Matthew's Journal

I'd really want to make that judgement based on the actual text, and what seems right in that context. For instance, if the article separately examines the "sword" and "sorcery" components then I'd go against hyphenation. In fact, I'd probably go for that version by default, but I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with the hyphenated form.

So long as it makes it clear that you're using it as a single unit, and you're consistent throughout, I don't think it matters too much. Personal opinion, though: if you're using the phrase a lot, hyphenate; if it just comes up once or twice, just put it in quotes. If you just leave it without any punctuation, I'm not sure it will be clear enough that you mean swords-and-sorcery (all one thing) rather than swords, the pointy things, and sorcery, the magic thing. (OTOH, this may be screamingly obvious from context, so, um.)

If I was writing an article which was likely to use the phrase a lot, I'd probably say "Swords and Sorcery (S&S)" the first time and then just "S&S" thereafter. This may not be possible if you're editing existing text, though.

Voted for the hyphens. But extra information: I wrote an article for a Classics journal not so long ago and employed the term "swords 'n' sandals" a lot - I think I only didn't use hyphens for that because it would have screwed up the 'n'. Hyphens seems standard to me but *shrug*