Contributing to the Proceedings

The Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society is a traditionally eclectic county journal which welcomes quality submissions on all subjects related to the archaeology, history, fine arts, literature, geology or natural history of the County of Dorset.

If you have a query as to whether the PDNHAS is the appropriate destination for your article, please contact the Editor to discuss your proposal.

The PDNAHS accepts both full length structured articles, shorter contributions of similar style, and short contributions (e.g. archaeological notes), including obituaries.

The general length for an article should not exceed 7,000 words. As a rule of thumb, the shorter your paper the easier it will be for us to include it. However, in some cases, for example archaeological site reports, or reports of environmentally related fieldwork, it is accepted that a longer submission may be appropriate. In these cases, please contact the Editor in advance of submission. Short contributions may also be discussed.

All full papers which are submitted will be overseen by an experienced specialist subject editor and will be independently peer reviewed by at least one expert reviewer.

Please note: We use the Harvard system for referencing; we cannot reproduce footnotes. Endnotes are only permissible where unavoidable. Please try to avoid these if at all possible – if you include them, you will probably be asked to take them out.

Submission

We accept papers for the Proceedings on a rolling basis. The earlier papers are submitted, the more likely they are to have completed consideration for the next volume; however, as there are likely to be previous submissions already held over, we are unable to guarantee inclusion in a particular volume, should a paper be accepted.

Shorter contributions and reports (e.g. archaeological notes and obituaries) should be submitted by 31 January in the publication year, for example, January 2022 for publication in the 2022 volume.

These deadlines must be strictly adhered to — any contributions submitted late will be considered only for future editions of the Proceedings.

We aim to publish during the late summer each year. This means that the review process (outlined below) needs to be completed well before. Your co-operation with respect to any deadlines for revisions and checking proofs will be greatly appreciated.

The Proceedings has a digital production process. Please send your submissions electronically to the Editor. Emails should include a completed submission form (available on the website) and the typescript of your article attached as separate word processed files, preferably in Microsoft Word.

We cannot accept them in PDF format. You should include the abstract, your contact details, and a list of figures/tables, each as separate Word documents. Each figure should also be submitted as an individual original file, not PDFs unless for particular types of image this is the only way of reproducing them. Further information on this is included below.

If your submission is too large to email, please contact the Editor as submissions/attachments may need to be sent via Dropbox, WeTransfer or some alternative arrangement. We can no longer accept paper submissions.

The Process

Please send all submissions to the Editor ([email protected]). You should receive an acknowledgement of your submission within two weeks. Submissions will be checked on receipt for completeness and appropriateness of file formats. If there is an issue with these aspects, you will be contacted and possibly asked to amend what you have submitted.

All submissions are logged and then passed for consideration to the Subject Editors. The Subject Editors are experienced specialists in the particular field into which your submission falls. They will consider the suitability of your submission, and arrange where appropriate for it to be passed to one or more of our panel of reviewers. This may occur in parallel, or reviews be carried out consecutively. This process is carried out as anonymously as possible. Please be considerate in your expectations of turnaround. The reviewer(s) will consider the submission and provide comments and suggestions, which will be communicated to you by the Subject Editor. The Subject Editor and/or
the editor may also wish to take a view.

The role of the Subject Editors and reviewers is to check that the submission contains suitable subject matter for the Proceedings and facilitate the quality of your submission. When you receive comments and suggestions, the Subject Editor will let you know the date by which the corrected text needs to be returned in order to meet our publication timetable. Please try to adhere to this as closely as possible. Further amendments may be made to your paper after the corrected text is received to deal with spelling, grammar, sense and any conventions which have not been included.

The decision on the inclusion of a submission to the Proceedings is by consultation between the Subject Editors and the Editor, taking into account the nature of your submission and accounts for the mix, number and size of submissions in any given year. You may be advised that a paper is accepted, but only for a subsequent edition. The decision of the Editor is final.

Once the review and correction process is complete, proofs of full articles will be prepared which will combine your text and any illustrations etc. Authors of full papers will be sent proofs usually in PDF format via email. Please check the proofs for any minor errors. Please note that the proof will have been edited in accordance with the house style of the Proceedings. Please do not correct changes which relate to this. Changes must be returned within the time-frame specified by the Editor. Minor corrections and/or revisions will then incorporated into the final proof. If authors do not return their proofs within the allotted time, the existing proofs will be used for the final published version.

Please ensure that you only make minor corrective changes at the proof stage. Extensive changes left to this last stage may result in your paper being deferred to the next volume or rejected.

While every effort will be made to ensure that authors are happy with the final proofs, in matters of editing and style the decision of the Editor is final.

Format for submissions

Submission Form

All submissions must be accompanied by a Proceedings Submission Form. This must be completed and included or we cannot accept your submission. It contains a checklist to ensure that you have included everything in the correct format. It also comprises the copyright form, without which we are unable to proceed to publication. The form can be downloaded from the website.

Please give your full name and the contact information of the author responsible for addressing publication queries. You must include a word count.

Contributors are asked to provide a short biography covering their research interests and any organisational affiliations. This should be no more than 50 words and will be used to create a short information note at the end of your paper. Please indicate if you are content to be contacted by readers and if you have an email address which is suitable for that. If you prefer, contact can be noted as being via the Editor.

Abstract

Please provide an abstract with all full length submissions. An abstract may be also appropriate with certain shorter contributions. Typically, an abstract should comprise a series of single sentences that cover the problem/question addressed, the motivation for doing so, how this was done, the general outcome and wider implications of the research. The abstract should be 150-200 words, and include key words which reflect the content of the piece. Please provide the abstract in a separate Word file, formatted in italic script.

Text

Please remember that your article will be printed in the style of the Proceedings. You may wish to consult a recent edition to familiarise yourself with how your contribution might look. We ask you to use the simplest possible layout, and avoid extra formatting and typographical devices. Please do not use automatic citation/bibliography functions or, if having to include endnotes, automatic endnote insertion. These functions interfere with the compilation of the journal.

Please note that we cannot reproduce footnotes. Endnotes can be reproduced, but please avoid them if possible.

You should include a separate paragraph of Acknowledgements, at the end of your text. Please use no more than four layers of headings in the hierarchy of your paper.

Please prepare your submission text in the following way:

• use a single style and size of font, preferably Times New Roman or Calibri, pt11;
• leave a left-hand margin of around 25mm
• space the lines generously (minimum 1.15pt)
• use italics and underlining as you would wish them to be used in the published
  version;
• do not justify the right-hand margin — this should be left ‘ragged’;
• centre title and section headings, and justify sub-headings left.
• use the return key after each paragraph, heading or sub-heading, but please do not
  indent the start of a new paragraph.
• use ‘en’ (-) or ‘em’ (—) dashes, as appropriate (please refer to either of the
  standard style guides, mentioned in the final paragraph of these notes, for correct usage). An ‘em’
  dash may be indicated by two hyphens (–) for editing later.
• where a quotation covers more than 2 lines on an A4 page, please separate it from
  your text, indent it and italicise.
• do not include page breaks
• do avoid overcomplicating your text with additional tabs, spaces, lines etc.
• do use page numbers as this assists reviewers.

Please refer to the Style Guide in Appendix A.

References

References should be printed at the end of the typescript using the same font size and spacing as the main body of the text. The Harvard system of referencing must be used. Please ensure that these correspond precisely to the relevant examples below. Please check that all references in your text are present in the References and vice versa. Please refer to Appendix B for details.

Tables

Tables may be included and if they are large and complex can be reproduced in landscape format, although it is preferable that they should fit in the width of a page. Please consider this when you select the number/width of columns. They will generally be reproduced with a smaller font size.

Tables are not just useful for numerical data. For instance, if you have a large number of unpublished documentary sources, you may wish to consider using a table to present the information, rather than have to refer to each individually in the text. Please supply tables in a separate
document, not embedded in the text of your submission and in as simple a format as possible, generally using an APA layout. An example table can be provided.

Illustrations

Illustrations, photographs, maps etc need to be supplied separately from the text. Please indicate clearly in your text where the illustrations relate to (e.g. ‘see Figure 2’). However, do not include embedded illustrations in the body of your text. The eventual location of an illustration/table on the page will be dependent on page space and layout, but we will endeavour to ensure that it appears in a logical place close to where it is referred to in the text. All illustrations etc must be referred to somewhere in the body of your text, and they should be numbered in sequence from the first occurring. The Proceedings is now produced in colour as standard.

Illustrations must be clear and easily reproducible. Jpeg or tiff files are preferable; pdf files may not retain suitable resolution. Please bear in mind that illustrations need to be resized during the typesetting process to fit the available space and/or column or page width. This is one reason that we cannot accept figures prepared in Word or Powerpoint as any labelling will not be an integral part of the image and will not be possible to resize. Where the scale is important the figure itself should include a visual scale-bar, north arrows, and other suitable scales (e.g. for geophysical plots) and keys. Where possible illustrations should be provided already sized to fit the dimensions of the Proceedings page/column width etc at the appropriate dpi resolution. The PDNHAS page dimensions are available on a separate sheet. Text is arranged in two columns and images will be sized either to a single column width, across two columns or an entire page as appropriate. Where this is important, please indicate.

Photographic files should be formatted with a minimum of 300dpi as jpeg or tiff files. A higher dpi may be more appropriate depending on the size of reproduction you would like and the subject matter. Graphic images, such as line drawings, maps, charts and diagrams must also be submitted as jpeg or tiff files but should be at least 600dpi. All images must be prepared to your satisfaction before submission – we are unable to undertake any graphical work with your content. Therefore please ensure all scanned illustrations are perfectly square /cropped etc before including. Please save all image files with the name of the contributor and the figure number to be used in the text (e.g. ‘SmithFig5’).

Please include a separate list of captions, as a separate Word document. This should be typed and spaced as the main body of your text. The caption list should include full details of sources, attributions and copyright acknowledgements where appropriate (see below).

Copyright

Observing the copyright of reproduced material is the responsibility of the contributor. The author indemnifies the publisher, the DNHAS and the editors of the Proceedings against any action taken as a result of infringement of copyright. Where an illustration is not the author’s, permission to reproduce must be obtained by the contributor, and the caption should include relevant copyright or photographic acknowledgement. In addition all authors of accepted contributions must sign a separate copyright indemnity agreement covering the use of both images and text, whether the author’s own, or extracts from other works cited in the author’s submission. The copyright form is incorporated into the submission form for articles which can be found on the Proceedings website pages.

The Society’s policy is to acquire copyright from all contributors, because:

a. ownership of copyright helps to ensure maximum international protection against infringement;
b. requests for permission to reproduce published material in books, course packs or for library loan can be dealt with efficiently with regard to changes in international copyright law;
c. the demand for research literature to be delivered in machine-readable form, online or on CD-ROM or down-loaded on a file server, can be met efficiently, with proper safeguards for authors, editors and publisher.

Authors who wish to reproduce material from previously published material, or where the copyright is owned by a third party, must obtain written permission from the copyright holder and the author(s) of the original material. Copyright is required for use in all formats (including digital) in perpetuity and in all geographical regions worldwide.

The Society will not withhold permission from the author(s) to use published material after publication, provided that acknowledgement is given to the Society as the original publisher. Further permission is required for re-publication to be made in a commercial product. Permission is never unreasonably withheld.

Where necessary final pre-publication versions of papers (but not published versions) may be included in institutional online repositories (e.g. Universities), but please contact the Editor in advance of uploading any such content.

Charges

The Proceedings is published as part of the charitable activities of the DNHAS. However, publication creates a significant cost for DNHAS. Consequently, whilst we are happy to carry submissions from academic, independent and commercial contributors, we make a charge for publication of all full articles which have resulted from work undertaken as part of a commercial project. We would also ask academic contributors to consider the inclusion of costs of publication as part of their original funding applications, in order to make a suitable contribution to our costs.

Where charges are made, this is done on a page basis. Our current rate is £50 per page, plus VAT. In some circumstances charges may also be requested of independent contributors where, or where excessive changes are made at a late stage in publication. Invoices will be issued on publication.

APPENDIX A – Style guide (NB this list is being constantly added to and amended as we come across issues – please double check – it saves us all work later!)

General

We aim to have consistent spelling across the journal, so please check that your spell checker is not set on American English – we favour ‘-ise’ over ‘-ize’ in most cases.

Please check for split infinitives which should be avoided.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations need to be spelled out in full at the first mention with the abbreviation included in parentheses, e.g. ‘Ordnance Survey (OS)’. Please do not use full stops to separate the letters, e.g. ‘DNHAS’ not ‘D.N.H.A.S.’. Please do not use & in references or text, please use ‘and’. & may be used in tables.

Formatting abbreviations

Please italicise et al, c. in situ but not i.e., e.g., cf. or pers. comm.

Dates

Known calendar should be referred to in the following format: 22 March 2021. Where referring to centuries etc the following formats are acceptable: ‘fourth century’, ‘4th century AD’, ‘3rd millennium BC’ etc. Please do not use abbreviations such as ‘C18th’. Where referring to a period of time, please capitalise e.g. Neolithic, Early Bronze Age etc, except in the case of ‘medieval’.

Numbers

Please always start sentence with a word not a figure. This includes references to periods of time, e.g. ‘Eighteenth century mores….’ As opposed to ‘18ᵗʰ century mores….’ In general, numbers may be used for amounts over 10, words for those less than 10.

Currency

Modern currency – pounds – should be expressed e.g. ‘£10’. However, historic currency should be italicised e.g. £ s. d.

Compass directions

Where referring to a relative direction these should be hyphenated e.g. north-east; where it refers to a location, avoid hyphenation e.g. north east England. Capitals should only be used in an accepted place name.

Figures and tables

Where referring to figures – ‘Figure’ to be spelt out in full in the caption and abbreviated in the text e.g. ‘Fig. 1’. These need to be numbered sequentially in relation to where they appear in the text (this also applies to tables). Where a figure is referred to within a reference, it should be expressed as ‘fig.1’

Appendix B – References/Bilbliofraphy Layout

In the Harvard system of referencing, also known as the ‘author-date’ system, cues in the text take the form of the author’s name and the (year) date of the publication within parentheses that enable the reader to identify the work in a list of full references at the end of the text, e.g. (Arkell 1933).

Where you are referring to a single issue/point in the work being referred to, please cite page numbers in the following layout: (Mills 1977, 230-1). Please do not use ‘p.’ to indicate page numbers. Where there are two authors please use (Chadd and Extence 2004), and for multiple authors (Fuller et al 1993). Please do not use ibid. etc as part of in text references. Include online sources in the same style, identifying the author of the web content and using the date it was accessed which should be noted in the bibliography. Please do not attempt to aggregate numerous editions of a publication into one reference; these need to be referred to separately in the text and bibliography.

Where endnotes are unavoidable, use Harvard referencing within them in the same way – please do not provide full references within them.

Full references should be presented as per the following examples. Please note the order, punctuation, italicisation of the main title of the work (not article titles) etc:

Anonymous, 1828a. ‘Pursuant to the Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors in England. The Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors’, Dorset County Chronicle (29 May), 1.

Arkell, W.J. 1933. The Jurassic System in Great Britain. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Chadd, R. and Extence, C. 2004. ‘The conservation of freshwater macroinvertebrate populations: a community based classification scheme’, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 14,
597-624.

Constable, B. 1992. Stratigraphy of the Upper Lias Junction Bed of Dorset and Somerset. Unpublished M.Sc. thesis Birkbeck College, University of London.

Cox, P. and Woodward, P. 1987. ‘The Kimmeridge shale’ in P.J. Woodward ‘The excavation of an Iron Age and Romano-British settlement at Rope Lake Hole, Corfe Castle, Dorset’, in N. Sunter and P. Woodward, Romano-British industries in Purbeck. Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society Monograph 6, 165-72.

Fuller, D.Q., Stevens, C.J. and McClatchie, M. 2014. ‘Routine activities, tertiary refuse and labor organization: social inference from everyday archaeobotany’, in M. Madella and M. Savard (eds), Ancient plants and people: contemporary trends in archaeobotany. University of Arizona Press, 174-217.

Fuller, R.M., Groom, G.B., Jones, A.R., and Thomson, A.G. 1993. ‘Land cover map 1990 (1km dominant target class, GB)’, https:/doi.org/10.5285/4e3fe599-1ae9-4dbb-9476-bcf74fe90b4e [accessed April 2017].

Hinton, D.A. 1994. ‘Some Anglo-Saxon charters and estates in south-east Dorset’, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 116, 11-20. Mills, A.D. 1977. The Place-names of Dorset, Part 1. English Place-name Society, Cambridge.