About

The Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal (TRAJ) is a peer-reviewed, open access journal, providing a venue for innovative and interdisciplinary research in the field of Roman Archaeology. TRAJ promotes the use of theoretical approaches to the Roman past and facilitates fresh interpretations of datasets, rather than solely the presentation of archaeological data. The geographical scope of the journal is the whole of the Roman world at its greatest extent, including areas beyond the frontiers where Roman influence was evident. The journal’s temporal scope is from the Bronze Age to the Late Antique period; however, the subject of most contributions will usually range from the third century BC to the fifth century AD.

Focus and Scope

TRAJ provides a venue for innovative and interdisciplinary research in the field of Roman Archaeology. The journal promotes the use of theoretical approaches to the Roman past and facilitates fresh interpretations of datasets, rather than solely the presentation of archaeological data. Furthermore, it is designed to include and interact with the disciplines of Archaeology, Classics, and Ancient History, as well as the Biological Sciences, Humanities, and Social Sciences in an interdisciplinary fashion. As a publication outlet, the annual TRAC Proceedings have long been at the forefront of Roman Archaeology regarding engagement in current theory and practice, and TRAJ now leads the field in this capacity. The journal’s geographic focus is the whole of the Roman world, including areas beyond the frontiers where Roman influence was evident. The journal’s temporal scope is from the Bronze Age to the Late Antique period; however, the subject of most contributions will usually range from the third century BC to the fifth century AD.

Journal History

TRAJ was inspired by TRAC, an unincorporated voluntary association that has developed from and around the annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC) held since 1991. The annual conference is known for being an unorthodox, radical, and highly critical event that provides an inclusive and egalitarian venue for discussion and debate, allowing a broad range of archaeologists to contribute to our understanding of the Roman past. The proceedings of the Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference have been published annually since the first meeting in 1991. However, from 2017, TRAJ has taken over as the venue for papers originating from the annual conference and beyond.

 
TRAJ joined the Open Library of Humanities and became Open Access in 2017. Articles published before this date have been made freely available under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All content published since 2017 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Publication Frequency

The journal is published online as a continuous volume and issue throughout the year. Articles are made available as soon as they are ready to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays in making content publicly available.

Publication Fees

This journal is published by the Open Library of Humanities (OLH). Unlike many open-access publishers, the OLH does not charge any author fees. This does not mean that we do not have costs. Instead, our costs are paid by an international library consortium.

If your institution is not currently supporting the platform, we request that you ask your librarian to sign up. The OLH is extremely cost effective and is a not-for-profit charity. However, while we cannot function without financial support and we encourage universities to sign up, institutional commitment is not required to publish with us.

Archiving, Indexing and Citation Metrics

TRAJ is archived and indexed according to the publisher's policy, and is constantly tracked by certain indexing sites including the DOAJ, Semantic Scholar, the Norwegian List, Sherpa Romeo, and ScienceOpen.