Journal information
Publisher: Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Publisher address: The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel
APC charges: None
Journal e-ISSN: 2788-8819
Journal DOI: 10.52486
Journal email: jjar@mail.huji.ac.il
Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology (JJAR) is an open access, peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary journal publishing original papers on the archaeology and cultural history of the Levant and adjacent regions. As an online, university-based journal, JJAR’s contributors enjoy the benefits of rapid publication and wide exposure, free of charge.
The Journal accepts papers dealing with all aspects of the ancient Near East and Levantine archaeology from the Lower Paleolithic to the present. The editors particularly welcome original interdisciplinary studies that incorporate methodologies of various fields—e.g., ancient texts, art history, geomorphology, paleontology, chemistry, anthropology, geography, and digital humanities—to open new horizons of archaeological research.
Papers submitted to JJAR should be no more than 12,000 words long (including bibliography). However, in exceptional cases, longer manuscripts will be considered.
JJAR follows a strict double-blind peer-review process and applies it resolutely to all manuscripts and publication formats.
Detailed process of evaluation
- Upon receipt, every submission will be confirmed by email. Note, JJAR considers the submission to imply that all authors approve of the manuscript.
- The managing editor will evaluate the manuscript to verify that it answers all necessary formal requirements (e.g., scope, maximum number of words, style of bibliographic references, and language).
- An anonymized version of the manuscript will be submitted to the discretion of two or more external reviewers.
- Upon receiving the reviewers’ feedbacks, an editorial decision will be made, determining whether a manuscript is (a) accepted, (b) accepted with minor revisions, (c) calls for major revisions before reconsideration, or (d) rejected.
- The editorial decision will be communicated to the corresponding author by email. The editors strive to do this within 90 days of the submission confirmation.
- Authors will be expected to submit revised manuscripts within 60 days of the editorial decision.
- Revised and resubmitted manuscripts will be handled at the editors’ discretion. However, the editors retain the right to hand a resubmitted manuscript to a second review.
Special issues
JJAR also publishes special thematic issues devoted to conference proceedings and topics of particular interest. These issues are spearheaded by a guest editor, who manages the peer-review process and decides on the conditions for an article’s publication. JJAR’s editorial board oversees the process to ensure that the journal’s high standards are maintained and that all ethical and procedural requirements are met. The editorial board is also the final arbiter on whether a manuscript is to be published.
Publication Ethics
JJAR adheres to the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
Authorship
All individuals who participated in the drafting and writing of a paper must be credited as authors. Authors are responsible and accountable for their contents, including their originality, truthfulness, accuracy, completeness, and transparency. Authorship requires complete disclosure of funding, licensing, institutional backing, data acquisition and production, and conflicts of interest. Failure to meet one or more of these requirements will preclude a manuscript’s publication in JJAR. Should the journal learn after the fact that a published paper neglected to mention crucial information or is suspected of misconduct, it may do one of the following, depending on the severity of the case at hand: retract the paper, demand that the authors promptly publish a correction, or issue a statement of concern in the relevant places.
Plagiarism, copyright, and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technology
JJAR takes the submission of a manuscript to mean that the authors declare its originality and give credit for ideas and passages where necessary. Failure to do so may be grounds for rejection or retraction.
Authors must own or have permission to publish copyrighted materials. Significantly, JJAR is an open-access journal, and unless stated otherwise, its contents may be reused freely for non-commercial purposes, contingent on credit. If restrictions on use are necessary, they must be stated explicitly.
JJAR allows the use of AI-assisted technologies. However, such use must be indicated explicitly in the acknowledgments, if used for writing assistance. or the methods section, if used for data collection, analysis, or the production of figures. Either way, the authors are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of the work submitted.
Israel, disputed territories, and the West Bank
JJAR is sensitive to the effects the region’s geopolitics have on the integrity of archaeological work. Further, JJAR acknowledges that its academic preoccupations do not deliver it from these geopolitics, in which it is implicated historically and institutionally. It, thus, will not refrain from publishing primary data that derive from politically contested areas. However, it will insist on full transparency concerning these details. Besides financing, institutional backing, and licensing, the journal distinguishes three territorial types:
- The territories within the internationally recognized borders of the state of Israel. Archaeological practice in these regions is governed by the Israeli law of antiquities and regulated by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
- Territories captured in the Six-Day War (1967) and annexed by the state of Israel but not recognized by the international community. These territories pertain to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. Professionally, archaeological work in these regions is subjected to the same regulations and requirements as those conducted within the internationally recognized borders of Israel. The journal insists that papers publishing sites and materials deriving from these areas will clearly state their location and international status.
- Territories captured in the Six-Day War (1967), not annexed by the State of Israel, and mostly still held under military law. These are collectively designated as the West Bank and consist of three areas: A, B, and C. Israel maintains civil control over Area C including management and regulation of archaeological fieldwork. The deciding law in the area is based on the Jordanian legal system that operated there until the war and militarily issued directives, while the body regulating archeological work in the area is the Staff Officer of Archaeology in Judea and Samaria. Thus, JJAR requires that authors publishing sites and materials from the West Bank clearly indicate their locations and legal standing.
Corrections and retractions
Ideally, publications are final. However, if necessary, the journal will not hesitate to publish corrections, clarifications, or apologies. Such circumstances include but are not limited to conflicts of interest revealed after publication, errors, and misleading statements.
The journal will retract a publication if it is the result of misconduct, has been published elsewhere, or constitutes a case of plagiarism.