Publishing archaeological journals: academic cartography and future challenges.

This paper offers thoughts on specialised archaeological journalsar ticulated along three central issues. Firstly, an analysis of the academic pressure to publish at all costs and its potential negative results; secondly, the drawing up of a cartography of the archaeological magazines regarding their  histographic tradition; and thirdly, advance a critical assessment of the changing ecosystem of journals in recent decades so as to shed light on their current situation.

Finally, we attempt to outline the main challenges of a future that has already arrived and that inevitably has to be addressed by all journals: the standard “peer review” evaluation system, the defence of the intrinsic value of articles, the choice and the implications of the language or languages  in which to publish, the debate on paper versus electronic publications, and finally the current meaning of academic prestige, discoverability and  visibility of periodicals.

Keywords: archaeological journals, publishers, journal management, peer review, electronic publication, future edition systems.