Information for Authors

Submission

All submissions to the Journal should be made online via http://geea.allentrack.net. Full instructions can be found within that site. There are additional help buttons throughout. You will need to register before you can submit. This is very easy. If you have previously submitted a paper, you should already be in the system.

Before submitting a manuscript, it is recommended that you have the following to hand:

all authors' first, middle names/initials and last names
all authors' full postal and e-mail addresses
title and running title (you may copy and paste these from your manuscript)
abstract (you may copy and paste this from your manuscript - 200 word limit/100 for Specials)
manuscript files in Word, WordPerfect, RTF or Text formats (please number lines within the text)
figures/images in TIF, EPS, PDF* or JPG formats
tables in XLS, CSV or DOC formats
supplementary data files
covering letter (which the referees will see)
abstracts of any related papers that you have in press (submit as supplemental files)

(*If you load PDF files the merged file might be very large)

(It is a good idea to put all your files in one folder.)

The submission package will guide you through the processes for submitting your files and confirmation/approval.

You can check the status of your manuscript at any time through the system by:

logging into the system with your password
clicking on the link represented by your manuscript tracking number and abbreviated title
clicking on the 'Check Status' link at the bottom of the displayed page

Recommended utilities

PC users: Internet Explorer 5.0 and above
Mac users: Netscape 4.7 and above
Adobe Reader 4.0 and above
You need to have Cookies enabled

Papers are accepted on the understanding that they have not been submitted or published elsewhere and become copyright of the Geological Society. Papers are also accepted on the understanding that all authors consent to the submission. All authors should have seen and approved the version that you submit.

Papers should be arranged as follows:

Title: brief and specific; followed by name(s) and address(es) of authors(including e-mail address of corresponding author)
Abstract: this must be intelligible without reference to the paper, and should not exceed 200 words Main body of paper: subdivided into 1st, 2nd and 3rd order headings; omit heading 'Introduction'
Acknowledgements (if any)
Appendices: see Supplementary Data.
References: in full; authors' names must be keyed as capitals and lower case
Tables: each as a separate file
Figure captions (you will need to paste these with the figures)
Figures in separate files

References

List all references cited. The author is responsible for ensuring that the references are correct. Text citations to references should be made thus: (Glennie 1984; Pinnock & Clitheroe 1997; Law et al. 2000) or Hesthammer (1999a, b), etc. depending on the context. The order in the text should be as here – chronological then alphabetical. If the reference has 3 or more authors it should appear as first-named author et al. in the text, but with all authors listed in the reference list. However, if the reference has more than 7 authors, it should appear in the ref. list as the first 3 authors plus et al. Within the reference list order all references alphabetically by first author name. For single- and two-author references, list them alphabetically and then chronologically. Do not use repeat rules for the same name. With references of 3 or more authors, list these chronologically rather than alphabetically by second, third author. Authors’ names in the reference list should be typed in upper and lower case (as should editors of a volume in which the authors’ paper appears) or small caps but not all capitals. Authors’ initials should be preceded by a space, i.e. Smith, A. B., not Smith,A. B. Do not abbreviate journal titles. Volume numbers should be in bold; journal titles and book titles (and the titles of PhD theses) in italics. Books do not require the total number of pages.

GREEN, A. 1995. The Gryphon Field. Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis, 1, 23–25.

GREEN, A. & THOMAS, B. A. (eds) 1993. The Future of Petroleum Exploration. Chapman & Hall, London.

GREEN, A., SMITH, B. & JONES, F. 1991. Petroleum exploration. In: Adams, F. F. (ed.) The Continental Shelf of North-west Europe. Applied Science, Barking, 521–530.

GREEN, F. 1991. Ophiolites. In: PRICHARD, H. M., ALABASTER, T., HARRIS, N. B. W. & NEARY, C.R. (eds) Magmatic Processes and Plate Tectonics. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 76, 451–460.

GREEN, P. 1992. Blueschists and eclogites. PhD thesis, University of Oxford, UK.

DEEGAN, C. E. & SCULL, B. J. 1977. A Standard Lithographic Nomenclature for the Central and North Sea. Institute of Geological Sciences Report 77/25.

GREEN, F. 1972. Landslide Susceptibility in San Mateo County, California. United States Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-310.

HYMAN, D. M. & WATLAF, G. R. 1997. Metals and other components of coal mine drainage as related to aquatic life standards. In: Proceedings of the 1997 National meeting of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation, May 10–15, 1997, Austin, Texas. American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation, Princeton, W.V., 531–545.

Refereeing and editing

A member of the editorial board will send your paper to at least two referees. They will handle the papers through the reviewing and scientific editing procedure and approve the finalized script for publication. We expect the reviewing and editing procedure to take about three to five months in the case of a paper requiring little revision. We are of course dependent on the goodwill of unpaid reviewers to achieve these targets.

You can keep track of this process through the online submissions package.

Colour charges

Colour printing incurs extra costs, and like most publishers, we pass these costs to authors in order to keep the subscription price as low as possible. Society subscription prices are much lower than those of many commercial publishers.

For Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis the cost to authors is £500 for the first page within a paper, then £100 for subsequent pages provided the paper is no more than 8 pages in length.

You can have colour in the online version at no cost provided that we can use the same file as for printing in black and white (i.e. we can just switch the colour off in the print version).

Format and tips for calculating the length

Authors are encouraged to restrict their papers to a maximum of 12 journal pages, including figures, tables and references. Please submit the paper as single column double-line spaced text, line numbers down the left hand side are useful for reviewing purposes. Place every Figure and Table on separate pages along with the accompanying caption.
In the final typeset version the main text is in double column format. Final printed page size: 296 mm deep by 210 mm wide. Maximum final size of illustrations: 240 mm deep by 178 mm wide. Single column width: 85 mm. Number of words per page: 900.
Titles, authors and affiliations: for a short title and one author, allow 100 words; for a longer title and/or several authors and affiliations, allow up to 300 words.

Abstract: straightforward word count

Text: straightforward word count (1000 words = 1 page)

References: allow 40 references per page

Figures: single column – estimate ¼ or ½ page depending on depth of figure; for double and 1½ column figures – estimate ½ or 1 page depending on depth of figure. Landscape figures = whole page

Figure captions: straightforward word count unless it is a 1½ column figure, in which case don't include caption in count.

Tables: across one column (max total 65 characters width including three character space between each column) – estimate ¼ or ½ page depending on length of table; across two columns – estimate ½ or 1 page depending on the length of the table. Landscape tables = whole page.

Production

The staff editor will write to the corresponding author notifying them of when the paper is due to be published. The paper will be copyedited and then sent to an external typesetter. PDF proofs will be sent out by email. We do not generally send revised proofs to the author. The production process takes about four to five months from acceptance to publication. Because the number of pages in each issue is limited (and has to be a multiple of 16) it is inevitable that some papers get held over to the next issue. We try to do this fairly, selecting the papers by submission date, but sometimes the 16-page multiple constraint means that an older paper has to be held over.

Offprints

You will be given instructions on how to download a PDF of your paper from the online version of the Journal. Paper offprints can be ordered; instructions will be sent with the proof e-mail.