| Geosphere Guidelines | |
| 1. |
Submission, Review, and Acceptance |
| 2. | Supplemental Material |
| 3. | Editorial Policy, copyright, and costs |
| 4. | Style |
| 5. | Figures |
| 6. | Contact Information |
| 7. | Ethical Guidelines for Publication |
Geosphere
Submission, Review, and Acceptance
The acceptance or rejection of a manuscript is based on the appraisal of the paper by two or more reviewers and an editor designated by GSA. Critical review determines the suitability and originality of the paper and the adequacy and conciseness of the presentation. Nearly all manuscripts are returned to the author with suggestions for revision, condensation, or final polish. If the revised manuscript and the author's cover letter show that the author has conscientiously considered the reviewers' suggestions, the manuscript may be accepted directly; however, some revised papers may be sent out for additional review. The submitted revised manuscript is considered final.
| General Info | Tips and Suggestions | Manuscript Submission | Cover Letter | Manuscript Status | Withdrawing Manuscripts | Getting Started |
Tips and Suggestions
for Using Editorial Manager
We have tried to identify aspects of the Editorial Manager manuscript submission system that may cause frustration or puzzlement. Here is what we have to date.
Scroll: If ever you don’t see what you are looking for, try scrolling down.
Navigation: Avoid using the “back” button. It is safer to use the “previous” buttons or to go to the Main Menu.
Roles: If you are sometimes using the system as an author and other times as a reviewer, use the pull-down menu near the top and center of the screen to choose the role you need to work in.
Authorship: Don’t add yourself as an author. You are automatically listed as an author when you start the submission process. Note: If you designate someone else as the corresponding author, only that person will be able to access the paper once it is submitted.
Must do: Once you have submitted your files, the system builds a PDF, which you MUST approve in order for your paper to proceed to peer review. You will be asked to go to “Submissions Waiting for Author’s Approval.” At this page, you will find a table. Click on the plus sign in the “Action” cell to see your action choices (View, Edit, Approve, Remove, or Send E-mail) if they are not visible.
View: If your PDF is O.K., you may approve it, and it will move on in the system.
Edit: If you need to make any changes, you do not need to go through every page of the submission process. If, for example, you need to add an author, you can click on the box on the left labeled “Add/edit/remove authors.” If you only need to add or change a file, you can click on the box on the left labeled “Attach files.” If you reach a page where you don’t need to make any changes, just click on the “next” button at the bottom of that page.
Upload text and figures as separate files. Also, we need your text file in its original word processing format (Word, Word Perfect, wpd, or rtf; Mac files O.K.).
File types: The system accepts a couple of file types that GSA cannot use. Please do not send LaTex or PowerPoint files.
You may find it helpful to gather the following information before starting your submission:
- Your co-authors’ names as they like them to appear in publications (first, middle names or initials, last) and their e-mail addresses
- Title and Abstract (you can cut and paste these from your manuscript file)
- Keywords (used to help editors choose reviewers)
- Manuscript files in Word, WordPerfect, text, or RTF format. (Please include your abstract and figure captions in the text file.) Do not use the ASCII text option if you have used Greek letters, special characters, superscripts, or subscripts in your paper.
- Table files in Excel or Word (use table function, tab separated format, or comma separated format).
- Figure/Image files in TIFF, GIF, JPEG, EPS, Postscript, PICT, or
PDF. They should be in order and clearly labeled. Figures at this stage
do not need to be publication quality, but it is a good idea to start
with publication-quality figures and then save them in the formats
allowed by this system.
[ see guidelines about publication-quality figures ] - Contact information (e-mail address and institution) of suggested peer reviewers (if any).
Note: Files over 20 MB may cause problems for editors and reviewers. If you have files over 20 MB, please contact the managing editor,bmoore@geosociety.org, before submitting your files.
| General Info | Tips and Suggestions | Manuscript Submission | Cover Letter | Manuscript Status | Withdrawing Manuscripts | Getting Started |
Manuscript Submission
Submit your manuscript via the online submission and review system, Editorial Manger, at www.editorialmanager.com/geosphere/. First-time users need to register for an account at this URL using their active e-mail addresses. The same user name and password are used to log in as an author and as a reviewer. For help using the Editorial manager system, select "Help" from the menu at the top of the screen at any time.
All reviews, revisions, and proofs are handled electronically. If you are unable to access the site, please contact the Geosphere editorial office, geosphere@geosociety.org.
If you are resubmitting a manuscript, please note this in both your cover letter and in the "Comments" section during manuscript submission, and include the original manuscript number if you have it.
Your manuscript will be considered officially submitted only after it has been approved through an initial technical check. If figures are illegible, the merged file size is too large, or any required files are missing, your submission will be returned to you so that you can fix these problems.
Acceptance or rejection of a manuscript is based on the appraisal of the paper by two or more reviewers and a science editor designated by GSA. Critical review determines the suitability and originality of the paper and the adequacy and conciseness of the presentation. Nearly all manuscripts are returned to the author with suggestions for revision, condensation, or final polish. If the revised manuscript and the author's cover letter show that the author has conscientiously considered the reviewers' suggestions, the manuscript may accepted directly; however, some revised papers may be sent out for additional review.
Please upload your text and figure files separately. We will need your text file (original word processing file in Word, Word Perfect, wpd, or rtf) in order to copy edit your manuscript should it be accepted. Our system will automatically merge the text file that you upload with the figure and table files, to make one article file PDF. This allows editors and reviewers to view and/or download your manuscript in one easy step. If any of your figures are illegible, or the merged file size is too large (see below), your submission will be returned to you so that you can fix these problems. Your manuscript will only be considered officially submitted after it has been approved through our initial quality control check, and these problems (if any) have been fixed.
Before submitting a manuscript, please gather the following information:
- All Authors
- First Names, Middle Names/Initials, Last Names
- Postal Addresses
- Work Telephone Numbers
- E-mail addresses
- Title and Running Title (you can cut and paste this from your manuscript). Your running title will appear as the header on every other page of the PDF.
- Abstract (you can cut and paste this from your manuscript)
- Keywords
- Manuscript files in PDF, Word, WordPerfect, text, or RTF format. (Please include your abstract and figure captions in the text file.)
- Do not use the text option if you have used Greek letters, special characters, superscripts, or subscripts in your paper.
- If you are submitting your manuscript as a PDF, please also upload just the text from the original word processing program (Word, WordPerfect, Text, or RTF format). We may need it to copy edit your manuscript. To do this, upload your PDF as the article file, and your word processing file as a supplementary file.
- Files over 20 MB may cause problems for editors and reviewers. If you have files over 20 MB, please contact bmoore@geosociety.org before submitting your files.
- Table files in Excel, tab separated format, or comma separated format, or at end of text file.
- Figure/Image files in TIFF, GIF, JPG, PDF, Postscript, or EPS format. They should be in order and clearly labeled. We are now accepting Corel Draw files, however conversion to PDF may take longer for these files, and fonts must be embedded for conversion to take place.
- Figures at this stage do not need to be publication quality, but it is always a good idea to start with publication-quality figures and then save them in the formats allowed by this system. See guidelines about publication-quality figures.
- Geopshere encourages the use of additional types of files, such as animations, video files, data sets, interactive files, and others. These items will not be part of the article file PDF, but reviewers will have access to them.
- Contact information (e-mail address and institution) of desired peer reviewers (if any).
Supplemental Files
One of the goals of Geosphere is to provide a venue for innovative papers and materials that don't fit into traditional print journal formats. Here are some examples:
- Animations or movies videos submitted as mpeg files
- Maps with layers that can be manipulated, submitted as Adobe Illustrator files.
- Large format maps
- Interactive website (self contained files viewable by any web browser)
- Large numbers of color figures. We prefer the following image file types, in order of preference: JPEG, TIFF, GIF.
The supplemental files should be in a format that does not require proprietary software or in a format that has a downloadable free viewer. Free viewers exist for Microsoft Excel for Windows; Adobe PDF ; and Postscript.
If you have questions about special file formats you want to use in your submission, please e-mail editing@geosociety.org with the details.
Resubmissions
If you are resubmitting a manuscript, please note this fact in both your cover letter and the "Manuscript Comments" at the bottom of the first submission screen. If you know it, please also include the original manuscript number.
| General Info | Tips and Suggestions | Manuscript Submission | Cover Letter | Manuscript Status | Withdrawing Manuscripts | Getting Started |
Cover Letter
- Should explain how your paper is innovative, provocative, timely, and of interest to a broad audience.
- Must list any papers on related topics by any of the authors that have been published within the past year or that are in review or in press.
| General Info | Tips and Suggestions | Manuscript Submission | Cover Letter | Manuscript Status | Withdrawing Manuscripts | Getting Started |
Manuscript Status
After you approve your manuscript, you are finished with the submission process. You can access the status of your manuscript by:
- Logging into the system with your password.
- Clicking on the "Submissions being processed" link.
- The status of your paper will be displayed in a tabular view.
This procedure will display detailed tracking information about where your manuscript is in the submission/peer-review process.
| General Info | Tips and Suggestions | Manuscript Submission | Cover Letter | Manuscript Status | Withdrawing Manuscripts | Getting Started |
Withdrawing a Manuscript
If at any point you wish to withdraw your manuscript, contact the editor handling your manuscript and advise them of the specific manuscript number of the manuscript that you wish to withdraw. You will receive a letter acknowledging the withdrawal.
- For multi-author papers, the Geosphere editors will assume that all the authors have been involved with the work and have approved the manuscript and agree to its submission. A statement on the respective roles of each author when more than five authors are listed is required. One author must be designated as the corresponding author in the submittal letter.
- If you are submitting a paper to be included in one of Geosphere's thematic issues, please identify that issue in your cover letter.
| General Info | Tips and Suggestions | Manuscript Submission | Cover Letter | Manuscript Status | Withdrawing Manuscripts | Getting Started |
Getting Started
- The manuscript submission process starts by pressing the "Submit New Manuscript" link on your Editorial Manager "Home" page. Please make sure you have gathered all the required manuscript information listed above and understand GSA's Editorial Policy BEFORE starting the submission process.
- [ Please click here to continue ]
- Getting Help
- If you need additional help, click on "Help" in the Geosphere/Editorial Manager menu at the top of your screen.
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