Submissions

The editorial board seeks to ensure that the form and scale of publication is commensurate with the significance of results, as recommended by the Council for British Archaeology in their publication user needs survey From the Ground Up and by Historic England. Authors should consider the range of outlets available, from accessible archive to journal article to detailed fieldwork monograph, and choose the most suitable.

The editorial board calls for the preparation and submission by authors of a publication proposal for any potential report, in line with the recommendations of Historic England MoRPHE Project Planning Note 3 Archaeological Excavation.

The purpose of the synopsis is to provide the board with enough information about a report to allow it to

  • consider whether the proposed publication is commensurate with the significance of the results
  • approve publication in EAA
  • consider the structure and content of the report and whether it is suitably illustrated, and suggest any alterations
  • advise on questions such as level of detail, the use of electronic media, etc.

Once a synopsis has been approved by the editorial board, a provisional submission date for the draft report and an estimate of publication costs will be agreed with the managing editor. Reports should be drafted with reference to Notes for Authors.

EAA is not a commercial publisher and holds no funds centrally for the series. Originating bodies are the main publishers, jointly with EAA. Originators are responsible for meeting publication costs; they hold the balance of stock and receive sales revenue for each of their titles. The ISBN for each report refers to the main publisher.

Historic England-funded or part-funded reports require approval of grant claims prior to printing. Historic England (HE) grant claims are compiled and submitted by the managing editor, on behalf of the main publisher.

Privately-funded or developer-funded projects likely to be suitable for publication in EAA should build publication costs into post-excavation budgets. Contact the publisher and the managing editor for guidance.

It is recommended that additional money (perhaps up to a month’s salary for the author) is built in to project estimates, to allow for the incorporation of late specialist reports and to accommodate changes to text and artwork following readers’ comments.

In the case of projects for which the author has no publication funding (usually personal research), the author should make every effort before submitting the report to obtain special research/ publication grants, since this is not normally a function of the editorial board. However, further advice can be sought from the editorial board.

A complete 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. HE-funded reports are also refereed by an EAA editor and should therefore be submitted to HE and EAA at the same time.

Before you hand over your draft report, be sure to include the following:

  • List of Contents, which should reflect the heading hierarchy within the text.
  • Lists of Plates, Figures and Tables numbered in the order they will appear in the text, with detail and copyright acknowledgements in captions.
  • List of Contributors, including affiliations and contact details.
    Acknowledgements for the whole report, amalgamated into one section for the preliminary pages.
  • A brief summary (200–400 words) describing the scope of the report and the main conclusions. This will be translated into French and German (the managing editor will arrange this) and it will also appear on the web site to publicise the book.