Write for us

Ancient World Magazine invites everyone to contribute articles to the website. However, formal education in ancient history, archaeology, or a related and relevant field is recommended and desirable.

You can contribute articles to Ancient World Magazine. This page gives an overview of what we’re looking for, what you can send us, and how things are arranged with respect to copyright and so forth.

The basics

Formal education in the fields of ancient history, archaeology, Classics, or a related and relevant field is highly recommended and desirable. One of the things that sets this website apart from many others that deal with the ancient world is that its writers have a professional background in the ancient world. Nevertheless, if you lack the necessary academic training, but still feel qualified to write for us, do get in touch and tell us why.

As far as topics are concerned, almost anything goes as long as it’s related to the ancient world in some way. We encourage you to write in an informal way, as this website is intended for a general audience.

Inclusion of references is a must. Footnotes are to be avoided as much as possible (but you may add them); we prefer inline citations (e.g. Smith 2018, pp. 23-32). A brief list of references and suggestions for further reading should be included at the end of the article, unless the article specifically mentions relevant literature in such a way that this isn’t strictly necessary (e.g. a review article).

Please do not send us complete articles. Instead, send us a brief proposal, with a title and an outline of what you want to write about. If we haven’t been in touch before, please also include a short profile about yourself and why you think you’re qualified to write the proposed article.

What we look for

As we explain on our About Page, we chose to refer to ourselves as a “magazine” because we emphasize depth rather than breadth. We do not pursue the faux objectivity of an “encyclopedia”. Articles are written by trained professionals, who write in their own voice and from their own point of view about something that they find interesting, noteworthy, or important. We also do not shy away from taking a political stance.

Geographically speaking, the ancient world isn’t limited to the Mediterraean and surrounding regions like the European continent, North Africa, or Southwest Asia. The ancient world, as we’ve laid out in more detail in one of our articles, encompasses the globe. It is not confined to particular places or regions.

Chronologically speaking, the ancient world is usually taken to begin in ca. 3000 BC, the start of the Bronze Age in some parts of the globe, followed by the emergence of complex societies in e.g. Mesopotamia, Egypt, and elsewhere. The Stone Age, from the paleolithic to the neolithic, is usually not included, but we have nevertheless published about various topics related to the Stone Age anyway. It’s hard to draw a hard line here.

The end of the ancient era is perhaps even more difficult to define. The fall of Rome in AD 476 is often taken as the end of the ancient era and beginning of the medieval era, but this is a very Western European way of looking at history. After all, in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Roman Empire continued for another thousand years (what is often referred to as the “Byzantine Empire”). For the most part, an argument can be made that the ancient world ends, at least in Europe, Africa, and Asia, around AD 600.

If we look at the Americas, though, the chronology is a bit different. The beginning of the ancient world here can be seen as commencing with the Olmec civilization (c. 1500-400 BC). But, by our reckoning it continues until the 1500s AD when European powers began conquering territory in the Americas. Thus, the major civilizations of the continents, such as the Mexica, Maya, and Inca are all fair game as topics for Ancient World Magazine.. Although not many articles looking at an ancient American civilization have been submitted to us, we have published an article that deals with a pre-Columbian civilization in Costa Rica which will hopefully be the first of many.

The editorial team of Ancient World Magazine have specializations that focus on, broadly speaking, the ancient Greek and Roman Republican worlds. But as we hope to have made clear, the ancient world encompasses much more. We are therefore especially interested in contributors who can write about topics that are not covered by us, including Northern Europe, the Roman Empire, ancient India and China, the civilizations of the African continent, the Americas, and more.

Payment

We used to have a Patreon account that generate money that enabled us to pay for one or two contributions a month at €100 per contribution. When the website was shut down, last year, the Patreon was also taken offline. As a result, we are currently not in a position to offer any payment. Hopefully, this may change in future.

If this does change, the following will apply, and any contributor would be paid €100 for an article, regardless of length. A paid article should be at least 1,000 words in length, but if the quality is good and the article ends up being a bit shorter, we won’t complain.

Decisions on which authors will be paid for their articles are made by the editorial team. If you submit a proposal for an article, please specify if you would like to be considered as the monthly paid author should we decide to publish it (in the form below, you can simply check the relevant box).

Since we are not (yet) in a position to pay all of our contributors, we have decided on an equitable hierarchy to help make this dicision. We believe that outstanding undergraduates and graduate students whose work we publish will benefit the most from receiving monetary compensation. For that reason, we follow this order of most to least eligible:

  1. Undergraduate and graduate students.
  2. PhD students.
  3. Early Career Researchers (ECR).
  4. Independent scholars (i.e. professionals without an academic affiliation).
  5. Other fixed-term academics (not ECR).
  6. Tenured faculty.

If we accept more articles in a month for publication whose authors require payment, we will stagger the release of these articles according to available funds. In those cases we will notify the authors and tell them that their articles may be delayed. Authors may then wait, drop the requirement to be paid, or find another home for their submitted article.

We will pay an author as soon as the (near-)final draft of the article has been submitted and funds are available for that month. Payment is handled via PayPal: we will email the author in question to send us their PayPal details when their contribution is ready for publication.

Important rules

When it comes to articles and other submitted materials, such as photos and maps, there are a few ground rules:

  • Any proposed articles must be based on original work: no plagiarism!
  • Along similar lines: articles should be written by humans, not generated by so-called “artificial intelligences”.
  • Authors naturally retain the copyright to their submitted materials.
  • Authors who do not receive payment for their article grant Ancient World Magazine a non-exclusive licence to publish their submitted article.
  • Authors who receive payment for their article grant Ancient World Magazine an exclusive licence to publish their submitted article. These authors are not allowed to republish the article in question without prior permission from the editorial team.
  • Articles, once published, will not be removed: in principle, they remain on the website in perpetuity.
  • Authors who contribute an article for free are not allowed to republish the submitted article elsewhere, either online or offline, for a period of no less than six months.
  • If the author of an unpaid article decides to have an article republished elsewhere, they should inform Ancient World Magazine about this beforehand.
  • If an author decides to republish an unpaid article elsewhere, they must credit this website and provide a link back to the original version of the article: “Originally published at AncientWorldMagazine.com.”
  • If you submit a proposal for an article for publication on this website, you agree to the rules laid out above.

Be aware that all submissions are reviewed by members of our editorial team or external subject experts and, if accepted, may be edited before publication.

Submit your proposal

Please send us an e-mail with your proposal. Your proposal should, at minimum, include a title, a subtitle (if applicable), and an outline of the proposed text. The address to send your proposal is submissions@ancientworldmagazine.com.

Please include details on your academic background, including your highest completed relevant academic degree.