Publishing with Us

The EXARC JOURNAL is the leading journal for those involved in experimental archaeology, archaeological open-air museum, ancient & traditional technology as well as interpretation & education. It features the latest developments in fieldwork, academic research, museum studies, and living history interpretation. We had 220,000 pageviews for the EXARC Journal in 2023.  

You are welcome to publish with us. The journal charges no fees for article submission, processing and publishing through EXARC, and, equally, we do not pay authors for their contributions. We accept original articles which are not yet published elsewhere.

The Journal is published quarterly. The deadlines for the reviewed articles are: 15th of January for the May issue, 15th of April for the August issue, 15th of July for the November issue and 15th of October for the February issue. We have a maximum number of manuscripts we can accept in each round.

Once a year, chosen articles are published in an abridged form in the EXARC Journal Digest, our hard copy journal. The authors are first contacted for permission to republish their article, then they receive an abridged version of their article for their approval.

Articles for Mixed Matters are accepted throughout the year and are immediately edited. Again, authors are consulted with on any changes. This section is updated regularly to bring you topical news. Articles for this section are generally published within two to four weeks of submission.

EXARC aims to be transparent about the ethical requirements for authors and published works in the EXARC Journal.

We support, use, and follow the guidelines compiled and prepared by COPE regarding authorship and contributorship, intellectual property and peer review processes among other things. The full list of guidelines can be found on their website. Contributions are accepted in English.

Authors should read the style sheet before submitting potential articles.

The contributions should be sent by e-mail to J. Kateřina Dvořáková.

All articles are edited.

The accepted articles for the reviewed sections are screened for plagiarism and go through a first round of editing for language and obvious problems (for example lack of references or not using Harvard referencing) before they are submitted for peer-reviewing. The authors are then consulted about any suggested changes and will have approximately three weeks to react to the reviewers’ comments.

Articles submitted to Mixed Matters are edited for language and style over one or two rounds. They are published as and when they come in.

The reviewers are anonymous (single blind review) and part of a permanent pool for each section. In cases of highly specialised topics or doubts from one of our general reviewers, we will approach a specialist for a second opinion. The reviewers submit their recommendations (publish as is, publish with amendments, publish in Mixed Matters, or do not publish) and suggest amendments/ improvements. Once the texts are updated, they are then sent for a second round of editing/ proofreading, which includes a style check. The last step in text preparation is a bibliography and reference check where we also unify Harvard style referencing.

All changes are done in consultation with the author and, with exception of minor formatting changes (for example use of italics or unifying Harvard referencing) we do not make any changes to the text without the author’s approval.

By submitting articles to the EXARC Journal and the EXARC Journal Digest the author(s) attest the following:

• No part of the manuscript is plagiarised from other sources
• Proper reference is provided for all contents extracted from other sources
• Strong action will be taken against cases of plagiarism

All submitted papers pass through an initial screening and will be checked through Duplichecker, advanced plagiarism detection software.

All titles are open access. When sharing content, non-authors are bound to our Creative Commons BY-NC Attribution Non-Commercial License. 

Author(s) hold the copyright and retain publishing rights without restrictions. Articles submitted, accepted or published in the EXARC Journal have no embargo period whatsoever. Authors are encouraged to share their article immediately after publishing via any channel they like. Authors can publish those at their own convenience at an Institutional Repository, PubMed Central, ArXiv, another Open Access Repository, a Pre-Print Server or at the author's Personal Website. The use of social media sharing is encouraged. 

EXARC offers authors a PDF version of their published article at request. These can also be produced using the PDF button going with each article. EXARC also offers authors article download/read statistics, based on our Google Analytics, at request. 

Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full text of articles in this journal, and to use them for any other lawful purpose. Please check https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ for further details.  

Each article published in the EXARC Journal has a unique Archival Resource Key (ARK), a persistent identifier, cited in the heading. Safety copies of all EXARC Journals are kept in the Royal Dutch Library (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) in the Hague (NL). EXARC uses the archiving policy of the Royal Dutch Library. 

Text

The text should be submitted in Word for Windows, preferably DOCX format, using Times New Roman font, size 12, 1.5 spacing, justified text. There should be no indentation at the beginning of a new paragraph. There should be double spacing between paragraphs.

It should start with an abstract of your manuscript of about 200 words.

Please see the general style sheet for more details (top and bottom of this page).

Authors

Where there is no maximum number of authors for each article, it must be reasonably demonstrated how each author contributed to the article. 

Acknowledgement of funding

All articles submitted for publication in the EXARC Journal need to have a clear statement regarding funding of their project within their text, if applicable.

Authors are required to state the name of any funding body in full and include the grant number, if applicable.

References

References should be placed in the text using the Harvard referencing system (e.g. Tichý 2001, 25-27). Examples can be found online at: http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm.
A full bibliography is required at the end of the contribution and should contain only works referred to in the text. 

Illustrations

Accompanying illustrations (charts, tables, graphs, photographs, linear drawings) should be submitted independently from the text, clearly numbered, and with captions. Please do not send texts with embedded pictures. Also, please do not submit images, composed of other images. Please deliver every single image separately and mark them (a), (b) et cetera. 

• Photographs / illustrations should be TIFF or JPEG with a resolution of at least 1200 x 2000 px (or at least 300 dpi when printed 15 cm wide). We do appreciate at least one image which can be printed full page A4 (2500 x 3500 px).
• The number of illustrations is not restricted, as long as they are relevant. Preferably two illustrations per 500 words.
• Charts, tables, and graphs should be in Excel.

It is the responsibility of the author(s) to check all copyrights and get permissions where needed. EXARC will not publish images where this is not clarified. When using images created by others, acquisition of reproduction rights is necessary. This is your own responsibility. In most cases, the original publisher will be able to grant permission, sometimes demanding a fee to be paid, in other cases the publisher will be able to put you in contact with the copyright holder (sometimes an illustrator, sometimes the author of the original book or article). Please make sure you receive permission in writing to include the image in your books, intended both for print and digital (e-book) publication. 

Re-using Images for an Article in the EXARC Journal

Date: 29 November 2018
These rules are adapted from Elsevier. 

When is permission required?
As a general rule, written permission must be obtained from the rights holder in order to re-use any copyrighted material. Typically, the rights holder of published material is the publisher, unless explicitly indicated otherwise. Copyrighted material can include figures, illustrations, charts, tables, photographs, and text. Re-use of any borrowed material must be properly acknowledged, even if it is clear that written permission is not necessary.

When is permission not required?
Written permission may not be needed in certain circumstances, such as the following:

• Public domain works are not protected by copyright and may be reproduced without permission, subject to proper acknowledgement. This includes works for which copyright has expired (for example, any US work published before 1923), works that are not copyrightable by law (for example, works prepared by US government employees as part of their official duties), and works expressly released into the public domain by their creators. (Permission would however be required to re-use the final formatted, edited, published version of a public domain journal article, for example, as this version is owned by the publisher.)
• Open access content published under a CC-BY user license, as well as open access content published under other types of user licenses, may not require written permission, subject to proper acknowledgement depending on the nature of your proposed re-use (for example, commercial vs. non-profit use). Permissions vary depending on the license type, and we recommend that readers check the license details carefully before re-using the material.
• Creating an original figure or table from data or factual information that was not previously in figure or table format typically does not require permission, subject to proper acknowledgement of the source(s) of the data.

Who do I need permission from?
Permission must be obtained from the rights holder of the material. In most cases this will mean contacting the publisher of the material. The publisher typically has the exclusive right to grant permission whether or not copyright is owned by the publisher. If the rights holder requires that the credit line be in a specific format, this must be followed exactly, e.g.:
Suitable acknowledgement to the source must be made, either as a footnote or in a reference list at the end of your publication, as follows:
"Reprinted from Publication title, Vol /edition number, Author(s), Title of article / title of
chapter, Pages No., Copyright (Year), with permission from xxx [OR APPLICABLE SOCIETY COPYRIGHT OWNER]."

How do I obtain permission to use photographs or illustrations?
Photographs or illustrations of fine art objects (sculptures, paintings, etc.) are frequently subject to copyright, and permission may be needed to from the holder of the reproduction rights of the photograph (usually the photographer, the publisher, or the museum that owns the object). Permission may be needed to from both the rights holder of the art object itself (if still protected by copyright) as well as the photographer of the art object.

Do I need to obtain permission to use material posted on a website?
Probably. Most material on the Internet is protected by copyright whether or not a copyright notice is displayed. Some material posted on websites may not be original to the website itself and permission will therefore have to be requested from the rights holder of the original source, once the rights holder can be identified. If the material is original to the website, permission should be obtained directly from the website which will own copyright on the content on their site.

What should I do if I am not able to locate the copyright owner?
Where rights have reverted to an author or transferred to another publisher, it may be difficult to locate the correct rights holder contact. However, you must make every effort to do so. You should keep records of all correspondence as proof of your attempts to obtain permission. It can never be assumed that a non-response authorizes you to use the material.
Works for which a prospective user is unable to identify, locate or contact the copyright owner to obtain permission (as distinct from cases in which an identified rights holder simply does not respond to your request) are known as "orphan works." 

• Users of orphan works must show that they have made a reasonably diligent good faith search for the copyright owner;
• The user must make clear and adequate attribution to the original work, author, publisher, and copyright holder, if possible and as appropriate under the circumstances; and
• If a copyright owner is subsequently identified, the user must pay a reasonable royalty and not re-use the work unless agreed with the copyright holder.

Note: use of a disclaimer alone is not sufficient.