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Getting Published
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GETTING PUBLISHED |
Graduate students should consider getting a paper or a book review published. Publishing your own academic writing is critical to your advancement in the archaeological profession. Indeed, practicing archaeologists have a responsibility to publish the results of their fieldwork and collections studies. Meanwhile, writing is a rewarding challenge. It lets other archaeologists learn about your ideas and the datasets you have studied. Peer reviews of your papers will help you greatly in strengthening your arguments and in growing as an archaeologist.
Archaeological writing is almost always reviewed by other archaeologists before it is published or otherwise approved, and reviews are done anonymously unless reviewers themselves choose to attach their name to their review comments. You may recommend reviewers for a paper you have written when you send it to the editor of a journal or book. You should give review comments careful consideration inasmuch as they are constructive criticism. Papers are sometimes accepted after one round of reviews but many authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit, or to consider submitting their papers to other journals deemed more appropriate for their material and topic.
Ask for guidance from your teachers about how to get your archaeological writing published, because other archaeologists want to read about what ideas you have and what archaeological datasets you have studied. Writing is a rewarding challenge, and it is a fundamental aspect of doing archaeology, as are fieldwork and the study of artifacts and ecofacts. The following are some tips to help students get started on their first publication projects.
Write book reviews. Write to book reviews editors of archaeology journals to introduce yourself and your archaeological interests, and ask to be placed on the list of potential book reviewers.
Give conference papers and posters about your fieldwork and research projects. Take these opportunities to explore ideas and to look for meaningful patterns in archaeological datasets you are studying as a grad student, and revise your arguments as a journal article or series of articles that you can submit to archaeology journals.
Revise and publish your master's thesis or your college honor's thesis as a journal article. The Journal of Alabama Archaeology, Mississippi Archaeology, Early Georgia, North Carolina Archaeology, Illinois Archaeology, Southeastern Archaeology, and other journals have recently published excellent studies that were originally done as college honors theses and MA theses.
Write journal articles based on your fieldwork and artifact studies in cultural resource management programs. The Journal of Alabama Archaeology, Mississippi Archaeology, Early Georgia, Tennessee Anthropologist, Florida Anthropologist, North Carolina Archaeology, Illinois Archaeology, Southeastern Archaeology, American Antiquity, Historical Archaeology, and other journals have recently published papers that are creative and insightful studies of archaeological datasets gathered during CRM projects.
Write your dissertation as a book. It is valuable to share your empirical findings and theoretical insights with other archaeologists. Strive to make your dissertation a project worthy of being published and read as a book.
Write your dissertation as a series of articles. Many grad students in other disciplines write each dissertation chapter as a publishable journal article. Journals have a wide readership and look very favorable on your resume.
There is more to getting your archaeological writing published than the creative process itself. Yes, the most significant components of any written piece are its empirical grounding, its theoretical soundness, and its broader appeal to archaeologists. However, getting published also demands that you stick to strenuous deadlines for submitting revised manuscripts, page proofs, and well-polished and carefully-edited tables and figures. Write. Publish. And make room within your archaeological commitments to get it done.
This page was originally compiled by Chris Rodning, but thanks to Vin Steponaitis and Stephen Williams for their contributions.
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