Submissions

Author Guidelines

Submission Guidelines for Journal of Archaeology and Education  (Revised July 30, 2026)

1. Papers should be submitted online at Maine Open Journals through the “Submit Article” link. Texts should be submitted as MS Word documents. Documents should be typed with 1.5 line spacing (preferably using Arial 12 pt font), and should contain all figures, tables, or plates. Tables, plates, and figures, with captions, should be placed after the reference list. For the review process, all figures or/and plates should be of low resolution to keep the final file at reasonable size.

2. Before making a submission, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any material included with the submission, such as photos, documents and datasets. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author.

3. Figures, plates, and tables should be submitted at full resolution only after the review process is completed and the paper is accepted, and then in separate files (e.g. Fig1.jpg or Fig1.tif, Tab1.doc or Tab1.xls). For long tables MS Excel should preferably be used (e.g. Tab1.xls). Figures may be black and white or color and should be at minimum 300 dpi, scanned at a minimum of 5x7 inches, saved as a tif or jpg file). We cannot use low-resolution scans.

4. Submission of a paper will be taken to imply that it is unpublished and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

5. Papers should preferably be written in English. Authors using a language other than their own are requested to have their manuscripts checked for fluency and readability before submission. Dates should be in the form “February 5, 1975,” distances as 200 m (not 200m).

6. When preparing a manuscript, minimize the use of formatting in MS Word. Do not use spaces to create indents or other formatting features. If your manuscript includes notes, please use endnotes rather than footnotes. Follow these other conventions:

Use left justification, not full justification.

Begin all paragraphs with a single tab or ruler indent and end them with a hard return.

Do not add extra lines between paragraphs.

Do not use hard returns at the end of each line.

Subheadings within articles should be formatted consistently. Levels should be distinct from each other. For example, first level: bold, centered; second level: italics, flush left.

7. Authors are encouraged to generally follow the American Antiquity style guide, available online. Papers should be headed by a title, the full name(s), business address(es) and e-mail address(es) of the author(s), plus full details of posts held by the author(s) if appropriate. If a paper has more than one author, the name of the person to whom correspondence and proofs should be sent must be followed by *.

The abstract should be short (less than 300 words) and should summarize the contents of the paper. Authors should provide five keywords after the abstract. Article titles/subtitles and subheadings should use sentence case format, which means only the first word and proper nouns should be capitalized. See recent issues for examples.

8. Each paper will be subject to double blind editorial review by two or more referees. The Editorial Staff reserves the right to refuse any manuscript submitted, whether by invitation or otherwise, and to make suggestions and modifications before publication. Submitted papers should be in a final form ready for publication. Make sure figures are of good quality. Correction to proofs should be restricted to printing and editorial errors only. Other than these changes, the cost of very substantial alterations may be charged to the author(s).

9. Bibliographical references should be listed in alphabetical and chronological order at the end of the paper. Authors are asked to follow the Chicago Manual of Style (16^th edition) for style and arrangement of bibliographic entries. Use the hanging indent feature in MS Word to format the bibliography. Do not insert tabs, hard returns, or spaces to achieve a hanging indent.

10. References should be cited in the text in parentheses, e.g. “(Jones 1961)” except when the author’s name is part of the sentence, e.g. “Jones (1961) has shown that….” When reference is made more than once to the same author and year, a, b, c, etc. should be added to the date in the text and in the reference list. For two authors, cite in this form: (Palmer & Palmer 2000a). For more than two authors, cite in the form (Klimchouk et al. 1995). Multiple citations are listed in chronological order and separated by “;” e.g., (White et al. 1988; Palmer 2001).

11. After the review process is completed and the paper is accepted, each table should be supplied in a separate file. Tables should be numbered using Arabic numerals, e.g. “Table 1,” etc. Should a table not be an original, a full reference to its previous publication should be quoted. Tables should be supplied with appropriate captions, and kept as simple as possible.

12. After the review process is completed and the paper is accepted, figures should be supplied in separate files. Figures should be numbered using Arabic numerals, e.g. “Fig. 1,” etc. and must be cited in the text close to where they are intended to be placed. Graphs and diagrams should be suitable for a reduction to the journal format. Figures and photographs should be supplied with appropriate captions, and kept as simple as possible. Please use the same font size when generating your figures or plates.

13. The articles published in Journal of Archaeology and Education are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, wherein the author retains copyright. After publication, authors have the right to post pre-print or post-print versions of their article online, including on their personal, departmental, or institutional repository pages.

All human subjects research results published by the Journal of Archaeology and Education (JAE) must be approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or an equivalent entity in the author's country. The purpose of IRB review is to assure, both in advance and by periodic review, that appropriate steps are taken to protect the rights and welfare of people participating as subjects in your research. If you do not have an IRB affiliated with your organization, you must find a suitable IRB at a qualified university or other institution. Most universities have IRBs that will accept applications from outside their institution. Authors, especially those without an academic affiliation, could use an independent IRB, which is subject to the same federal regulations as universities. There may be fees associated with university and independent IRB reviews. The IRB protocol number assigned by your IRB must be included in the article. Manuscripts without IRB approval will not be considered for publication in JAE.

14. The Editor may reject a submission if it does not meet minimum standards of quality, does not represent original research, does not conform to the style outlined here, or is outside the scope of the journal.

15. Open Access Policy for Users. The Journal of Archaeology and Education is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author for non-commercial purposes. Nonetheless, reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein requires credit to the original publication source with a link to both the article and the license.

16. Attribution and Usage Policies. Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted or by written agreement requires appropriate credit to the original publication source with a link to both the article and the Creative Commons License.

17. The Editor and the Publisher of the Journal of Archaeology and Education are not responsible for the content or other statements provided by the authors of accepted papers.

18. General Terms and Conditions of Use. Users of the Open Maine Journals website and/or software agree not to misuse the Open Maine Journals service or software in any way. The failure of Open Maine Journals to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between Open Maine Journals and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.