citations should be in the format:

Books: author firstname lastname, Title (place of publication, date of publication), xx-xx page range.

Editions: author firstname lastname, Title, series if any (place of publication, date of publication), xx-xx page range.

Articles: author firstname lastname, ‘Title’, Journal Name, volume in Roman/issue number (date of publication), xx-xx page range at xx.

Manuscripts: Location, number, (known as title), foliation (f.) or pagination

Examples:

Hugh Benham, John Taverner: His Life and Music (Aldershot, 2003), 105-114.

Hugh Benham (ed), John Taverner: II. Votive Antiphons, Early English Church music, xxv (London, 1981), 175.

Roger Bray, ‘The Part-Books Oxford, Christ Church MSS 979-83: an Index and Commentary’, Musica Disciplina, xxv (1971), 179-197 at 186.

Oxford, Christ Church, MSS 979-83 (Baldwin partbooks): MS 979, f.5v-6v.

Subsequent citations should use the short format ‘surname (date), page’, as in: 

Benham (1981), 175.

3. Illustrations (colour/mono) and music examples are encouraged, where they serve to support the text. A caption needs to be provided for each, giving (as appropriate) the title, source or location, copyright information and photo credit.

4. Links to online sources (pages, recordings, videos) may be incorporated, but note that these often break over time.

5. Authors are responsible for the clearance of any permissions needed for © textual or visual material etc in advance. This should be for academic/non-commercial usage, and rights holders are often supportive of such requests. Please ask if you need advice on this.

6. For final accepted versions, all material needs to be supplied as separate files for every item:

Text
Captions list
Images (high-resolution jpg)
Music examples (high-resolution tiff files preferred)
Author biography (50-100 words) with contact email or website