The Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies

Introduction

My name is Mike Bishop and I am the founding editor of the Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies (JRMES). This campaign aims to publish two volumes of the journal (14/15 at the end of April 2015 and 16 at the end of July 2015). At the same time, Arma, the Newsletter of the Roman Military Equipment Conference will be restarted. These events will herald the creation of the Association of Roman Military Equipment Studies (ARMES) to act as publisher for future volumes of the journal and coordinator for future Roman Military Equipment Conferences (ROMECs). By contributing to the campaign, anybody with an interest in Roman military equipment can help secure a future for both the journal and the newsletter.

Background and the target

The video provides some detail of the background to the foundation of JRMES.

Whilst this campaign is specifically aimed at raising funds to print volumes 14/15 and 16 of the Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies, it will lay the foundations for the establishment of a learned or academic society to take over publication in the future and enable contributors to become subscribers, should they wish to do so, from 2016 onwards.

Volume 14/15 is a general issue with a range of papers (including the siege of Pompeii, lorica segmentata, scale armour, swords, the manufacture of caltrops, and Late Roman equipment in Britain), whilst 16 contains papers from ROMEC XV held in Budapest in 2005 on the theme The Enemies of Rome.

The funding target (£6,000) is designed to allow the printing of a minimum of 200 copies of both volumes 14/15 and 16 which could be achieved with 200 Legionarius or 400 Eques subscriptions (or any combination of the two). That figure of 200 copies is important because of the printing costs (which paradoxically spiral upwards as the number printed reduces: in other words, the unit cost increases) and the need to provide paper journals for libraries (and all others who want it).

A range of perks are outlined below, offering both digital and physical (dead-tree) versions of the journal and newsletter. It is of course possible to combine perks by adding (for example) Legionarius (paper journals and PDF newsletter) with Auxiliarius (paper newsletter), which is especially useful if you prefer dead-tree versions of everything.

Open access

In addition to providing digital options for current volumes,JRMES will now be pursuing an Open Access policy whereby, 5 years after publication, all content from the journal and newsletter will be released as PDFs under a Creative Commons licence. Back issues (from volume 1 onwards) will gradually be made available over a period of time to bring them up to date (conversion of older issues takes a lot of time and effort).

The perks

The perks on offer are as follows:

Calo

Digital newsletter only [2 PDF issues of Arma]

Auxiliarius

Paper newsletter only [2 issues of Arma]

Eques

Digital subscription [PDF journals, 2 PDF issues of Arma]

Legionarius

Full subscription [paper and PDF journals 14/15 and 16, 2 PDF issues of Arma]

Praefectus

Full subscription [paper and PDF journals 14/15 and 16, 2 PDF issues of Arma]

plus listing as founder member in journal

Legatus legionis

Full subscription [paper and PDF journals 14/15 and 16, 2 paper and PDF issues of Arma]

plus listing as founder member in journal

plus paper journals signed by editorial committee

Legatus Augusti pro praetore

Full subscription [paper and PDF journals 14/15 and 16, 2 paper and PDF issues of Arma]

plus listing as founder member in journal

plus paper journals signed by editorial committee

plus dinner with the editor of JRMES at Claridges (travel to and from your responsibility).

What happens if the campaign does not reach its target?

That’s the end of JRMES, basically.

This has to be an all-or-nothing campaign. As print-runs decrease in size, so unit costs increase, and current printing technology means that both offset-litho and digital printing still dictate a minimum print-run of 200 to make the perks affordable. This may change in the future; in years to come, if print-on-demand (POD) technology continues to improve (and decrease in cost) the possibility exists that digital will become the normal type of subscription but with an option for an affordable POD version as an addition to the subscription. We are not there yet, so we must work with what we have: offset-litho printing for dead-tree journals and PDF for digital.

As a contributor, you have the chance to be directly involved in securing the future for the Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies and establishing an association dedicated to furthering the study of a subject that matters to you. Make a difference: bring back JRMES!

Don’t want to part with cash but still want to help?

You can still help JRMES even if you can’t afford to contribute financially. Share our campaign through social media or email details to somebody who might be interested. All help is most welcome and truly appreciated.