Periodicals
What Periodicals Do We Publish?
The Institute of General Semantics currently publishes its quarterly journal ETC: A Review of General Semantics.
ETC: A Review of General Semantics was founded in 1943 by the International Society for General Semantics.
ISGS merged with the Institute of General Semantics in 2003. Since that time, the Institute has published the journal.
The following are topics of interest within the pages of ETC.
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time-binding (and its failures)
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map-territory confusion
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word-meaning problems
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dating
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indexing
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two-valued thinking
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categorical thinking
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non-allness
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signal reactions
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problems with the abstraction process
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self-reflexiveness
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other facets of general semantics
Subscription Information
Subscriptions to ETC: A Review of General Semantics are $95 for organizations and institutions and free for individuals with membership in the Institute of General Semantics.
Individuals: Join the Institute of General Semantics to receive ETC.
Back Catalog
Back issues of ETC: A Review of General Semantics are available for download in searchable PDF format from the IGS Store.
JSTOR Access to ETC: A Review of General Semantics
Back issues of ETC and previews of articles are available on JSTOR as part of the Arts & Sciences XIV collection.
To quickly access ETC on JSTOR, use this short URL: https://www.generalsemantics.org/jstor
Article Requests
Organizations and Institutions: Click to request subscription information for ETC.
Individual articles from ETC: A Review of General Semantics are available for purchase in searchable PDF format from the IGS Store.
Submissions
Submission Guidelines
ETC welcomes submissions about the symbolic environments in which humans spend their time, with a particular focus on the study of the intersection of language, thought, and behavior.
We are primarily interested in approaches to the nature of language as our species’ primary medium of human communication, how we use language to create what we call meaning, and how we can be better meaning-makers through an understanding of the relationships among language, meaning, thought, mind, symbols, media, technology, context, culture, etc.
Submission Categories
Submissions fall into four main areas – keeping in mind, of course, that such categories are tentative, artificial, and always subject to revision. The categories are meant to suggest the broad range of possible contributions, not to limit them. Contributors are not required to specify into which area a particular piece falls.
Category 1: Articles about our various symbolic environments, emergent or persisting metaphors, and/or current or historical study of human symbolic use that advances our understanding of symbols, behavior, and culture.
Category 2: Cases and observations of language use and misuse in politics, commerce, relationships, and self-talk that contribute to an understanding of the relationship between language, thought, and behavior.
Category 3: Instructional frameworks, models, and principles intended to assist educators in illustrating general semantics principles: lesson plans, activities, demonstrations, etc.
Category 4: Artwork, illustrations, poetry, short fiction, and/or other vehicles that express or explain some idea about symbols and behavior, such as maps and territories, abstractions, non-categorical thinking, extensional thinking, or the principle of etcetera.
How to Submit
Article submissions are accepted electronically via e-mail. All submissions must be original work and must not be under consideration by other publications.
Before submitting, please review the Writer’s Guidelines and Publishing Agreement (see sections below).
Please submit to:
Editor: Thom Gencarelli (editor-etc@generalsemantics.org)
Book Review Editor: Martin H. Levinson (MandkLevin@aol.com)Guidelines
The following are the guidelines for contributions to ETC: A Review of General Semantics (modified January 19, 2021):
Microsoft Word documents are preferred. Please send your document as an e-mail attachment to thom.gencarelli@manhattan.edu or editor-etc@generalsemantics.org. Contact the Editor if you experience any technical issues.
As we move toward the professional standard practice that is internal consistency within our pages, we request that contributors follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th Ed., 2020) for all citations and bibliographic references. However, because we are, at this time, an interdisciplinary community, we will continue to accept manuscripts that utilize the author’s choice of style guide (MLA, Chicago, etc.).
Please do not, under any circumstances, use the automated footnote or note referencing function of MSWord.
If you wish to include photos, illustrations, or graphics, you may incorporate them into your document yourself or send them as separate files with instructions for where to insert them within your manuscript. Acceptable formats include JPG, JPEG, GIF, TIF, and BMP files. Resolution/file size should be as large as possible. All permissions for the use of copyrighted material are the responsibility of the author and must be obtained before submission.
Please include with your submission a brief author’s blurb, of no more than three sentences, as you wish to present yourself, and which we will publish at the bottom of the first page of the published piece. Indicate your last degree and the institution from which you obtained it.
Finally, if you submit an article that has been previously published, please obtain reprint permissions prior to your submission to ETC, and make sure to provide evidence of such permission at the time you submit.
**ETC emphatically and especially welcomes and encourages submissions by students.**
For more information, please contact the editor, Thom Gencarelli, directly at thom.gencarelli@manhattan.edu
Publishing Agreement
The following is the Publishing Agreement for contributors to ETC: A Review of General Semantics. Contributors agree to the following terms and conditions.
Contributors may use the email submission form below in order to agree to the Publishing Agreement.
The following Publishing Agreement was last modified November 7, 2011.
INSTITUTE OF GENERAL SEMANTICS, INC.
PUBLISHING AGREEMENT
1. The purpose of this agreement is to clearly define rights and permissions for original works of authorship (articles, columns, poems, artwork, etc.) published by the Institute of General Semantics, Inc. (IGS), a not-for-profit corporation. IGS publishes ETC: A Review of General Semantics and various other books and media. This agreement addresses works of authorship that you submit to IGS for publication from time to time, and includes works you have submitted that have been published to date.
2. Unless specifically agreed in writing, IGS, a not-for-profit corporation, does not pay contributors for their works of authorship.
3. To ensure that the interests of both parties (you and IGS) are served by this agreement, the following rights and permissions are expressly agreed upon by the parties:
a. IGS maintains non-exclusive publication rights to the works submitted to it, now and in the future, regardless of the form or medium in which works are published. This means that, at its discretion, IGS may publish works of authorship that you submit in any print format, in any medium.
b. You may publish the works of authorship covered under this agreement in any form or medium subsequent to publication by IGS, provided the subsequent publication includes a statement that the work was first published by IGS, such as, “Originally published by the Institute of General Semantics, Inc., in ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Vol 62 No. 4, 2005.”
c. Unless specifically agreed to in writing prior to publication, this agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties regarding all works of authorship submitted by you to IGS for publication. You agree not to assert any “moral rights” or similar rights against IGS with respect to such works.
4. You agree that you will be the sole author of the works transferred to IGS, which will be original works of authorship by you, free of plagiarism. You agree to use reasonable care to ensure that all facts and statements in the transferred works are true and that they do not infringe upon any copyright, right of privacy, proprietary right, right of publicity or any other right of a third party.
5. You agree that IGS may exercise all publication rights with respect to works of authorship you submit, including without limitation the right to edit them as it deems appropriate for publication, and that, if requested, you will cooperate with IGS in editing and otherwise reviewing such works prior to publication. To the extent that such edits constitute derivative works of the original submissions, they are likewise covered by this agreement in all respects.
6. You will cooperate with IGS if any complaints, claims or litigation should arise regarding your works, and if you comply with the terms of this agreement, you will be entitled to any applicable coverage arising from any applicable insurance policies respecting such works.
7. IGS will from time to time engage various commercial distributors of academic publications to extend the exposure of its publications beyond its membership and subscriber base. The means by which this extended exposure is achieved may include, but is not limited to:
- Offering online access to IGS publications in either complete or excerpted form on a free or fee-paid subscription basis to academic organizations and libraries;
- Offering sales of individual IGS-published articles through online marketplaces such as Amazon.com;
- Offering online access to IGS publications through commercial services such as ProQuest Learning, Questia, and others.
8. IGS will from time to time receive permission requests from other publishers to reprint articles from its publications, typically in textbooks or literary anthologies. IGS retains all rights with respect to determining the terms under which such permission may be granted or denied. You will be credited in any permission to reprint.
9. If you agree with these terms pertaining to the publication of your works of authorship by the Institute of General Semantics, please complete the information requested below, sign, date and return this agreement in its entirety to IGS.
10. In the event that any provision of this agreement shall be held to be unenforceable by a court of law, the remaining provisions of this letter shall be enforceable to the maximum extent permitted by law consistent with the expressed intent of this letter.
Agreed to by:
Sample Issue
Use the following sample issue of ETC to better understand the kinds of submissions we accept.
ETC: A Review of General Semantics
Volume 62, Issue No. 1 (January 2005)
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