Submissions

Author Guidelines

Paper submission

Article online submission: Original submissions will be through the platform. To start submission, the system requires the first time to be registered as an author; or login and access the author’s profile (if already registered). Submission of an original article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, part of a published lecture, academic thesis or diploma thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English, Spanish or in any other language.

Results of work contained in papers submitted to Virtual Archaeology Review (VAR) must not have been published previously in an international refereed scientific journal. Previous presentation at a scientific meeting, the data used in field reports or similar documents, including local technical press, does not preclude the publication of such data in VAR. Views expressed in papers published in VAR represent the opinion of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Spanish Society of Virtual Archaeology (SEAV) or the Editors.

Virtual Archaeology Review (VAR) does not have article submission charges but will rise article processing charges (APCs) depending on the research status of the authors since June 2022. For details click here.

Preparation of manuscripts

Language: The papers will be published in English and also in Spanish. Please write your text in the proper language (e.g. American or British, but not a mixture of these; idem with Spanish). It is strongly recommended to check English/Spanish grammar by a fluent native speaker before submission of the article.

Cover letter: The corresponding author should include the full names of all the authors, affiliations, emails and ORCID numbers (click to download the RTF/PDF cover letter file). One author should be identified as the corresponding author. Please give the affiliation where the research was conducted. Please supply details about any funding and the reference number. Please also select the authors’ research status. 

Template: Papers must conform to the template provided by the journal (click to download the MS Word template or PDF template). This format will not be amended or replaced by a different format.

Personal data: There must be neither names nor affiliations of the authors in the file that the user uploads to the platform. Similarly, any possible reference that might induce us to know who the author is must be omitted. These data must be filled in in the corresponding fields on the platform (as metadata) through the submission process, adding as many authors as signing the article.

Order: The paper (without appendices) should be compiled in the following order:

- Title;

- Abstract;

- Highlights;

- Main text (including Tables and Figures) and conventional headings (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions, among others). Section headings should be concise and numbered sequentially, using a decimal system for subsections.

- Acknowledgements (if any, in blank for reviewing);

- References.

Try not to exceed 25 pages, including artwork and references. Arial font will be always used. Regarding units, the International System of Units (SI) should be used. Not frequent characters or symbols should be explained in the text.

Papers sections:

- Title (VAR Title): The title of a technical paper should be concise and indicate clearly the subject matter (Arial font, bold, size 14, centred, capital letters).

- Authors (VAR Authors): The title should be followed in another line by the authors’ names (name and surname, Arial font, size 11, centred). The next line will contain the place of work (affiliation, city and country) and e-mail address (VAR Affiliation: Arial font, size 8, centred).

- Highlights (VAR Abstract Header) are mandatory in the main language. They consist of a short are short sentences that describe the main findings and the distinctive aspects of the article (VAR Highlights). Please include 3 bullet points (maximum 150 characters, including spaces, per bullet point).

- Abstract (VAR Abstract Header: Arial font, bold, size 9, left): Next line, abstract in English (a concise outline of the content of the paper using no more than 300 words) and up to six English keywords. If the paper is written in Spanish, an Extended Abstract in English is mandatory ranging from 600 up to 900 words; subsections and citations to references, figures or tables can be included. Spanish versions of the abstract should be provided as far as the authors’ capability permits and up to six Spanish keywords. (VAR Abstract: Arial font, size 9, justified text).

- Keywords (VAR Keywords Header): Indicate 3 to 6 keywords in English (VAR Keywords).

It is recommended to include the title, the abstract and the keywords also in Spanish, as far as the authors’ capability permits. If one is translated into Spanish, the other two must be also translated.

- Title in Spanish (VAR Título: Arial font, size 9, justified, capital letters). Optional.

- Abstract (VAR Abstract Header: Arial font, bold, size 9, left): Next line, abstract in Spanish as far as the authors’ capability permits. (VAR Abstract: Arial font, size 9, justified text). Optional.

- Keywords (VAR Keywords Header): Indicate 3 to 6 keywords in Spanish (VAR Keywords). Optional.

- Section headings (VAR Header 1: Arial font, bold, size 11, centred, numbered) should be concise and numbered sequentially, using a decimal system for both header sections and header subsections (VAR Header 2: Arial font, bold, size 10, left, numbered; VAR Header 3: Arial font, bold, size 9, left, numbered; VAR Header 4: Arial font, size 9, left, numbered).

- Text (VAR Normal: Arial font, size 9, justified text, two columns): Type text single-space in double columns.

Illustrations and tables:

All the figures, graphics, images and tables must be placed in the text in the appropriate location, as close as possible to the reference. They will be ordered sequentially (Figure 1, Figure 2; Table 1...). If references are part of the text, it is recommended to use its complete form (e.g. ‘Figure 1’); if they are not connected to the text, they must be referenced in brackets (e.g. ‘Fig. 1’). To identify different images in figures such as Fig. 1a and Fig. 1b, VAR Figure Sub-caption will be used for text lines (a), (b)... just below the images.

VAR Figure Caption Label (Arial font, bold, size 8, centred) and VAR Figure Caption (Arial font, size 8, centred) will be simultaneously used for the figure captions (just beneath the illustration), the former label style for ‘Figure X’ and the latter for the caption itself.

Figures (diagrams, images, maps, sketches) and tables will be adapted to the printing width: 80 mm one-column; 170 mm two-columns. The authors are free to add new sections with one column for imagery and tables (and corresponding captions); afterwards, the two columns will follow.

The content of the illustrations should be large enough to guarantee proper visualisation and understanding. Colour imagery is highly recommended. Good quality images are requested for publication. Try to avoid low-resolution figures and tables embedded within the document. It is not allowed to overlay Word objects such as text and drawings on any image. Please insert the composed figures (with objects) as images in TIFF, PNG or JPG.

Similarly to figures, tables also have styles. VAR Table Caption Label (Arial font, bold, size 8, centred) and VAR Table Caption (Arial font, size 8, centred) will be simultaneously used for the table captions (above the table), the former label style for ‘Table T’ and the latter for the caption itself. For the first row of the table, the VAR Table First Row (Arial font, size 8, centred, italics) will be used. The rest of the values will follow the style VAR Table Data (Arial font, size 8, centred).

Mathematics

Normal mathematical conventions should be followed for equations. This implies Times New Roman italics for symbols representing scalars and points (VAR Scalar: Times New Roman font, size 9, italics e.g. x y z X Y Z), lower case normal symbols for vectors (v) (VAR Vector: Times New Roman font, size 9), upper case normal symbols for matrices (A^TA, confirm the convention for transpose, with superscript ^T) (VAR Matrix: Times New Roman font, size 9, capital letters), and normal type for units (m, mm...) and all numerals including subscripts and superscripts (12, x³, α₁₂) (not italic, VAR Superscript and VAR Subscript, respectively). All symbols should be defined when first used, and the use of the same symbol for different parameters within the same paper should be avoided. Equations must be numbered sequentially and referenced in the text.

Units

All units must be reported in the Système International d’Unités (SI).

The symbol for the decimal marker shall be the point (e.g. 9.95 m, 123.43 m², 20.7 ºC).

For coordinates, parentheses will be used as well as commas to separate numbers, for instance, (0.997, 0.004), (700345.76, 4567253.56, 10.76). For dimensions, the ‘x’ will be used, e.g. 3.1 x 4.8 x 6.6 m.

Abbreviations and acronyms

They should be clearly spelt out and defined the first time they are used in the text.

Acknowledgements

Please insert acknowledgements (VAR Header: Arial font, bold, size 11, centred, unnumbered) in a separate section at the end of the article before the references. Do not include them as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those persons or companies who provided help during the research (e.g., proofreading, language help, free provided data, etc.).

Supplementary files (optionally)

It is possible to provide supplementary files to your manuscript. This data can be images, tables, PowerPoint, 3D files or any other kind of data enhancing your contribution. Supplementary files will be provided on the journal’s website under your article accessible via the same DOI. If you wish to add supplementary files, please follow the template for supplementary files (click to download the MS Word template_Sup or PDF template_Sup). You can find the template here. If your manuscript contains supplementary files, please insert a separate section (VAR Sup: Arial font, size 11, left-aligned text, unnumbered, spacing before 12 pt and after 6 pt) at the end of the article between Acknowledgements and Authors Contributions. List herein with VAR Normal following general information: ‘This article contains supplementary files accessible via https://doi.org/NNNNNNNN.’ The Link will be updated by the editors.

Citations and references

All in-text references must be cited in the text, with hyperlinks to the corresponding items in the References section (VAR hyperlink). Citations must follow the author-date style for referencing according to the American Psychological Association (APA), 6^th Edition. The usage of reference management software in your word processor (that supports citation styles such as Mendeley) is highly recommended to format automatically your citations and references in the journal’s APA6th style referencing. Please note that instead of ‘DOI’, the following syntax must be inserted: ‘doi:’. Sometimes the information about the dissertation, doctoral thesis or master thesis is omitted. Therefore, the authors should check carefully the lack of information in order to fulfil the data.

Please make use of the VAR Ref Header (Arial font, bold, size 11, left-aligned text, unnumbered, spacing before 24 pt and after 6 pt) for the Reference Header and VAR References (Arial font, size 9, justified text, hanging indentation 0.5 cm, spacing after 6 pt, line spacing exactly at 12 pt) for the full list of references.

For in-text reference with one author, for information prominent, the author’s name is within parentheses such as in (Barceló, 2012) (example of a citation with a hyperlink to the reference); for author prominent, the author’s name is outside the parenthesis, for instance, “Fangi (2009) states that....”. When the reference has two authors the citation must be (Forte & Siliotti, 1997). For the first in-text reference with three to five authors, list all the authors’ family names, e.g. (Domingo, Villaverde, López-Montalvo, Lerma, & Cabrelles, 2013), then use the first author’s family name followed by ‘et al.’ for subsequent entries, e.g. (Domingo et al., 2013); for six or more authors, list only the first author’s family name followed by ‘et al.’. All the authors should appear in each entry of the References section, i.e. authors must avoid the ‘et al.’ abbreviation in that section, unless eight or more authors; in this case, the reference list include the first six authors’ names, then insert three ellipsis points (...), and add the last author’s name.

For several works by the same author in the same year, please arrange alphabetically by title in the reference list, and place lowercase letters “a”, “b”, “c” etc. immediately after the year. List two or more works by different authors who are cited within the same parentheses in alphabetical order by the first author's surname; separate the citations with semicolons (;), for instance (Böhler, 2006; Domingo et al., 2013; Fangi, 2009).

If the digital object identifier (DOI) exists, it must be included for each reference. Examples of references for different types of documents are given below:

- Book:

Forte, M., & Siliotti, A. (1997). Virtual archaeology: re-creating ancient worlds. London: Harry N Abrams B.V.

- Chapter from an edited book:

Böhler, W. (2006). Comparison of 3D laser scanning and other 3D measurement techniques. In M. Baltsavias, A. Gruen, L. Van Gool, & M. Pateraki (Eds.), Recording, modeling and visualization of cultural heritage (pp. 89–100). London: Taylor & Francis Group.

- Journal article:

Barceló, J. A. (2012). Computer simulation in archaeology. Art, science or nightmare? Virtual Archaeology Review, 3(5), 8–12. http://doi.org/10.4995/var.2012.4489

Domingo, I., Villaverde, V., López-Montalvo, E., Lerma, J. L., & Cabrelles, M. (2013). Latest developments in rock art recording: towards an integral documentation of Levantine rock art sites combining 2D and 3D recording techniques. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40(4), 1879–1889. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.11.024

- Papers which appear in long-running series such as the ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, or The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences should be referenced as:

Evgenikou, V., & Georgopoulos, A. (2015). Investigating 3D reconstruction methods for small artifacts. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 40-5/W4, 101–108. http://doi.org/10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-5-W4-101-2015

- Paper in conference proceedings:

Fangi, G. (2009). Further developments of the spherical photogrammetry for cultural heritage. In XXII CIPA Symposium (pp. 11–15). Kyoto, Japan.

- Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses:

El-Sheimy, N. (1996). The development of VISAT-a mobile survey system for GIS applications (Doctoral dissertation, University of Calgary). Retrieved from http://www.ucalgary.ca/engo_webdocs/KPS/96.20101.NEl-Sheimy.pdf

Capacchione, S. (2014). La geomatica per la documentazione 3D in ambito archeologico (Master’s thesis). Politecnico di Torino, Italy.

- Monography:

Cothren, J. D. (2005). Reliability in constrained Gauss-Markov models: an analytical and differential approach with applications in photogrammetry. Geodetic and GeoInformation Science. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University.

- Webpage:

Wu, C. (2011). VisualSFM: A Visual Structure from Motion System. Retrieved March 22, 2016, from http://ccwu.me/vsfm/

- Open data repository:

Palomar-Vázquez, J., & Viñals-Blasco, M. J. (2016). Replication Data for: Exploración de las posibilidades de la librería Three-js en proyectos de difusión del patrimonio cultural. Harvard Dataverse, V1. http://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/Q3H81Y

Other publications will always contain author, year, title, and publication venue.

ORCID

Since November 2017, VAR embeds and requires ORCID identifiers in its peer-reviewing system and workflow, in a way that distinguishes any author from every other researcher, ensuring that your work is recognised. Find out more information about ORCID’s non-profit organisation at https://orcid.org/.

Assignment of rights

When an article was accepted for publication, the journal will ask the corresponding author for an assignment of rights document signed by all authors that appear in it.

APCs

Since June 2022, authors -whose articles have been accepted for publication- will be requested to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) of 499€ (download) to cover management and article production costs. However, there are three exceptions to the general rule: 1) papers submitted by researchers without economic support, there will be no APC; 2) authors included in the research4life country Group A (low income), there will be no APC; 3) papers submitted by authors included in the research4life country Group B (middle income) countries, areas and territories, an APC discount of 50% will be applied.

The corresponding author will be requested to select their status about APC in the cover letter.