Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
TABLE 17.7 Common Journals Publishing Work in Skeletal Biology
Journal
Theme Relevant to Skeletal Biology
American Journal of Human Biology
All human biology, especially as it relates to health and
disease
All biological anthropology
All of anthropology
Forensic anthropology
All biological anthropology and associated fields
Paleopathology; bioarchaeology
Paleopathology; bioarchaeology
Health and disease as related to dental structures
All of archaeology, including bioarchaeology
Forensic anthropology
Paleoanthropology
All biological anthropology
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Current Anthropology
Forensic Science International
HOMO
e
Journal of Comparative Human Biology
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
International Journal of Paleopathology
Journal of Dental Research
Journal of Archaeological Research
Journal of Forensic Sciences
Journal of Human Evolution
Yearbook of Physical Anthropology
as last author on the paper if the study was done in a lab. While this custom is not necessarily
adhered to in anthropology (with the exception of anthropological genetics), you must make
sure that everyone who is involved in the project is in agreement ahead of time as to author-
ship order. Some will not want their name on a paper with which they had no direct involve-
ment, and others will because their lab's resources were used in the generation of the study.
Therefore it is important to get author order cleared up at the beginning. This also will enable
the first author to assign tasks to all of the other authors. Sometimes if there are just two
authors, the understanding is that both people will do equal amounts of work and the
compromise may be that one researcher is first author for study A but will be the second
author for study B.
Manuscript Preparation
While each journal is different, your manuscript will essentially follow the basic format of
abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. You will
find requirements for these sections in the Guidelines for Authors, found at each journal's
website. In addition to these requirements, choose a title carefully. It should succinctly state
the topic of the study. Often for conference presentations, people will choose clever titles to
attract attention to their study so that people will attend. An example is a recent poster pre-
sented at AAFS: “And Dens There Were Two: The Utility of the Second Cervical Vertebra as
an Indicator of Sex and Age-at-Death” (
Seet and Bethard, 2010
). While creative titles work
well for conference presentations, it is better to leave out the creativity and stick to the facts
when choosing a title for your manuscript. The same study was published as “Sex Determi-
nation from the Second Cervical Vertebra: ATest of Wescott's Method on a Modern American
Sample” (
Bethard and Seet, 2012
). When people are searching for articles, the title is the first
thing that will come up and you want the point of your article to be clearly stated to make it
easier for them to decide if your article is relevant for their needs. In addition, the abstract
should be brief, able to stand on its own (including brief summaries of the introduction,
