The Journal aims to publish papers in the full range of the field which the Roman Society was established to promote, that is ‘the study of the history, archaeology, literature, and art of Italy and the Roman Empire, from the earliest times down to about AD 700’. Although the emphasis of the Journal has been on historical themes, we welcome submissions on literary, archaeological and art historical topics, including those on issues of cultural and intellectual history that cut across these categories. Papers primarily concerned with the archaeology of Roman Britain should be sent in the first place to Britannia; those concerned with the archaeology of the Roman Empire at large are equally welcomed by this Journal.
The Journal seeks to publish papers that make a fresh and significant contribution to the understanding of the Roman world, and have the potential to stimulate further discussion. Though papers have in recent years tended to be lengthy, the Journal would like to publish more short articles which address issues of general importance. All papers should be carefully thought through and clearly argued; this does not necessarily involve a heavy use of footnotes, but does involve clear statement of the argument and of its broader significance, and adequate signposting to the reader of the steps in the argument. They should so far as possible be accessible to the non-specialist reader, and citations in ancient languages should always be translated.
The Journal is run by an Editorial Committee: Professor G. D. Woolf (Editor), Professor C.E.W. Steel (Review Editor), Professor W. Mary Beard, Professor E. Gillian Clark, Professor Catharine H. Edwards, Professor Martin D. Goodman, Professor Philip R. Hardie, Professor Henry R. Hurst, Dr Christopher Kelly, and Professor A.R. Sharrock. Submissions are circulated at the Editor’s discretion to members of the Committee and, where appropriate, to other specialist readers. In order to ensure maximum impartiality, all submissions are circulated without indication of authorship; it is helpful if submissions do not carry the author’s name, institutional affiliation or other indications of identity. The process of refereeing necessarily takes time, but authors may expect to receive a verdict within two or three months of submission. Detailed comments are normally sent only to authors of submissions which have been accepted, or which are thought suitable for resubmission. Authors are frequently invited to revise submissions in the light of such comments.
Electronic submission by e-mail to the Editor is preferred, but submissions in hard copy are also accepted. All submissions should be accompanied by a statement (on a separate sheet) of the name, title, affiliation and postal address of the author; none of these should appear on the submission itself. Documents may be submitted in Word or as PDFs. On occasion the Editor may request a hard copy and/or submission on CD-ROM if fonts or illustrations make this desirable. Further instructions will be issued to the authors of accepted articles regarding what is needed for the final version. The Journal is scheduled to appear in November each year. The optimum time for submission is between April and December of any given year for appearance in the following year’s issue.
Detailed guidelines on matters of presentation are available on the Society’s website http://www.romansociety.org/publications/contributions/style, but recent issues of the Journal should be treated as a general guide.
The Society’s website (www.romansociety.org) gives the table of contents and abstracts of all articles in the Journal. Whenever possible, articles include the e-mail address of the author. Current issues of the Journal and Britannia can be accessed online at IngentaConnect. The Society permits JSTOR (a system of electronic archiving) to put on its website back issues of the Journal; for information on access to Ingenta and JSTOR see inside back cover, or www.romansociety.org/back
Article submissions and all general enquiries should be addressed to the Editor, Professor G. D. Woolf, School of Classics, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL, UK (gdw2@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Correspondence relating to reviews should be addressed to the Review Editor, Professor C.E.W. Steel (c.steel@classics.arts.gla.ac.uk), Library of the Hellenic and Roman Societies, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU, UK.
Books for review should be sent to the Librarian, Hellenic and Roman Societies, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU, UK.