Guide to authors
The Journal of Anthropological Sciences (JASs) publishes reviews, original papers and notes concerning human paleontology, prehistory, biology and genetics of extinct and extant populations. Particular attention is paid to the significance of Anthropology as an interdisciplinary field of research. Only papers in English can be considered for publication. All contributions are revised by the editorial board together with the panel of referees.
Types of contributions
updated April 9, 2021
Invited Reviews
Periodically the editorial board invites a number of specialists to write a review on arguments of general interest to the anthropological audience. Apart from describing the state of the art, the authors may present critical comments and personal points of view. The distinctive feature of the Invited Reviews is in the attention the authors pay to the way in which other disciplines may help solve open problems as well as to the usefulness of notions, approaches, and methodologies discussed in the paper for other fields of research.
The writing style and use of explanatory figures should make the contents accessible to a wide audience ranging from specialists to graduate and PhD students. The length should not exceed 20,000 words (text and abstract) with no more than 6 figures and 6 tables.
Historical Corner
This section is devoted to presenting studies of the history of Anthropology, which are usually invited [see Destro Bisol G, Paine B (2011), 89:7-8 ]. The same rules of Invited Reviews apply to these contributions.
Research Articles
The JASs welcomes original reports of scientific research or commentaries concerning all fields of Evolutionary Anthropology. The length should not exceed 10,000 words (text, abstract, and references), with 4 figures and 4 tables.
Correspondence & Notes
This section is devoted to:
· concise presentations of research work;
· comments and clarifications concerning works previously presented in the JASs.
· points of view on open problems for research, teaching, and scientific policy of Anthropology.
All these contributions are neither subdivided into sections or require an abstract. Their maximum length is 1500 words for the text, with no more than 2 figures or tables and 10 references.
JASs forum
Periodically the JASs editorial board chooses an interdisciplinary subject of topical interest and invites one or more specialists to write a commentary. We encourage colleagues to submit their comments on the forum and guarantee quick refereeing by the Editorial Board. Please note that all contributions to the JASs forum will be put both online and published in the printed version. The length should not exceed 1500 words of text (with no abstract) with no more than 10 references.
Manuscript submission & preparation
Complete format-free PDF files with tables and figures can be used for initial submission and review (with supplementary material in a separate file). Presubmission inquiries can be sent to isita@isita-org.com.
Authors are requested to suggest possible reviewers (up to four), provided they do not have a conflict of interest with any of the co-authors.
Finally accepted manuscripts must be arranged in a single file as follows:
· title of the article;
· names and surnames of the authors; e-mail address should be provided only for the corresponding author;
· full address of all the authors (institution/s and address/es);
· e-mail address of the corresponding author/s;
· summary (no more than 300 words; not needed for Correspondence and Notes and the JASs forum), to be arranged as a single paragraph;
· 4-6 keywords;
· a short heading of no more than 40 characters including spaces;
· text of the article, subdivided in paragraphs (bold) and, if necessary, subparagraphs (italics);
· acknowledgements, in italics, including dedication and financial support;
· references (see below for style);
· tables;
· figures;
· legends to the figures.
Footnotes are not accepted.
References
Starting from 2021, the JASs has adopted a new and simpler citation style, which is based on Harvard style. It is implemented in several reference management software.
papers
Rightmire GP, Lordkipanidze D, Vekua A (2006) Anatomical descriptions, comparative studies and evolutionary significance of the hominin skulls from Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia. J Hum Evol 50:115–141. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.07.009
The notation “et al” must be used after the third author
Bastir M, García-Martínez D, Torres-Tamayo N, et al (2019) Workflows in a Virtual Morphology Lab: 3D scanning, measuring, and printing. J Anthropol Sci 96:107–134. https://doi.org/10.4436/JASS.97003
books
Porta M (2008) A dictionary of epidemiology, Oxford University Press, New York
Jones S, Martin RD, Pilbeam DR (eds) (1994) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Jimeno M (2021) The Emotional Turn in Colombian Experiences of Violence. In: Forero Angel AM, Gonzalez Quintero C, Wolf AB (eds) Incarnating Feelings, Constructing Communities, Pallgrave McMillian, London, p. 15-40
Bibliographic references must be reported in alphabetical order. If there are several citations in the same year of the same first (or only) author, they must be distinguished with "a", "b", etc., arranged chronologically.
For Journal title abbreviations, follow https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals. Citations of participations in Congresses (both podium and poster presentations) must be avoided.
Only when really necessary, web sites and online resources may be cited in the text. They must be listed and described in a few lines using the ad hoc section “Info on the web”. The full URL and the date when the web site was last accessed should be given.
Tables and figures
Tables and figures should begin with a capital letter in the text as "Figure n" and "Table n"; they should also be abbreviated in brackets as "Fig. n" and "Tab. n". Tables out of the text should be indicated by an alphabetical sequence.
When compiling illustrations, the reduction to the printing format of the journal shall be taken in due consideration: after reduction, horizontal figures may be 6.6 cm (if published in one column) or 13.2 cm wide, with a maximum height of 16 cm, whereas vertical figures may have a maximum width of 16 cm and a maximum height of 12 cm. The letters, numbers, and symbols must be easily readable once they have been adapted and reduced for printing. As a rule, photographs should always contain a metric scale reference.
Images must be provided both in b/w (for the printed version) and in color (for the web). The size of internal captions must be adapted to be legible in the final print size (avoid lowercase letters, numbers and words).
Figures and tables which exceed the above limits for each type of contribution, along with other types of material (e.g. audio and/or video files, demo, applets) may be put online if they provide a useful addition to the paper.
Web sites
Links to websites can be provided as hypertext.
Special note
The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary has recently been redefined by the International Union of Geological Sciences from 1.8 to 2.6 Ma, but there is opposition to that move among many researchers who work on late Cenozoic (post-Miocene) topics. We ask authors who use the terms Pleistocene and Pliocene in their submitted manuscripts to state in the text (e.g. in the introduction) which of the two current options they use, citing the relevant reference. The recognition of Neogene and Quaternary is at the discretion of the author (for brevity, the co-identity of Period/System, Epoch/Series, and Age/Stage is understood). The options are:
(1) To continue using the last major published time scale, in which the base of the Pleistocene is defined by the GSSP of the Calabrian Stage at 1.806 (1.8) Ma [Gradstein F. M., Ogg J. G. & A. G Smith (eds) 2004. A Geologic Time Scale 2004.Cambridge University Press, Cambridge].
OR
(2) To use the revised time scale approved by IUGS, in which the base of the Pleistocene is defined by the GSSP of the Gelasian Stage at 2.588 (2.6) Ma [Gibbard P. L., Head M. J., Walker M. J. C. & the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy. 2010. Formal ratification of the Quaternary System/Period and the Pleistocene Series/Epoch with a base at 2.58 Ma. J. Quaternary Sci., 25: 96–102].
Open access and trasparency
According to the Open Access policy of the Istituto Italiano di Antropologia, all JASs articles are distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported License.
Deposit Policy*
JASs allows authors to deposit pre-prints, post-prints and publisher’s version (PDF file) in personal and/or institutional websites or other repositories (e.g. Arxiv, bio-Arxiv) with non-commercial purposes. Author deposit of publisher’s version must include a link to the article in the JASs website (**). Author must remove pre-print and post-print after depositing publisher’s version.
Data sharing
Authors of JASs papers are asked to make their primary datasets openly available, with as few restrictions as possible, using preferably open online databases (e.g. GenBank, Dryad or Zenodo). The Anthro-DigiItdata repository, managed directly by the Istituto Italiano di Antropologia, is no longer active but may be still searched for deposited contents (active until 2012). Exceptions to data sharing may be considered only for ethical, legal or scientific reasons. In any case, authors are requested to provide an ad hoc public statement in the "Data sharing" section, to be placed at the end of text (before acknowledgements).
Author Contribution
The actual contribution of each author must be succinctly described before the Reference section.
(*) See www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeoinfo.html for definitions
(**) Example: http://www.isita-org.com/jass/Contents/2014vol92/Destro/25020017.pdf
Paper submission
Authors should send their manuscripts as attached pdf file/s containing both text and figures isita@isita-org.com. Upon acceptance the authors will be requested to provide the final version of the text manuscripts in the format *.DOC or *.RTF files, for MS-DOS/WINDOWS or MACINTOSH format. We accept electronic version of figures (*tiff format) with a minimal resolution of 300 DPI in greyscale (for the printed version) and colour (for online version).
Fees
We regret to say that starting from 2020 we are no longer able to support a no APCs model due to persistent lack of funding. Therefore, to avoid the closure of the Journal, we are starting to apply publication fees to cover ( only a part of) the costs: for uninvited contributions only, authors are requested to pay a fee of 25 euros per printed page, up to a maximum of 500 euros (VAT included).
Complete or partial fee waivers can be obtained for authors who do not have funds to cover the fees. Fees may be reduced or waived for manuscripts submitted whose corresponding authors are from low and lower middle income countries.
Obviously, all contents will remain available in free Open Access mode for readers.
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