Guidance for authors
Historical Metallurgy welcomes papers on archaeological, historical and technical subjects related to all aspects of metallurgy and the use of metals. It is a platinum open access journal, i.e. papers will be published without fees for the authors and the online version is published open access without access restrictions.
The total length of papers, including references, should normally be under 8000 words (around 40,000 characters without spaces). Papers should not have been published or under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or substantial part. Enquiries as to the suitability of papers may be made via email to the Editor-in-Chief or the Managing Editor.
Editorial procedure
Submissions are made using the button above. Receipt of contributions will be acknowledged as soon as possible. All contributions will be sent to referees, whose identity will not be divulged unless they have suggested otherwise. Drafts of articles will be returned to authors if referees’ or editors’ comments show that revision would be advantageous. The editors reserve the right to reject material without entering into further correspondence.
Authors will be sent an edited version of their paper to check but proofs will normally be checked by the editors. No additional material can be included at the proof stage.
Authors will get notified via mail as soon as their paper is published online.
Formatting
Final texts, references and figure captions should be written in 12 pt Times New Roman and submitted in the form of Word (*.docx format) or RTF files. Use of style templates for e.g. headings is encouraged but no individual styling other than outlined below must be used. Main headings should be bold and sub-headings italic; neither are numbered. Footnotes or endnotes are not permitted. Note that figures and tables must not be embedded in text files; please submit them as individual files (see below for formats). Captions should be listed at the end of the text.
An Abstract not exceeding 150 words (about 750 characters without space) and up to 7 Keywords must be supplied. Keywords won’t be included in the printed version but will help to make the online version of your article visible to search engines. All authors must also supply their affiliation, a brief biographical note and an email address as well as their ORCID reference number, if they have one. The corresponding author must be indicated.
Text formatting
Measurements should be metric SI units unless there is some historical significance in imperial or archaic units; if these are used, metric equivalents should be added in brackets unless this proves unduly repetitive.
References
Historical Metallurgy uses the style “American Psychological Association 6th edition ("doi:" DOI prefix)”, which is available for all reference managers and through the Zotero Style repository. A text reference (Smith, 1980, 139) is supported by an entry in a bibliography printed at the end of the article. If available, DOIs or other persistent identifiers should be included in the bibliographic entry. The form to be used is:
- Articles: Smith, A. (1980). Title of article, Journal Title. 15, 120–147. doi: 10.1234/abc.567890
- Books: Smith, B. (1980). Book title. New York: Random Press.
- Edited volumes: Smith, C. (1980). Title of contribution. In Smith, D. (Ed.) Collection title (2nd edition, pp. 127–144). New York: Random Press (A Series 42). doi: 10.1234/abc.567892
- Internet resource: Smith, D. (2015). Title of blog post. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from: https://www.example.com.
- Thesis: Smith, E. (1980). Title of thesis (PhD thesis, Random University).
- Dataset: Smith, F. (2015). Title of dataset. Repository. doi: 10.1234/abc.567891
- Software: Smith, G. (2015) Title of software: version 0.5. Repository. doi: 10.1234/abc.567892
References to archive sources also use the Harvard system, but in-text references are abbreviated in a form indicated in the list of sources included at the top of the bibliography.
Text
The spellings in the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English should be used wherever possible. Hyphens should be used where two words are used adjectivally, e.g.: scythe-forging hammer. Compass points should be abbreviated, as NW or SSE, unless used to begin a sentence, when they should be written out in full, with hyphens as appropriate: The North West or Northwestern islands. Capitals should be used to indicate proper names, including geological names, e.g.: Coal Measures, and titles: Dr or Sir. Elsewhere capitals should be used as sparingly as possible, e.g.: North America but the northern part of Yorkshire; river Avon.
Italics should be used for technical terms and specialised names in languages other than English, including abbreviations such as e.g., i.e., et al. Quotations should be enclosed in single quotation marks; quotations within quotations should be placed in double quotation marks. Omissions from quotations should be marked by an ellipsis (three stops) … Additions to a quotation should be enclosed in square brackets.
Numbers and dates
All specific numbers should be indicated by figures, e.g.: 40 mm and 10 °C. Other numbers up to ten should be denoted by words, e.g.: four kilns, but 22 crucibles, except where a close juxtaposition of the two methods would create a jarring effect. Words rather than figures should be used at the start of a sentence. Percentages should be written as 77 % or 2.45 wt%. Financial amounts should be written as £ 1,125 8 s 10 d or, if post-decimalization in the UK, as £ 1,125.44. Dates should normally appear in the form 22 March 1641, 22 March, and March 1641. Periods of time should be expressed as: in the 17th century, during the early 18th century, and on a mid-17th-century map.
References to text figures should be placed in brackets (Fig. 4). Figure should be written out in full where it occurs within the text: Figure 4 shows that...
Editors are available to help with the English. The use of AI-supported tools is encouraged to improve the English but must be acknowledged in the author declarations (see below). This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc.
Illustrations and tables
Drawings, graphs and photographs should be numbered in a continuous series as figures. All illustrations must be referenced in the paper. It is important that the size and proportions of the journal page are borne in mind when preparing illustrations. The print area is 246 mm deep; a single column is 85 mm wide and the total print width is 180 mm. All illustrations will be reproduced at single-column width unless there is a good reason for a larger size. Images will normally be reproduced in colour unless they are supplied in black and white or grey scale.
It is important that lettering should be of high quality, preferably in Arial or similar sans serif font, and should be legible at the final printed size. All maps and drawings should include scales. North points and scales must appear on maps. All graphs should have a white background, and 2-D formats must be used except where a 3-D format conveys additional information. Ensure multiple shadings used on graphs etc are clearly different, even to colour blind readers. Online tools are available to check if a figure is colour blind-friendly (e.g. https://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/). Any sub-standard images will be returned to authors for correction.
Photomicrographs should be of high quality and contrast. All should include a scale, or the caption should include the size of the object or image width, rather than its magnification.
Continuous tone figures such as photographs should be submitted in tiff, png, or pdf format with a resolution of at least 300 dpi. This corresponds to a minimal image width of 1000 pixel for an 85 mm wide image and 2125 pixels for a 180 mm wide image. Images in a lower resolution or other file format are acceptable if unavoidable (e.g. because the original photograph is in jpg format). Line drawings should be submitted in svg, eps or pdf format with fonts embedded. If this is not possible, files in tiff or png format with a resolution of at least 1200 dpi should be supplied.
Both large and small tables may be submitted as Excel spreadsheets (*.xlsx format), comma-separated values (*.csv format) or as tables in Word. Formatting should be kept to an absolute minimum. Explanatory notes are set below the table and not included in its caption.
Supporting Information
Historical Metallurgy accepts supplementary files (e.g. data sheet, additional images, movies, audio) that will be published online alongside the paper to strengthen or enhance its content. They can include e.g. datasets or image collections too large to be printed or non-printable files. Supporting information, particularly datasets, should be accompanied by a document describing them.
Preferably, such files and data are published in a repository as data publication and this is cited in the text. The editors are prepared to assist authors requiring guidance in choosing a suitable repository and preparing the data publication.
Author’s Declarations
The author must include the following statements in their manuscript before the reference list:
- Data availability: The location of the data discussed in the paper and under which conditions it can be accessed. Where applicable, this should also include specialised software and code/scripts used in the research process.
- Funding: Any funding source for the presented research should be stated here. The statement should include the name of the funding agency, the grant number, and any other information requested by the funding agency.
- Competing interest: If the author or any of the co-author has financial or non-financial interest directly related to the paper, this should be indicated here.
If applicable, the following statements must be additionally included:
- Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process: Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process with the following statement:
During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.
In addition, the following declarations may be included:
- Author contribution: The contribution of each single author to the paper and the featured research should be stated here. Preferably, this information is provided according to the CRediT system.
