JIAS Submissions

Thank you for considering a submission to the Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society. Established by the Iowa Archeological Society in 1951, JIAS is a regional archaeological journal that publishes annually, typically in December.

For questions on emailing or mailing submission materials, please contact the JIAS editor.

Types of Papers Published

JIAS publishes a wide range of articles. It focuses on Iowa prehistoric and historical archaeology, but JIAS also publishes archaeological papers from other regions, typically the Midwest, and publishes papers on early Iowa history. Biographical sketches, current issues in archeological theory and method, site reports and data analyses, and reviews of recently published books are considered for publication. Please contact the JIAS editor if you are wondering if your idea for a paper is appropriate for submission.

Less formal reports and short summaries of research can be submitted to the Newsletter of the Iowa Archeological Society, a quarterly with a faster publication schedule; the current editor of the Newsletter is Lowell Blikre.

Acceptance and Publication Schedule

Submitted papers will be reviewed by the editor for appropriateness, quality and relevance of research, adherence to submission standards, and alacrity of revision. Papers that do not meet these criteria will be returned, typically with suggestions on how to improve the paper or recommendations on other publications which may be more suitable. Occasionally the editor may review submissions with the Journal Editorial Board, listed on the inside cover of the JIAS.

Publication of accepted papers is typically done in order of receipt, exceptions are made for book reviews and papers about recent important events, such as obituaries. Until the paper is accepted it is not possible to tell when it will be published; because it is an annual publication, waits of one or two years is typical.

Book Reviews

Book reviews are published in most issues. A reviewer may submit a book review on their own, or may ask the editor for suggestions on books to review. The editor can help reviewers obtain complementary copies of reviewed books. All book reviewers must disclose professional relationships with the authors they are reviewing.

Authorship, Responsibility, and Copyright

As primary author, all editor correspondence will be with you. It is up to you to communicate changes any co-authors. Determination of co-authorship is left up to the primary author, but typically co-authors include people who have contributed substantial research directly for the paper or have written substantial portions of the paper. Co-authors will receive complementary copies.

Primary authors are responsible for the content and accuracy of their papers, including accuracy of citations, proper attributions of research and quotations. Any potential conflicts of interest by any author must be disclosed to the editor. Authors must present copyright permission for lengthy text and all non-public domain images not directly produced by the authors.

The Iowa Archeological Society maintains copyrights on all material published in the JIAS, but will typically allow authors to freely reproduce their own articles; contact the editor with questions.

Style

The JIAS adheres to the SAA Journal Style Guide. Despite the spelling of “Archeological” in its title, in the text of JIAS it is spelled “archaeological.” One recent change is that JIAS now uses a modified version of the SAA bibliography style, similar to the Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology’s style, in which the author’s name is on the same line as the year, which is in parentheses. See the latest issue for examples.

Length

Length of submissions can vary greatly. An article of moderate length is about 5000–8000 words, including all text, bibliography, captions, and tables. Shorter articles are about 2500 words. Longer manuscripts that take up the entire journal are occasionally considered, these might be 15,000–25,000 words. Book reviews are typically less than 1000 words. Because of space limitations, the editor will typically suggest portions to cut or shrink. A moderate size article can have about 5–10 figures, more if they can be clearly reproduced at small size.

Research Data

Even if research data are not published, copies of all digital data used in analysis or to produce results used in the paper must be submitted to the JIAS or be on file at the Iowa State Archaeologist Office, or the Iowa State Historic Preservation Office. Upon request, these data may be shared with interested researchers, following the State of Iowa’s standards for archaeological site confidentiality.

Peer Review

JIAS articles are not typically peer-reviewed, but, upon request, a peer review is possible. Reviewers would be a mix of scholars chosen by the author and the editor, with the advice of the journal’s Editorial Board. Articles that are peer-reviewed are noted as such. Peer reviewed articles can take substantially longer time to produce.

Submission Format

Text can be submitted in a wide variety of digital formats, Word documents (.docx) are preferred. Captions for figures should be included. Figures can be submitted as original art or photo prints, but digital submission is preferred. All figures must display well in black and white or gray scale, and, if text is used on a figure, it must be in a format that can be easily edited. A wide range of image formats are allowed, but resolution must be high enough to be 300 dpi at final printing size; the editor will let you know if the images are of adequate quality. Images should be included as separate files. Tables should be submitted as tables within the text or they can be submitted separately as Excel spreadsheets.

Graphic Guidelines

Graphics in a publication can vary tremendously depending on source material and program use. This information intends to simplify and inform the authors on the best image quality for their graphics to ensure high quality print and screen viewing. Understanding the difference between raster and vector graphics will help to determine the file format to use for your graphic submissions.

Raster = image stored in pixels. The more pixels, the more data (higher resolution). Lower resolution will appear fuzzy because there are fewer pixels. Examples of file formats include .tif, .png, and .jpeg (or.jpg). The .tif file format is the only format that does not compress information. Jpeg and png file formats compress the data, which will cause some fuzziness and loss of data.

Vector = image is stored by geometric shapes and font data that preserves the intended crispness and (in some formats) is able to be edited. The most common vector formats used for publishing include .pdf and .eps. However, if graphics are created in programs such as ArcMap (.mxd), Adobe Photoshop (.psd), Adobe Illustrator (.ai), or other programs, and include computer generated text or shapes, then this original program format is preferred for submission. If the original program is uncommon, you can Export or Print to an Adobe Acrobat PDF or possibly .eps. When you export or print from the original program, the vector information is retained. Note that if you start with a raster image, you will not gain any data by saving it in a vector format. Once the data is lost in a raster file format, you cannot gain it back.