Information for Authors

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Journal Aims and Scope

Tennessee Archaeology (New Series) is a peer-reviewed, open access e-journal dedicated to publishing high-quality original research on all periods of Tennessee's archaeological past. The journal welcomes submissions that connect Tennessee’s past to broader regional and global contexts, including contributions and analysis generated through excavation, geospatial analysis, experimental archaeology, museum studies, remote sensing, site protection and management, and survey and excavation efforts. While papers presented at the Current Research in Tennessee Archaeology meeting are welcome, prior presentation is not a requirement for publication. Tennessee Archaeology (New Series) operates on a rolling publication model in which articles are published online as they become available. It is hosted by the Tennessee Division of Archaeology, a Division of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. All submissions are expected to meet stewardship standards as outlined by the Society for American Archaeology.

Details on editorial, procedural, and stylistic guidelines may be found below. For inquiries regarding manuscript submissions, contact the Associate Editors.

Editor-in-Chief: Phillip R. Hodge, State Archaeologist
Associate Editors: Drs. Sierra M. Bow and Aaron Deter-Wolf
Email: TDOA.info@tn.gov

Editorial Guidelines

Tennessee Archaeology (New Series) publishes original papers on the archaeology of Tennessee. Manuscripts on areas adjacent to Tennessee or of a more general nature will be considered if they are of importance and demonstrate connections to archaeology in Tennessee. The Editor in Chief and Associate Editors reserve the right to reject, or return for revision, any manuscript that falls outside the scope of the journal, as well as those manuscripts judged to be of poor quality, excessive length, or that do not conform to SAA standards.

Decisions regarding publication are the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief/State Archaeologist and are final.

Authors are responsible for the contents of their work. This includes ensuring that all referenced sources and quotations are accurately cited. Authors bear the responsibility for obtaining written permission to reproduce any copyrighted materials.

Manuscript Preparation

  • Submitted articles must be original, not previously published in any other peer-reviewed journal, book, or edited collection, and not be under consideration for any such publication; 
  • Authors should refer to Section 3.0 of the SAA Style Guide for manuscript formatting, including in text citations, except for bibliographic references and as otherwise noted below;
  • Manuscripts should be double spaced and include continuous line numbers and single spaces after periods;
  • Manuscripts should be no more than 12,000 words, inclusive of references;
  • When preparing the manuscript, authors should review and consider incorporating the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officer’s “Respectful Terminology in Archaeological Compliance”.

Title Page:

  • The title page should include author name(s), affiliation(s), ORCiDs, total word count, and clearly designate an email address for the corresponding author. In addition, the title page should supply any information required by funding and grant-awarding bodies.

Abstract: 

  • An abstract must accompany each manuscript and should not exceed 150 words in length.

Illustrations and Tables:

  • Illustrations and tables should each be limited to 5 or fewer to accompany the main manuscript. Additional illustrations and tables may be included as Supplemental Materials (see below);
  • Tables should present new information rather than duplicating information in the text;
  • Due to the design of the electronic format journal, any tables to be included in the main text must be clearly legible sized no wider than 6 inches using 10 point font. Any tables that do not meet this criteria should be included as Supplementary Materials;
  • Illustrations and tables should be numbered and referenced sequentially in the text;
  • A complete list of figure and table captions should be included on a separate page following the main manuscript. Captions for illustrations should identify the creator, as well as any institutional permissions;
  • Do not insert figures or tables within the body of the manuscript. During the initial submission process, these elements should be included at the end of the submission to follow the captions page;

Bibliography:

  • Bibliographies should be prepared using the Chicago Manual of Style author-date stystem.
  • Authors should nclude hyperlinked DOIs and web links to online content wherever possible.     

Supplemental Material and Multimedia:

  • Supplemental materials may include text, tables, data, equations and models, images, and videos or other multimedia.
  • Prior to initial submission, any supplemental materials should be uploaded by the author(s) to an open access repository such as Figshare under the CC-BY license.

Manuscript Submission

For initial review, please submit the following by email to TDOA.info@tn.gov. Files totaling over 10 MB may be sent using a file transfer service such as Dropbox. 

  1. A single PDF file including the title page, abstract, text, references, figure and table captions, figures, tables, and supplementary materials. Please ensure that all identifying elements are removed from the manuscript and associated metadata;
  2. If applicable, documentation of consultation and permission for the use of sensitive imagery, and scholarly justification regarding image use (see Image Guidelines, below);
  3. A list of four suggested reviewers, including contact information for those individuals.

All submissions will be reviewed by the Associate Editors and two peer reviewers.  In addition to any comments, reviewers will designate whether the manuscript should be: (a) published; (b) published with revisions; or (c) rejected. If reviewers are not aligned as to publication of a manuscript, the Associate Editors reserve the right to make a final decision.

After a manuscript has been preliminarily accepted for publication, the author will be asked to address any reviewer comments and make any required substantive changes. The manuscript is then returned to the Associate Editors for final consideration. At this point, authors should submit:

  1. The main manuscript as a Microsoft Word document, including abstract and text;
  2. Bibliography, and table/illustration captions as a separate Microsoft Word documents;
  3. All tables, formatted as individual Microsoft Word documents and numbered according to their order in the text.
  4. Illustrations
    • Illustrations should be submitted as individual RGB or grayscale JPG files, sized at least 6 inches wide at 200 DPI.
    •  Any text included in illustrations should use Calibri font, sized to be clearly legible at the above dimensions and resolution.
  5. As applicable, a separate Microsoft Word document providing text and hyperlinks for Supplemental Materials

At this point the Associate Editors may make additional changes consisting of minor spelling, grammatical, and/or style corrections. Minor changes to images and tables may be made at this time in consultation with the author(s). For multi-authored manuscripts, it is the responsibility of the lead author to distribute copies of all reviews to other authors and coordinate all changes before the manuscript is returned.

Proofs prepared by the Associate Editors will be sent as PDF files to the author, or lead author in multi-authored papers, for final approval. Corrected proofs must be returned to the editor within four weeks. If they are not returned within the time limit, it will be assumed that they are accurate. No substantial changes are allowed at this time. Only those changes needed to correct for typographic, spelling, or punctuation errors in the text or in figures, tables, or illustrations will be allowed. After proofs are returned to the Editorial Coordinators, no changes are possible. The manuscript will be prepared for final publication at this time.

Accepted submissions will be published as electronic articles on the Journal web page under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. At this time the journal does not produce PDFs or print-ready versions of any articles. Authors retain ownership of all rights under copyright in all versions of the article. 

Image Guidelines

In keeping with best practices and ethical considerations of modern archaeology, Tennessee Archaeology (New Series) does not publish photographs of human remains, funerary objects/belongings, or objects of cultural patrimony without documented consent of descendant communities. This prohibition extends to both historic and pre-contact contexts. Authors may alternately submit for consideration line drawings, schematic renderings, or other forms of illustration that convey analytical information without reproducing sensitive imagery.

Authors seeking to include sensitive imagery in their publication must proactively consult with descendant communities and/or official representatives prior to initial manuscript submission. Documentation of consultation must accompany the submission, and permission for the use of sensitive imagery must be provided in writing. Additionally, any request to publish restricted imagery (whether as a line drawing, rendering, or supplemental photograph) must include a scholarly justification explaining why the image is essential for the argument of the article. The Editorial Committee will evaluate whether this justification and the supporting consultation materials meet the standards of the guidelines. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject, request revision, or remove any imagery that does not comply with these guidelines.

These guidelines will be periodically reviewed to ensure they reflect best practices and ethical standards.

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