Focus and Scope
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, is an international peer-reviewed, partly open-access journal that appears in both digital and print format. It aims to take ethnography as the prime heuristic of anthropology, and return it to the forefront of conceptual developments in the discipline.
The journal is motivated by the desire to reinstate ethnographic theorization in contemporary anthropology as an alternative to explanation or contextualization by philosophical arguments--moves which have resulted in a loss of the discipline's distinctive theoretical nerve. By drawing out anthropology’s potential to critically engage and challenge its own cosmological assumptions and concepts, HAU aims to provide an exciting new arena for evaluating ethnography as a daring enterprise for worlding alien terms and forms of life, exploring their potential for rethinking humanity, self, and alterity.
HAU takes its name from a Māori concept, whose controversial translations—and the equivocations to which they gave rise—have generated productive theoretical work in anthropology, reminding us that our discipline exists in tension with the incomparable and the untranslatable. Through their reversibility, such inferential misunderstandings invite us to explore how encounters with alterity can render intelligible a range of diverse knowledge practices. In its online version, HAU stresses immediacy of publication, allowing for the timely publication and distribution of untimely ideas. The journal aims to attract the most daring thinkers in the discipline, regardless of position or background.
HAU welcomes submissions that strengthen ethnographic engagement with received knowledges, revive the vibrant themes of anthropology through debate and engagement with other disciplines, and explore domains held until recently to be the province of economics, philosophy, and the sciences. Topics addressed by the journal include, among others, diverse ontologies and epistemologies, forms of human engagement and relationality, cosmology and myth, magic, witchcraft and sorcery, truth and falsehood, science and anti-science, art and aesthetics, theories of kinship and relatedness with humans and non-humans, power, hierarchy, materiality, perception, environment and space, time and temporality, personhood and subjectivity, and the metaphysics of morality and ethics.
Peer Review Process
Submissions are first evaluated by the editors. If felt to be suitable for publication, manuscripts will move into the double-blind review process. Following the advice of reviewers, the editors will decide whether the piece is appropriate to be a) published with minor or no changes; b) needs to be revised and resubmitted; or c) is to be rejected. The editors shall liaise with reviewers and authors to guarantee a swift review and publication.
The journal aims to publish online suitable manuscripts within four to six months from their receipt. A cover letter should include the title of the paper, abstract, keywords and all useful contact information—address, phone numbers, email address, etc. Any identifying references to the author(s) should have been removed prior to submission. The initial mode of contact should be via our online submission process.
Publication Frequency
Three issues per year
Open Access Policy
Free access journal
The University of Chicago Press publishes one free-access journal: HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. This model provides one month of free access after the release of each new issue, and then requires a subscription for continuous access to content. All HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory content published from 2011-2017 is open access.
Archiving
This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. More...
Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory publication ethics and malpractice statement has been written in accordance with COPE general guidelines http://publicationethics.org/.
Publication decisions
The editorial collective of Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editorial collective is guided in reaching their decision referees’ reports and may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision. They are also guided by the journal’s policies and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.
Fair play
All manuscripts will be reviewed based on intellectual content without regard for age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, country of origin, or political philosophy of the authors.
Confidentiality
All manuscripts submitted for peer-review are kept strictly confidential. The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, as appropriate. At no time will editors or reviewers utilize submitted materials without the consent of the authors.
Fundamental errors in published works
When a significant error or inaccuracy has been discovered in a published work (with or without the author notifying it), the journal editors will cooperate with the author to retract or correct the paper accordingly. If a correction is deemed appropriate, the editors reserve the right to correct the published material and include a dated erratum.
Duties of Authors
Multiple, or Concurrent Publication
Authors must guarantee that submitted manuscripts have not been published elsewhere, are not currently under review elsewhere, and have been submitted with the full knowledge of their institutional home. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
Originality and Plagiarism
The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Any manuscripts that do not meet originality requirements will be rejected without peer-review. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
Authorship of the Paper
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
Fundamental errors in published works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.
Copyright
During the submission process the authors are asked to agree agree to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Copyright Notice, which will apply to the submission if and when it is published by this journal.
Duties of Reviewers
Promptness
Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
Confidentiality
Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editors.
Standards of Objectivity
Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
HAU's Free Access and Open Global South Access Programmes:
The Society for Ethnographic Theory is firmly committed to the idea that access to knowledge and publishing quality must be achieved by mediating gratuity with sustainability. The journal pursues this ideal with two innovative models, where a balance between high publishing standards, knowledge sharing and sustainability is achieved without relying on unpaid labour, famished departmental research budgets and individual membership dues.
Each journal issue will be available to download for free for one month after release and be Green Open Access (in compliance of the UKRI requisites for REF submission).
Each issue will include up to 5 Gold Open Access articles, which the Society would like to dedicate to indigenous authors or scholars from the Global South.
HAU journal is published (not owned) by the University of Chicago Press through an unprecedented, hybrid open access+subscription model. The decision to move towards this model was shaped by detailed consultations with HAU's External Advisory Board in 2015-2017. UCP offered to keep the journal open access for 1 month after the release of each issue, to provide a Managing Editor, IT, marketing, typesetting support at any level, and to offer five articles per issue as permanently open access, and even free subscriptions to poor institutions. This is an unprecedented arrangement. A university press is trying very hard to invest in our initiative and preserve its mission and nature. A university press is a non-profit institution, a completely different entity from corporate behemoths like Wiley-Blackwell, Elsevier, or Taylor & Francis.
Few anthropology series today can offer the wide exposure and features that HAUBooks can offer: open access and an extremely affordable paperback printed and distributed by one of the world’s main social science university presses. Since 2015 we have released over 40 books books which have been featured in the Times Literary Supplement, Wall Street Journal Online, New York Review of Books, and in all the main disciplinary journals. Its growth occurred initially with no institutional or grant support. The series can only be maintained because it is subsidized either by our HAU-NET members or grants raised by the authors. HAU Books received a “pledged grant” from Knowledge Unlatched, a Berlin-based organization supporting open access publishing. The grant is to be claimed by Knowledge Unlatched from libraries who endorsed our forthcoming titles.
Open Submissions
Indexed