Aims and Scope
Comparative Cinema (ISSN 2604-9821) is a publication that approaches cinema using a comparative methodology. It revives, to that end, critical traditions linked to comparative literature studies in order to propose a way of working with images that is catalyzed by the connection between two different objects. Jean-Luc Godard’s text The Cinémathèques and the history of cinema, included in the first volume of the journal, Projection/Montage, established the programmatic principle for this edition and the entire publication: through the programming of different cinematographic pieces (that is, their conjunction), it is possible to articulate connections that cause new meanings to emerge. Comparative film research analyzes the ways in which an image alludes to and leads us to think of other images (from the same film, from the history of film or from other areas) through montage and through the vision generated by the spectator in the screening. The monographic volumes of Comparative Cinema aim to explore how this comparative perspective can enrich film analysis, by considering both the mise-en-scène and the creation processes or the links between cinema and other arts.
For an article proposal to be accepted, it is essential that the starting point should be a comparison, and an explicit one at that. This comparison may refer to two images from the same cinematographic work, images from different works or a cinematographic image compared with a work from another artistic discipline (literature, painting, sculpture, theatre, etc.).
The journal is structured into monographic volumes and will accept proposals for articles, interviews (these may also be round tables) and audio-visual essays on the specified subject.
Comparative Cinema welcomes the proposal of thematic dossiers on any topic related to film analysis involving a comparative methodology. In this case, guest editors work together with the journal editors to publish the Call for Papers, to guide authors throughout the editorial process and to organise the final dossier. If you want to propose a dossier, you can write to comparativecinema@upf.edu.
Additionally, the miscellaneous section "Rear Window" includes articles that have no thematic bond to the proposed monographic issues. The reception of these submissions is carried out continuously throughout the year and the articles are published in subsequent issues of the journal, prior coordination with the editors.
Peer Review Process
Of the proposals that are received as a result of the Call for Papers, Comparative Cinema will accept those that pass an initial editorial review. Once the article is submitted, the journal will confirm its receipt. From that moment on, the article will be submitted to a process of blind peer review by two specialists on the topic proposed by the editors or guest editors. During the assessment process, the identity of both author/s and reviewer/s will remain anonymous. Each reviewer will receive a form with important aspects to consider and they will provide, within a period of 4 weeks, a written commentary, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the article, interview or audio-visual essay, and also indicating its main contributions and suggesting possible improvements.
If necessary, the reviewer may send a version of the text with comments or suggestions. The journal will not ask for an orthographical or grammatical correction of the text, but the reviewer will be able to make suggestions and comments on these areas. If the reviewer were to attach a document, he/she must make sure his/her anonymity is preserved throughout the content and the metadata. The editor will carry out a final review in order to ensure no signs exist as to his/her identity in the text.
Finally, the reviewer will suggest one of the following options: to accept the article for publication, to accept it for publication with changes, or to reject it for publication. The reviewer may complete his/her assessment with additional comments to the editor.
The comments of both reviewers will be sent to the author, along with suggestions by the editor. These suggestions will give the author a series of guidelines in order to improve the article through its reviews, especially in cases in which these have proved contradictory. In no event will the reviewer’s comments be sent without a contribution by the editor.
The decision to publish an article (or not) will always remain the responsibility of the editors, though it will always be subsequent to the peer review process. An article with two negative reviews will never be accepted for its publication. An article with a positive review and a negative one, or one with two positive reviews may be either accepted or rejected. Furthermore, if an article receives one positive review and a negative one, the editor can seek the appraisal of a third reviewer.
The comments of the reviewers will be considered as contribution to the work of the authors and orientation for the editors, but with the exception of two negative reviews, they will not be considered prescriptive in nature.
If the reviewers and the editor suggest any changes, the author has a 4-week period in which to implement them. No articles that have been modified after reviews will be sent to the reviewer once more, instead it will be the editor who will make the final decision about its publication. In this phase, the article may still be rejected.
Publication Frequency
Comparative Cinema publishes two volumes per year.
Open Access Policy
Published under Creative Commons licence (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International).
Journal History
Comparative Cinema (ISSN 2604-9821) is a biannual publication published by the Center for Aesthetic Research on Audiovisual Media (CINEMA) of Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). It was founded in 2012 in order to grant continuity to the research studies of the group on comparative cinema, developed through the research projects Corrientes Estéticas del Audiovisual en el Contexto Europeo (CEACE, 2003-2006) and Observatorio del Cine Europeo Contemporáneo (OCEC, 2006-2012), as well as the conferences and publications derived from these: the four editions of the Congreso-Muestra Internacional de Cine Europeo Contemporáneo (CICEC-MICEC, 2005-2008) and the Congreso Internacional Mutaciones del Gesto en el Cine Europeo Contemporáneo (2012), on one hand, and the collective volumes Derivas del cine europeo contemporáneo (eds. Domènec Font and Carlos Losilla, 2007) and Poéticas del gesto en el cine europeo contemporáneo (eds. Fran Benavente and Glòria Salvadó Corretger, 2007) on the other.
Although published from 2012 to 2017 under the name Cinema Comparat/ive Cinema (ISSN 2014-8933), with a trilingual edition in Catalan, Spanish and English, the journal modified its designation from the issue number 11 onwards (2018) becoming Comparative Cinema (ISSN 2604-9821), published only in English, but including original texts in other languages. From issue number 22 (2024) onwards, the journal publishes texts either in English, Spanish or Catalan.
Since its inception, the journal has explored comparative methodology in order to tackle the connections between programming and montage, the relations between cinema and politics, the creation processes, mise-en-scène (with special emphasis on actors) and the links between film and other arts. To achieve this, the journal has worked with articles by international specialists, though it has also given particular importance to interviews and the re-publishing of documents.