Information for Authors

Page format

The main text is in double column format. Final printed page size: 276 mm deep by 210 mm wide. Maximum final size of illustrations: 236 mm deep by 176 mm wide. Single column width: 85 mm. Mid-width figures (caption at side): 120 mm. Number of words per page: 1000.

Submission

All submissions to the Journal should be made online via http://jgs.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
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 longer than 12 pages require special editorial approval (after refereeing and before acceptance). There are c. 1000 words on a printed page. Don't forget to make an allowance for figures and tables, and allow a quarter page for the title, authors and affiliations.

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 (100 for 'Specials')
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

Refereeing and editing

The scientific editor will send your paper to at least two referees. The scientific editor 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 two to three 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 JGS the cost to authors is £500 for the first colour figure within a paper, then £100 for subsequent colour figures within the same paper.

The Journal has a small annual budget to help authors with colour costs. The budget is controlled by the Chief Editor, and the application should be made through the editor handling your paper. The appropriate time for such an application is after the paper has been accepted subject to revision. Please contact the Staff Editor if you have any queries.

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).

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. Proofs will be placed on the Society's FTP site and you will be given full instructions on how to access them. You will be sent a hard copy proof of any colour diagrams that show the final print quality. 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.

Specials

Short topical papers published within 6 months of submission in one of the most highly cited Earth Science Journals with a circulation of c. 5000 copies.

The editors are seeking papers with significant new data and/or ideas or reinterpretations of existing material which are sufficiently important and timely to merit fast-tracking, and will appeal to a wide audience of Earth Scientists.

Your manuscript should meet the criteria above and be no longer than four printed pages (4000 word equivalents). Papers that do not meet length requirements cannot be considered. Details for preparing and submitting the manuscript are the same as for normal papers.

Authors will be expected to complete revisions within 3 weeks.

Tips for calculating the length

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 - the maximum for Specials is 100 words

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

References: allow 52 references per page

Figures: single column - final depth in mm / 472 = number of pages; for double and 1½ column figures - final depth in mm x 2 / 472. 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) - no of lines x 3.5 / 472 = number of pages; across two columns - no of lines x 7 / 472. Landscape tables = whole page.

Discussions

Discussions on papers that have already appeared in the Journal or appropriate Society books are acceptable. Discussions should be succinct, written in an objective and scientific manner, and ideally about 1000 words in length. Discussions should be submitted online as described above. Please ensure you include your own address and all the references that you cite, even if they were in the original paper.

Discussions should add something to the debate and not be just an additional observation.

Thematic Sets

The Journal can accept one thematic set of papers per volume. These would not be thematic issues: other papers would also appear in that issue. They are included in the normal page budget and do not lead to increased subscription prices.

There is a page limit of 80 pages for each set and ideally the set would be made up of shorter contributions of 6 to 8 pages. Good examples of thematic sets are:

Iceland Plume 152/6
Basement Reactivation 154/1
Passive Margins 154/3

The subject of the set must be of interest to a broad international audience and the science must be of the highest quality. All the papers must be acceptable to the Journal in their own right.

Thematic sets have 'guest editors' who work closely with one of the regular editors. The guest editors would be expected to write a short introduction to the set. They will be acknowledged at the end of each paper along with the regular editor.

If you would like to submit a proposal for a thematic set in JGS, we require the following information:

Names and contact details of the guest editors
A list of papers, including title and all authors
A brief explanation of its aims and how it will enhance the Journal
Details of the meeting that generated the set (if appropriate)
Your planned schedule for submission, refereeing and editing

Please send this information by e-mail to the Staff Editor, who will circulate it to the Editorial Board after seeking the expert opinion of an internal or external reviewer. If abstracts are available, we would like to see those too - send them by e-mail two or three at a time.

Instructions for editing thematic sets will be provided once the proposal is accepted. The review procedure for the proposal will take about four to six weeks.

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.

Young Author of the Year Award

Each year, the Journal makes an award for the best paper from a young author. The prize is two years free membership of the Society and a Special Publication.

Criteria for the award are as follows.

Under the age of 30 when the paper was originally submitted
Single or lead author. If the latter a declaration from their supervisor will be sought stating that the candidate led the work.
Exciting topic set in a general context - not parochial.
Should be a novel approach or interpretation.
Discussion and development of ideas, not just a collection of results/observations.
Clear conclusions of general relevance.
Clearly and concisely written - not over-long.
Logical structure and argument.
Relevant and clear diagrams.

If you wish your paper to be considered for this award, the young author must include their date of birth in their profile in the submission package. Please note that excessive corrections at proof stage will disqualify the paper.

Previous winners are:

2008: Daniel P. Le Heron (First-order reconstructions of a Late Ordovician Saharan ice sheet; with Craig, J.)

2007: Carl Stevenson (Laccolithic, as opposed to cauldron subsidence, emplacement of the Eastern Mourne pluton, N. Ireland: evidence from anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility; with Owens, W. H., Hutton, D. H. W., Hood, D. N. & Meighan, D. N.)

2006: Huw Sheppard (Sequence architecture of ancient rocky shorelines and their response to sea-level change: an Early Jurassic example from South Wales, UK)

2005: Nicola DePaola (The influence and lithology and pre-existing structures on reservoir-scale faulting patterns in transtensional rift zones; with Holdsworth, R. E. & McCaffrey, K. J. W.)

2004: Victoria Smith (Reactivation of a rhyolite magma body by new rhyolitic intrusion before the 15.8ka Rotorua eruptive episode: implications for magma storage in the Okataina Volcanic Centre, New Zealand; with Shane, P. & Nairn, I.)

2003: Ingrid Ukstins Peate (The transition from sedimentation to flood volcanism in the Kangerlussuaq Basin, East Greenland: basaltic pyroclastic volcanism during initial Palaeogene continental break-up; with Larsen, M. & Lesher, C. E.)

2002: Ethan F. Baxter (Prograde temperature-time evolution in the Barrovian type locality constrained by precise Sm/Nd garnet ages from the Glan Clova, Scotland; with Ague, J. J. & DePaolo, D. J.)

2001: Sarah C. Sherlock (Two-stage erosion and deposition in a continental margin setting: a ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar laserprobe study of offshore detrital white micas in the Norwegian Sea).

2000: Paola Vannucchi (Insights into shallow-level processes of mountain building from the Northern Apennines, Italy: with Maltman, A. J.)

1999: Howard J. Falcon-Lang (Fire ecology of a Late Carboniferous floodplain, Joggins, Nova Scotia)