Archives and Manuscripts is a professional and scholarly journal, publishing articles, reviews and information about the theory and practice of archives and recordkeeping. Its target audience is professional archivists, recordkeepers, and the academic community (educators, researchers and students).
Archives and Manuscripts appears twice yearly, in May and November. Editorial deadlines are 15 January and 15 July respectively. It is indexed by Australian Public Affairs Information Services, Library and Information Science Abstracts and Historical Abstracts, and is included on the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training Register of Refereed Journals.
Archives and Manuscripts is a refereed journal. The assessment of articles is overseen by an expert Editorial Board with broad representation of the archival profession:
Articles about the theory and practice of archives work, or relating to archives and records-related issues, likely to be of interest to the archival profession in Australia (including students, educators and non-professional staff in related areas) are welcome. Case studies about particular projects or institutions which can be related to more general application are also encouraged. We will not normally accept articles on historical topics which use archives as primary sources or articles previously published in, or concurrently submitted to, other journals. We may accept articles based on oral presentations at conferences and forums. Intending authors should contact the Managing Editor at managingeditor@archivists.org.au to indicate that they plan to submit articles.
Articles submitted for publication in Archives and Manuscripts will be refereed by two experts and returned to authors with a recommendation to accept, accept with editing or revision, revise and resubmit, or reject. Where articles are accepted or accepted with editing or revision, an indicative timetable is:
May issue: January - submission, February - referee comments and revision, March - editing, April - layout, May - printing.
November issue: July - submission, August - referee comments and revision, September - editing, October - layout, November - printing.
If articles require revision and resubmission to referees they may not be able to meet this timeframe, and may need to be held over to the next issue. An article may be rejected on the grounds that it does not meet the intended scope of the journal (as outlined above), that it does not add significantly to the discussion of the topic, that the author does not wish to revise it on the advice of referees, or on legal grounds, such as defamation or plagiarism. Articles may be held over to a later issue if the next issue addresses a particular theme or if there is insufficient space.
Articles should be between 3,000 and 5,000 words; those over 5,000 words may need to be edited down or split over issues. Articles should be submitted with an abstract of about 100 words and a short biographical note referring to the author's current position and relevant past experience, qualifications and publications. Electronic submission is preferred.
Copyright in articles published in Archives and Manuscripts is vested in the Australian Society of Archivists Inc. Authors are permitted to reprint their articles elsewhere after publication, on condition that prior publication in Archives and Manuscripts is acknowledged.
Authors should refer to the Macquarie Dictionary for spelling and to the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, 6th edition, published by John Wiley & Sons, for matters of textual style. In particular, attention should be paid to the presentation of endnotes, rather than footnotes or Harvard author - date references, in the following style:
Books: Ann Pederson (ed.), Keeping Archives,Australian Society of Archivists Inc., Sydney, 1987.
Articles: PJ Scott and G Finlay, 'Archives and Administrative Change: Some Methods and Approaches (Part 1)', Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 7, no. 3, August 1978, pp. 115 - 27.
Internet: National Archives of Australia, 'Commonwealth Recordkeeping', at www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping.
Subsequent references to the same source should be abbreviated, in preference to using the terms op. cit. or loc. cit., as in:
Scott and Finlay, p. 120.
The academic convention of 'ibid., p. 120.' may be used where the second reference is immediately below the first. Endnotes should be indicated in text by superscript arabic numerals at the end of the relevant sentence (after all punctuation marks).
Substantial quotations should be indented from the text without quotation marks. Shorter quotations within text should be indicated by single quotation marks. Abbreviations and acronyms should be expanded when first used.
Illustrations are welcome - contact prints or high-resolution digital images in TIF format are preferred. Images should be captioned and their source acknowledged.
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