Contributor guidance

1. Scope

1.1 Archaeologia Aeliana is the journal of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. The journal covers the history, archaeology, and culture of the North East of England of all periods.

1.2 Prospective authors are encouraged to contact the editor to ensure the topic, length, and associated illustrations can be considered for publication. The editor can be contacted either via:

2. General conditions

2.1 Archaeologia Aeliana is a refereed journal; all submissions will be sent for external, anonymous peer review.

2.2 Each volume of Archaeologia Aeliana will, in due course, be made available on the Internet, subsequent to its publication in hard copy. Authors must therefore ensure that joint and contributing authors agree to the paper being published physically and digitally, and must obtain any necessary  permissions from co-authors, contributors, or suppliers of images.

2.3 When to submit a paper: Papers may be submitted at any time. However, they need to be received before 15th January if they are to be considered for publication in that year.

2.4 How to submit a paper: Papers can be submitted electronically to the editor; either on an external memory stick, by email, or via an Internet based file transfer website such as WeTransfer. Where multiple illustrations are submitted it is advised that these be sent via electronic file transfer, or in an electronic memory device, rather than by email. A confirmation email acknowledging reception of the paper will be sent by the Editor within a week of submission. If this email is not received authors should contact the Editor to ensure all elements of the paper have been received.

2.5 All submissions must contain the following as separate documents/files: a cover letter, the text of the paper, tables, illustrations, photographic imagery, a captions document (with a single list of numbered captions for all the figures; i.e. illustrations and images).

2.6 The cover letter must contain the contact details (email) for all contributors. As well as this, it must include the contact details (email and address) for the primary authors; the details of the primary authors will be included at the end of the published paper as the corresponding addresses for the primary authors.

2.7 Tables, maps, images and illustrations should be submitted as separate documents (JPEGs, PDFs, TIFFs etc.), rather than embedded within the text.

2.8 Papers should be submitted in Microsoft Word (or a comparable compatible program). A summary, of 100-200 words, printed in italics, should be included above the main text.

2.9 Fees for commercially linked work; in cases where the publication of a paper is linked to a planning condition from a local planning authority (typically for developer funded/commercial archaeology), the journal may charge a fee to help cover the production and printing costs of the journal. This fee will depend on the length of the paper, and the number of illustrations required. In these cases the author and the project manager are advised to contact the Editor in advance to clarify these details.

3. Guidance for Text

3.1 Grid references for the location of sites should be included wherever appropriate. For archaeological excavations undertaken as part of the planning system relevant identifying codes should be included (e.g. site codes, HER numbers, planning application numbers, and museum accession numbers).

3.2 Spelling: all documents should be written with standard British English spelling and conform to the Oxford English Dictionary.

3.3 Quotations should be enclosed in single inverted commas; quotations within quotations should be placed in double inverted commas. Omissions from quotations should be marked by three full points or stops; additions to a quotation should be enclosed within square brackets.

3.4 Numbers and dates; for precise measurements and quantities, numerals should be used. Other numbers below 100 should be written as words. Financial amounts should be written £100 10s 6d or £100 50p. Dates should appear thus: 22 March 1641.

3.5 Dimensions and weights: mm (millimetres), m (metres), km (kilometres), ha (hectares), g (grammes), kg (kilogrammes), separated from the preceding number by a single space (3 cm, 12 m, 25 km, etc.). If they are considered necessary, Imperial equivalents may follow in brackets.

3.6 Italics should be used for the titles of books and periodicals, and for all words in a foreign language.

3.7 Within the text the author should insert, in red text, suggestions of where they would like the figures to be inserted; e.g. <Insert Fig. 3 here>

4. References and Notes

4.1 Either the ‘Harvard’/Author-Date system of referencing, or end-notes may be used to cite references.

4.2 A list of references must appear at the end of the paper in which all of the books and articles cited are arranged alphabetically under each author's name and listed in order of publication, thus:

  • HODGSON, N. and BIDWELL, P. 2004 ‘Auxiliary barracks in a new light: recent discoveries on Hadrian’s Wall’, Britannia, 35, 121-57.
  • JOBEY, G. 1966a ‘Excavation at Tynemouth priory and castle’, AA4, 45, 33-104.
  • JOBEY, G. 1966b 'A field survey in Northumberland', in Rivet, A. L. F. (ed.) The Iron Age in Northern Britain, Edinburgh, 89–109.
    WILSON, D. M. 1960 The Anglo-Saxons, London.

Please consult published volumes of AA for further examples of references.

4.3 In the bibliography the volume-numbers of periodicals should be given in Arabic numerals (e.g. 38). Page numbers of a paper must be given in full (e.g. 33-104); the abbreviation ff, ‘op.cit' and 'loc. cit.’ are not used.

4.4 Referencing can take either the form of in-text Author/Date referencing (for example, Hodgson and Bidwell 2004, 125), or through the use of end-notes.

4.5 In some cases it may be appropriate to use a combination of these methods; such as using Author/Date for published materials, and using end-notes to refer to unpublished primary records. This is only recommend where extensive use is made of unpublished sources, or archival material. Examples of this can be seen in the following papers:

  • NEWMAN, C. 2018 An Investigation of the Design and Evolution of the Rothley Lakes Landscape, Wallington, Northumberland, AA5, 47, 201-222.
  • GREATBATCH, M. 2019 The Changing Nature and Value of Property in Sandgate, 1760-1801, AA5, 48, 109-132.
  • PEARS, R. 2020 Image, Identity and Illusion: the Ridley Monuments in St Nicholas Cathedral, Newcastle upon Tyne, AA5, 49, 241-260.

4.6 Manuscript sources should be identified by the name of the relevant repository and the full archive reference number. This is best included as an end-note. References to material on the internet must include the full URL, and the date at which the material was accessed. This is also best included as an end-note. Detailed guidance on citing different sources can be found in: Pears, R. and Shields, G. 2022 Cite Them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide Bloomsbury Publishing, and at https://www.citethemrightonline.com.

5. Headings

5.1 There are six styles for headings within the text. These are:

  1. CAPITALS, centred
  2. SMALL CAPITALS, centred
  3. Italics centred
  4. SMALL CAPITALS, ranged left
  5. Italics, ranged left
  6. Italics, ranged left, followed by an em space and then the text running on the same line

5.2 Abbreviations:

  • AA1-5 - Archaeologia Aeliana, first to fifth series.
  • BAR - British Archaeological Reports.
  • CW1-3 - Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, first to third series.
  • PSAN1-5 - Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, first to fifth series.
  • PSAS - Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
  • RIB - Roman Inscriptions in Britain, vols. 1 - 3 (1965-2009). The number of the entry (and not that of the page) should be cited.
  • TWAM - Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums.

6. Illustrations

6.1 The journal’s text area (and thus its default illustration area) is 193 mm x 143 mm, although 193 mm x 150 mm is acceptable for illustrations. (However, provision must be made for the associated caption.)

6.2 All illustrations (whether line or greyscale) should be submitted as individual TIFFs or highest-quality JPEGs. If you have illustrations in another format please ask the Editor for advice about them before submitting the article.

6.3 All illustrations should be submitted at the same time as the text but they should not be embedded within it. All of the illustrations should be numbered in a single sequence which includes both drawings and photographs; reference to them in the text should be as: (fig. 6) etc.

6.4 The illustrations should be accompanied by a list of captions as a separate document. These captions will be used in the final proof.

6.5 Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright illustrations, for paying any appropriate fee, and for indicating the correct phrase by which the copyright should be acknowledged. The Editor may require written evidence of copyright clearance.

6.6 The highest quality is expected in all line drawings and photographs which are submitted. If the author is unable to enhance illustrations to the necessary standard the illustration will be rejected.

6.7 Photographs should be submitted in their original, high resolution format.

6.8 Line drawings should be no larger than 600 x 850 mm, and should be of such proportion as will reduce to a finished size which will fit (including a caption) within the limits of the Archaeologia Aeliana page size: 193 x 143 mm (up to 193 x 150 mm is possible). If the drawing is to be in ‘portrait’ format, 5 mm should be allowed along the bottom for the caption; if it is to be
‘landscape’, 5 mm should be allowed up the right-hand edge for the caption. Captions should not be included within an image. Final reduction to a round and accessible scale (e.g. 1:50, 1:100 etc.) is preferred. All elements of original artwork should be of sufficient quality and size to remain clear and legible when reduced for publication.

6.9 All maps and plans should carry a metric scale and a north point. It should be borne in mind that the journal has many readers from outside the North East, and therefore the first general map showing a site location (often this is fig. 1), should show its position within the North East generally, before proceeding down to the site location level.

6.10 Resolution (or ‘Definition’): The printer of Archaeologia Aeliana works with greyscale illustrations at 350 dpi (dots per inch) at the size at which they are to appear in the journal. It is the responsibility of the author to ensure each illustration or image is of sufficient quality to be printed in the journal.

6.11 Colour: from the commencement of the Archaeologia Aeliana 6th Series the journal will now facilitate printing in colour.