Manuscript submission
Plan
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The Revue archéologique de l’Ouest (RAO) publishes original research on the archaeology of the prehistoric, protohistoric and historic periods in north-western France (Brittany, Normandy, Pays de la Loire).
The journal accepts submissions up to a maximum length of 100,000 characters (including spaces and bibliography), with a maximum of 20 figures.
The journal promotes the publication of regional or interregional review articles and monographs on new subjects of significance which merit publication. Brief notes offering a new perspective on specific subjects are also considered. There is a section devoted to reviews.
Authors bear sole responsibility for their articles, both in terms of the ideas expressed and in the event of disputes which may arise (notably involving the use of documentary sources). It is therefore incumbent on authors to ensure that the sources used can be reproduced and to obtain all the necessary permissions.
However, in line with the guidelines of the Conseil national de la recherche archéologique (CNRA), the Revue specifies that it will not publish material on finds which are undeclared or the result of illegal activities.
Acceptance of manuscripts is subject to the technical and scientific approval of an Editorial Committee, based on scrutiny by at least two readers, one of whom must be external to the Committee.
“Preliminary proposals” for articles can be submitted at any point in order to obtain a clearer idea about the scope of the manuscript before developing it further, as the Editorial Committee is keen to engage in constructive dialogue with authors as early as possible in the process.
Manuscript submission
All manuscripts must be submitted in digital format to the Editorial assistant: Cyril Marcigny (cyril.marcigny@inrap.fr).
The text must be presented in 11-point font, with a minimum line spacing of 1.5. Figures must be submitted in a separate folder from the text.
Manuscript evaluation
All manuscripts are evaluated by two readers (an Editorial Committee member and an external researcher) with acknowledged experience in the field relating to the article.
The scientific comments from the readers consulted by the Reading Committee are forwarded to the author on receipt, accompanied by technical comments from the Editorial assistant (in the event of a rejection, an explanation is provided).
Authors have sole responsibility for the ideas expressed under their signature, but the Reading Committee reserves the right to refuse publication of contributions which contravene the law or professional ethics.
The Editorial assistant will notify the lead author of any revisions required as a result of the readers’ recommendations.
A manuscript is only considered to be “accepted” when the Editorial assistant has approved the final version.
- The Reading Committee finalises the table of contents for the journal approximately four months prior to the publication date, based on submission and acceptance dates for manuscripts, and taking into account the thematic and geographical balance in each issue and layout constraints.
- If an accepted article is held over, it has priority for the next issue; it can therefore be considered as “forthcoming” and cited as such in a bibliography.
Manuscript preparation
Text
The title should be brief but explicit and accompanied by the unabbreviated first name(s) and surname(s) of the author(s). Their title(s), institutional affiliation(s) and scientific contact address(es) should appear in a footnote.
In the title, the name of the site must always be accompanied by the name of the commune with the name of the département given in full in brackets, [e.g. (Calvados) rather than (14)]. The use of the département number is also discouraged in the text itself other than in exceptional circumstances (e.g. space constraints in a table).
Subheadings should be included to structure the text wherever necessary, but excessive use is to be avoided; no more than three levels should be used.
The body of the text should be preceded by:
- an abstract which is brief but genuinely informative (this is a key document as it will be used in databases indexing the journal);
- keywords (a maximum of 10 words carefully selected for their relevance, for the reason cited above).
The text will be followed by:
- a bibliography presented according to the rules given below and containing all references cited in the text (and only those references, except where specifically mentioned);
- a list of figure captions which should reference the site or the general subject, be brief but explicit, and include “illustration credits” (authors’ names and/or any “sources”)
Footnotes
Footnote references in the text should appear in superscript.
- The footnote reference should be placed before the punctuation or closing quotation marks.
- Footnotes must be kept to an absolute minimum. They should not be used for bibliographic references (which should be inserted in the text, see below).
Bibliographic references
- Bibliographic references should be incorporated into the text in the form (author, date, p. xx). If there are more than two authors, use the following form (lead author et al. date, p. xx). If the same author occurs several times with separate references for the same year, add a, b, etc. to the year. For example: (Dupont, 1988, p. 25); (Dupont and Martin, 1997, p. 18-24); (Dupont et al., 2003, p. 1-3); (Dupont 1989a, p. 2); (Dupont 1989b, p. 28).
- If there are several successive bibliographic references in a set of brackets, they should be separated by semi-colons and ordered from the earliest to the most recent.
- References to classical authors and works should be presented as follows: Ovid, Tristia IV, 1, 29. If required, use the Gaffiot or Bailly abbreviations. Example: It forms a key site, possibly the ancient Vada (Tac., H. V, 20-21).
References to figures and tables
- Number figures consecutively (Arabic numerals); and number tables consecutively (Roman numerals).
- References to figures and tables should take the following form (fig. 1) or (tabl. I).
- “plates” (pl.) should only be used for documents which are inserted outside the text.
Translations
- The title of the article, abstract, keywords and captions for figures should all be translated into English.
- Translations provided by authors will be checked by an English-speaking expert prior to publication (translations into a second language may also be considered if they are relevant to the subject matter).
Illustrations
For line drawings, pay particular attention to the following points:
- Line quality (density, consistent thickness, precise joins);
- Compliance with the standard conventions of archaeological drawing;
- Graphical scale (and north on plans); do not give a numerical scale in captions (editing constraints may affect the level of scaling down);
- Typography should be consistent, discreet and legible (font and size); keep inset text in figures to an absolute minimum as it causes problems during transfers; refer comments to the caption text. (In CAD, ensure that the typography is grouped in a separate layer);
- Avoid digital bricolage (combining too many documents from different applications);
- Beware of the effects of scaling down: lines which are too thin, letters which are too small and illegible, and halftones which are too fine, heavy or “murky”. With Illustrator, lines should have a minimum thickness of 0.25 points; avoid using the “adjust thickness” function.
- Respect justifications: compliance with standards is imperative:
- The RAO is printed in 21.5 × 28 cm format in two columns.
- Justifications are as follows: page height: 23.8 cm; page width: 16.8 cm; column width: 8 cm.
- For figures, remember that these justifications include caption placement.
Guidelines for the composition of figures:
- Include a location map of the site(s) studied at the beginning of the article;
- Be selective: an article cannot include all the documentation relating to an excavation report.
- A border can be placed around the figures, but do not materialize the page itself;
- Do not extend beyond the virtual frame justification: even a small overlapping segment of line can compromise the page layout and/or require a higher level of scaling down;
- Avoid different levels of scaling down and different orientations;
- Avoid “Italian-style” plates (full page widthways) which are difficult to view in a publication bound in the French style.
For English typographic conventions, refer to a style guide such as the New Oxford Style Manual.
Tables - Figures - Equations
Tables
- It is generally preferable to have more rows than columns.
- Avoid a proliferation of “micro-tables” which only show small amounts of data and also full-page “blocks” of numbers.
- Create tables using Excel, or in Word using text tabulation (avoid the “Table” function in Word).
Photographs must be of good quality and carefully edited (cropping, removal of backgrounds, etc.). Submit files in TIFF format with good resolution (300 dpi minimum) and in the appropriate colour mode (illustrations in grayscale or in CMJN if they are to be printed in colour). RVB documents and low resolution documents will not be accepted (there is nothing to be achieved by converting a 72 dpi image into 300 dpi; the damage is already done).
Acknowledgements
The acknowledgements should only mention people (and organisations) who have made a tangible contribution to scientific, technical and financial aspects of the research and to enhancing the presentation.
References - bibliography
The author is responsible for the accuracy of all details in the references. In the text, citations should give the surname of the author and the year of publication. For example, a text by D. Martin and H. Mann published in 1999 will be shown as: Martin and Mann (1999) or (Martin and Mann, 1999), depending on the sentence structure. In a list, citations must be separated by semi-colons. The abbreviation et al. following the name of the lead author should only be used where there are more than two authors in the reference.
Mandatory elements for all bibliographies: the abbreviated first name and the surname of the author, the title of the work or article, the place of publication and the publisher for works, the collection for periodicals, the year of publication and the pagination. The bibliography should only contain references explicitly cited in the text.
The bibliography should be constructed as a list from the works cited, arranged in alphabetical order by author, and in chronological order of publication for each author.
If the work mentioned is a reprint of an older edition, cite the date of the first edition in square brackets after the date of the reprint.
Works
- Bastard G., 1880, Saint-Nazaire, son histoire, les découvertes du bassin de Penhoët, le Portus Brivates des Romains, Nantes, Grimaud, 46 p.
- Serna V. (dir.), 2013, Le Cher. Histoire et archéologie d’un cours d’eau, Tours, FERACF, (43e supplément à la Revue archéologique du Centre de la France), 326 p.
Excavation report
- Viau Y. (dir.), 2010, Ancenis, Zac de la Savinière zone 5. Un village ligérien du Bronze à La Tène, rapport final d’opération, Cesson-Sévigné, Inrap Grand-ouest, vol. 1, 357 p.
Contribution to a work or to conference proceedings
- Dumont A., 2010, « Franchir les fleuves : le pont, point de passage obligé. L’exemple de la Loire à l’époque gallo-romaine », dans Le Bihan J.-P., Guillaumet J.-P. (dir.), Routes du monde et passages obligés, Actes du colloque international organisé à Ouessant (27-28 septembre 2007), Quimper, Centre de recherche archéologique du Finistère, p. 193-221.
Article in a periodical
- Kerviler R., 1882, « Les Vénètes, César et Brivates Portus », Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Nantes et du département de la Loire-Inférieure, 22, p. 5-46.
- Nauleau J.-F., 2016, « Les tuiles et les briques au Moyen Âge en Pays de la Loire : un état de la question, Revue archéologique de l’Ouest, 33, p. 277-310.
Theses and academic works
- Ambert M., 1973, Géomorphologie de l’étang de Berre, thèse de 3e cycle, université d’Aix-Marseille, 460 p.
Digital document
- Citation for a website or digital document on a website: AUTHOR’S SURNAME, FIRST NAME, year, bibliographical references, online document, consulted (date): [internet address].
PLEASE NOTE
For a reference with more than two authors cited in the text in the form (1st author et al., Year), all authors must be named in the general bibliography. This is also the case for all bibliographical references (works, excavation reports, articles, etc.)
Example for a reference (Blanchet et al. 2017) cited in the text:
- Blanchet S., Nicolas T., Fily M., 2017, « L’habitat et l’occupation du sol : premier bilan synthétique pour la Bretagne », dans Carozza L., Marcigny C., Talon M. (dir.), L’habitat et l’occupation des sols à l’âge du Bronze et au début du premier âge du Fer, Inrap/CNRS Éditions, Paris (Recherches archéologiques 12), p. 79-93.
Acceptance of the manuscript
After addressing any comments made by the Readers’ Committee, the author will provide a hard copy as soon as possible, along with their digital copy including:
- A “main text” file (preferably in Word), without paragraph formatting or tabulation (only line breaks, italics, bold and capitals are permitted) and comprising all the elements to be typeset in sequence: title, name(s) of the author(s), abstract, keywords, running text and bibliography.
- A “captions” file (in the same format as the previous file) comprising the list of figures and the list of tables (please remember to credit them).
- One file per table or illustration. Each document must be clearly identified (by its fig., table or plate no.).
Proofs
Once the text has been accepted for publication, the author will receive proofs for review (PDF format). During this review, it is strongly recommended that you read the article very carefully and indicate any queries or corrections that need to be made. This is the final stage before publication, and no further corrections can be made subsequently. Proofs must be returned within one week of receipt. Corrections that involve significant changes to the approved version of the manuscript will not be accepted.
Transfer of rights
When the manuscript is published, the author will transfer their rights to the publisher.
Cover photographs
The editorial team is also keen to receive quality illustrations for the cover, with a minimum resolution of 300 ppp. Authors will not receive any financial compensation if their photograph is selected.
Contact
Please send all scientific or editorial correspondence to:
Revue archéologique de l’Ouest
Cyril Marcigny
Le Chaos,
14400 Longues-sur-Mer
cyril.marcigny@inrap.fr
Please send business correspondence and payments to:
Presses universitaires de Rennes
2 avenue Gaston-Berger CS 24307
35043 RENNES Cedex
pur@univ-rennes2.fr
Potential works for review should be sent either to Cyril Marcigny’s address above or to:
Yves Henigfeld and Sylvie Boulud-Gazo
Nantes Université
UFR Histoire, Histoire de l’Art et Archéologie
Chemin de la Censive du Tertre
BP 81227
44 312 Nantes Cedex

