Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature: Instructions to Authors
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers primarily in the fields of archaeology and history, but also welcomes submissions on aspects of culture, including material culture, from the perspectives of other disciplines, as well as submissions in Celtic Studies and literature.
General submission instructions and guidelines for authors
Papers should be submitted via Manuscript Manager.
Papers may be submitted by Members or non-members of the Academy. All submissions are refereed. Below you will find the journal's submission instructions and style guidelines for archaeology papers and history papers, which are designed to ensure that your paper goes through the editorial process as smoothly as possible. Please consult the style guidelines and the journal checklist before submitting your paper.
Abstract: Each paper must be preceded by an abstract not exceeding 300 words, which should be intelligible in itself without reference to the paper.
Text: Papers submitted for publication should be within the range of 8,000 to 12,000 words. Longer submissions will be permitted in exceptional circumstances.The text should be presented in double spacing, with wide margins and the right-hand margin left unjustified. Low-resolution scans or photocopies of any line figures or maps should accompany the paper at the inital submission stage. If submitting in hard copy, two copies of the paper (including photocopies of illustrations) are required.
Illustrations: Electronic image files must be submitted at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi in .jpeg or .png format.
The main text must contain references to all illustrations used (Pl. or Pls with roman numerals for plates (e.g. photos, transparencies); Fig. or Figs with arabic numerals for artwork (e.g. line drawings); separate sequences for plates and figures). The captions for the illustrations should be provided on a separate list. Each image should be labeled with the author’s name and plate/figure number (this information should be attached to the back of hard-copy plates/figures: do not write directly on the original).
The space available for illustrations (including captions) is 125mm by 190mm. Originals should be submitted at publication size or larger; care should be taken that any lettering or decoration on the illustration will accept the necessary reduction. If scale is important, a scale bar that will accept the necessary reduction should be inserted.
Authors will be required to pay the cost of large maps that have to be reproduced as folder plates.
Authors must obtain written permission to use illustrations by anyone other than the author(s) that are still in copyright. Even if the illustration is no longer in copyright, an acknowledgement of a source other than the author(s) must be included in the caption.
Tables: Tables should be presented separately from the text. Each table should be labeled with a descriptive legend that makes its general meaning understandable without reference to the text. Vertical rules should be avoided.
References: Authors alone are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Sample references are included in the style guidelines for archaeology papers and history papers. Authors should also consult previously published papers for examples of the appropriate format.
In archaeology papers, literature cited in the text should be given in a reference list at the end of the paper, arranged in alphabetical order of the authors’ surnames. In the body of the text the author's name and the year of publication should be cited as, e.g. ‘(Ryan 1957)’, ‘(Murphy and O'Shea 1979)’; where the author’s name occurs in the sentence, only the year should be given in brackets, e.g. ‘Ryan (1957) has found.’. If reference is made to a paper by three or more authors it should be shortened in the text as, e.g., ‘(Rogerson et al. 1987)’, but all authors’ names should be given in the reference list.
In history papers, bibliographical references should be indicated by superscript footnote indicators and given in full detail in the footnotes. In second and subsequent references to a given work, author surname and short title should be used.
It is recommended that authors consult the style guidelines for archaeology papers or for history papers and a recent paper in the appropriate field in The Proceedings for matters of style and layout.
Copyright: Once final proofs are agreed, and prior to a paper's publication, authors will be requested to complete and return a copyright form. The copyright form is available to download here.
Editorial queries: Electronically edited papers, together with editorial queries, are emailed to authors before papers go to press. Authors are asked to respond to editorial queries without delay, and to indicate if any editorial changes are problematic.
Proof correction: Authors are asked to check and return proofs without delay. Corrections and answers to editorial queries should be made clearly and legibly in red ink or should be listed in a Word document.
Subventions to assist with costs of publication of papers are welcomed by the Academy and should be sought by authors in a position to obtain them.
Publication ethics
Authors submitting papers to an Academy journal should ensure that
- they adhere to all research ethics guidelines of their discipline, particularly where human or animal subjects are involved
- they contact the Editor to identify and correct any material errors upon discovery, whether prior or subsequent to publication of their work
- authorship of the paper is accurately represented, including ensuring that all individuals credited as authors participated in the actual authorship of the work, and that all who participated are credited and have given consent for publication
ORCID Number
When submitting your paper, please include your ORCID number. If you do not have an ORCID number, or want to find out more about it, click here.
Open access
The Royal Irish Academy is committed to the dissemination of scholarship. To that end, it endorses the principles of open access, and is committed to work with and to assist authors and investigators make known their research findings in RIA publications.
The RIA aspires to pursue Green Access as a basic access model. We also participate in JSTOR’s register and read programme which allows individuals to read up to 78 articles a year without charge.
Authors can archive a post-print version of their paper, once the journal in which it appears is published. We request that authors give the citation to the source and link to it. We can supply a DOI to make this linking easier.
Gold Access
There is no submission or publication fee for papers published in the Academy’s journals. However, Open Access brings with it a cost implication. To maximise access to original research, authors now have the option to make their papers freely available from the time of online publication, on payment of an open access charge (APC), which varies based on the size, content and complexity of the article. If an author wishes to take up this option, contact the Publications Office once a paper has been accepted for publication. For such papers, the final published version may be deposited in repositories immediately.
Funder mandates
The Royal Irish Academy will help authors meet your funders’ mandates on access and licensing. Contact the Publications Office to discuss requirements once an article has been accepted.
Data Protection
When submitting to one of our journals you agree for the Royal Irish Academy Publications department to store and use your data. For more information on how your data is used see our Privacy and Data Protection policies, and the Publications Transparency Statement.