Submissions

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Author Guidelines

Submitted manuscripts need to be complete and ready to print. The deadline for submissions is September 30th.

The review process is anonymized (double-blind).

To submit a manuscript, you will first need to register as an Author (https://publications.dainst.org/journals/mdaik/user/register). Remember to register not only as a »reader« but also as an »author«. To do this, go to your profile and tick the appropriate box under »Roles«. After registering, you can log in and submit your manuscript by clicking on the »Make a new submission« button above. Image files should be submitted as a zipped folder. For queries please contact redaktion.kairo@dainst.de.

The guidelines for contributors to publications of the DAI were published on the DAI homepage at https://www.dainst.org/en/research/publications/publishing-at-the-dai/text-preparation. There, you will find general information by the publisher on the peer-review process and citation systems.

Concerning the submission of reports on fieldwork: research questions, aims, and results should be in focus along with a concise and general depiction. The archaeological projects should be put in a larger context, the relevance of the subject emphasized, and plans, methods, and prospects set out. Consideration should also be given to whether the work processes and results of several campaigns could be resumed in one article. The report should provide a clear, informative, and interesting overview of the project. MDAIK is not the appropriate journal for the publication of annually recurring reports, diary-style excavation documentation, highly detailed accounts of projects, or pure material presentation.

Information on the production process: Once accepted for publication, the final version of the manuscript will be handed over for editing. The editor may contact you directly for clarifications before the typesetting process begins. Authors receive page proofs for final review and are asked to return corrections within 10 days. At this stage, only errors can be corrected; it is no longer possible to rewrite or add text passages. Usually, revised proofs will not be sent to the author.

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements:

Text

  • 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).
  • Articles can be submitted in German, English, and French. Non-native speakers should have their manuscripts read and edited by a native speaker prior to submission.
  • The submitted contribution comprises: (a) the manuscript, including abstract, keywords, bibliography, and affiliation; (b) figures (if applicable) submitted separately in the permitted formats (see below); (c) a separate list of figures (if applicable), including the sources of illustrations; (d) publication permissions for illustrations (if applicable)
  • The manuscript is in compliance with the DAI.Kodex and the guidelines on good research practice. This also applies to the information contained therein on how to deal with artefacts that do not originate from legal excavations or sources.
  • Articles should normally not exceed 100,000 characters (including spaces, bibliography, and footnotes). The abstract must be written in English and shall comprise 150 words maximum. Additionally, a maximum of five keywords (in compliance with iDAI.thesauri) must be given in English. An English version of the title must also be provided for non-English-language contributions.
  • The text follows the stylistic and bibliographical guidelines for authors.
  • The text is written in a standard unicode font (single line spacing, font size 12), page format 210 × 297 mm, type area 175 × 261,5 mm. Illustrations, graphics, and tables are to be numbered as figures. Please group all parts of the article in a single file which includes abstract, illustration credits, captions, author details. Please also refer to the further instructions for text preparation, including the list of other abbreviations.
  • Headings should be higlighted, preferably by using paragraph styles. Up to three heading levels can be used.
  • The text can be submitted in one of these formats: Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect. Additionally, the manuscript must be submitted as PDF.
  • Hieroglyphic transcriptions/transliterations must be given in Unicode. Please make sure that the checkbox "i > i͗ = i and U+0357" has been selected and that capital Alif (Ꜣ/ꜣ) or Ayn (Ꜥ/ꜥ) has been used for names of people/gods and toponyms that start with these characters.
  • Arabic, Persian, and (modern or Ottoman) Turkish transcriptions/transliterations must be given following (a) the IJMES Transliteration System for manuscripts submitted in English. Please also refer to the IJMES guidelines for further information on the transliteration system; (b) the ZDMG Transliteration System for manuscripts submitted in German; (c) the guidelines of the L'Institut français d'archéologie orientale (IFAO)/L'Institut dominicain d’études orientales (IDEO) for manuscripts submitted in French. The character Ayn (Ꜥ/ꜥ) must be transcribed using Unicode A724/A725. For hamza (ʾ), Unicode 02BE must be applied.
  • Hieroglyphs must be submitted as original JSesh files and as *.svg format. When using ancient Greek or Coptic fonts, please also submit them.
  • Texts in hieratic, demotic, etc. cannot be typeset and must be submitted as images.
  • When referring to objects or data from museums, archives, etc., in both text or captions, the inventory/archive number must always be included.
  • Manuscripts must be submitted without any formatting: NO justification, NO hyphenation, NO cross references, NO headers or footers.

References

  • The text should be prepared according to the citation guidelines. Please also refer to the lists of abbreviations for series and journals of the DAI (PDFs here and here) and the IFAO.
  • Footnotes must not be used in: (a) headings; (b) abstracts; (c) tables (see below).

Figures

  • In general, figures should be limited to a necessary amount to illustrate significant aspects of the text with ideally new and hitherto unpublished image material. The repetition of figures (e.g., details of a larger image) - unless absolutely necessary - and a high image density must be avoided.
  • All figures must be numbered consecutively and be cited in the text. Partial figures with sub-numbering (e.g. Fig. 1a) cannot be submitted. Images or objects that shall be displayed together must be arranged as one coherent figure on which the respective sub-numbering is indicated on a separate layer, if applicable.
  • Figures must be submitted separately in the following formats: TIFF (*.tif), *.eps, or *.ai (NO *.jpg).
  • The rights of use have been obtained for all photographs, drawings and other copyrighted material. Concerning own photographs taken of objects that are under the authority of a third party, you have to request permission from the institution in which the original is held (museum, monument authority, library, etc.). The article will be freely accessible online (as a PDF and in a viewer format) together with the printed edition. Therefore, permission must be gained for non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide rights for the print publication and the digital editions. Please note that scanned photographs from printed books are accepted in exceptional cases only. Authors should try to obtain the source image.
  • Credits: please give for each figure a separate credit line. Summarizing credits for several figures are not allowed. Beside the owner of usage rights (museum, monument authority, etc.), the author of the respective work (photographer, artist, etc.) has to be stated, as well.
  • Important note regarding the proper attribution of content provided by Google and related third parties (Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Street View): (a) Attribution information (the Google logo, copyright information of third parties) will appear automatically on certain types of imagery when using Google-provided tools. Do not remove, obscure, or crop out the attribution information. Make sure that the embedded attribution information is legible to the average viewer or reader by scaling its size according to the selected file resolution during data export. (b) If using screenshots of imagery provided by Google or third parties outside of direct embeds, include the standard attribution as it appears in the image. If necessary, you may customize the style and placement of the attribution text, as long as the text is within close proximity of the content and legible to the average viewer or reader.
  • Preparation of illustrations:
    Grayscale and color images should be submitted as .tif or .eps files (not in .jpg format). The files need to have a minimum resolution of 400 dpi at final size.
    Line drawings could be submitted as grayscale with a resolution of 800 dpi or as Bitmap with a resolution of 1200 dpi.
    Images with labeling or graphic elements (e.g. north arrow, scale bar) should have a minimum resolution of 800 dpi.
    Vector graphics (digitally created plans, diagram) need to be submitted as original files (usually *.eps, *.xlsx) and as high-resolution export images (.tif or .pdf). Please notice that the minimal line width is 0.25 pt at final size.
  • Please specify the preferred size of the figures. Figures can have widths of 4 cm (margin width), 5.5 cm (1/3 of page width), 7 cm (half-page width), 11.5 cm (2/3 of page width), 13 cm (width of type area), or 17.5 cm (full-page width). These dimensions do not necessarily apply to maps, plans, drawings of finds, etc. where reproduction to a specific scale is required. A scale bar must be included in these images. Please ensure that all legends and labelling on figures are legible at the final size. It is recommended to use the font Noto Sans. Lettering should be placed on separate layers in case changes are necessary.
  • Please indicate a preferred figure as a cover illustration that shall serve as background for the abstract in the final layout. The cover illustration may show the complete figure or a detail of it, depending on the image size and orientation.

Tables

  • Complex tables are treated as figures and must therefore be included in the figure numbering and labelled with a caption.

Further remarks

  • The German Archaeological Institute recommends that all authors use ORCID, the establishment of which in Germany is being supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG). Using it allows the unambiguous identification of authors and offers many other advantages. Learn more about it here.
  • Provide an anonymized manuscript file (figures included) for peer review. Make sure that all author-identifying information is removed (author names, affiliations, acknowledgements).

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