Submitting an Article Online

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Author Guidelines

The Journal of Open Humanities Data publishes two types of papers:

1. Short data papers contain a concise description of a humanities research object with high reuse potential. These are short (1000 words) highly structured narratives.  

2. Full length research papers discuss and illustrate methods, challenges, and limitations in the creation, collection, management, access, processing, or analysis of data in humanities research, including standards and formats. These are intended to be longer narratives (3000 - 5000 words), which give authors the ability to contribute to a broader discussion.

Humanities subjects of interest to JOHD include, but are not limited to, Art History, Classics, History, Linguistics, Literature, Modern Languages, Music and musicology, Philosophy, Religious Studies, etc. Data that crosses one or more of these traditional disciplines are highly encouraged.

Submission step-by-step

1. Registration: Register as an author with JOHD and start your article submission process via our online system. Note that we only accept submissions of manuscripts that have not been previously published and are not currently under consideration with another journal.
2. Select a Repository: Prior to submission, deposit your data in an appropriate public repository. Please see our list of repositories, or choose your own. Please also read our list of peer review criteria and aim to make sure that your data deposition meets these standards. The completeness of these datasets will be considered during editorial evaluation and peer-review. Remember to make your data public so that it can be found. 
3. Add a DOI: The repository will provide you with a DOI (or similar persistent identifier) for your data. Please add this to your data paper under the repository location section.
4. Submission and cover letter: When preparing your manuscript, please follow either the template for short data papers (Word file or LaTeX file) or full length papers (Word file or LaTeX file), as appropriate. Please check the style guidelines below to format and edit your manuscript. When finished, submit your paper for peer review. If you have written your paper in Word, please upload the .doc(x) file (not the PDF). If you have written your paper in LaTeX, please upload the generated PDF (you will be asked for the source files at the typesetting stage). Additionally, please provide a cover letter that includes the affiliation and contact information for the corresponding author, and provide relevant information to the editorial team to help give your submission some context, explaining why the work should be considered appropriate for publication in JOHD. If you can suggest names of three scholars who would be able to review your paper, please add their names and contact details in the cover letter. If you require an Article Publication Charge (APC) discount or waiver this must be detailed in the cover letter during submission. If such details are not provided upon submission, the APC invoice will be sent to you if the paper is accepted for publication, usually at the end of the month in which the article was published.
5. Corrections: Following the peer review, the editor will get back to you about the outcome of your paper and may recommend changes either to the way your data has been archived, or to the paper itself (see editorial guidelines). You will need to make any changes the peer reviewers have suggested before you can resubmit your paper to the journal via your portal. Once your paper has passed peer review and the editor has provided you with a final decision, your paper is almost ready for publication! Your accepted paper will go through a copyedited process before it can be published. You will need to approve all changes made during copyediting and will be given a final chance to make edits to the text prior to publication.
6. Publication: Your article will receive a DOI. Make sure you add the citation to your article (with its DOI) in the repository where the data is stored. Once this has been done, your article will be published in the open access journal.

 

 

Authorship Attribution Guidelines

It is important that the correct list of authors is attributed to an article from the start of the submission process. Author lists with the incorrect information can result in academic or financial implications, whilst also providing the reader with the wrong information on where the responsibility and accountability for the published work should lie.

All authors listed on a submission must have given prior approval to have their name attributed to the file(s) that are being submitted and agree to the publication. The corresponding author has responsibility to ensure that all authors qualify for, and have agreed to, authorship of the submission. They are also responsible for informing all co-authors of relevant editorial information during the review process.

Our recommendations are based on the ICMJE criteria for authorship. Authors must have:

• made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work
• contributed to the drafting the work, or revising it critically for important intellectual content
• provided final approval of the version to be published
• agreed 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
• agreed to be named on the author list, and approved of the full author list

Those that meet some but do not meet all of the above criteria should be acknowledged in the publication but not listed as an author. Examples that do not qualify for authorship but should be acknowledged are sources of funding, supervision of research groups, administrative support, language editing and proof reading. Written permission should be obtained from those being acknowledged, as in some cases being named in such a way may be seen as an endorsement of the publication.

Language and Referencing Style

JOHD adheres to American Psychological Association (APA) style for text and referencing.

Language & Text

Manuscripts are to be written in good English – American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these. Keywords must follow British spelling. When referring to proper nouns and normal institutional titles, the official, original spelling must be used (World Health Organization not World Health Organisation).

Acronyms and abbreviations – Write out almost all acronyms on first use, indicating the acronym in parentheses immediately thereafter (e.g., USA, not U.S.A). Use the acronym for all subsequent references.

Numbers – For numbers zero to nine please spell the whole words. Please use figures for numbers 10 or higher. If a sentence starts with a number it must be spelt. Use either words or figures to represent large whole figures (i.e., one million or 1,000,000) as long as the usage is consistent throughout the text. Do not use a comma for a decimal place (2.43 not 2,43). Numbers that are less than zero must not have ‘0’ precede the decimal point (.24 not 0.24).

Quotations – Use double quotation marks except for quotes within another speech, in which case single quotation marks are used. Quotations that are longer than 40 words in length must be in an indented paragraph separate from the main text. The standard, non-italicised font must be used for all quotes.

Use of footnotes/endnotes – Use footnotes rather than endnotes. Number footnotes in Arabic numerals.

Symbols –Symbols are permitted within the main text and datasets as long as they are commonly in use or have explanatory definition on their first usage. 

References

In-text citations 

Every use of information from other sources must be cited in the text, according to APA guidelines, so that it is clear that external material has been used.

All references in the text and notes must be specified by the authors’ last names and date of publication together with page numbers for direct quotations from print sources.

If the author’s name is in the text, follow with the year in parentheses:

• Both Jones (2013) and Brown (2010) showed that …

If the author name is not mentioned in the main text then the surname followed by a comma and year should be inserted, in parenthesis, after the relevant text. Multiple citations should be separated by a semicolon and follow alphabetical order:

• The statistics clearly show this to be untrue (Brown, 2010; Jones, 2013). 

Where there are two authors, always cite both names, joined by ‘and’ if referenced in text and outside of parentheses or joined by an ampersand (&) if referenced within parentheses, in tables and in captions, and in the reference list:

• Clarke and Porter (2018) show that... 
• (Clarke & Porter, 2018) 

If three or more (up to five) authors are cited from the same citation then all should be listed when the reference first appears and each subsequent reference include only the surname of the first author followed by ‘et al.’ (not italicized and with a period after ‘al’) and the year:

• Jones, Smith, and Brown (2008) show that... 
• (Jones, Smith, & Brown, 2008) 
• (Jones et al., 2008) 
• Jones et al. (2008) argue that... 

If there are more than five authors, write the first author's surname followed by 'et al.' and the year for each citation.

If two or more references by the same author are cited together, separate the dates with a comma (in chronological order):

• (Jones, 2000, 2010, 2016) 

If citations are used from the same author and the same year, then a lowercase letter, starting from ‘a’, should be placed after the year:

• (Jones 2013a, 2013b) 

Reference list

• All citations must be listed at the end of the text file, in alphabetical order of authors’ surnames.
• If multiple works by the same author are being listed, please re-type the author’s name out for each entry, rather than using a long dash.
• DOIs should be included for all reference entries, where possible.
• Names containing Jr or II should be listed as follows: 
  • Author Last Name, Initials, Jr. (year).
  • Author Last Name, Initials, II (year). 
• The date of retrieval of online material is not required, only the URL.

Reference format

This journal uses a style based on the APA system – see below for examples of how to format.

Please try to include DOIs especially for journal articles.

Journal articles: 

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Article title. Journal Title, volume number (issue number), page numbers. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxxxxxxx

Radford, M. (2001). Aesthetic and religious awareness among pupils: Similarities and differences. British Journal of Music Education, 18(2), 151-159. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0265051701000249 

NOTE: Please include DOIs for all journal articles where possible.

Books:

Author, A. A. (year). Title of work. Location: Publisher. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxxxxxxx

Leaver, B. L., Ehrman, M., & Shekhtman, B. (2005). Achieving success in second language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511610431

Chapter within books: 

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Title of chapter or entry. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. xxx-xxx). Location: Publisher. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxxxxxxx
Jacobs, G. M., & Hall, S. (2002). Implementing cooperative learning. In J. C. Richards & W. A. Renandya (Eds.), Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice (pp. 52-58). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511667190.009

Conference papers: 

Author, A. (date). Title of contribution [Type of contribution]. Conference name, location. DOI or URL

Fistek, A., Jester, E., & Sonnenberg, K. (2017, July 12–15). Everybody’s got a little music in them: Using music therapy to connect, engage, and motivate [Conference session]. Autism Society National Conference, Milwaukee, WI, United States. https://asa.confex.com/asa/2017/webprogramarchives/Session9517.html

Websites:

If a web resource like a blog post or a dataset has a DOI or at least an author and title, add it to the reference list with its url and last accessed date and cite it in the text as a normal citation, i.e. author (year). If a website with no further information is used, then it can appear in a footnote but it should have a last accessed date.

Author, A. A. (year). Title of work. Retrieved from source (last accessed: date).

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2011). Australia's health 2004. Retrieved from http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10014 (last accessed: 10 September 2021).

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).

2. The submission fulfills the author and stylistic guidelines of the journal:

   1. Short data papers have a maximum of 1000 words;
   2. Full-length research papers have between 3000 and 5000 words; 
   3. Short data papers should follow this template for Word (docx) files and this template for LaTex files; and full-length research papers should follow this template for Word (docx) and this template for LaTex files;
   4. Check that the language and references follow the Language and Referencing Style of the journal.
3. Tables and figures: All tables and figures should be cited in the text. Table files should be included within the text document, whilst figure files should be uploaded as supplementary files. Figures/images should have a resolution of at least 150dpi (300dpi or above preferred). Each file should be no more than 20MB per file. The files should be in one of the following formats: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS (to maximise quality, the original source file is preferred).
4. Referencing. Please enter references following APA style and include a DOI where available.
5. All authors have given permission to be listed on the submitted paper and satisfy the authorship attribution guidelines.
6. Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, the studies must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. The identity of the research subjects should be anonymised whenever possible. For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must have been obtained from participants at the time of the study (or from their legal guardian(s)).

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms. If a submission is rejected or withdrawn prior to publication, all rights return to the author(s):

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Submitting to the journal implicitly confirms that all named authors and rights holders have agreed to the above terms of publication. It is the submitting author's responsibility to ensure all authors and relevant institutional bodies have given their agreement at the point of submission.

Note: some institutions require authors to seek written approval in relation to the terms of publication. Should this be required, authors can request a separate licence agreement document from the editorial team (e.g. authors who are Crown employees).

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Publication Fees

UK VAT charges of 20% may apply depending on the author's or the paying institution's location and tax profile. If you require information specific to your circumstances, please, contact the editorial manager.

If your paper is accepted for publication, you will be asked to pay an Article Publication Charge (APC) to cover publication costs, which can normally be sourced from your funder or institution. This fee covers all publication costs (editorial processes, web hosting, indexing, marketing, archiving, DOI registration etc.) and ensures that all of the content is fully open access. This approach maximises the potential readership of publications and allows the journal to be run in a sustainable way. For a breakdown of costs, please click here.

Many institutions now have funds available to support open access publications by their staff.

If you do not know about your institution’s policy on open access funding, please contact your departmental/faculty administrators and institution library, as funds may be available to you.

Several other foundations, institutes, societies and associations offer publication grants (not exclusive to Open Access) based on subject relevance. Here is a few of them relevant to history, archaeology and material preservation and conservation.

If published, you will receive an APC request email along with information on how payment can be arranged, usually at the end of the month in which the article is published. 

Waiver Information

If you do not have funds available to pay the APC (e.g., because your institution/funder will not cover the fee) then we will be able to offer a discount or full waiver. Please ensure that you contact the journal manager at the time of submission should you need to discuss waiver options or the APC in general.

Editorial decisions are made independently from the ability to pay the APC.