About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Queensland Archaeological Research is a peer-reviewed journal published since 1984 devoted to publishing substantive, original and high-quality archaeological research pertaining to Queensland, Australia and adjacent areas. Data-rich manuscripts are particularly welcome. Queensland Archaeological Research is published in English in one volume each year. Submission of articles to Queensland Archaeological Research is free. Access to articles in Queensland Archaeological Research is free.

Peer Review Process

All material submitted to Queensland Archaeological Research is subject to double-blind peer review. The Editors will acknowledge receipt of all contributions. Queensland Archaeological Research is committed to rigour and integrity in research and the peer review process. For more information please read our Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement (see below). An Editor and two Editorial Advisory Board members or external experts will peer review all contributions. Editors are responsible for nominating appropriate Editorial Advisory Board members or external experts to peer review all contributions. Editorial Advisory Board members and external experts are selected based on their expertise in the field of research that is the subject of the contribution. Reviewers must make objective recommendations, declare any conflicts of interest, treat review material confidentially and point out relevant published work which is not yet cited. Published Queensland Archaeological Research authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process when requested. Editors are responsible for the review of peer review reports and the final decision on publication. As for any refereed journal, authors may be asked to make revisions to their manuscript. If substantial revision is required manuscripts may be re-reviewed before a decision to publish is made. Once a paper is accepted in its final form, page-proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for approval. Proof Approval and Author Agreement forms will be sent with the page-proofs and must be completed and returned before publication can proceed. Final acceptance of manuscripts for publication is at the discretion of the Editors. For paper submission instructions see the Author Guidelines.

Publication Frequency

Queensland Archaeological Research is published in one volume per year. Individual contributions are published as soon as they are finalised as part of the year's volume.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Archiving

Queensland Archaeological Research is archived by the National Library of Australia Pandora Australia's Web Archive at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-147325

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

All material submitted to Queensland Archaeological Research is subject to double-blind peer review. Queensland Archaeological Research is committed to rigour and integrity in research and the peer review process.

The journal endorses the principles of the Australian Archaeological Association Inc.'s Code of Ethics.

The journal subscribes to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Below is a summary of the key responsibilities of Editors, Editorial Advisory Board members, peer-reviewers and authors. This section also outlines the Procedures for Handling Misconduct. This statement should be read in conjunction with the Author Guidelines.

Editor Responsibilities

All Editors agree to abide by the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors as formulated by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

Editors must declare any conflicts of interest that have the potential to influence the review and assessment of a manuscript.

Editors must assess manuscripts solely on their academic merit without discrimination on the basis of sex, relationship status, pregnancy, parental status, breastfeeding, age, race, impairment, religious belief or religious activity, political belief or political activity, trade union activity, lawful sexual activity, gender identity, sexuality, family responsibilities, and/or association with, or relation to, a person identified on the basis of any of the above attributes.

The Editors are committed to identifying and preventing the publication of papers where research misconduct has occured. In the event that misconduct is suspected, identified or reported, the Editors will investigate and, where necessary, reject, retract or correct published material. Authors will be given reasonable opportunities to respond to any suspected, identified or reported misconduct. As appropriate, the Editors will refer matters to employers, professional associations and law-enforcement agencies.

At no time can an Editor disclose the name of a referee to anyone outside the Editorial Advisory Committee.

Submissions by Editors will not be treated differently to any other submission. Authors who are Editors will have no involvement in the assessment of manuscripts at any stage, including the selection of referees and final determination on publication. At no time will communications on the progress of the manuscript be made in any way differently to the normal channels of communication. The decision to publish a contribution will only be possible with the receipt of a favourable referee reports, where appropriate, and editorial review.

Editorial Advisory Board and Peer-Reviewer Responsibilities

Peer-reviewers play a crucial role in assisting the Editors in assessing the quality of manuscripts and in improving the quality of published work in the journal.

Peer-reviewers must make objective recommendations, declare any conflicts of interest, treat review material confidentially and point out relevant published work which is not yet cited.

Editorial Advisory Board members and external reviewers must assess manuscripts solely on their academic merit without discrimination on the basis of sex, relationship status, pregnancy, parental status, breastfeeding, age, race, impairment, religious belief or religious activity, political belief or political activity, trade union activity, lawful sexual activity, gender identity, sexuality, family responsibilities, and/or association with, or relation to, a person identified on the basis of any of the above attributes.

It is a requirement that Editorial Advisory Board members and reviewers do not circulate, discuss or cite manuscripts before publication except with each other for the purpose of reviewing and assessing the manuscript, or with the express written permission of the Editors. Where a Board member or reviewer wishes to discuss manuscripts with colleagues for the purpose of review or assessment this should be discussed with the Editors and the names of those involved provided.

Editorial Advisory Board members and reviewers must declare any conflicts of interest that have the potential to influence the review and assessment of a manuscript.

Submissions by Editorial Advisory Board members will not be treated differently to any other submission. Authors who are Editorial Advisory Board members will have no involvement in the assessment of manuscripts at any stage, including the selection of referees and final determination on publication. At no time will communications on the progress of the manuscript be made in any way differently to the normal channels of communication. The decision to publish a contribution will only be possible with the receipt of a favourable referee reports, where appropriate, and editorial review.

Author Responsibilities

Where manuscripts contain research involving human subjects, details of review by an appropriate ethics committee (including reference numbers) must be provided in the manuscript.

Authors must make all data and any code required to replicate findings reported in papers available at the time of publication. We encourage authors to lodge data and code in suitable public repositories (e.g. Figshare, Open Science Framework, tDAR, Archaeology Data Service, Open Context, JOAD Dataverse, Zenodo) and/or report these data as Supplementary Information in Queensland Archaeological Research and provide cross-references in the paper. Exemptions to this policy on legal or ethical grounds must be approved by an Editor.

Published Queensland Archaeological Research authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process when requested. 

Queensland Archaeological Research adopts the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors guidelines for defining authorship.

Authors must meet the following 4 criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND

3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND

4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.

Contributors who do not meet these criteria should be named in the Acknowledgements.

Published research influencing the research should be cited and included in the References. Authors must not cite papers in preparation. Papers may be cited as 'in press' where they have been accepted for publication.

Authors are prohibited from publishing the same research in more than one journal. 

Author affiliations should reflect where the research was undertaken. No changes to author affiliations will be permitted after an article is accepted.

Authors must supply details of the sources of all funding (both monetary and in-kind) contributing to the research. 

Authors warrant that no research misconduct has occurred in the research contained in the article. If authors discover any misconduct or significant errors subsequent to publication they are obliged to immediately report it to the journal editors for review. Review may result in the correction or retraction of articles.

Once a contribution is accepted for publication and the contribution has been page-set, all authors will be sent the relevant page-proofs, an Author Agreement and a Proof Approval. The author/s must sign and date both the Author Agreement and the Proof Approval. The contribution will not be published until the Editors receive the signed and dated Author Agreement and Proof Approval.

Where a submission has more than one author, any one of those authors may sign the Author Agreement and Proof Approval on behalf of all. By signing, that author warrants that the other author/s agree to the conditions outlined on the Author Agreement and Proof Approval and have authorised for the Author Agreement and Proof Approval to be signed on their behalf.

Procedures for Handling Misconduct

1. Misconduct and unethical behaviour related to work published or under consideration in Queensland Archaeological Research can be reported to the Editors by anyone at any time. Allegations should provide enough information to clearly identify the alleged misconduct and unethical behaviour and person/s involved. The Editors will acknowledge receipt of all allegations of misconduct and unethical behaviour. All allegations will be treated in confidence. Allegations which are not related to the journal will not be considered by the Editors.

2. The Editors will investigate the allegation, giving the subject of allegation reasonable opportunity to respond to the allegation. The Editors will review the information provided in the allegation and any response to the allegation. Where deemed necessary, the Editors will seek the confidential advice of relevant Editorial Advisory Board members, taking care to maintain confidentiality.

3. The Editors will make a decision about what action should be taken in response to the allegation after reasonable investigation of the matter. In all cases the person/s who made the original allegation and the subject of the allegation will be informed of the outcome. No action will be taken where the Editors determine that the allegation is baseless (e.g. resulting from a misunderstanding). Where minor errors are identified in published work, corrections will be published. Where research misconduct is identified in published work, the work may be retracted. As appropriate, the Editors will refer matters to employers, professional associations and law-enforcement agencies.

Publication and Access Charges

Submission of articles to Queensland Archaeological Research is free. Access to articles in Queensland Archaeological Research is free.

Abstracting and Indexing Information

Anthropological Index Online (Royal Anthropological Institute)

Anthropological Literature (Harvard University)

APAIS: Australian Public Affairs & Information Service (National Library of Australia)

SCOPUS (Elsevier)

Sponsors

• College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University

Journal History

Queensland Archaeological Research (QAR) was launched by Associate Professor Jay Hall at The University of Queensland in 1984. It was published annually until 1996 (Volumes 1-9) and then occasionally until 2002 (Volumes 10-13). In 2011 (Volume 14) QAR was relaunched under the editorship of Professor Sean Ulm, Associate Professor Mike Rowland, Associate Professor Jon Prangnell and Associate Professor Jay Hall as an open access journal on The University of Queensland Library Open Journal System (OJS). In 2016 (Volume 19) the publication was transferred to the James Cook University Library Open Journal System (OJS). QAR is now published by the College of Arts, Society and Education at James Cook University.