About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture is an international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the critical academic study of games and play.

The editors of Eludamos conceive of computer and other games as aesthetic expressions that have cultural, political and societal implications, and see it as an important part of the journal’s mission to investigate such games with an eye on facilitating inclusive and progressive alternatives. The journal aspires to enhance the understanding of both the media-specific aspects of games as well as highlight their intrinsic connections with other cultural practices and forms.

Eludamos publishes innovative work, critical writing, and alternative perspectives on games and the field of game studies. We encourage contributions on the interplay between games, players, politics, culture and society and invite both theoretical and empirical studies of topics including but not limited to:

  • critical perspectives on games, representation and play,
  • analyses of game cultures, play practices and player experiences,
  • analyses of genres, rules, narratives and worlds in games,
  • the cultural, political, societal and economic implications of games and play,
  • critical game design, as well as
  • investigations of the game industry, game production, game journalism, and political economy of games.

Due to our focus on the cultural, political, and societal implications of games and play, we do not conceive of Eludamos  as a platform for manuscripts limited to the presentation of new technical advances in game design or instrumental approaches aimed at for instance improving marketing techniques or the effectiveness of gamified applications.

Eludamos is published annually. On occasion, we invite guest editors to put together thematically framed special issues or special sections in addition to the manuscripts published in the open section. We also invite book reviews, game reviews, or presentations of recently defended dissertations of exceptionally high quality or specific academic interest. In addition, we solicit commentaries on methods in game studies or other relevnt themes.

We accept original articles of up to 9.000 words (excluding references, including notes & tables).

Reviews and invited commentaries should not exceed 3.000 words. Eludamos does not accept unsolicited reviews. If you have an idea for a work you want to review, please contact our review editor and explain in an email why the work is important and how it corresponds to the overall scope of our journal.

All submissions need to be fully formatted in accordance with Eludamos guidelines. Manuscripts without proper formatting will be returned to the author(s).

Note on review processes

Eludamos publishes original research only. Previously published manuscripts will be returned to the authors.

Prior to possible publication, each submitted manuscript is assessed by at least two independent experts in a thorough double-blind peer review process. We aim at offering speedy, reliable, and constructive feedback to our authors. 

All submissions are screened for possible plagiarism using the i iThenticate crosschecking tool.

We ask our peer-reviewers to follow COPE's Ethical Guidelines for Reviewers accessible via the COPE website.

Eludamos does not use large language models or other generative technologies when assessing incoming manuscripts.

Note on open access and publishing policies

Copyright for all manuscripts published at Eludamos remains with authors. Authors can distribute published and accepted versions as they deem fit given that Eludamos is acknowledged as the original publication channel.

No restrictions apply to self archiving and distribution of published maniscripts and accepted versions.

Access to all material published at Eludamos is free and without restrictions. No registration is necessary.

Eludamos does not apply any charges or fees (including APCs) pertaining to publication, distribution, and access.

Rights and permissions

Authors retain copyright to articles published in the journal.

For articles published in Eludamos prior to 2022, authors must be contacted for permission of any type of reuse that does not fall within exceptions and limitations to copyright.

From 2022, manuscripts published with Eludamos are open access in accordance with Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Journal archiving & indexing

Eludamos is included in the PKP Private LOCKSS Network and indexed at Scopus, ERIH PLUS, and the DOAJ. The journal is a member of the Radical Open Access Collective (ROAC).

Journal AI policies

  1. Eludamos does not accept manuscript that use chatbots as co-authors. The reason for this is that LLMs do not satisfy our authorship criteria as they cannot bear responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the content they generate.
  2. Eludamos does not accept manuscripts that use chatbots as sources. The reason for this is that content generated by LLMs is not reproducible or traceable and can accidentally contain third-party material without identifying it as such.
  3. Eludamos does accept manuscripts that use chatbots as tools supporting research and writing processes (scaffolding). Acceptable purposes include research design, the formulation of RQa, proofreading, feedback on structure and style, general brainstorming, translations, data analyses, data visualization, and coding. Authors who use generative technologies in this manner need to acknowledge this at relevant locations in their manuscripts. This can be done in the following manner:
    • For general scaffolding such as brainstorming, feedback on structure and style, research design, or proofreading, please add an acknowledgement at the end of your manuscript that contains information about the type of language model or other tool you employed as well as when and how you used it.
    • For translations, please add a footnote to the part translated that contains information on the type of language model (or other machine translator) you employed, the prompt(s) you used, the date, and the original version of the text.
    • Using LLMs for data analysis and coding purposes constitutes a significant methodological intervention. In such cases, please add a part to the methods section of your manuscript where you explain how you proceeded including the type of language model you employed, the prompt(s) you used (excluding the material to be coded or analyzed), the date, and a link to the dataset.
    • When using chatbots for data analysis: Please keep in mind that most generative LLMs that are freely available do not adhere to accepted standards for the handling of personal or sensitive data. Make sure you only use models that have been approved by your research institution or other reliable bodies.

4. Before using LLMs or other generative technologies, please consider the ecological and human costs connected to these applications.

Accessibility guidelines

Eludamos asks authors to follow the Septentrio Accessibility Guidelines when preparing their manuscripts.