Below is a list of open access English language cultural anthropology titles with general information about the journal’s policies and website for authors to consider when choosing a venue to publish their work. If you would like to learn more about the various Creative Commons licenses, check this link. Journal titles with some missing descriptive data have been contacted and updates will be ongoing as they respond. Note that the inclusive dates after the title are meant to describe what is available to read freely online, which may or may not represent the true life of the journal.
For a more comprehensive listing of titles, including multidisciplinary journals of interest to cultural anthropologists, see this earlier post. My plan is to update this post with those additional titles in the spring semester.
Africa Spectrum, 2009-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: GERMAN INSTITUTE OF GLOBAL AND AREA STUDIES
Scope: “current issues in political, social and economic life; culture; and development in sub-Saharan Africa”
- Usage: CC-BY-ND
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: URN
- View open metadata: YES
- Data preservation: Hamburg University Press & German National Library
Africa Studies Quarterly, 1997-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA CENTER FOR AFRICAN STUDIES
Scope: “original manuscripts on a full range of topics related to Africa in all disciplines”
- Usage: © UF Board of Trustees
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: NO
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View Open Metadata: NO
- Data preservation: University of Florida Library
Anthropoetics: Journal of Generative Anthropology, 1995-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: UCLA
Scope:”studies the works of human culture on the hypothesis that language, religion, art, and all things specifically human can be traced to a unique scene of origin”
- Usage: “The Author shall remain the sole owner of his/her manuscript and the copyright in that manuscript.”
- Peer review: ??
- Author fee: ??
- Abstracts: NO
- Keywords: NO
- Social network buttons: YES
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data Preservation: ??
Anthropological Notebooks, 1995-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: SLOVENIAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Scope: “The journal publishes manuscripts from the anthropological and related fields.”
- Usage: © Slovene Anthropological Society, reprints allowed with permission
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: Slovenian National University Library
Anthropology & Aging, 2012-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: ASSOCIATION FOR ANTHROPOLOGY AND GERONTOLOGY
Scope: “We are particularly interested in manuscripts that have cross-disciplinary appeal, that present cutting-edge research and bring creative and stimulating insight to aging studies and the human condition across the life course.”
- Usage: CC-BY
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: AAGE MEMBERSHIP
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: DOI
- View open metadata: YES
- Data preservation: LOCKSS
Anthropology of This Century, 2011-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: NONE
Scope: “reviews of recent works in anthropology and related disciplines, as well as occasional feature articles” (does not accept unsolicited manuscripts)
- Usage: © AOTC PRESS, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
- Peer review: UPON REQUEST
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: NO
- Keywords: NO
- Social network buttons: YES
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: Online backup
Anthropology Matters, 1999-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS OF THE UK AND COMMONWEALTH
Scope: “issues of relevance to the learning and teaching of anthropology”
- Usage: “Individual contributors retain the copyright to their published material”
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: YES
- Data preservation: Online backup
Anthropology of East Europe Review, 1983-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Scope: “to showcase fresh, up-to-date research and to help build a community of scholars who focus on the region [Eastern Europe, Russia, the Balkans, and Central Asia]”
- Usage: CC-BY
- Peer review: INTERNAL REVIEW ONLY
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: YES
- Data Preservation: LOCKSS & CLOCKSS
Asian Ethnology, 1942-2013
Affiliation/ Sponsor: NANZAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR RELIGION AND CULTURE
Scope: “scholarly research on the peoples and cultures of Asia”
- Usage: © Asian Ethnology
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: DOI FORTHCOMING
- View open metadata: NO
- Data Preservation: Institutional repository
Compaso: Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology, 2010-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
Scope: “Each Journal issue is centered on a specific topic, announced by a Call for Papers”
- Usage: CC-NC-ND
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: Institutional repository
Cultural Anthropology, 1986-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: SOCIETY FOR CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Scope: “anthropological research, critical analysis, and academic writing of the very highest order”
- Usage: © American Anthropological Association
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: SCA MEMBERSHIP
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: YES
- Persistent ID for articles: DOI
- View open metadata: NO
- Data Preservation: LOCKSS & CLOCKSS
Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 2005-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY
Scope: “the areas of sociology and anthropology of Nepal and other regions”
- Usage: © Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology
- Peer review: Yes
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: Yes
- Keywords: Yes
- Social network buttons: No
- Persistent ID for articles: DOI
- View open metadata: Yes
- Data preservation: LOCKSS (forthcoming)
Durham Anthropology Journal, 2004-2013
Affiliation/ Sponsor: DURHAM UNIVERSITY DEPT. OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Scope: “all anthropology topics, including social anthropology, medical anthropology, and evolutionary anthropology”
- Usage: “The authors retain the copyright”
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: ??
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: Durham Research Online Repository
Global Ethnographic, 2012-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: ORGANIZATION FOR INTRA-CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
Scope: “field research and perspectives shaping our social world”
- Usage: “The Author agrees to a transfer of Copyright to the Publisher… [and] retains the right to use the Article in a non-commercial manner”
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: SOME
- Keywords: SOME
- Social network buttons: YES
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: Institutional repository
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2011-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: HAU-NETWORK OF ETHNOGRAPHIC THEORY
Scope: “to reinstate ethnographic theorization in contemporary anthropology”
- Usage: CC-NC-ND
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: YES
- Persistent ID for articles: DOI
- View open metadata: YES
- Data preservation: LOCKSS
Himalayan Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 2004-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY, NEPAL
Scope: “to provide relevant readings for the students”
- Usage: ??
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: ??
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: DOI
- View open metadata: YES
- Data preservation: ??
Imponderabilia, 2009-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Scope: “a multidisciplinary student journal on anything anthropological”
- Usage: ??
- Peer review: ??
- Author fee: ??
- Abstracts: NO
- Keywords: NO
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: ??
Irish Journal of Anthropology 1996-2012 (2013-2014 EMBARGO; 2008-2010 MISSING)
Affiliation/ Sponsor: ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND
Scope: “coverage of Irish related matters and issues of general anthropology”
- Usage: ©ANTHROPOLOGY IRELAND, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: YES
- Persistent ID for articles: DOI forthcoming
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: Institutional repository
Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford, 1970-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF OXFORD
Scope: “especially but not entirely research that can be considered ‘work in progress’.”
- Usage: CC-BY
- Peer review: INTERNAL REVIEW ONLY
- Author fee: “These are set at 1p sterling (£0.01), and should be paid in cash when the author bumps into one of the Editors or anyone who knows them”
- Abstracts: SOME
- Keywords: SOME
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: University of Oxford Bodeleian Library
Journal of Business Anthropology, 2012-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL
Scope: “results of anthropological research in business organizations and business situations of all kinds”
- Usage: “Copyright for all material published on the journal’s Open Access website remains with its authors”
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: YES
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: ??
Museum Anthropology Review, 2007-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Scope: “advancing the field of material culture and museum studies, broadly conceived”
- Usage: CC-BY
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: DOI
- View open metadata: YES
- Data preservation: LOCKSS & CLOCKSS
Nordic Journal of African Studies, 1992-2013
Affiliation/ Sponsor: UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI
Scope: “African language studies, African literatures, African cultural studies”
- Usage: ©Nordic Association of African Studies
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: University of Helsinki
Omertaa, 2007-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: EXPEDITIONS, RESEARCH IN APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
Scope: “the broader field of Applied Anthropology and related issues”
- Usage: “The authors themselves” retain copyright
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: University of Leuven, Belgium
Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal, 2010-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: NONE
Scope: “social-scientific approaches to the study of paranormal experiences, beliefs and phenomena”
- Usage: CC-BY-SA
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: No
- Abstracts: NO
- Keywords: NO
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: Archive.org
PopAnth
Affiliation/ Sponsor: NONE
Scope: “translates anthropological discoveries for popular consumption”
- Usage: “authors retain copyright”
- Peer review: INTERNAL REVIEW ONLY
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: NO
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: YES
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: Online backup
Radical Anthropology
Affiliation/Sponsor: RADICAL ANTHROPOLOGY GROUP
Scope: “a forum for discussing the political lessons that can be drawn from anthropology’s knowledge of the range of human possibilities”
- Usage: “Anti-copyright: all material may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes”
- Peer review: INTERNAL REVIEW ONLY
- Author fee: no
- Abstracts: NO
- Keywords: NO
- Social network buttons: NO
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: University of East London ROAR
Structure and Dynamics, 2005-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: CALIFORNIA DIGITAL LIBRARY
Scope: “human evolution, social structure and behavior, culture, cognition, or related topics”
- Usage: CC-BY
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: YES
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: YES
- Data preservation: California Digital Library
Tipiti: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America, 2003-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: SOCIETY FOR THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF LOWLAND SOUTH AMERICA
Scope: “high-quality, original anthropological research on lowland South America”
- Usage: “authors assign to Digital Commons @ Trinity all copyright in the article, subject to the expansive personal use exceptions”
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: NO
- Keywords: NO
- Social network buttons: YES
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: Digital Commons at Trinity University
The Unfamiliar, 2012-2014
Affiliation/ Sponsor: UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Scope: “featuring not only academically informed articles and book reviews but creative work”
- Usage: CC-NC-SA
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: NO
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: NO
- Social network buttons: YES
- Persistent ID for articles: DOI
- View open metadata: YES
- Data preservation: LOCKSS
Vis-à-vis: Explorations in Anthropology, 2008-2013
Affiliation/ Sponsor: UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
Scope: “graduate student work from any of the anthropology sub-fields”
- Usage: CC-NC-SA
- Peer review: YES
- Author fee: ??
- Abstracts: YES
- Keywords: YES
- Social network buttons: YES
- Persistent ID for articles: NO
- View open metadata: NO
- Data preservation: ??
Thanks Matt for putting this together, and posting it here. Can I ask that you give a description of the categories you use, and also why you decided to include them? I’m glad you did. This is a great chance for your readers to learn more about how journals differ, and this might matter for authors, librarians, and readers.
This is an excellent service, Matt. Please add Anthropology Review Database (ARD), an open access non-serial publication. We mostly publish reviews of books snd films, but also welcome reviews of software and websites of interest to anthropologists. Reviews are published as they clear editorial screening. wings.buffalo.edu/ard
Hugh Jarvis
University at Buffalo
apy-ard@buffalo.edu
Material World Blog, http://www.materialworldblog.com, also has an Occasional Paper Series that has been going for a number of years publishing ad hoc work that would have a hard time getting published (e.g. alternative, experimental formats). Peer review by our editorial board and indexed by the Library of Congress. Fully open access…
Thank you Hugh Jarvis and Haidy Geismar, I will include your titles in the next iteration of the list which I hope to be working on over the winter holiday. If other readers would bring any titles I have over looked here or on the long list (see the link at the top of the post) it will be much appreciated.
A thorough response to Tim’s request would really demand its own post. I think I will pull one together before the AAA’s but I’ll do it in precis here too. From a publishing perspective we can see that the body of anthropology titles that exist is really diverse in terms of their scope, policies, and data curation; not to mention lifespan, audience, and prestige. One imagines that the author, as scholar, is focusing much of their attention on the scholarly content of their piece and thinking something like, “Does my work fit in with this journal?” However there are many other important factors authors need to consider.
“Usage” refers to copyright and this is one area where OA publications diverge sharply from commercial publishers. The above list shows that Creative Commons is very popular, as are narrative statements that mimic CC. About a third of the titles assign copyright to a scholarly association or university. When the project began I found that about a quarter of all titles did not publicly state their copyright policy.
A minority of titles are offering an alternative to peer review. This will be a very interesting trend to observe over time.
Currently only two titles require a (modest) membership fee, however this very low rate may be somewhat unique to the discipline. I simply don’t know yet.
Abstracts and keywords are important ways for readers to discover articles. This may improve article impact, again I haven’t done that research yet. Social networks are ways to share information and that can also lead to discovery and possibly improved impact. Anecdotally, as a Facebook user I don’t see a lot of pdfs being shared over the network yet. If someone is going to share a pdf with me its probably going to be via email.
Persistent ID’s, open metadata, and data preservation are all important elements of data curation. They reflect best practices in keeping information accessible on the Internet and they also demand resources to acquire. Authors expect that once they publish their work in a journal that the journal will do it’s best to protect that information and get it to readers, but we also know “shit happens” and good data practices are a valuable safety net when disaster strikes. Witness the downtime Savage Minds suffered when our server was physically taken offline for about a year. Good data practices are technical service that journals can offer authors.