Submissions

Fanefane Journal welcomes rigorous, original scholarship on sacred architecture and ritual landscapes from every period and region. We publish work that engages with temples, shrines, churches, mosques, stūpas, synagogues, and other structures designed to house or frame the sacred, as well as studies of whole ritual topographies—from Andean huacas and Japanese pilgrimage routes to the processional ways of ancient Thebes. Our editorial scope deliberately bridges archaeology, architectural history, art history, anthropology and heritage conservation, and we are committed to fostering dialogue across these disciplines. Because sacred architecture is simultaneously material, spatial, performative and symbolic, we ask authors to attend equally to the physical fabric of a building, the ritual practices it sustains, and the cultural and historical forces that shaped it.

We operate a double-blind peer review process and publish all content diamond open access, without author-facing charges. The following guidance explains how to prepare a manuscript for submission, what types of contribution we consider, how visual and spatial evidence should be presented, and what happens once an article is accepted. We encourage prospective authors to read these instructions alongside a recent issue to gain a sense of the journal’s tone and expectations. For any matter not covered here, please consult the editorial office before submitting.

Article Types and Word Limits

We distinguish five main categories of submission, each with its own ceiling on length. The word counts below include the main text, abstract and notes, but exclude the reference list, captions and any supplementary data appendices. Conciseness is prized in every genre; authors who exceed the stated maxima will usually be asked to cut before peer review.

• Research Article: 8,000–10,000 words. A substantial, original study presenting new empirical findings, a sustained theoretical intervention, or a fresh synthesis of archaeological, archival and architectural evidence. Examples include a structural analysis of the stereotomy of Armenian church domes, an ethnographic account of contemporary ritual use of a Yoruba temple, or a diachronic study of the conversion of Roman basilicas into Christian churches.
• Short Report: 3,000–5,000 words. A focused communication of fieldwork results, archival discoveries, or methodological innovations. Suitable for preliminary geophysical survey results from a Mesopotamian ziggurat complex, a newly documented set of graffiti in a Cappadocian rock-cut church, or a conservation trial on lime plaster in the Great Mosque of Kilwa.
• Review Essay: 4,000–6,000 words. A critical engagement with two or more recent books, exhibitions, or digital resources, placing them within wider debates in the study of sacred architecture and heritage. We look for essays that go beyond summary to develop an argument of their own.
• Field Note: 1,500–2,500 words. A concise, image-rich record of a sacred site or ritual landscape that is under-documented, threatened, or of exceptional comparative interest. Field notes must include a measured plan and at least one section or elevation drawing.
• Technical Note: 2,000–4,000 words. A discussion of a specific technique or protocol—such as photogrammetry of ribbed vaults, radiocarbon dating of timber shrines, or the integration of terrestrial laser scanning with liturgical analysis—that has demonstrable value for the study of sacred architecture.

Double-Blind Peer Review Workflow

Every manuscript judged by the editors to fall within the journal’s remit and to meet our basic standards of scholarly rigour is sent to at least two external reviewers. We operate a strictly double-blind system: reviewers do not know the identity of the author, and authors do not know the identity of the reviewers. To preserve anonymity, authors must remove all self-references from the manuscript, anonymise any references to their own previous work, and ensure that file metadata does not reveal authorship. When referring to a site or project the author has worked on, phrases such as “the present author’s earlier survey” should be replaced with neutral formulations like “an earlier survey (details withheld for review)”. Editors check anonymisation before a manuscript is released to reviewers.

Reviewers are selected from the journal’s standing board and an international pool of specialists in archaeology, architectural history, conservation science and anthropology of religion. We normally ask reviewers to return their reports within five weeks. Each report evaluates the manuscript’s originality, command of the sacred architecture literature, quality of spatial and visual evidence, clarity of argument, and compliance with ethical standards for fieldwork and heritage documentation. On the basis of the reports, the editors may accept the manuscript, request minor or major revisions, or decline it. When revisions are invited, we send the revised manuscript back to the same reviewers whenever possible, to ensure continuity. The entire process, from submission to final decision, typically takes three to four months for a research article, though short reports and field notes can be handled more quickly.

Requirements for Plans, Sections, Photographs and Site Drawings

Because sacred architecture demands spatial argumentation, we regard architectural drawings not as illustration but as primary evidence. Every submission that discusses a specific building or landscape must include, at minimum, a measured plan and at least one transverse or longitudinal section. Elevations, axonometric projections, and exploded details are strongly encouraged where they advance the analysis. Drawings should show a metric scale and orientation; plans of temples, churches and mosques must indicate the direction of ritual focus—whether qibla, liturgical east, or the alignment to a sacred peak—explicitly. We recommend that plans be rendered with a clean line style, using hatching or colour only where necessary to distinguish building phases, and that they be accompanied by a phase legend. All line weights must reproduce legibly at the journal’s standard column width of 120 mm.

Photographs are essential for conveying the sensory and phenomenological qualities of sacred space, and we expect them to be of publication quality. Provide high-resolution digital files (300 dpi at the intended print size) in TIFF or uncompressed JPEG format. For site photographs, include a caption that records the date, time of day, and camera orientation, and wherever possible show a scale bar or a human figure in a non-obtrusive position. When submitting images of interiors of active places of worship, authors must demonstrate that they have obtained the consent of the responsible religious authority or community, and that photography did not disrupt liturgical activities. Aerial and drone photographs are welcome, but authors must comply with the drone regulations of the country concerned and state that they have done so.

All drawings and photographs must be submitted as separate files in addition to their placement in the manuscript. Number figures consecutively (Fig. 1, Fig. 2) and supply a separate list of captions. In the text, reference every figure explicitly and explain what the reader should glean from it. We discourage the use of figures for purely decorative purposes; each should make a specific, stated point about the architecture.

Permissions for Archive Material

Many studies of sacred architecture rely on archival plans, historic photography, or unpublished excavation records housed in institutional collections. It is the author’s responsibility to secure written permission for the reproduction of any material for which copyright is held by a third party. This includes architects’ drawings, engineers’ site notebooks, images from photographic archives such as the Conway Library or the École Biblique, and manuscript illuminations that depict buildings. We ask authors to initiate permission requests early in the revision process, as some archives take months to respond. Evidence of permission must be lodged with the editorial office before the manuscript enters copyediting. If permission is refused or cannot be obtained in time, the editors will require the removal of the relevant images and, where possible, their substitution with a descriptive architectural drawing prepared by the author.

For archival material that is out of copyright, we still require a caption that credits the holding institution and provides the shelfmark or call number, as a matter of scholarly courtesy and to aid future researchers. When the archive is in a country with a history of colonial extraction, we ask authors to reflect on the provenance of the material and, if appropriate, to include a brief note on the circumstances of its collection and any steps taken to consult descendant communities or local heritage authorities.

Data and Fieldwork Documentation

Fanefane Journal supports the open-data principles of the FAIR movement. We expect that primary data—including total station and GNSS survey files, photogrammetric point clouds, 3D models, and structured datasets derived from building archaeology—will be deposited in a recognised, persistent repository before the accompanying article is published. We recommend repositories such as Zenodo, the Archaeology Data Service, or institutional data banks. A data availability statement must appear at the end of the article, giving the DOI and any access conditions. Where data are sensitive—for example, precise coordinates of unexcavated tombs or rock-art panels that are vulnerable to looting—authors may request an embargo period or provide a lower-resolution version, but the rationale must be explained in the submission cover letter.

Fieldwork documentation should meet the ethical standards of the professional bodies most relevant to the study. For archaeological excavation, we follow the guidance of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists; for conservation interventions, the ICOMOS Charter principles. Authors must confirm that all necessary permits were obtained from national or local heritage authorities, and that the fieldwork involved, wherever possible, community consultation and capacity-building. A short statement of fieldwork ethics, naming the permit number and the authorising body, should be included in the acknowledgements. We reserve the right to request copies of permits or ethical approval letters.

Style and Referencing

The journal uses The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition, notes and bibliography system). Footnotes should be used for substantive asides and for citations; endnotes are not accepted. Sacred architecture, more than many fields, draws on a multilingual and trans-historical literature, and we therefore encourage authors to provide the original-language titles of primary sources in parentheses, with an English translation where the text is not in a major European language of scholarship. For the names of buildings, use the most widely recognised scholarly form on first appearance—for instance, “the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres” or “the Temple of the Feathered Serpent at Teotihuacan”—and thereafter a consistent short form. Diacritical marks must be accurate in all languages. Transliterations of Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit and other scripts should follow the standard academic system stated in a footnote on first use.

References to unpublished field reports, grey literature, and online databases should be kept to a minimum in the main argument, but when they are indispensable they must be formatted with the same level of bibliographic detail as published works, including author, date, title, series, institution, and a stable URL or accession number where available. We particularly encourage citation of heritage management plans and conservation reports that are often overlooked in academic discourse but contain rich datasets and analyses. All URLs must be checked and active at the time of resubmission of a revised manuscript.

After Acceptance

Once the editors have accepted a manuscript and all permissions and data statements are in order, the article enters production. It is allocated to an issue and copyedited for consistency with the journal’s house style. We use light-touch copyediting that respects the author’s voice; substantive changes are queried. The author receives a single set of page proofs, which should be checked carefully for typographical errors, figure placement, and caption accuracy. Because the journal publishes online continuously as well as in quarterly issues, we aim to make the final, fully typeset version of record available within four to six weeks of proof approval.

On publication, all articles are released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), meaning they may be freely shared and adapted provided appropriate credit is given. Authors retain copyright. High-resolution figures and any supplementary 3D models or video fly-throughs are published alongside the article on the journal’s website. Two weeks after publication, we release the article to indexing services and social media channels. We ask authors to work with us in promoting their research to relevant communities of practice, including heritage professionals, custodians of sacred sites, and scholars in adjacent fields. The editorial board stands ready to advise on any questions that arise during the submission and production journey, and we look forward to receiving work that advances the understanding of the world’s sacred architecture.