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Publishing Archaeology in Science and Scientific American, 1940–2003

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

R. Lee Lyman ,
Michael J. O'Brien  and
Michael Brian Schiffer
R. Lee Lyman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, 107 Swallow Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Michael J. O'Brien
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, 107 Swallow Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Michael Brian Schiffer
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA, Lemelson Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA
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Abstract

Many new, or processual, archaeologists of the 1960s argued that Americanist archaeology became scientific only in the 1960s. The hypothesis that the rate of publication of archaeological research in Science and Scientific American increased after about 1965, as new archaeologists sought to demonstrate to their peers and other scientists that archaeology was indeed a science, is disconfirmed. The rate of archaeological publication in these journals increased after 1955 because the effort to be more scientific attributed to the processualists began earlier. Higher publication rates in both journals appear to have been influenced by an increased amount of archaeological research, a higher rate of archaeological publication generally, and increased funding. The hypothesis that editorial choice has strongly influenced what has been published in Science is confirmed; articles focusing on multidisciplinary topics rather than on narrow archaeological ones dominate the list of titles over the period from 1940 through 2003.

Résumé

Résumé

Muchos de los arqueólogos nuevos o ‘procesales’ de los años sesenta argumentaron que la arqueología Americanista solamente llegó a ser científica en los años sesenta. La hipótesis de que el índice de publicaciones en investigatión arqueológica de las revistas Science y Scientific American aumentó después de 1965, año en el que muchos arqueólogos intentaron mostrar a sus colegas y a otros científicos que la arqueología era efectivamente una ciencia, se desaprueba. El índice de publicaciones en estas revistas científicas aumentó después de 1955 porque este esfuerzo de los ‘procesalistas’ de llegar a ser mas científicos ya había empezado antes. Los altos índices de publicación en ambas revistas parecen haber sido afectados por una gran cantidad de investigación arqueológica, por un alto índice de publicaciones arqueológicas en general, y por un crecido financiamiento. La hipótesis de que la selección editorial ha influenciado fuertemente los artículos publicados en Science se confirma; artículos que se concentran mas en temas multidisciplinarios que en temas arqueológicos limitados son los que dominan la lista de artículos escritos entre 1940 y 2003.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 70 , Issue 1 , January 2005 , pp. 157 - 167
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2005

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