About

Description

Rabaska fulfills a heretofore underrepresented area in scholarship. Starting in 2002 and produced by the Société québécoise d’ethnologie (SQE), Rabaska is the only journal entirely devoted to the study of the cultural heritage of the French in the Americas in their various regional components and manifestations, both the tangible and the intangible. The language of publication is French. It is intended for the scholarly reader both in ethnology and in related heritage disciplines, but is equally aimed at an engaged general readership, notably the student and the public. The journal – published regularly since 2003 – combines its two issues in one volume with an autumn publication, which offers many advantages.

Orientation

A place of convergence

Its name, Rabaska, is a word with First Nations origins. The “rabaska” is the large bark canoe of the Algonkian peoples, the primary vehicle that enabled the penetration of the north from the 17th and 18th century era of French and Canadian explorers right up to the “voyageurs” at the end of the 19th century. It evokes a small vessel that, despite its fragility, aided in establishing French culture throughout North America, adapting to a new continent through connections both with indigenous peoples and with the other immigrant populations arriving in the centuries thereafter. Furthermore, its subtitle, “revue d’ethnologie de l’Amérique française” [Journal of French American Ethnology], makes clear the breadth of its scope and its emphasis on place.

Journal structure

Each volume comprises three complementary components. It begins with a scientific section. In addition to “Studies,” scholarly articles interpreting texts, which are the mainstay of journals of this type, Rabaska makes a special place for “Fieldwork,” the methodological heart of ethnology. A “Portrait” of a person, an institution, or a significant moment – rotated through the regions – introduces the general public section. The “Public Square” offers practitioners a place to exchange points of view on a common object, and for discussion and debate on current issues. This section also contains criticism on current ethnological work: reviews of books, recordings, films, or exhibits. Finally, a retrospective section provides an ongoing record of regional activities: “Institutional reports” from research centres, the field, and archives; new teaching programs; colloquia, conferences, and publications; museum exhibits with ethnological content; submitted theses; and prizes and awards. In short, all the news coming out of ethnology research.

Editorial policy and ethics

Evaluation

All articles in Rabaska are previously unpublished and undergo a rigorous process of peer review. The quality of published articles matches the highest international standards and, to ensure this, the editorial board is drawn from a network of experts (both internal readers and external examiners) charged with evaluating submitted and solicited manuscripts.

Editing ensures that all elements of scientific research are taken into account, which is to say the originality and the quality of the research, the demonstration of new methods and cutting-edge perspectives, the discovery of unexplored areas, and the gathering, organizing, and analysis of the latest data, all of which increase the levels of understanding in our field. But equally important is regularly critiquing that research, the usual way progress is made. These foundations (expansion and reflection) justify the two major axes that share the pages of this journal.

Plagiarism Policy

Rabaska rejects all forms of plagiarism, anything which copies, in whole or in part, another’s work and presents it as one’s own. Self-plagiarism, which is to say using one’s own previously published work without referencing its original publication, is equally prohibited. If plagiarism if suspected before publication, the author will be contacted to address the situation: in more substantial cases, the article will be automatically rejected and the author will no longer be published in Rabaska. If a case of plagiarism is discovered after the article’s publication it will be removed and the author will no longer be published in the journal.

Copyright

The journal publishes previously unpublished articles and as such asks for exclusivity for the first year. The author thus gives Rabaska the right to publish their text and to market it according to the needs of the journal. The author retains all ownership rights and after one year is free to reuse the text for their own purposes. Submitting a manuscript for publication implies tacit acceptance by the author of the following conditions: that the submitted manuscript is an original piece of writing, prepared and formatted following the guidelines of the journal, and that the author gives Rabaska the right to publish and market it for their own purposes; and that this right is exclusive for the first year, which includes self-archiving. To that end, the journal publishes on its inside back cover a “Notice to the Reader” about digital distribution on the Erudit portal at the address www.erudit.org/revue/rabaska.

Manuscript Submission

To submit a manuscript to Rabaska, follow the Guidelines for Submissions. This document specifies the rules concerning formatting, typography, layout, bibliographic references, and common abbreviations.

The digital preservation for Rabaska. Revue d’ethnologie de l’Amérique française is provided by Portico.

Editorial board

Editorial board

Editor

Jean-Pierre Pichette, Université Sainte-Anne, Nova Scotia

Secretary

Jean Simard, Université Laval, Québec

Marcel Bénéteau, Université de Sudbury, Ontario

Bertrand Bergeron, Collège d’Alma, Québec

René Bouchard, Société québécoise d’ethnologie, Québec

Ronald Labelle, Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia

Dominique Sarny, Université de Régina, Saskatchewan

Advisory Board

Barry-Jean Ancelet, Université de Louisiane à Lafayette, USA

Nicole Belmont, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris

Yves Bergeron, Université du Québec à Montréal

Ian Brodie, Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia

Yves Frenette, Université de Saint-Boniface, Manitoba

Fernand Harvey, Inrs-Culture et Société, Québec

Donatien Laurent, Université de Bretagne occidentale, Brest, France

Françoise Lempereur, Université de Liège, Belgium