Preparing Your Materials

There is no word limit for papers in the journal. Submissions of less than 10,000 words including captions, footnotes and bibliography, might be better suited to the Antiquaries Journal (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquaries-journal). In addition, supporting data such as transcripts and data tables can be made available through the website as supplementary material.

The journal operates single-blind peer-review. Papers will normally be sent to two reviewers who will comment on its suitability for publication. Submitted manuscripts do not need to be anonymised.

Please bear in mind that the journal has a wide audience and that your paper will be read by colleagues whose primary expertise lies in other disciplines. Please write in plain English, using the active voice where possible, and explaining specialist and technical terms for a wider readership.

Detailed guidance

When preparing manuscripts, illustrations and supplementary material for submission please refer to the following detailed guidance:

• House Style (includes referencing and bibliography)
• Illustrations
• Copyright and permissions
• Supplementary Material

Structure

Manuscripts for submission should be structured as follows:

Title
Abstract (max 250 words)
Keywords (c 5 key words to aid indexing)
Main Text
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Bibliography
Figure Captions

For referencing please use footnotes, numbered consecutively in one series, electronically integrated and appearing in superscript.

Headings and sub-headings

Headings should be in CAPITALS, centred; sub-headings in lower case, left justified; sub-sub-headings in lower-case italic, left justified.

Archaeologia publishes articles open access: a fundamental principle of open access is that content should not simply be accessible but should also be freely re-usable.

Articles will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY) by default. This means that the article is freely available to read, copy and redistribute, and can also be adapted (users can “remix, transform, and build upon” the work) for any commercial or non-commercial purpose, as long as proper attribution is given. Authors can, in the publishing agreement form, choose a different kind of Creative Commons license (including those prohibiting non-commercial and derivative use) if they prefer.

Our Open Access policy is compliant with major finding bodies.

Articles will be issued with a digital object identifier (DOI), a unique string of characters allocated to a website, file, or other piece of digital information. Copies of the article will be made available via the SAL website, as well as OAPEN and the Archaeology Data Service for long-term preservation.

Images must be supplied digitally, as separate files. The figure files should be named in a logical way (e.g. [first author surname] Fig1.tif).

Please ensure that the material you submit is of the best possible quality. We cannot improve overall appearance and resolution.

Resolution: colour and black and white halftone images must be saved at 300 dpi (dots per inch) at approximately the final size. Line drawings should be saved at a 1000 dpi, or 1200 dpi if very fine line weights have been used. Combination figures must be saved at a minimum of 600 dpi.

Format: We recommend that only TIFF, EPS, or PDF formats are used for electronic artwork.

Size: It is best to provide your figures at the same size or larger than they will be reproduced in the printed journal, either by cropping or scaling. Images should be sized to fit the printable area: 200mm (h) x 135mm (w). 

Do not embed images within the text of the paper but supply each figure as a separate file.

Number each image from ‘1’ and identify within the text the most suitable location for each image thus:

[INSERT fig 01 HERE]

Each image file should be labelled to indicate the figure number and surname of the author e.g.:

ARCHAEOLOGIA_SMITH_Fig01.jpg

ARCHAEOLOGIA _SMITH_Fig02.jpg

ARCHAEOLOGIA _SMITH_Fig03.jpg

If a paper has more than one author use the lead author’s name or a simple form of the title e.g.:

ARCHAEOLOGIA _ROMANCOINS_Fig01.jpg

ARCHAEOLOGIA _ROMANCOINS_Fig02.jpg

ARCHAEOLOGIA _ROMANCOINS_Fig03.jpg

Note the use of underscore to separate the figure number and the author’s surname. Filenames should be kept short (less than 20 characters, including underscore and spaces).

All figure captions should be listed separately on the figure captions list, not as part of the filename or image.

Please keep figure captions as brief as possible (preferably less than fifty words) and informative rather than descriptive. Captions must acknowledge the originator of the image and / or the copyright holder.

Ensure that your drawn images are legible

Text within images should be a sans serif font, preferably Arial.

All text, including the scale, should be readable when the image is reproduced at the size you want it to be reproduced in print. Please ensure that the smallest text is no smaller than 9pt Arial when your image is scaled for printing.

When using symbols (such as •, ■, ▲ and ○) to denote sites on a map, please ensure that they are no smaller than 11pt when scaled to the page size. Please bear in mind that triangles and diamond-shaped symbols can often be difficult to distinguish from each other if they are any smaller; likewise filled-in circles and squares of the same size and colour.

Ensure that your drawn images are consistently presented

Please ensure that the same font is used throughout, that that the use of colours and symbols is consistent on maps and plans, and that spelling is consistent.

Maps must have a north indicator and a bar scale. Where necessary, a key should be supplied inset within a smaller box within the overall image.

Where measurements are given these should be either Imperial or metric, not Imperial on some images and metric on others. Use measurements that are closed up on the bar scale, e.g. ‘20km’ (not ‘20 km’).

Download our house style guidelines [.docx]

Authors are responsible for obtaining third-party copyright permission for the use of illustrations and prose or poetry extracts, and for paying any reproduction or copyright fees. Permission should be sought to reproduce illustrations and text in electronic form as well as in conventional print.

Copyright in the UK extends over the life of the author and seventy years from the end of the year in which the author dies. Different rules apply in other countries.

For text, copyright must be cleared for

• any prose extract longer than 400 words
• a series totalling more than 800 words
• a series of which any one is more than 300 words
• an extract or series of extracts compromising a quarter of the work or more

For poetry, copyright must be cleared for

• an extract of a quarter of a complete poem
• a series of extracts comprising a quarter or more of a complete poem

Most copyright holders will treat requests for reproduction in an academic journal or not-for-profit publication differently from reproduction in a commercial publication. If you are asked to clarify the Journal’s status and print run it is a peer-reviewed academic journal published online open access under CC-BY licence.

You should ensure that each supplementary file is cited in the text, and that a footnote appears with the citation to say that the material is only available in the online version. A note about the availability of supplementary material should be included at the end of the bibliography under the heading ‘Supplementary Material’. The supplementary material will be assigned a URL by Cambridge Core at the copy-editing stage. 

Supplementary material is subject to the same copyright requirements as the main paper. For further details, please see our guidance on Copyright Permissions.

Files should be named in such a way that it is clear to which article they belong and what they contain, e.g.:

SMITH_appendix_table_1.xls