Demographic Dynamics of Publishing in the American Journal of Archaeology

This article presents the results of a demographic survey of authors who published in the American Journal of Archaeology between 2000 and 2020. We sought to better understand the demographics of knowledge production in one of the major English-language journals for Mediterranean archaeology, and, by extension, in the field in general. The survey, delivered by email in the spring of 2021, asked authors about their gender, race or ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, the educational attainment of up to two of their parents, their current academic position and rank, and the number of times they have published in the AJA. Our results indicate that people of color and the children of parents without advanced degrees are greatly underrepresented among AJA authors over the past two decades when compared to the U.S. population as a whole—a phenomenon that likely confirms many scholars’ perceptions of the field but has not yet been empirically demonstrated. We conclude with some reflections on possible causes of underrepresentation and suggestions for creating a more inclusive discipline and publication process.1