Notes for authors

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. The publication process
  3. Report running order
  4. Presentation of material
  5. Punctuation, spelling, grammar
  6. Numbers, dates and measurements
  7. References
  8. Bibliography
  9. Illustrations
  10. Distribution of Notes for Authors 
  11. Feedback

1. Introduction

1.1 These notes are intended as a guide for authors in the preparation of reports for East Anglian Archaeology (EAA). They set out conventions and style preferences which are fairly standard in academic publishing, and they are intended to speed the progress of reports through the editorial stages and to benefit authors, editors and readers alike.

1.2 Authors should try to present material that is complete and free from errors, and adhere, as far as possible, to the house style outlined in these notes. If you feel that any of the requirements outlined here will cause you problems, please contact the managing editor to discuss.

1.3 These notes deal largely with presentation rather than content, since content is primarily addressed through academic refereeing. Authors are advised to bear in mind the cost of publishing, and to remember that detailed reports which are repetitive and provide very little new information will be self-defeating. Before preparing your synopsis, consider the various forms of publication available, and choose the one most appropriate to the results of your work – see submissions.

1.4 While reports in the EAA series may have any number of contributors, they are monograph publications, the result of a selective process. In common with other publishers, we would not usually expect to see more than three principal authors or editors credited. A case can be made for more than three in exceptional circumstances but the final decision rests with the editorial committee.

1.5 Language policy: East Anglian Archaeology will observe a policy of non-sexist and non-stereotypical presentation of information, which embraces both language and graphics such as reconstruction drawings. Contributors are expected to avoid exclusionary language, and the editor may recommend changes where inappropriate language is identified. Parallel treatment of both sexes should always be possible, in references to professional status, the relevance or not of marital status, physical and personal characteristics etc.

For example, the terms `Man’ and `mankind’ can be unhelpful, since they are not genuinely inclusive. `Neolithic communities…’ is preferable to `Neolithic man’ and `people’, `the human race’, `we’ or `us’ are preferable to `mankind’.

2. The publication process

The following section explains what happens to a text once it has been sent to EAA.

2.1 A complete paper copy of the draft report, including illustrations, tables and any additional material, should be submitted to the managing editor for circulation to an editor and external referee. English Heritage-funded reports are also refereed by an EAA editor and should therefore be submitted to EH and EAA at the same time.

2.2 Once the readers’ comments have been received, authors should revise the report accordingly and return the final draft (as files on disk and paper copy) to the managing editor. The editorial committee will be very happy to discuss comments with authors, should these present any difficulties. Contact the managing editor in the first instance.

2.3 The revised report is copyedited by the managing editor or a freelance copyeditor. This process will usually only begin when all of the report has been received: text, tables, illustrations and any additional material for electronic release or microfiche. Submitting a report which is incomplete will only cause delay.

2.4 The copyeditor will read the report, checking for completeness, consistency and order — a test-run in effect. As well as spelling, grammar and punctuation, the copyeditor will check text against illustrations, captions and references, including bibliography, and the files are prepared for typesetting.

2.5 Copyediting usually generates a set of queries for the author. EAA would prefer to deal with the main author or editor of the report, who can then circulate sections of the report to other authors as necessary.

2.6 Once queries are dealt with, the typesetter produces a set of page proofs and these are sent to the main author for checking. Authors should not regard this as an opportunity to rewrite the report. Instead, check proofs for typesetting errors, the position and scale of illustrations, the accuracy of captions and credits. Obviously, any serious mistakes or omissions can be rectified but it is better to avoid the need to do so.

2.7 Proofs are returned to the typesetter for correction. Unless there were major alterations, authors will not usually receive a final set of proofs although a proof of the cover will be made available for checking.

2.8 Final proofs are sent to the indexer, who produces an index, which is then typeset. Reproduction of additional material (electronic component or microfiche) will usually be arranged at this stage.

2.9 Printing quotes are obtained, and, if the report is HE-funded, a grant claim will be submitted by the managing editor, on behalf of the main publisher.

2.10 The report goes to the printer in digital form as page layouts ready for printing. This allows EAA to adopt a print on demand approach where the standard print run is 200 copies, with the potential for further copies to be produced at a later date should they be needed.

2.11 The finished book is delivered. 100 reports go to the EAA distributor, the rest to the main publisher. The managing editor will retain enough books to circulate copyright libraries and review copies.

2.12 Open access policy: reports published in East Anglian Archaeology are released online (as pdf) two years after publication. A digital copy is also deposited with the Archaeology Data Service. Authors may include their own contributions to the series in an open access repository, provided full bibliographic details, the copyright statement and EAA web link are included with each item. An embargo period of two years following publication applies to all EAA reports.

3. Running order of an EAA report

3.1 There is no single model for an archaeological report. In line with recent recommendations by the Council for British Archaeology, EAA encourages authors to produce fieldwork reports which provide a synthetic, narrative history based on the evidence, and adopt a multi-media approach where appropriate. Publication proposals should be submitted in the usual way, indicating what form the report will take.

3.2 For authors preferring the orthodox model, the suggested arrangement for an EAA report is outlined below. Reports may be divided into Parts or Chapters, depending on the scale of the text. However, it is recommended that for clarity, chapters should structure the report and contain sections defined by Roman numerals.

Title page
Imprint page
Contents
List of Plates/Figures /Tables
Contents of Additional Material (electronic/microfiche, if any)
List of Contributors (with affiliations)
Acknowledgements
Preface (if used)
Summary (plus foreign language translations)

Introduction and background
Main text (for a site report, this will be the site narrative followed by specialist reports – artefactual/environmental/documentary)
Discussion and conclusions

Appendices
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
Additional material (electronic component or microfiche)

3.3 The authorship of specialist contributions should be given, especially when they are the work of the main author. Finds may be catalogued according to use and function, following Margeson (1993) and the London Museum Medieval Catalogue (1940); or by material, in which case the suggested running order for publication is:

Coins
Jettons and tokens
Gold
Silver
Copper alloys
Lead/pewter
Iron
Metalworking (crucibles, slag, etc.)
Non-building stone (flints, jet, shale, amber, etc.)
Glass
Pottery
Terracotta
Building stone
Bricks
Tiles
Burnt clay
Mortar
Plaster
Paint and pigment
Bone (artefacts)
Wood (worked)
Leather
Textile

Sediment/soil studies/chemical anal.

Zoological and botanical evidence

Human bone
Mammal bone
Bird bone
Fish bone
Other bone
Insects
Mollusca
Parasites
Other invertebrate groups
Plants (wood remains inc. charcoal, other macroscopic remains)
Seeds
Pollen
Diatoms

3.4 Catalogues may be approached in several ways but should be standardised as far as possible within each report. Only illustrated material should be catalogued in the main text, unless there are only a few examples in a raw material. Full catalogues may be released electronically. The usual practice is to order catalogues according to illustration numbers; numbering may be consecutive or a new series of numbers may begin with each raw material or category.

The description of each object should be followed by its context in the order:

Excavation context no./Excavation no. of object (if different)/Period/Phase

and this order of information should be consistent between different specialist reports.

Check descriptions against illustrations and remove any superfluous description (i.e. that which is obvious from the published drawing). Keep conjunctions, articles, etc., to an absolute minimum, even if it ends up looking like telegraphese. Dimensions will not normally be given as these can be got from the illustrations.

3.5 Appendices should be treated as separate chapters. The use of microfiche or electronic media will be encouraged for lengthy appendices.

3.6 Endnotes should preferably be avoided altogether but may be used sparingly. Indicate them by superscript numbers in the draft text and group together at the end of the book rather than after individual chapters. Footnotes are not used.

3.7 Additional material: the editorial committee encourages authors and publishers to consider electronic release rather than microfiche for detailed or supporting material such as appendices, catalogues, tabulated data and illustrations. CD-ROM is the obvious option to explore while projects funded by EH may find that their data can be released via the Archaeology Data Service web site. Remember that electronic release may provide a way of publishing material such as colour photograps and maps which would be unfeasible in print.

4. Presentation of material

4.1 Draft texts for academic review should be submitted as complete hard copy and include any additional material. Do not submit files on disk at this stage — unless of course your report includes material for electronic release.

4.2 Double-check your Contents list as a final task before submitting your revised report, and make sure you are supplying complete hard copy as well as files on disk for all its components, including any additional material destined for electronic release or microfiche.

4.3 Retain copies of all submitted material.

4.4 Hard copy should be submitted on one side only of A4 paper, leaving ample margins all round. Pages must be numbered, even if a single sequence is not possible.

4.5 EAA reports are typeset from files on disk. Files should be IBM-compatible. We prefer Word or Rich Text Format but we can handle other packages — consult the managing editor. Label disks clearly, specifying software used. There is no point in trying to typeset your report unless you are submitting `camera-ready´ copy by prior agreement — see about the series. DTP packages work in quite a different way to word processing software and much of your formatting will be lost when the file is imported. The rule for formatting is as much as necessary but as little as possible — enough to indicate heading hierarchy and italics but not a complete page layout.

4.6 EAA uses two point sizes for text: the main text in 10 point and the catalogues, tables, bibliography and index in smaller 8 point. House style allows up to six headings below the main chapter heading (see below). The hierarchy creates a clear structure for the report and heading levels should be clearly indicated in the draft text and in the contents list. The copyeditor then has this as a reference when preparing the text for typesetting.

Chapter 4 (24pt)

XII. The Human Bone (12pt bold)

Cremations (10pt bold)

Female (10pt italic)

Female Pathology (10pt regular)

Catalogue (8pt bold)

Catalogue sub-heading (8pt italic)

4.7 Text files: save each chapter or section of your report, including contents and bibliography, in a separate file with a useful filename (chapter1.doc and so on). Do not include embedded graphics or tables in the text files; it is much easier for us if you submit these separately. No embedded endnotes or footnotes please, insert references manually in text and supply notes as separate file.

4.8 Tables and computer-generated graphics should be saved as separate files with useful filenames (tables3–4.doc, figure1.doc and so on). Remember to provide a printout of each one and details of the software used. Their position should be indicated in the text by Fig. Plate and Table references. We can handle tables as Word, RTF or Excel files; graphics should be submitted as uncompressed TIFF files, EPS files or CDR (CorelDraw vector graphics), see 9.5 below for detailed guidelines. Keep formatting of tables to a minimum and bear in mind that printing will be in black and white. If you are submitting a particularly complex graphic it may be better to provide a high resolution printout which can be used as artwork.

4.9 Additional material for electronic release should be provided as far as possible in searchable form, with a comprehensive list indicating content and file format. Additional material will be included in academic refereeing and briefly checked during copyediting but it will not be typeset or indexed. It should be produced to final form by the authors and submitted with the final draft of the report. Specialist reports are acceptable in PDF format; laid out like draft texts, reflecting EAA structure and style without attempting to reproduce it exactly. Graphics should be of the same standard as those in the printed report.

4.10 Additional material for microfiche should be provided as camera-ready copy. Microfiche is produced by photographing camera-ready copy and reducing by 24x. A standard sheet of fiche contains 98 frames, each frame being one vertical (portrait) sheet of A4. A4 landscape may also be used, as may A3 landscape (but NOT A3 portrait). However, many microfiche readers are not equipped to read A3 landscape frames.

Illustrations may be put onto fiche but great care should be taken in their preparation — in many cases photographs and drawings prepared for conventional publication are not clearly readable on microfiche. Drawings for fiche need to be planned as early as possible — as early as the planning of the main text and figures — and the final quality of the fiche illustrations must be as good as for the main text (include bar scales). Text for fiche should be produced in the same way as for typesetting (see 4.5–6 above). Hard copy should be produced on a good quality printer to give output which will reduce clearly.

5. Punctuation, spelling, grammar

5.1 Consistency is of paramount importance. Try to keep spellings, punctuation (especially of lists and catalogues), and bibliographical references consistent throughout. The layout of sections within individual chapters (e.g. feature descriptions by phase), and catalogues, should be standardised.

It is suggested that the past tense be used to describe features (which no longer exist) and the present tense for their interpretation. The present tense should also be employed for finds descriptions. Please ensure that tenses are not mixed.

5.2 Spelling: the Concise Oxford Dictionary should be followed. To re-iterate: the basic rule is consistency — where there are alternative ways of spelling a word be sure to use the same variant throughout. EAA preferred spellings include: artefact, medieval, datable and movable.

5.4 Plurals: remember that `data, media, strata’ and `criteria’ are plural and take plural verbs. `None’ is usually singular. `Number’ can take a singular or plural verb — when preceded by `a’ it usually takes a plural verb but when preceded by `the’ it is usually singular.

5.5 Hyphens: most reference works agree that hyphens should be dispensed with as far as possible. If in doubt, consult the Concise Oxford Dictionary and above all, be consistent throughout your report.

Hyphens may be used in adjectival compounds (e.g. green-glazed pottery, a 15th-century tile kiln). Note that red-brown denotes colour between red and brown, red/brown indicates patches of red and patches of brown. EAA preferences include: bath house cropmark earring earthwork fieldwork hillfort roundhouse hilltop layout metalwork metal detector placed deposit post-date post-hole pre-date ring-ditch right-angle round barrow sea level stake-hole stonework tree-ring water table

5.6 Capitals: initial capitals should be used very sparingly, even in headings and titles. The rule is to use them only to distinguish between specific and generic uses of a term. Period names are usually capitalised: Iron Age, Roman, the Middle Ages, the First World War — with the exception of medieval and post-medieval. If you are going to capitalise divisions within periods (early Bronze Age, late Saxon etc.), make sure that this is done consistently throughout the book. Although popular, it is rarely consistent in practice and would be better left out altogether. Capitals are used when individuals are referred to by title — King Edward, the Archbishop of Canterbury — but the king abdicated, the bishops wore mitres. North, south etc. are only capitalised when they form part of a place-name — South Africa, East Anglia.

If used within the text, capitals should distinguish between specific and generic instances of the following: period, phase, building, form, structure, plate, figure, table, site (County Site Numbers should be capitalised — Site 204). Capitals can also be used to distinguish specific pottery types from generic ones but again application needs to be consistent to be useful.

Examples include Grooved Ware, Collared Urn, Thetford Ware, Pingsdorf Ware, but note the following exceptions:

samian
colour-coated ware but Nene Valley Colour-Coated Ware
Black-Burnished Ware (of BB1 and BB2 specifically) otherwise black-burnished ware
early medieval wares (generic) Early Medieval Ware (specific)
Thetford-type ware (similarly for other -type wares)
Neolithic bowl pottery
coarse wares

5.7 Foreign words: Latin and other foreign words and abbreviations should only be used sparingly and they should be italicised. The following Latin words and abbreviations are acceptable:

ad hoc
a priori
cf.
circa = c.
e.g.
et al.
etc.
i.e.
in situ
inter alia
NB
per se
sic
sensu (lato) stricto
terminus post/ante quem
status quo

Translations of foreign quotes and inscriptions should be supplied in the text.

5.8 Abbreviations: should only be used where they are well-known and obvious.

Common abbreviations for EAA include Fig. Pl. and No. and all units of measurement, both metric and imperial. Length, width, height and thickness all require full stops: L., W., Ht., T. Abbreviations for units of measurement, and indeed most abbreviations, do not need full stops.

Saint(s) St or SS
circa c.
per cent %
9 degrees 9°
Ordnance Datum OD
Anno Domini AD
Before Christ BC

Where a specific reference is used repeatedly a suitable abbreviation may be substituted. The reference should be quoted in full the first time it occurs, with the abbreviation in brackets, which can be used thereafter, e.g. Nene Valley Grey Ware (NVGW). If there are many such abbreviations, a list should be provided in the preliminary pages (e.g. EAA report 45).

For abbreviated bibliographic references to journals etc. see 8.2.

5.9 Punctuation: special attention should be paid to punctuation of catalogue entries and bibliographical references — every attempt should be made to keep them consistent. Individual catalogue entries should be followed by a full stop but lists, captions and bibliographical entries need no final stop. One common problem is that paragraphs can be very long. This may not be noticeable in draft printout but when typeset it looks daunting for the reader.

En rules (–) rather than hyphens (-) should be used in number and date ranges (Figs 3–4, 1100–50). Em rules (—) be used in place of parentheses but be sure to employ the pair unless the clause forms the end of a sentence.

6. Numbers, measurements and dates

6.1 Numbers below 100 should be written out, e.g. `twenty-one potters made 209 pots in 246 days. Of these only ten pots had a diameter of less than 2.25cm’. Where juxtaposition produces an awkward effect one system could be applied.

6.2 Units of measurement should be given in figures. Measurements should normally appear in metric form; however, in the case of early work using imperial measurements, metric equivalents may be added in brackets. Properly speaking (British Standards, etc.) only metres and millimetres should be used but centimetres may also be used if more convenient. If vague sizes (or approximate metre equivalents) are to be represented then figures can be expressed as e.g. 3m or 2.8m rather than 3.07/2.84m.

Do not use (metric) decimals and (imperial) fractions with units expressed in another system, e.g. 2.5m; 2½ft; not 2½m; 2.5ft, (the only exception to this will be the expression of measurement levels above OD).

Building dimensions should be stated first in metres, e.g. 3m (9ft), but in any discussion of modules, etc., the dimensions can be given in feet alone.

Heights above Ordnance Datum should be expressed as e.g. 9.7m OD.

6.3 Radiocarbon dates: following current AM Lab practice, three things should be quoted: the calibrated date range, at 95% confidence using the maximum intercept method of Stuiver and Pearson (1986), the laboratory reference, and the radiocarbon age (BP).

For example: 3776–3390 BC (HAR–4638; 4800±70BP).

Stuiver, M. and Pearson, G., 1986 `High precision calibration of the radiocarbon time-scale AD 1950–500 BC’ Radiocarbon 28, 805–38

A list of radiocarbon dates from the site quoted in the text should be given in an appendix with all relevant detail about their context summarised in table form.

6.4 Dates: use AD and BC only where absolutely necessary. AD should precede the date, BC succeed it: 323 BC, AD 63. Dates should always appear in the forms: `7 March 1654′, `7 March’, `March 1642′

Centuries should be written as numbers and only hyphenated when adjectival, not when used as nouns: some 10th-century pottery, this church was built in the 10th century.

6.5 Compass points and grid references: abbreviated compass points may be used but these are perhaps best left to non-narrative parts of the text. Do not use N, NW, SSE, etc., at the beginning of sentences. Do not use `northern’, `northerly’ where `north’ will do. `North-to-south’ is preferable to `north-south’. Heights above Datum should be expressed in the form e.g. 2.4m OD (no full stops). Grid references should normally be eight figures: TL 3456 7890.

7. References and quotes

7.1 Reference should be made to all plates, figures and tables, in sequence, within the text. Your own should be capitalised (Fig. 4 and Pl. X) and where the reference appears in a sentence it should be in full `Figure 4, Nos 2–7, show that…’. References to material in other publications should be in lower case to avoid ambiguity (Tylecote 1971, fig.28, no. 10; pl.XI).

7.2 EAA uses the Harvard system of referencing, so bibliographical references in the text appear as (Jones 1962, 223–235) or (Pryor et al. 1980, 140–7) for more than two authors, with full details given in the bibliography. Where more than one reference is cited in the same instance, separate with a semi-colon. Where reference is made to works by different authors of the same name their initials should be included in text references, e.g. (Green, H.S., 1980; Green, F., 1982). Where reference is made to authors with more than one publication in a year, use the form (Bloggs 1984a; Bloggs 1984b etc).

7.3 The Latin terms passim, op. cit and ibid. should be avoided, as should vague page ranges e.g. (Jones 1962, 223ff).

7.4 When citing unpublished reports and other such grey literature always cite by author, including the date of production, and give any project or site names and codes, and the organisation responsible, in the bibliography.

7.5 For historical sources or institutional publications, use an abbreviated version in the text and provide a list of abbreviations or give full details in the bibliography. If large numbers of primary sources are cited, these may be grouped as a separate section of the bibliography. Unless archive references are particularly long and complicated (in which case they may be listed as endnotes), they should be listed in the bibliography.

7.6 Specific online sources should be cited in the text like other references e.g. (Warren 1997) and in the bibliography as shown below. When referring to a general online resource, service or web site, the URL should be given in angled brackets, e.g. `a research level archive will be made available for this project in due course through the Archaeology Data Service at <http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk>´.

7.7 Quotations should be within single inverted commas, quotes within quotes in double inverted commas, omissions to be marked by three full stops … additions within square brackets. Original spellings in quotes should be retained. Quotations longer than five lines should be indented and the quotation marks omitted.

8. Bibliography

8.1 Sample bibliographical references follow. Note the use of abbreviations, italics, punctuation.

Book
Bradley, R.J., 1978   The Prehistoric Settlement of Britain (London, Routledge and Kegan-Paul)
Edition
Colgrave, B., (ed.) 1956  Felix, Life of St Guthlac (London)
Cunliffe, B.W., 1991   Iron Age Communities in Britain (3rd edition, London)
Collected papers
Jacobi, R.M., 1981  `The last hunters in Hampshire’, in Shennan, S.J. and Schadla-Hall R.T. (eds), The Archaeology of Hampshire (Southampton, Hampshire Field Club)
Monograph
Mays, M.R., (ed.) 1992 Celtic Coinage: Britain and Beyond. Eleventh Oxford Symposium on Coinage and Monetary History, Brit. Archaeol. Rep. British Ser. 222 (Oxford)
Le Patourel, H.E.J., 1973 The Moated Sites of Yorkshire, Soc. Medieval. Archaeol. Monograph Ser. 7(London)
Note in serial publication
Margeson, S., 1982 `The artefacts’, in Atkin, M.W.,`29–31 St Benedict’s street’, in Carter, A. (ed.), Excavations in Norwich 1971–78, Part I, E. Anglian Archaeol. 15, 8–9
Hall, R.A., 1988 `York 700–1050′ in Hodges, R.A. and Hobley, B. (eds), The Rebirth of Towns in the West AD 700–1050, Counc. Brit. Archaeol. Res. Rep. 68, 69–82
Catalogue
Reineking-von-Bock,G.,1973 Steinzeug (Katalogue des Kunstgewerbemuseums, Koln, 4)
Thesis
Cobbler, D.A., 1972 Climatic effects on post-medieval agriculture (unpubl. D.Phil thesis Univ. Bristol)
Article in journal
Dunning, G.C., 1958 `Obscure graffiti on tiles’, Medieval Archaeol. 2, 16–21
Shennan, S.J., Healy, F. and Smith, I.F., 1985 `The excavation of a ring-ditch at Tye Field, Lawford, Essex’, Archaeol. J. 142, 177–201
Electronic source
Warren, G., 1997   `Seascapes: navigating the coastal Mesolithic of Western Scotland’,
assemblage 2. Available: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~assem/2/2war1.html
Accessed: 29 December 1999

8.2 Journals and monograph series should be abbreviated along the lines recommended in British Standard BS 4148: 1985/ISO 4-1984 and the CBA publication Signposts for archaeological publication (3rd edition, 1991, pp 59–70). Titles of foreign journals are not normally abbreviated as readers may not be familiar with them.

8.3 Use alphabetical suffixes to distinguish publications by the same author in the same year (Bloggs 1984a; Bloggs 1984b).

8.4 Pagination of the whole article should be given, not just the page(s) referred to.

8.5 Titles of books should normally be capitalised as published but those of papers, etc., can be reduced throughout (with the exception of proper nouns) to lower case. Author’s initials should be standardised. Volume numbers should be cited in Arabic numerals. The use of et al. should be confined to references in the text, with all authors cited in the bibliography. Put e.g. Kay de Brisay under `D’ not `B’, von den Dreisch under `V’.

9. Illustrations

9.1 EAA will expect report illustrations to be suitable for publication and meet professional standards.

9.2 Make sure that the sequence and content of your illustrations relates clearly to the text and that plans and sections are clearly keyed to explain their relationship. Each illustration should have a reference in the text.

9.3 Drawings should appear at a recognised scale wherever possible and they should show the appropriate grid points, north, and bar scales. Don’t forget to provide a key to drawing conventions. Aim for consistency in the use of frames, or not, around illustrations; the style of bar scale and north point.

9.4 Photographs (Plates) and line drawings (Figures) should be numbered sequentially throughout the report in arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4). In the longer reports, illustrations may be numbered sequentially by chapter (3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 etc).

9.5 Presentation of material: we can accept most forms of illustrative material: hard copy in the form of original line drawings, bromides, photographic prints and film, or digital copy in the form of scanned or computer-generated illustrations. We are less concerned with its derivation than whether the material is of publication quality and supplied in a form that handles well at print stage. When supplying digital copy, please refer (or ask your illustrator to refer) to the technical guidelines below.

Hard copy
We prefer to receive line drawings reduced to publication scale but we will accept original artwork for reduction if necessary. In this case make sure that originals are marked up for reduction (‘reduce TO 50%’), and that lettering and detail on the drawing will remain clear when reduced to publication scale. Remember that originals of A1 size or larger cost a lot to reduce, whereas A2 and A3 drawings are cheaper. It is helpful if photographic prints are submitted at publication scale. Remember that artefacts photographed in close-up should be provided with a bar scale.

Digital copy
If you provide digital file material, remember that it will be reproduced in black and white unless colour is specifically intended or it is destined for electronic release. Please submit raster images as uncompressed TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) files and vector graphics as EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) or CDR (CorelDraw). From Adobe Illustrator CS1 or later versions, export graphics as legacy EPS with text as outlines. If you need to submit in a different format, contact us in advance to discuss. The resolution at which bitmap artwork must be scanned and resampled will vary according to content.

  • Photographic plates which are supplied digitally, either via scanning or captured using a digital camera, must be of sufficient quality to allow reproduction on the page at a minimum resolution of 300dpi (or 600dpi for detail subjects such as artefacts) without interpolation. A photograph intended to span the full printable width of an EAA page must be at least 1980 pixels wide for printing at 300dpi, or 3960 pixels wide at 600dpi. For images intended to fit a column width, the corresponding values are 945 pixels and 1890 pixels respectively. Ensure that all scans or digital photographs intended for publication are sharp, have a full contrast range, and are not marred by blurring or ‘artefacts’ resulting from JPEG compression. If in doubt, check with the managing editor before submitting.
  • Maps, plans and other line art, if supplied in TIFF format, must be sharp and at a resolution of at least 600dpi.

Digitally-generated illustrations must be fit for purpose, with regard both to design and technical specification. Be aware of the following issues when preparing digital artwork for submission, and contact the managing editor for advice if necessary.

  • Colour management. All monochrome digital image files must be in 1-bit (black-and-white) or 8-bit (greyscale) modes. All colour illustrations must be 32-bit (CMYK). Preview the colour separations on your finished artwork to check this, as rectification later can be costly and serious printing errors can result. Lines and tone on what appear to be ‘monochrome’ images generated in Autocad, MapInfo, Word or Excel are often in fact in RGB colour — please ensure that they really are supplied in black-and-white or greyscale mode. When using an illustration package, ‘preflight’ your drawing to check for incorrect colour models or unwanted spot colours.
  • Line thickness. Lines thinner than 0.1mm may not print well; fine lines in light greys may be more clearly visible on a monitor than on paper. Images that originate in Autocad, in particular, often include extremely fine lines which are visible on screen but break or vanish entirely when printed. If using dedicated illustration software, make use of any preflight procedure to check for line strength issues.
  • Fonts and symbols. Be aware of the danger of font errors when applying type and symbols on vector illustrations. A font which our software cannot match may be automatically replaced with another, perhaps with subtle yet embarrassing consequences! This can be prevented by saving the final versions of vector graphic files with all text converted to outlines (Illustrator) or curves (CorelDraw) — this converts each letter or glyph into an independent vector object that does not depend upon external font files.
  • Autocad and MapInfo. Many graphics are created for archaeological publication using technical packages such as Autocad and MapInfo that do not feature high-level illustration or graphic design tools. Take care to ensure that the resulting images are fit for purpose with regard to colour management, type/fonts and line width/weight, as set out above. Best results are often obtained when drawings are imported to an illustration package such as Illustrator or CorelDraw for labelling, finishing and preflight. If you must output final artwork files direct from a CAD or GIS package do so in TIFF rather than EPS format, since lettering generated by the latter process is often of poor quality.
  • Microsoft Office. Charts and other graphics generated in Word or Excel can pose severe technical problems at prepress, and are sometimes poorly designed. If possible please supply them as checked and preflighted TIFF or EPS files, rather than in native Word/Excel format — have them reviewed and overhauled by an illustrator if necessary. Ensure that all lettering is legible and applied with due care, that tone or hatching will reproduce clearly at the scale of reproduction intended.

9.6 The maximum page-area available for illustrations (including captions) is 168x255mm. Allow 10mm of this area for a one line caption, 15mm for a two line caption.

9.7 Outsize illustrations can be accommodated on foldout pages but this is an expensive option and should be restricted to major plans and sections only.

9.8 Colour graphics can be accommodated but remember that print costs increase by about £40 per colour page. If you feel the use of full colour is essential within the book, you’ll need to convince the editorial committee by presenting your case in the synopsis and creating digital graphics which exploit colour well. One full colour picture will appear on the cover, and if there is an electronic component to the book this may be the best place to include full colour images.

9.9 Captions: don’t forget to provide Figure, Table and Plate captions with the draft text, and include the publication scale for each line drawing. Lengthy descriptions, copyright details, credits and photo reference numbers will appear in the captions (not the lists).

9.10 Credit: where illustrators or photographers have made a substantial contribution to the report, they should be acknowledged on the Title page together with other contributors. Otherwise, they should be credited in Acknowledgements. It is the author’s responsibility to see that illustrations are correctly acknowledged and credited.

9.11 Copyright permission may be needed for photographs, aerial photographs and Ordnance Survey maps and it is the responsiblity of the author to check that copyright regulations are not infringed. Usually short quotations from published academic works do not require copyright permission, provided that the source is correctly cited. Extracts from more commercial publications like novels do need permission.

9.12 Numbering of illustrated artefacts: illustrated finds should be numbered either in a single consecutive sequence for all materials, or in separate sequences by category; e.g. stone, iron, etc. It is helpful if the numbers appearing on the illustrations are the same as those of the catalogue.

9.13 Cover: EAA reports have full-colour covers incorporating a suitable image. While we like to respect the author’s preference with regard to cover design and wording of title, the final decision in such matters rests with the editorial committee.

10. Distribution of Notes for Authors

Principal authors are asked to make sure that other contributors see these notes.

11. Feedback

If you have any comments on these notes, contact the managing editor.