Obituaries (2001 onwards)
Guidelines for Authors
Before 2010, Obituaries were published online but printed as a collection in the Annual Report/Review covering the year of decease. However from 2010 (which is to say, the Annual Review 2009, published May 2010) this practice was changed to allow more timely print publication. Society obituaries are now published both online and, as soon as possible thereafter, in the print edition of Geoscientist.
We therefore no longer issue deadlines to obituarists.
Getting commissioned
We do not accept unsolicited obituaries. If you wish to write an obituary, please contact Ted Nield to be commissioned first. Guidelines for the writing of Society obits are given below.
Submission
Please submit your obituary by email as a Word or rtf file to ted.nield@geolsoc.org.uk. We do not accept hard copy except by prior arrangement, and then only clean laser- or inkjet-printed word processed hard copy that can be "OCR-ed". We do not accept copy that has been typed on a mechanical typewriter. “Golf ball” typewritten copy is acceptable for OCR purposes.Wordage & Picture
The Society does not have the resources to print very long obituaries. Please confine your obituary to 500 words as an absolute maximum. In rare cases of extreme eminence (of subject), this limit may be relaxed to 750 words.Please obtain and submit a photograph of the deceased. B&W prints (postcard size or larger) or colour transparencies are preferred, though colour prints may be acceptable. Photo-booth pictures are not acceptable. If you submit a digital picture, please use JPEG format and scan at the highest resolution available to you.
Names
As far as possible, do not use initials in your piece. All persons mentioned should be named with their most familiarly used first name. The only exception should be characters only known to most readers by their initials (e.g. Professor O.T.Jones).
General
The obituary must contain the subject’s full name and dates. Pre-university life and education is not essential information, nor are details of parentage, birthplace, siblings etc. Please mention scholarships/honours/prizes. Please give as much information as possible on the subject’s career, contribution to the science, and work for the Society. Please include names of partner or partners, marriages where appropriate and any children, with dates of birth. Feel free to state the cause of death if known, if this is not against the wishes of the bereaved.
A Society obituary is not the place for critical comment upon the deceased. De mortuis nil nisi bonum will be the Editor’s guiding principle.
Dr Ted Nield NUJ FGS, Editor, Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, LONDON W1J 0BG.