Field Methods
Field Methods (formerly Cultural Anthropology Methods) publishes articles about methods used by field investigators from the social and behavioral sciences in the collection, management, analysis and presentation of data about human thought and/or human behavior in the natural world. The data can be qualitative or quantitative, as can the methods for analysis and presentation.
The indispensable tool for scholars, students and professionals who do fieldwork, Field Methods offers:
- Important refereed articles
- Descriptions of methodological advances
- Advice on the use of specific field techniques
- Help with both qualitative and quantitative methods... all the tools necessary for those who conduct fieldwork.
Articles are welcome from the scientific or interpretive traditions, from basic and applied researchers. Articles are welcomed from academics, from private consultants, and from colleagues who work in corporate environments.
Aims: Field Methods publishes articles about methods used by field investigators from the social and behavioral sciences in the collection, management, analysis and presentation of data about human thought and/or human behavior in the natural world. The data can be qualitative or quantitative, as can the methods for analysis and presentation.
Scope: Field Methods publishes articles in three formats: research articles, short takes, and review articles.
Research articles: Research articles should focus on empirical tests of new methods and on new uses for existing methods (rather than the substantive findings of research). Articles for Field Methods should advance a method rather than simply report on the application of a method. Research articles should not exceed 6,000 words, including all materials.
Short Takes: Short Takes are brief articles on the application of methods that provide step-by-step instructions that are meant to fill in the gaps in the literature on the real how-to of existing methods. Short takes are 1500 words max, excluding abstract and references.
Methods Reviews: Method Review articles review front-edge work on existing methods. Method Reviews are solicited by invitation only.
| H. Russell Bernard | University of Florida, USA |
| Amber Wutich | Arizona State University, USA |
| Melissa Beresford | San Jose State University, USA |
| Monica Barratt | RMIT University, Australia |
| Jean M. Bartunek | Boston College, USA |
| Stephen P. Borgatti | University of Kentucky, USA |
| Eduardo Sonnewend Brondizio | Indiana University, USA |
| Kathleen Carley | Carnegie Mellon University, USA |
| Edith D. De Leeuw | Utrecht University, The Netherlands |
| Don A. Dillman | Washington State University, USA |
| Fadwa El Guindi | Qatar University, Qatar |
| Akhil Gupta | University of California Los Angeles, USA |
| W. Penn Handwerker | Anthropology, University of Connecticut, USA |
| Michael Herzfeld | Harvard University, USA |
| Daniel Hruschka | Arizona State University, USA |
| Jeffrey C. Johnson | University of Florida, USA |
| Jeremy Koster | University of Cincinnati, USA |
| Margaret Diane LeCompte | University of Colorado at Boulder, USA |
| Raymond M Lee | Royal Holloway University of London, UK |
| Huan Liu | Arizona State University, USA |
| Mingnan Liu | Facebook, Inc, USA |
| Homero Martinez | Hospital Infantil, México "Federico Gómez", and RAND Corporation, Mexico |
| Aigul Mavletova | National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia |
| José L. Molina | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain |
| David L. Morgan | Portland State University, USA |
| Paul Nchoji Nkwi | Catholic University of Cameroon, Cameroon |
| Isaac Nyamongo | University of Nairobi, Kenya |
| Michael Quinn Patton | Utilization-Focused Evaluation, Saint Paul, MN |
| Pertti J Pelto | University of Connecticut, USA |
| Charles C. Ragin | University of California, Irvine, USA |
| Benoît Rihoux | Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium |
| Gery Ryan | Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, USA |
| Michael Schnegg | University of Hamburg, Germany |
| Norbert Schwarz | University of Southern California, USA |
| John F. Sherry, Jr. | University of Notre Dame, Australia |
| Ravi K. Verma | Population Council, New Delhi, India |
| Eben Weitzman | University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA |
| Susan C. Weller | University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston |
| Barry Wellman | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Brady West | University of Michigan, USA |
| Gordon B. Willis | National Cancer Institute |
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Please read the guidelines below, then visit the Journal’s submission site [https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fmx] to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember, you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.
Sage Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Field Methods will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process, you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Field Methods will consider submissions of papers that have been posted on preprint servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research Data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
7.1 Appealing the publication decision
Before submitting your manuscript to Field Methods, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Research articles should focus on empirical tests of new methods and on new uses for existing methods (rather than the substantive findings of research). Articles for Field Methods should advance a method rather than simply report on the application of a method. Research articles should be submitted as one of the following manuscript types:
Original Article: These should be between 3,000 to 6,000 words, including all materials: abstract, text, references, acknowledgments, and space for tables and figures. Limit abstract to 150 words. Authors should estimate that figures and tables are each the equivalent of 300 to 500 words of text each. Supplemental materials that are not integral to a paper do not count toward the word limit. However, these materials must be truly supplemental - this is, ancillary to the main arguments in a paper. Title pages do not count toward the word limit, but must be submitted together with the main manuscript.
Original Article - Brief: Any research article below 3,000 words should be submitted under this article type. The word count include all materials: abstract, text, references, acknowledgments, and space for tables and figures. Limit abstract to 150 words. Authors should estimate that figures and tables are each the equivalent of 300 to 500 words of text each. Please submit all materials in one document. Supplemental materials that are not integral to a paper do not count toward the word limit. However, these materials must be truly supplemental - this is, ancillary to the main arguments in a paper. Title pages do not count toward the word limit, but must be submitted together with the main manuscript.
Short Takes: Short Takes are brief articles on the application of methods that provide step-by-step instructions that are meant to fill in the gaps in the literature on the real how-to of existing methods. Short Takes are 1500 words max., excluding abstract, tables, figures, and references. Articles submitted as Short Takes, should draw on evidence from published literature, whether the author's own publications or those of other researchers. This evidence base can be supplemented with first-person insights from the methods underlying authors' own published work.
Reviews: Method Review articles review front-edge work on existing methods. Method Reviews are solicited by invitation only.
Note on word count: The word count is calculated including all materials: abstract, text, references, acknowledgments, and space for tables and figures. To calculate the space taken by figures and tables, consider 300 words for smaller figures/tables (up to half a page of Field Methods) and 500 words for larger figures/tables (up to a full page). Calculate the word count as suggested and not by considering the actual figure and table word count that appears in your document. Submit all figures and tables in the main document and not as separate files.
Field Methods encourages first-person writing and discourages endnotes.
Authors can include supplemental materials, but those materials must be truly ancillary to the main article.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
Submit your article as a single document, including the title page (with author affiliations), abstracts, main article, end notes, and references. Tables and references may be submitted in the document or in a single, separate file. Please DO NOT submit keywords. Field Methods does not publish keywords. Supplemental materials must be truly ancillary to the main article.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Field Methods operates a conventional single-anonymized reviewing policy in which the reviewer’s name is always concealed from the submitting author.
As standard practice, Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested reviewers.
Field Methods is committed to delivering high-quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such, has partnered with Publons. Publons is a third-party service that seeks to track, verify, and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for Field Methods can opt into Publons to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision, and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information, visit the Publons website.
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the Journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board, and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help or a department chair who provided only general support.
Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes, and your References.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company, and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g., conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
2.3.2 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g., from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company, and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Field Methods requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Field Methods encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency, and reproducibility of research and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs, please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Field Methods and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism, or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors, and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the Journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies, or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
Please note that Field Method accepts preprints as original submissions.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive license agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and license to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case, copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information, please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Field Methods offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
4.1 Formatting
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. Field Methods uses single-anonymized reviewing: the reviewer knows the name and affiliation of the author but the reviewer is anonymous to the author. In submitting an article to Field Methods for review, please include all authors' names and affiliations on the title page.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
Authors should estimate that any figures and tables are the equivalent of 300-500 words of text each. Abstracts must not exceed 150 words.
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures, and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in color will appear in color online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For specifically requested color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This Journal can host additional materials online (e.g., datasets, podcasts, videos, images, etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information, please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
Field Methods adheres to the ASA Style Guide. View the guide here to ensure your manuscript conforms to this style.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Field Methods is hosted on Sage Track, a web-based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fmx to log in and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the Journal in the past year, it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online, please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent, and fair peer review process, Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this Journal. If you already have an ORCID ID, you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign in to your ORCID account, and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID ID, please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage, please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures, or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information, including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence, and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
OnlineFirst allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite OnlineFirst articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries, or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Field Methods editors as follows:
H. Russell Bernard ufruss@ufl.edu
Amber Wutich Amber.Wutich@asu.edu
Please ensure both editors are included in your message.
7.1 Appealing the publication decision
Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.
If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern and information supporting the concern at publication_ethics@sagepub.com