Information for Authors
Series Format | Submission | Refereeing and editing | Online First | Production | Colour costs |
What do authors get? | Citation data for Special Publications
The instructions posted on this web page are suitable for authors who are preparing a paper for a volume that has already been accepted and also for those presenting a paper at a meeting that the conveners hope will result in a Society book, but which is not yet approved. The Society now undertakes rigorous reviewing of all book proposals, which means that books are being accepted at a later stage in relation to the meeting. Acceptance of your paper for presentation at the meeting does not guarantee acceptance for the book.
Special Publications form the Society's main book series. It is a stand-alone series (not a supplement of Journal of the Geological Society) and is regarded as a prestigious series both within the UK and internationally. We aim to publish books of the highest standard, both in terms of content and production. We have produced these instructions for authors and editors to help us achieve these aims.
Books are not set up in that system until the proposal has been formally accepted by the Books Editorial Committee and some editors choose not to use the system. If the book you that wish to submit to it not listed, please contact the volume editors or the Commissioning Editor.
If the editors of your volume have chosen not to use the system, they will be responsible for informing you of the submission process.
The papers will be included in the Lyell Collection on a page devoted to the volume. A page for the volume will be created once about six papers are accepted and there is a good prospect of there being sufficient further papers to make a hardback book. The title, editors and volume number will be agreed at that stage. All papers on the site will be in their final format apart from pagination, i.e. they have been accepted for publication, copyedited, typeset, proofed and corrected. Apart from pagination, changes cannot be made once the paper is published. The Online First release date serves as the official publication date.
Online First will only be available for Special Publications handled through our online submission site (this is the default).
If you submitted your paper online, you will be sent a link to a form when your paper is accepted. This form can also be downloaded below.
What do authors get? | Citation data for Special Publications
The instructions posted on this web page are suitable for authors who are preparing a paper for a volume that has already been accepted and also for those presenting a paper at a meeting that the conveners hope will result in a Society book, but which is not yet approved. The Society now undertakes rigorous reviewing of all book proposals, which means that books are being accepted at a later stage in relation to the meeting. Acceptance of your paper for presentation at the meeting does not guarantee acceptance for the book.
Special Publications form the Society's main book series. It is a stand-alone series (not a supplement of Journal of the Geological Society) and is regarded as a prestigious series both within the UK and internationally. We aim to publish books of the highest standard, both in terms of content and production. We have produced these instructions for authors and editors to help us achieve these aims.
Series Format
Special Publication papers look very much like journal articles. The authors are listed at the start of the paper; they have abstracts and a reference list at the end of each chapter. The main text is in double column format. Final printed page size: 248 mm deep by 172 mm wide. Maximum final size of illustrations: 204 mm deep by 135 mm wide. Single column width: 65 mm. Number of words per page: 800. It is not possible with this page size to have captions at the side of figures.Submission
Special Publications are handled by our online submission and tracking system: http://gslspecpubs.allentrack.net. The person database is also shared with the other books site and JGS, so if you have submitted or reviewed a paper for JGS or another book, your login information will be the same. The other journals have separate person databases.Books are not set up in that system until the proposal has been formally accepted by the Books Editorial Committee and some editors choose not to use the system. If the book you that wish to submit to it not listed, please contact the volume editors or the Commissioning Editor.
If the editors of your volume have chosen not to use the system, they will be responsible for informing you of the submission process.
Refereeing and editing
The volume editors will send your paper to at least two referees. The volume editors will handle the papers through the reviewing and scientific editing procedure. We expect the reviewing and editing procedure to take about five to six months - but this is dependent upon referees and schedules of the scientific editors. The production process will not begin until all the papers for the volume are accepted.Online First
Papers accepted for Special Publications can now be published online ahead of print without having to wait for the whole book to be completed. We expect the first such papers to be published towards the end of 2011.The papers will be included in the Lyell Collection on a page devoted to the volume. A page for the volume will be created once about six papers are accepted and there is a good prospect of there being sufficient further papers to make a hardback book. The title, editors and volume number will be agreed at that stage. All papers on the site will be in their final format apart from pagination, i.e. they have been accepted for publication, copyedited, typeset, proofed and corrected. Apart from pagination, changes cannot be made once the paper is published. The Online First release date serves as the official publication date.
Online First will only be available for Special Publications handled through our online submission site (this is the default).
Production
Once the first batch of papers is finalized and the Commissioning Editor considers the book ready to start production, a Production Editor will be assigned. The Production Editor will write to the authors notifying them of when proofs are due and if there are any problems or costs to be incurred. The paper will be copyedited and then sent to an external typesetter. You will be instructed on how to access your proofs. We do not generally send revised proofs to authors. When all the papers for the book have been published online, we will paginate them and they will move to the main part of the Special Publications Lyell site. We will also print them as a hardback book.Colour costs
Special Publications authors are entitled to three free colour figures each article. Additional colour figures in the print version can be included for £100 per figure. This offer applies only to Special Publications, and not to other books series or journals.If you submitted your paper online, you will be sent a link to a form when your paper is accepted. This form can also be downloaded below.
- Download the colour figures form (.rtf45 Kb)
If you wish to have fold-out figures, please contact the Commissioning Editor
If you have funds for publication costs for your paper, we would be grateful if you could pay for all your figures to be printed in colour. This will help to reduce the price of the volume. If you are able to contribute £5000, your organization’s logo can appear on the back cover (please contact the Commissioning Editor to discuss).
You can have any number of colour figures 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).
We are not able to provide free books for authors in these volumes, because of the considerable costs involved. We strive to keep our productions costs as low as possible, so that we can make the books available to individuals at reasonable prices (most of our sales are at discount prices).
If you have funds for publication costs for your paper, we would be grateful if you could pay for all your figures to be printed in colour. This will help to reduce the price of the volume. If you are able to contribute £5000, your organization’s logo can appear on the back cover (please contact the Commissioning Editor to discuss).
You can have any number of colour figures 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).
What do authors get?
Corresponding authors receive a free internet-quality PDF, which they can forward to their co-author, and the option to purchase paper offprints. Shortly after publication, all authors of each paper will receive a special order form allowing them to buy up to two copies of the whole book at a heavily discounted price, usually one quarter of the list price. Further copies can be purchased at the GSL Fellows’ rate, usually half the list price.We are not able to provide free books for authors in these volumes, because of the considerable costs involved. We strive to keep our productions costs as low as possible, so that we can make the books available to individuals at reasonable prices (most of our sales are at discount prices).