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Author Frequently Asked Questions

Comomon queries about publishing in the journal

General

The journal has an uncapped international readership, with a daily average of 280 readers per day. More detailed metrics are available here.

Internet Archaeology
Department of Archaeology
University of York
The King's Manor
York
UK
YO1 7EP

Judith Winters (Editor): editor@intarch.ac.uk

Funding

There is a one-off charge (APC) for a publication in Internet Archaeology (covering all aspects of editorial and technical development). Costs are commensurate with the length of the article being submitted, and other technical requirements plus long term management.

For illustration purposes only: a short data paper (which essentially acts as an additional 'shop window' onto a digital archive) costs £500+VAT. A basic article (e.g. 5000 words, 15 images) would cost c.£1400 (plus VAT where applicable).

The editor is always on hand to advise on the level of costs that can be added to funding applications, and can provide a breakdown if necessary. An estimate can be calculated from a fully formed proposal (so the more detail you can provide the better).

The APC is only payable after acceptance (after a successful referee stage).

Your assistance is appreciated both in making enquiries to potential funders and in making funding applications, and all authors should consider how their publication costs can be covered, either by a research sponsor grant-giving/funding body, library/campus funds, host department or other source (e.g. a commercial sponsor, charitable trust).

If your research is funded by one of the UK Research Councils (e.g. AHRC, ESPRC, NERC) then the APC can usually be covered via your University's central block grant fund. Contact your institutional library about availability.

Note that these block grant funds may not cover the cost of a richer publication (e.g. a longer, more complex article or monograph/ articles with richer, digital components such as GIS or searchable database) so publication and the preparation of data for publication costs should be included as part of your Research Council application as a Directly Incurred Other Cost.

For those working in the commercial sector, where discoveries are significant and fuller publication is required, then digital publication costs should be factored into the WSI (Written Scheme of Investigation). The editor is happy to be called upon to advise at any stage.

Monograph and data publication costs are sometimes permissible in grant applications (funds are infinitely harder to find later on if they are not included in the initial application stages). We advise you talk to us at the earliest opportunity to get an estimate for inclusion. Data publication costs can include publication of a data-rich extended article.

If your research is funded by one of the UK Research Councils (e.g. AHRC, ESPRC, NERC) then the APC can usually be covered via your University's central block grant fund. Just ask your institutional librarian or fund manager for more details.

Other sources of information: BAJR. See also the Heritage Funding Directory and regional branches of the CBA. Also https://www.plos.org/open-access-funds

The decision to accept an article in principle is independent of payment/ability to pay. Waivers will be considered on a case-by-case basis but will only be available as staffing and resources allow. Authors may be eligible to apply to our Open Access Archaeology fund (as long as donation levels permit). Please indicate you plan to do this in your proposal and note that your application to this fund requires you to have had your proposal accepted and for there to be a draft ready to submit. Applications to the fund may be submitted at any time but are just reviewed 3 times a year.

The APC is derived from a combination of word length and technical requirements as well as a proportion of our fixed costs which enables us to ensure the long-term sustainability of the journal. Considering that authors can deposit all manner of digital data, visuals and texts of any size and quantity, and that the journal undertakes to archive every element in each publication, we believe that this offers value for money.

Breakdown of costs in % for a regular research article
Management and administrative costs (direct and indirect)10%
Production costs (editing, copy editing, mark up, digital development etc.)31%
Archiving costs (record/metadata creation, preservation, storage, migration etc.)34%
Promotion costs (marketing, indexing, altmetrics, statistics etc.)5%
VAT20% (where applicable)

We will send an invoice to your research funder / your institution when payment is due. The invoice will be from the University of York and payment by bank transfer is usually preferred. The invoice will have details of how to pay. Please note that payment should be to the University of York and not Internet Archaeology. Invoices can be raised in other currencies where required.

Submissions

Research Articles

A research article in Internet Archaeology can be of any length, can take many forms and follow different structures. It can be a work of regional, national or international interest, it can be an excavation/fieldwork report, an artefact study, a methodological study, a scientific analysis, a discussion about a reconstruction or visualisation, the list goes on. The editor is interested in all manner of research articles, short, medium and long (all the way up to monograph-length). The editor will always look for opportunities to present content in ways that can't be done in print and is happy to discuss your ideas, even if you feel they are at an early stage.

Does your research involve data, visualisations/models, videos, audio data? We are interested! All these things can be included in your publication.

Data Paper/Data Publications

A data paper is a short, peer-reviewed publication designed to be a shop window onto an archived dataset. The aim of a data paper is to raise awareness of that dataset and its re-use potential. A data paper describes the contents of a dataset deposited (or soon to be deposited) with a trusted, accredited repository, the methods used to create that dataset and, most importantly, what further avenues of research are possible. A data paper is a very useful companion publication to many digital archives and can sit easily alongside a richer digital publication in the journal. See our separate data papers section for examples, submission requirements and more information.

Thematic Issues

A themed issue contains articles that link together and focus on a single topic, thus making a valuable intervention in a field. A themed issue may derive from a conference session while others may arise from meetings and desire for synthesis. Some very helpful tips to consider when considering compiling themed issues can be found here.

The main challenge for editors of proposed themed issues in Internet Archaeology is how to obtain sufficient funds to cover the related author fees (these can be lower for themed issues than for individual articles due to some efficiencies of scale). The Editor may be able to help authors with funding applications (either for the theme as a whole or for individual contributors who may be eligible to apply for their own costs) but crowd-funding themed issues is also an option where there are no organisational-level of funds to draw from. Please just ask the Editor if you need some further guidance.

Monographs

Some journal articles are long form publications, essentially digital monographs, and they may also contain a large number of images, visualisations and data as well as integrate with other related digital outputs like a digital archive. Many monographs are outputs from large research projects so publications should be costed in to research proposals and grant applications at the earliest possible stage.

Review articles

The Editor is interested in reviewing all manner of digital archaeological/heritage content except for books unless they have a very specific computing/digital slant. Most reviews are solicited by the journal Editor, but if you would like to review something for us, just ask! Reviews should be no longer than c.2000 words (but we do consider breaking our own rules sometimes). See our separate reviews section for more information.

Contributions from right across the archaeology spectrum are welcome and the Editor is especially seeking more contributions from the commercial sector. Note that if you are still actively in a taught postgraduate programme, we ask that your proposal be appended with a statement of support from your supervisor.

No. Although we have our roots and are interested in digital applications in archaeology, the journal's scope is broad. Articles do not need to have a strong digital focus to be suitable. All topics under the umbrella definition of archaeology and heritage are suitable. And once submitted, we can always look to enhance your content, even at the simplest level e.g. by integrating with digital resources held elsewhere, and not setting a limit to the number of images.

Articles developed from conference papers are welcome as long as they are of sufficient depth and quality, and can stand up to independent scrutiny.

We aim to work with all of the common digital formats that archaeologists use in their work. The most common files we receive are text files (usually as Word docs), image files (png, jpg, gif, tif), data files (xlsx), videos (mp4), audio files (wav), 3d files (obj/ply) and RTI files (ptm). A list of all our preferred data formats can be found here. Just ask if your unsure.

Given that new formats and are bring adopted all the time, it is important to remain flexible and open to adopt new ways of presenting information that might not even have been invented yet. The journal's unique approach and structure enables this more than many other journals.

Editorial Process

The journal publishes content as and when it is ready.

We aim for a quick turnaround once a full text draft has been received but from experience, the biggest delay is the time between proposal and submission of the first draft, and then the time between the return of referee comments and the submission of the revised draft. If things go smoothly, content can be published within a month or two of submission, but it also depends if any additional technical development is required.

The Editor will liaise with you over any revisions and arrange a deadline for submission of the completed draft.

We aim to keep you informed as your submission progresses but just email editor@intarch.ac.uk if you need an update.

Publication/Archiving/Indexing

Internet Archaeology is hosted on a series of servers (shared with the Archaeology Data Service) at the University of York so all published content is routinely backed-up, both on and off-site. In addition, the final published version of each article and all its associated elements (the 'data') are catalogued, deposited and archived with the Archaeology Data Service, in the same way as any other fieldwork archive submitted directly to the ADS for example.

The ADS follows the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model. Before being copied to the archive, the data will undergo several checks as part of the ingest process. These checks include, for example:

  • Scanning for viruses
  • Checking file formats and names adhere to our policies
  • Checking that files are openable and readable

Once the Digital Archivist accessioning the data has confirmed that the files are safe, accessible and reusable, they then copy the files as a collection to a dedicated preservation file server under a unique collection and accession id number. The original files are kept safe but a copy of the archive is also made which is specifically for preservation purposes. This copy contains the same data, but the files may be converted to different formats depending on what is deemed most suitable for long-term preservation of the information they contain and embody. Further information on how the ADS manages data can be found in the Preservation Policy and Repository Procedures.

We do not permit changes to content after publication. However we welcome subsequent addenda or 'new editions' of research published in the journal which can easily be linked to the original piece of work (and vice versa). Authors are requested to contact the journal about their update requirements.

Internet Archaeology is indexed in the following resources (there may be more we don't know of!)

CEJSH (The Central European Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities), Dimensions, DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), EBSCO (relevant databases), ERIH PLUS (European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences), Genamics JournalSeek, Google Scholar, Index Copernicus, JISC Library Hub, JournalTOCs, Microsoft Academic, QOAM (Quality Open Access Market), Scholia, ScienceOpen, SCImago (SJR), SCOPUS, Sherpa/RoMEO, Ulrich's Periodicals Directory/ulrichsweb, Web of Science, WorldCat (OCLC)

Copyright

You do. The journal disseminates content under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC-BY 3.0). Under this licence, authors do not assign their copyright to Internet Archaeology but instead retain ownership of the copyright for their content, and allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy the content as long as the original authors and the source are cited with re-users making clear the licence terms under which the work was published.

Authors 'sign' a digital licence indicating these terms (triggered once a revised draft has been submitted). Only one digital licence is required per article (usually by the main corresponding author who signs on behalf of all other contributors).

Yes. You should obtain permission from all other copyright holders at the earliest opportunity to reproduce their work in your article and give full credit/attribution in the List of Figures/Tables. It is your responsibility to deal with any requests for reproduction fees.

The CC-BY licence allows you to disseminate and re-post your work anywhere you like. For some very technical journal publications (e.g. with embedded searchable data or visualisations) this might not be fully possible (and one reason why you chose Internet Archaeology in the first place, right?!), but you are free to upload any version without seeking our permission. Should you do this, all we require you to do is to make an acknowledgement of the original, online version, and a link to it.

Got another query that is not answered here? Email: editor@intarch.ac.uk

Internet Archaeology is an open access journal based in the Department of Archaeology, University of York. Except where otherwise noted, content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC BY) Unported licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that attribution to the author(s), the title of the work, the Internet Archaeology journal and the relevant URL/DOI are given.

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Internet Archaeology content is preserved for the long term with the Archaeology Data Service. Help sustain and support open access publication by donating to our Open Access Archaeology Fund.