Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture

For Authors

Submit Manuscript

Article types

Memoirs | Culture focuses on scholarly research on Queensland Museum’s collections, as well as Queensland-based humanities research in history, archaeology, cultural studies and First Nations cultural heritage. The journal is primarily published as occasional thematic volumes around defined research areas. Articles to Memoirs | Culture are generally submitted following discussion with the volume editor. If you would like to propose a themed volume for Memoirs | Culture with a view to being a volume editor, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.

Submission requirements

Manuscript Format

  • APA Style, 7th edition
  • No maximum word count, but articles should not be unnecessarily long
  • Font size and style is not prescriptive – choose an easy-to-read sans serif font, minimum size 10pt
  • At submission stage, any figures, tables and illustrations should be included in the main manuscript at low-medium resolution, together with their captions. If your manuscript is accepted for publication, authors will be asked to supply images individually, preferably as JPEGs at the highest resolution available (figures and illustrations), or in an editable format for tables. This will assist with typesetting your article.
  • Manuscripts undergo an anonymised peer review process. Please do not include identifying details (author names or institutions) on your article. This information can be supplied as part of the submission metadata.

Additional required files
Authors are not required to submit a cover letter or author bio. They should, however, disclose any potential or actual conflicts of interest.

The submission to publication process

Commissioning: Volumes of Memoirs | Culture are planned in advance by the Editor-in-Chief in conjunction with the volume editor. Once the theme and scope of the volume are confirmed, contributions are commissioned by the volume editor. Authors should initially send their contributions to the volume editor to confirm suitability before submitting their manuscript to the journal.
Submission: As of 2025, all submissions to Memoirs | Culture will be via the online Scholastica portal. Please complete the required metadata fields and upload your manuscript as a single Word document (including any figures). Authors will receive email confirmation of their submission.
Peer review: Articles will proceed to peer review following a brief quality check by the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief and Submissions Editor jointly assess feedback from reviewers and notify the author regarding whether the article is accepted as is, accepted with minor or major revisions, or rejected. Authors will be provided with a list of any changes that may be required and invited to submit a revised manuscript. Once the resubmitted manuscript has been checked against reviewer feedback, authors and volume editors will receive email notification that the article is accepted.

Please allow approximately 4–6 weeks for articles to progress through peer review.

Editing: After a manuscript has gone through peer review and been accepted for publication, the Submissions Editor copyedits the article and marks up any suggested changes. These are sent to the Editor-in-Chief for consideration before being forwarded to the author. Authors review edits and either accept or reject edits or make any final changes. Any figures and illustrations should be supplied as separate files with the return of the approved manuscript.
Typesetting: The final copyedited text and any figures will then be typeset and a proof supplied to the Editor-in-Chief, volume editor and author. One round of changes will be accepted at proof stage, and a final version sent to the author for sign off (at which point no other changes will be made other than introduced errors).

The timeframe for editing and typesetting will depend on the current volume of submissions to the journal, as well as the volume of other editorial work for Queensland Museum. Authors will be given an indication of the approximate publication schedule at the time their article is accepted.

Publication: Once all articles in the volume have been edited and typeset, they will be published open access on the Queensland Museum website. Each article will be assigned a DOI. Authors and volume editors will be notified when the volume has been published. If a limited print run has also been arranged, copies will be sent to authors and other stakeholders after this date.

Authors retain copyright over their individual work. Queensland Museum retains copyright over the published volume of Memoirs | Culture as a whole. Articles are licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 unless otherwise agreed with the Editor-in-Chief.

Image licensing

Permission to reproduce any third-party image material (including photographs, illustrations and maps) should be cleared with the copyright holder prior to submitting your manuscript to the journal. Please attach written evidence of permission (e.g. a non-exclusive licence and/or email correspondence) with your submission. If you are including material that is covered by a Creative Commons licence, please ensure you include the licence type and source of the material in the figure caption.

Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP)

Authors and volume editors conducting research on any aspect of First Nations cultural heritage should do so with the full, free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous community (or communities) that the scholarship relates to. Queensland Museum recognises the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples to protect, maintain, own, control and benefit from their cultural heritage and acknowledges that communities should be empowered in decision-making processes within projects that affect their cultural heritage. In research involving First Nations communities, Australian policy and law (including copyright law) should be used to recognise and protect ICIP rights. These issues can be covered in contracts, protocols and policies for better recognition.

For more information on ICIP and best practice for respecting Indigenous knowledge and culture, please refer to the True Tracks® framework developed by Terri Janke.

Janke T (2021) True Tracks: Respecting Indigenous knowledge and culture, University of New South Wales Press.