Scope & Aims

Armax: The Journal of Contemporary Arms is the peak international publication promoting the scholarship of contemporary arms. As a core discipline within the field of arms and armour studies, the study of contemporary arms engages with a broad range of academic areas including history (particularly contemporary, military, science, and technology history), war and conflict studies; ballistics; design and technology studies; museum studies; and forensic science. Armax is published by Helios House Press on behalf of the Cody Firearms Museum, with two issues annually.  All research submissions are double-blind peer reviewed.

Instructions for Authors

Armax is a multidisciplinary journal publishing research from established and emergent scholars around the world. In addition to full-length research articles and shorter notes, Armax publishes book reviews, conference reports, obituaries, and other material relevant to the contemporary arms studies community. The material which may be submitted is as follows:

Research articles are typically between 5,000 and 8,000 words in length. Research articles are traditional journal articles—presenting significant original research—and are reviewed by two peer reviewers. One of these reviews will be conducted by an external reviewer, and this review will operate on the double-blind peer review principle.

Notes are between 2,000 and 4,000 words in length, and are intended to provide space in the journal for short ‘spotlight’ articles. These are held to the same academic and review standards as research articles, but focus on smaller, self-contained topics such as emergent research techniques; preliminary findings from larger projects; and individual or small groups of items which have not been previously described in a scholarly publication.

Book reviews should be of 500 to 1,500 words in length, and address a full-length monograph or book published within the preceding twelve months of the date of submission.

Other material beneficial to the contemporary arms studies community—such as conference reports or obituaries—will be included at the discretion of the Editor. If you wish to propose the submission of an irregular item, please contact the editorial team directly.

All submissions should be prepared in accordance with the Armax Style Guide, which is included within the Author Guidelines available below. Please note that the journal only publishes manuscripts in English.

Please also note that all research manuscripts are subject to double-blind peer review, as outlined below. All submissions are additionally subject to editorial review, in order to maintain the journal’s high standards. The Editor cannot guarantee acceptance of any material submitted. No submission, processing, or publication fees are charged.

Authors interested in publishing with Armax should first review the Author Guidelines document, which may be downloaded by clicking the button below.

Once you have prepared your manuscript in accordance with the Author Guidelines, please submit your completed material (including all illustrations, figures, and tables) to: armax@helios.house

Publication Ethics

Armax adheres strictly to the highest standards in publishing ethics. These include standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), an international, non-profit scholarly organisation. In particular, authors should familiarise themselves with the following documents:

1. Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing

2. Retraction guidelines

3. How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers

These are supplemented by in-house policies on publications ethics. These include our guidance on crediting authors and contributors; identifying and declaring conflicts of interest; and licensing, reproducibility, and data sharing; as well as our policy on errata and corrigenda. All of these are included in our Author Guidelines. Other policies, including our appeals and complaints process, are available on our Policies page.

Both the publisher, Helios House Press, and the editorial team aim to ensure that research misconduct—including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification, and other issues—are addressed preventatively wherever possible. In the event that the Editor is made aware of allegations of research misconduct, the Editorial Board will follow COPE’s guidelines for handling such allegations. Where necessary, corrections or retractions will be issued.

Peer Review

All manuscripts submitted for publication in Armax are subject to a rigorous peer review process. This process follows internationally established best practices. Armax articles are subject to at least two peer reviews. The first of these is conducted by a member of the Editorial Board, whilst the second is conducted by an external reviewer. For external peer reviews, Armax operates a ‘double-blind’ process. Under this policy, the author(s) of the paper do not know who reviewed their paper, and the external peer reviewer does not know the author of the paper they are reviewing. External reviewers will be knowledgeable specialists in an applicable field of research.

Both research articles and notes are subject to peer review. Book reviews are not typically peer reviewed, and special content will be peer reviewed as deemed appropriate by the Editorial Board. All content is subject to editorial review prior to publication.

Armax requires its peer reviewers to adhere to the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers, available here.

Reproduction & Licensing

Certain content published in the journal may be available for reproduction. Parties interested in licensing Armax content should contact: licensing@helios.house

Additionally, the publisher reserves all rights to store electronic copies of the journal in non-public archives for archival and preservation purposes. Physical copies of every issue are deposited with the British Library, as required by law. Copies may also be deposited with other libraries, as required by law or at the publisher’s discretion.