Focus

The Berkala Arkeologi Sangkhakala is an online and printed scientific publication edited and published by Balai Arkeologi Sumatera Utara.

The Berkala Arkeologi Sangkhakala offers a space to disseminate quality scientific works concerning basic or applied, experimental, epistemological and descriptive research on Archaeology, Anthropology, Ethnography, History and, its corresponding fields, and particularly cultural science from a archaeological perspective.

We are seeking to learn about how people lived in the past and how people in the present interpret to the past for the future. The scientific studies relating to this matter include:

• Past cultural material production, consumpsion and distribution
• Religion and symbol of the past
• Specific cultural dispersal
• Human migration
• Culture Resources Management
• Public Archaeology
• Thematic and specialised archaeology
• etc.

Berkala Arkeologi Sangkhakala prioritizes the publication of scientific contributions that explore the possibilities that archaeology, in its constant development, make to the field of culture.

Scope

The Berkala Arkeologi Sangkhakala it is a biannual publication. Focused on the area of Cultural Sciences, it publishes open without APC (Article Processing Charge), interdisciplinary contributions that address aspects related to archaeology and cultural science.

The Journal is directed at the entire national and international scientific community in particular the peer-reviewers, authors, and readers.

During the Journal’s 23 year uninterrupted career, it has published 44 issues containing more than 250 research articles.

Berkala Arkeologi Sangkhakala has been published for free by print means since 1997. In addition, it comes online in different formats (pdf. and .html) since 2015, and retrieval systems (DOI) to facilitate its visibility and retrieval. The Journal is indexed in various databases, directories.

Call for articles

The journal will call for articles every six months. In addition, it will publish previews of the following article, indicating the date on which the submission of proposals will be accepted so that authors interested in sending their proposals can find out about the topics in advance.

All originals, regardless of the section to which they are submitted, must be sent within the open period for each call for papers. Submissions outside the period indicated in each case will not be processed.

Step 1. Initial check

Once the period established for the call for articles is closed, the Editorial Committee, through the section editors, carries out a first review of the article to check that it rigorously and completely complies with the publication standards.

Even if an article has been sent at the beginning of the period of call for articles, this first check that starts the editorial process will not be carried out, for any of the sections, until the period of reception of originals is closed.

Depending on this first evaluation, it may happen:

• The article meets all editorial, thematic and formal criteria determined by the journal. Go to the review process (Go to step 2)
• The article does NOT meet one or several editorial, thematic and/or formal criteria. The article is returned to its authors.

Step 2. Submission to review

The article is submitted by the editors for external evaluation to at least two reviewers.

Step 3. Review Process

Once the review accept the assessment of the original documents, they undertake to submit the assessment result within 3 weeks of having received notification.

For the review process, the evaluators use the following which they complete through the OJS platform, guaranteeing the registration and traceability of the process.

If the reviewer cannot carry out the review for any justified reason, the Editorial Board will appoint another reviewer via the editor of the section. The status of appointed reviewers can be viewed by the authors in the submission record, as can the rest of the process. When more than one assessment is cancelled, this can affect the maximum time periods established in the “Review periods” section. The author will be notified of these circumstances so that they can decide whether to continue the process or to submit it to another publication.

Step 4. Editorial decision

Once the corresponding assessments are received, the editors will take the final decision on whether to accept or reject the work. The editors will send the work to new reviewers in the event of any doubt or controversy.

Finally, the Editorial Board will issue the final judgement, which may be:

1. Accepted without any amendments. The article is publishable. No changes are required (minor changes may be requested by the Editorial Board during the layout and proofreading if they are considered to be necessary)..
2. Accepted with minor changes. The article is accepted but the author must amend minor problems that are detailed in a report sent by the editor of the section at the proposal of the assessors. The author will amend and upload the corrected version of the article. Important: you do not need to create a new submission to upload the article’s latest version. It will be uploaded in the same space as the first submission. The amendments will be collated by the editor of the section to check if the correct amendments have been made. Should the contrary occur, the articles will be sent back to the author.
3. Accepted with big changes. The article is interesting and has been accepted, but substantial changes that affect important parts of the text need to be made for it to be published. Suggestions on the amendments to be made are detailed in a report by the editor of the section at the proposal of the assessors. The author will make the amendments and upload a corrected version of the article. Important: you do not need to create a new submission to upload the latest version. The document will be uploaded as a corrected version in the same space as the first submission. Other versions of these articles accepted with big changes will be revised by the assessors to check if the amendments have been made. If the revision does not incorporate the amendments or requested corrections, an unfavourable report will be sent and the article will be rejected.
4. Rejected. The article is inadequate and is not publishable. The article is returned to its author and filed in the journal’s submissions. The procedure closes. Articles that are rejected may not be resent to the journal.

The author will receive an express notification by email with the report issued by the Editorial Board as well as the assessments of the reviewers. You can consult said report and assessment via the editorial management system of the journal’s editorial, in the record associated with your submission.

Claims and complaints: The authors may transfer their complaints and / or complaints about the procedure and results of the evaluation through the contact systems available in the system of notifications of submission and follow-up of the article. The editors will respond to these complaints, suggestions or claims through this system that allows the traceability of the process. The final resolution issued by the editors will be unappealable and will end the claim process.

Step 5. Layout and proofreading

The articles that are accepted for publication will be sent to the layout editor. Once the layout has been carried out, it will be sent to be proofread by the author. The author has a maximum of 7 days to complete and send the proofread version.

No changes whatsoever can be made to the content or any substantial aspect of the text during the proofreading. Amendments can only be made during the layout process. Thus no references or additional parts can be included in the document. The review solely aims to detect any typing error or problem with the writing style or layout and give the text the final go ahead. Editorial regulations state that authors previously need to authorise the publication of the articles. The document is still considered to be a draft and may contain errors which must be amended in subsequent versions; therefore, the author must refrain from disseminating the article during this period.

The whole process of communication and submission of samples will be executed on the editorial management platform.

Proofreading will be carried out on a pdf draft document. Mistakes will be marked in colour or by adding comments (notes) to show the errors and the appropriate amendments to be made. Pdf software such as Adobe Writer, Adobe Professional or other similar programmes can be used to correct the mistakes. Should you not have these programmes, print the pdf document, correct the mistakes with clear handwriting and accurately showing the location of the corrections, scan it and send it in pdf format as an optimised document so that it doesn’t weigh more than 5 Mb.

Step 6. Publishing

Once the proofreading has been corrected, the articles will be scheduled for the issue which the Editorial Board considers appropriate (see section “agenda planning”). The author will be notified on the aforesaid decision.

However, a pre-print version may also be published in order to facilitate the article’s dissemination. Authors will be encouraged to self-file on all the information-sharing platforms and personal spaces they feel appropriate to boost the publication’s dissemination.

Planning of the Publication Schedule of the articles

The Editorial Board reserves the right to publish the accepted articles in the issue of the Journal that they consider appropriate, according to the following criteria:

• Relevance of the article in terms of the subject of the monograph.
• The number of articles previously scheduled for a particular issue.

Under no circumstances can an accepted article be scheduled for longer than 6 months from the date when the final report is sent.

Summary of the editorial process

The following scheme shows, schematically, the editorial process: