LEIZA Journal of Archaeology

LEIZA Journal of Archaeology is a peer-reviewed journal of world archaeology, established in 2026 by the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA) to deal with the understanding of humans and their biological, social, cultural and economic development from paleolithic till medieval times, covering Europe, Africa and Asia from roughly the 25th northern latitude upwards, but not exclusively. With this chronological and geographical approach, we purposely adhere to a broad definition of the “Old World”, which has been the focus of LEIZA since its establishment as the Römisch-Germanisches ZentralMuseum (RGZM) in 1852. 

LJA publishes articles that study human behaviour and action, and their incentives and constraints, against the background of communities and environments. Contributions should advance our comprehension of people both as individuals and as members of the human species, functioning and evolving within complex systems. Papers are welcome to engage with any of these themes on different levels, from site-, area- and period-specific analyses to broader diachronic, multi-regional or comparative studies. LJA is especially interested in papers that address topics and questions of broad significance, and that have the potential to shape global debates, able to enlighten the past, inform the present and shape the future. 

The journal aims explicitly to promote interdisciplinary discourse, and to build bridges between archaeological and other (sub)fields. Both qualitative and quantitative studies, theoretical and methodological contributions, as well as the results from archaeological fieldwork projects, laboratory analyses and experiments are accepted, as long as they engage with any of the core themes of the journal. Scholars and teams, whose research combines various data and methods, or relies on hard science approaches to address key archaeological questions and debates, are especially encouraged to submit their work. 

LJA distinctly offers the opportunity to publish and discuss research in greater detail and with high-quality illustrations, with the possibility to include elaborate tables and other datasets as supplementary materials. Besides research papers, LJA also publishes longer review papers, and shorter discussions, news and comments. A more detailed description of these categories can be found under ‘Submission’. LJA only publishes in English. 

LJA is an online journal, with articles published in HMTL and formatted PDFs. After an initial editorial assessment, submissions are subjected to a double-blind peer-review process. Once accepted, articles are immediately published in their definite online format and assigned to an issue at the end of the calendar year. The workflow from submission to publication takes about 3 months and is entirely handled via OJS, the Open Journal Systems software at Heidelberg University Library. Further information on the submission process and author guidelines can be found under below, under Submissions.

Choosing to publish your next work in LJA means: 

• Publishing in the flagship journal of LEIZA (Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie), the second biggest archaeological research institute in Germany and an internationally acclaimed centre of scientific excellence. 
• Getting a platform to publish and discuss your research in great detail and with high-quality illustrations, and with the possibility to include elaborate tables and other datasets as supplementary materials; all in an enhanced online publication format. This aligns with LEIZA’s policy to promote research transparency, as well as citation, reuse and replication of research data. 
• Benefitting from a high-standard, double blind peer-review process, and a smooth and transparent online submission-to-publication workflow in OJS. LJA aims to publish accepted papers within three months after submission. 
• Publishing your work as Diamond Open Access, with all articles free of charge for authors and readers, and perpetually available under an open access-compliant license (CC BY-SA 4.0). Authors retain full copyright of their original work. With DOA, LJA explicitly wants to contribute to greater fairness in the publication system. 
• Granting your work, via DOA, greater discoverability and visibility, more views and citations, and ultimately more impact. Papers will also be actively promoted via our networks as well as targeted outreach via social media and other communication channels.

The LJA Editorial Board ensures the journal’s scientific quality, integrity, and direction. Comprising leading international scholars, board members advise on topics, solicit articles, provide feedback, and help select reviewers. Editorial Board members serve four-year terms and are not remunerated.
 

Managing Editor

Dimitri Van Limbergen, LEIZA - Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie, Mainz, Germany
dimitri.vanlimbergen(at)leiza.de
 

Editorial Board Members (in alphabetical order)

• Hans-Dieter Bienert, former DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Berlin, Germany 
• Florin Curta, University of Florida, Gainesville, US 
• Gonca Dardeniz Arikan, Istanbul Üniversitesi, Türkiye
• Beatrice Demarchi, Università di Torino, Italy 
• Wieke De Neef, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Germany 
• Emlyn Dodd, Adelaide University, Australia/University of London (ICS), UK 
• Catherine Frieman, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia 
• Margarita Gleba, Università di Padova, Italy 
• Helena Hamerow, University of Oxford, UK 
• Niklas Hausmann, LEIZA – Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie, Mainz, Germany 
• Frits Heinrich, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium 
• Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz, Pennsylvania State University, Old Main, US 
• Timothy Insoll, University of Exeter, UK 
• Ine Jacobs, University of Oxford, UK 
• Tina Lüdecke, Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie, Mainz, Germany 
• Jiří Macháček, Masarykova univerzita Brno, Czech Republic 
• Dominik Maschek, LEIZA – Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie, Mainz, Germany 
• Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Universität Wien, Austria 
• Gilbert Pwiti, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe 
• Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Austria 
• Felix Riede, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark 
• Shinya Shoda, Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Nara-shi, Japan 
• Delphine Tonglet, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US 
• Philipp von Rummel, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany 
• Andrzej Wiśniewski, Uniwersytet Wrocławski, Poland