 |
 |
Hello, Here's the tuppence worth of a Southeast Asian archaeologist/archaeometallurgist: - Scope: I recognise some of the concerns I have read about on this thread, but in my (still limited) experience, HMS has been completely open-minded as to subject matter and indeed was the ideal venue for a paper I have in press on 8th century iron production in Laos; hardly the British Midlands, and I'd like to see how long someone would last in full tweeds there! In the Lao paper, I was not especially focussing on the iron smelting per se, but rather the evidence for past economy and social organisation that metallurgy can provide for populations that have generally very low archaeological visibilty (think monsoons and most material culture being made out of plant material). The paper was declined by a couple of citation-indexed regional archaeological journals on the basis of being too 'technical' but HMS, following a very useful review process, saw fit to accept. It seems to me that there is no particular problem of scope for the journal, but rather, as others have noted, citation recognition etc. - Online only?: It may be a generational issue, but I read all my articles in PDF form - I don't think I've darkened the University of Oxford's library door more than once or twice in three years. I'm not sure of the balance between high quality page production and printing costs, but I personally would be totally happy with an online only HMS journal, which people can print in colour if they so chose. - Subscription costs: I appreciate that there may be some exceptional cases, but I'm an overseas subscriber and £20 is really very good value. The student subscription is an absolute bargain and I encourage all my students to sign up. As far as I know all of them pay for it themselves - it being the equivalent of about 1.5 pints in London... - Access to literature: Not an HMS issue directly, but in response to Trevor Dunkerley's remark; I am sure that if those without institutional access to literature were to send the occasional request for a PDF download to the archmetals list they'd be sure to get a favourable response for personal academic use. Tuppence spent, Oli Pryce On 20 June 2012 18:05, Elin Figueiredo <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Dear all, > > I have recently signed up to this list and will make my first contribution > since I fully recognize some of my concerns in this topic brought up by > Marianne. > Unfortunately many of us are in part evaluated regarding the published > work in international peer reviewed journals with citation index. This is > true not only for many of those which hold “stable” career/contracts in > national institutions/universities, but also for students (as PhD) and > other grant holders (such as Post-Doc, as me currently) which rely on > grants and fellowships, which are also awarded regarding this item. > Personally, although I have been able to publish some of my works in > different international journals with citation index (such as JAS, > Microchimica Acta, X-ray Spectrometry, Applied Radiation and Isotopes, > among some others) in some occasions I have had difficulty in finding a > journal. Early this year, regarding a submitted paper, I got the following > answer of the editorial board that (I think) clearly meets Marianne’s > concern: > > “I have reviewed the subject matter of your manuscript and regret that it > is outside the scope of this journal. > I do understand the difficulty in selecting a journal for your area of > study, but unfortunately we do not have the expertise within our editorial > board to review your work. I trust you will find another journal able to > provide the service and review you need.” > > (By the matter, this was a fast answer, a day after submitting the paper) > > Thus, and giving the increase in archaeometallurgical studies that are > being performed a bit all over the globe, I think that the idea of putting > up (or upgrade?) a dedicated international peer reviewed journal with > citation index dealing mainly/only with archaeometallurgical issues is very > good and meets current (and future?) needs. > > > Best regards, > Elin Figueiredo > > Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear > Instituto Superior Técnico > Universidade Técnica de Lisboa > Estrada Nacional 10 > 2686-953 Sacavém > Portugal > > > ________________________________________ > De: Arch-Metals Group [[log in to unmask]] em nome de Marianne > Moedlinger [[log in to unmask]] > Enviado: terça-feira, 19 de Junho de 2012 21:44 > Para: [log in to unmask] > Assunto: Re: Archaeometallurgy Journals > > Dear David, Tim and Paolo, > > I did not expect such detailed discussions, suggestions and care for and > about HM when I send my last email ‘just’ looking for an adequate journal > to publish – this is great! > > Let’s all take the 50th anniversary as a good chance to realise them. > Please let us know, how we might help! > > Nevertheless in general, as Paolo pointed out already before, there might > be even contributions enough for a third journal dealing mainly/only with > archaeometallurgy? Especially when thinking of a lot of brilliant > archaeometallurgical studies published in small, not so widely distributed > or local journals or in conference proceedings only… What do you think?! > > All the best, > Marianne > > > > On Di, 19.06.2012, 17:00, Tim Young wrote: > > Paolo > > > > Thank you for your suggestions. Consider your ideas submitted... > > > > Tim > -- Thomas Oliver Pryce PhD AIfA Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art Dyson Perrins Building South Parks Road University of Oxford Oxford OX1 3QY UK Telephone: +44 1865 285222 Websites: http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/rlaha.html and http://www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk/ Personal website: https://sites.google.com/site/thomasoliverpryce/