Contributing to Australian Aboriginal Studies Journal
Guidelines for authors
What to include | Writing an Abstract | Copyright | Referencing
Please submit material in the following fashion. All material should be addressed to the Assistant Editor <Sally.McNicol@aiatsis.gov.au>. Major articles will be peer reviewed and authors sent an edited copy prior to publication.
Length
Research articles: no longer than 10 000 words; 5000 to 6000 words are preferred.
Research reports: up to 3000 words.
Comments, book reviews and review articles: up to 1500 words.
Writing style
As the journal is multi‐disciplinary, AIATSIS urges authors to write using the principles of plain English where possible to allow their work to be understood by a road audience. Refer to a recent issue of Australian Aboriginal Studies for detailed issues of style.
What to include
Article submissions should include an abstract, a short biographical note, a contact address (including an email address, where appropriate), all for publication.
- Text and tables
An electronic file in .rtf or Microsoft Word format. - Illustrations
Authors should produce all illustrations or photographs separately as TIFF, EPS or JPEG files.
Illustrations can be placed in the body of the text to show position, but must be provided as separate files.
Single-column images must be at least 85mm wide; double-column images 175mm wide.
Scanned images should be this size and at 300dpi or higher. Vector line drawings, e.g. Corel Draw or Illustrator EPS, should have an output resolution of 800dpi.
Writing an abstract
To ensure your abstract is understandable by a wide audience, follow these suggestions:
- Purpose
Preferably begin with one sentence that states the major objectives or scope of the research.
Include your rationale, e.g. why you undertook the research, whether the topic is a new area, or has been ignored. - Methodology
Clearly articulate the approaches used in the research. - Results
Describe your findings, the data collected and the effects observed, noting if the results are theoretical. Give special priority to findings that contradict previous theories and note any limits to the accuracy or reliability of your findings. - Conclusions
These should spell out the implications of the results, e.g. why are the results of your research important and how they relate to your investigation’s purpose. Include recommendations, suggestions and hypotheses if appropriate.
Copyright clearances
Once an article is accepted for publication, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to use anyone else’s copyright material (for example, text, photos, tables, graphs) in the fashion spelt out in the agreement signed with AIATSIS. Refer also to our checklist ( 
36Kb).
Referencing system
The name–date (Harvard) system should be used. Textual references include the name of the author/s and the year of publication (e.g. Neale and Kleinert 2000). All directly quoted material should also have relevant page number/s (e.g. Neale and Kleinert 2000:69-70). All references are then listed alphabetically and in full at the end of the article. Here are some examples:
- Books:
Anonymous 1994 Creative Nation: Commonwealth Cultural Policy, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
Neale, Margo and Silvia Kleinert (eds) 2000 Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture. Oxford University Press.
Turpin, Myfany and Alison Ross 2004 Awelye Akwelye: Kaytetye women’s songs from Arnerre, Central Australia. Papulu Apparr-kari Language and Culture Centre, Tennant Creek (Audio CD with scholarly notes). - Articles in journals:
Garde, Murray 2006 ‘The language of Kun-borrk in western Arnhem Land’. Musicology Australia 28:59-89.
Toner, Peter 2000 ‘Ideology, influence and innovation: the impact of Macassan contact on Yolngu music’. Perfect Beat 5(1):22–41. - Articles in edited books:
Payne, Helen E 1989 ‘Rites for sites or sites for rites? The dynamics of women’s cultural life in the Musgraves’. In P Brock (ed.) Women, Rites and Sites: Aboriginal women’s cultural knowledge. Allen & Unwin, Melbourne pp.41–59.
Smith, Claire E 1991 ‘Female artists: the unrecognised factor in sacred rock art production’. In P Bahn and A Rosenfeld (eds) Rock art and prehistory. Papers presented to symposium G of the AURA Congress, Darwin 1988. Oxbow Books, Oxford (Monograph 10) pp.45-52. - Unpublished papers and presentations:
Blythe, Joe and Michael Walsh 2006 ‘Murriny Patha song language and its relation to the “everyday” language’. Presentation to the Third Oxford-Kobe Linguistics Seminar, ‘The Linguistics of Endangered Languages’, Kobe, Japan, 4 April 2006.
Gillespie, Danny 1974 Documentation of the work AAB 534 of the Maningrida Arts and Crafts Collection held at the National Museum of Australia, letter to Bob Edwards of AIAS dated July 1974.
Pilling, Arnold 1958 Law and Feud in an Aboriginal Society of North Australia. Unpublished Doctoral thesis, University of California, Berkeley. - Web citations should include the date that the item was viewed:
Crow, Kelly 2007 ‘A work in progress: Buying art on the Web – Saatchi Online offers a view of nascent internet market’ The Wall Street Journal 10 October 2007 <factiva.com> accessed 14 April 2008.
Tatz, Colin 2005 ‘From Welfare to Treaty: reviewing fifty years of Aboriginal policy and practice’. In GK Ward and A Muckle (eds) ‘The Power of Knowledge, the Resonance of Tradition’. Electronic publication of papers from the AIATSIS Indigenous Studies conference, September 2001. AIATSIS, Canberra <www.aiatsis.gov.au/research/docs/Indigenous_studies_conf_2001.pdf>
accessed 27 February 2008.