NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS - SUBMISSIONS AND STYLE MANIFESTO

Yes! We'd like YOU to write for assemblage!

Please see our Mission Statement/Call for Papers to learn more about the kind of material assemblage seeks.

The General Notes on Submissions, and Style Guide, below, are aimed at those without extensive publishing experience; we trust that those who are older and/or wiser will excuse any unnecessary detail. These notes describe our requirements and procedures for formal contributions, and may not be applicable to all submissions; obviously, if you want to send us a horoscope column, we wouldn't require an abstract, and would not be likely to send it out for peer review. Similarly, if you are sending a letter to the editor or something for the information pages, we can probably dispense with the hard copy phase altogether. (Contact us if you want advice on your specific situation!) However, please follow these instructions carefully when submitting formal research papers.

SPECIAL NOTES TO AUTHORS

GENERAL NOTES ON SUBMISSIONS

STYLE GUIDE

SPECIAL NOTES TO AUTHORS

Copyright.

Copyright is retained and managed by the author. However, by submitting work to assemblage, authors are agreeing to the following conditions:

assemblage will have the right to distribute the work over the Internet and through other media (print and electronic), to deposit copies with libraries and relevant institutions, and to include the work in archives and compilation volumes, provided that no charge is made beyond basic costs of reproduction and distribution, and that no changes are made to the contents.

assemblage will also have the right to authorise readers to reproduce entire issues of assemblage for dissemination, under the following conditions:

a) the copy is complete, including the copyright statement

b) no changes are made to the contents

c) no charge is made.

Authors should also assume that some readers will print off copies of specific articles from the Web for their own research use, just as they would make photocopies of printed material.

If the author publishes their submission again elsewhere, after it has appeared in assemblage, (s)he is requested to cite the assemblage version of the paper.

A plea from the editors:

We would appreciate contributors' assistance in the following matters. First, since the journal is produced on a stringent budget, we prefer to communicate with contributors by email when possible; of course, you can telephone, fax, or snailmail us if you like, but we prefer to email our responses to you. Second, please help facilitate rapid and easy publication by carefully adhering to all the guidelines which follow. Full-time graduate students cheerfully volunteer their time to produce this journal as a service to the archaeology community, but do not revel in fixing bad grammar and spelling, incomplete referencing, and silly boo-boos. The reason for insisting on certain conventions and referencing styles, etc., is not to torment contributors, but to make sure the text is easily converted to the Web format, and to ensure consistency within the journal.

GENERAL NOTES ON SUBMISSIONS

Submission is a representation that the manuscript has not been published or accepted for publication elsewhere.

Most contributions to assemblage will be subject to peer review. Assessment is generally done by members of the editorial team in conjunction with advanced postgraduate students and lecturers in archaeology at Sheffield and other British universities. assemblage uses blind refereeing, i.e. neither the author nor the referee is told the other's identity. The referee may, however, waive anonymity, and if it is desired by both parties, the editors will facilitate direct contact between referee and author.

Authors are free to suggest referees who would be able to evaluate their work, but the editors are not bound to select them.

Manuscripts which are not adequately prepared or do not conform to our guidelines in terms of subject, length, or style, may be summarily rejected, or we may request that they be reformatted.

Contributors are encouraged to seek the help of colleagues in the preparation of manuscripts, and to check their work carefully. A manuscript makes a poor impression if it is written in a sloppy manner, if there are errors in spelling, or if the citations don't match the reference list, etc.

Contributors will be informed as soon as possible whether their manuscript has been accepted, requires revision and reconsideration, or has been rejected. The process usually takes one to two months, but may be longer, depending on the availability of referees.

Initial submissions

Interested in writing for assemblage? Please send us an abstract, or very brief proposal for an article, outlining your intentions, as soon as possible.

Manuscripts should generally be under 3,500 words in length, and should be submitted to assemblage as 3 hard copies, double spaced.

For the initial submission, please do not include original artwork, or photographs, etc.. Good quality photocopies of figures will suffice at this stage.

We regret that manuscripts and materials cannot be returned.

Final Submissions

If a manuscript has been accepted, and once all required revisions have been incorporated (by the author) into the document, contributors will be required to submit one hard copy, and a matching electronic version as (a) a floppy disk copy (IBM-compatible if at all possible; preferably in Word 6 for Windows, or as an HTML file) or (b) a copy emailed to the editors as an attached file. Disks should be carefully packaged, and labelled with the author's name, the file name, and the software used.

When possible, please submit illustrations scanned and on disk (or emailed) as a *.gif or *.jpg file; otherwise, submit a good quality hard copy, suitable for scanning.

For all pieces, please include a short note (<100 words) about the author(s). This should include place of study/work, research interests, snailmail and email addresses, and may also include other interests and previous publications.

Authors will be given the opportunity to proof-read their articles once they have been converted into a Web document. (Proof-reading may be done electronically or on paper.) Proofs should be promptly and carefully read, and the editors should be notified of any necessary changes. Only corrections and very minor revisions may be made at this stage.

If contributors are unable to access the Web themselves, the editors will provide them with a printed-out copy of the issue in which their work appears.

Important Note: Authors must have the permission of anyone whose unpublished work (including items in-press, manuscripts on file, personal communications, etc.) is cited or used in their paper. Authors must also have permission to reproduce any previously published figures, illustrations, etc., and must clearly indicate the source in their paper. Authors (and not assemblage) are responsible for their paper's contents, and for the legal right to publish any material submitted.

STYLE GUIDE

Organisation:

The manuscript should have page numbers, and be ordered in this way (all elements should be begun on new pages):

  • title page
  • 200-word abstract and 3-7 keywords (for formal articles only)
  • text - three levels of headings may be used
  • appendices
  • notes
  • acknowledgements
  • references cited
  • figures, tables, numbered
  • figure captions, numbered
  • The title page must include the author's name, the paper's title, the sentence "DO NOT CITE IN ANY CONTEXT WITHOUT PERMISSION OF AUTHORS", author's affiliation and mailing address, including email and telephone number.

    Referencing

    Citations in the text should be in the form of (Bloggs 1987:14), while lists of authors in the text should appear as (Bloggs 1992; Whimsy 1996), or as (Bloggs 1992:13; Whimsy 1996:45), while multiple works by the same author should appear as Bloggs (1992; 1987).

    In this form of referencing, ibid. and op. cit. should not be used.

    The list of references cited should use the following forms:

    Harley, J.B. 1988. Maps, knowledge and power. In The Iconography of Landscape. Eds. D. Cosgrove and S. Daniels, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp 177-312.

    Taylor, R.E. and R. Berger. 1980. The date of 'Noah's Ark'. Antiquity 54:34-36.

    Dalan, R.A. 1993. Landscape Modification at the Cahokia Mounds Site: Geophysical Evidence of Culture Change. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota.

    AugÈ, M. 1995. Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. John Howe, trans. London: Verso.

    If the original edition of a work is much older than the edition cited, indicate the original date of publication thus: (Rousseau 1968 [1762]).

    Personal communications should be only used when absolutely necessary, i.e. when the point is essential and there is no published reference for the information.

    If an unpublished manuscript is cited, give full information as to where it may be located. (E.g. name of archive, "in possession of author", etc.)

    For the referencing of electronic publications, please see The Guide for Citing Electronic Information.

    Style

  • Contributors are asked to write in clear, concise, and non-sexist English with a minimum of jargon.
  • Use "and" instead of "&".
  • Use "percent" instead of "%" .
  • Accents should be clearly marked, accurate, and consistent.
  • Do not use hyphenated word breaks at the end of lines.
  • Do not indent paragraphs; instead, leave an extra line between them.
  • Do not use underlining for emphasis. Use italics or bold instead. Italics should be used for species names, foreign words and book titles.
  • Notes should be used sparingly; where they are essential, use endnotes instead of footnotes.
  • The abbreviations "e.g.", "i.e.", and "etc.", "et al.", "ca", "cf.", and "vs." should be lower case and not italicised. (Note that "cf." means "compare against", not "see".)
  • Quotations over three lines long should be indented. Double quotation marks should enclose quotations included within the main body of the text. Single quotation marks should be used for quotations within quotations, and for emphasis.
  • Full stops should not be used in abbreviations such as "IFA" or "USA", but should be included in titles (Dr.), and in contractions such as "p.m.", "ed." "vol.". An abbreviation or acronym which may not be widely and internationally known, should be introduced first, e.g. "the Sites and Monuments Record (SMR)".
  • For temperature, units, chemical notation, etc. - international notation and metric units should be used.
  • Use British spelling, but do not alter spelling in quotations, references, and the names of institutions.
  • Capitalisation: Only capitalise north, south, etc. if part of an actual place name, e.g. "South Africa", but "the south of France", "Central America" but "central Mexico".
  • Hotlinks: Underline the text which should be linked, and include the URL for the link immediately afterwards, in square brackets. E.g. "The mailbase archive [http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists-a-e/arch-theory] is useful for checking on past Arch-Theory conversations."
  • Official site numbers should be included with site names whenever possible.

    Dating conventions:

    Please follow the conventions outlined in World Archaeology's notes to contributors (October 1995), reproduced here:

    "1. In accordance with international convention, radiocarbon dates should be expressed as mean and standard deviation, together with the number of the issuing laboratory.

    e.g. a date of 3600 ( 600 BP (AA-50)

    or: the date was: K-3921 5540 ( 65 BP

    2. Calibrated dates should be indicated as follows: cal. AD 200; 250 cal. BC; a date in the range cal. AD 90-440.

    It may be useful to insert the phrase (calibrated date) after each first occurrence in a paper, to make the meaning perfectly clear. Note that after calibration ranges will often be used, since deviations may not be symmetrical about the mean.

    3. Calibrations should be made using the calibration curves of Stuiver and Pearson (1986) or Pearson and Stuiver (1986), depending on period. Both curves are published in Radiocarbon, 28, 2B. (Any suitable curve can be chosen for calibrating the period older than 5000 BP.)

    4. In order to maintain continuity with older literature, it may sometimes be necessary to present uncalibrated dates in terms of 'ad' or 'bc' (where 1950 BP = 0). We do not encourage this because dates presented in this way may not correspond closely with the calendrical AD/BC scale.

    5. Dates obtained by other methods, e.g. TL, Uranium Series, or Fission Track, are best referred to in years 'before present' or 'years ago', rather than by radiocarbon conventions.

    6. Old dates: Ma for 'millions of years' and ka for 'thousands of years' are advised as abbreviations recognized internationally."

    In doubt?

    Ask us, consult a reference book on writing or academic style, or consult the exhaustive 1992 American Antiquity Style Guide, 57(4):749-70. Our favourite books on the general subject of writing include the following:

    Gordon, Karen E. 1983. The Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed. New York: Ticknor and Fields.

    Gordon, Karen E. 1984. The Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed. New York: Times Books.

    Swan, Michael. 1995. Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Strunk, William, and E.B. White. 1979. The Elements of Style, third edition. New York: Macmillan.

    The editors of assemblage can be contacted at the Research School of Archaeology and Archaeological Sciences, University of Sheffield, 2 Mappin St., Sheffield S1 4DT.

    Telephone: (0114) 282 5109 or 282 5102

    Fax (0114) 272 7347

    Email: assemblage@sheffield.ac.uk

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