Author Guidelines

ES³ requires authors to carefully select the appropriate article type for their manuscript and to comply with the article type descriptions defined in the journal's "Article Types" page.

1.2. Manuscript Length

ES³ encourages the authors to closely follow the article word count lengths given in the "Article Types" page of the journals. The manuscript length includes only the main body of the text, footnotes, and all citations within it, and excludes the abstract, section titles, figure and table captions, funding statement, data statement, conflict of interest statement, acknowledgments, and references in the bibliography. Please indicate the number of words and the number of figures and tables included in your manuscript on the first page.

1.3. Language Style

The default language style at ES³ is British English.

1.4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

There are a few simple ways to maximize your article's discoverability. Follow the steps below to improve search results of your article:

include a few of your article's keywords in the title of the article;
do not use long article titles;
pick 5 to 8 keywords using a mix of generic and more specific terms on the article subject(s);
use the maximum amount of keywords in the first 2 sentences of the abstract;
use some of the keywords in level 1 headings.

1.5. CrossMark Policy

CrossMark is a multi-publisher initiative to provide a standard way for readers to locate the current version of a piece of content. By applying the CrossMark logo ES³ is committed to maintaining the content it publishes and to alerting readers to changes if and when they occur. Clicking on the CrossMark logo will tell you the current status of a document and may also give you additional publication record information about the document.

1.6. Title

The title should be concise, omitting terms that are implicit and, where possible, be a statement of the main result or conclusion presented in the manuscript. Abbreviations should be avoided within the title.

Consider if a title meant to be thought-provoking might be misinterpreted as offensive or alarming. In extreme cases, the editorial office may veto a title and propose an alternative.

Authors should try to avoid, if possible:

titles that are a mere question without giving the answer;
unambitious titles, for example starting with "Towards," "A description of," "A characterization of," "Preliminary study on;"
vague titles, for example starting with "Role of...," "Link between...," "Effect of..." that do not specify the role, link, or effect;"
include terms that are out of place, for example the taxonomic affiliation apart from species name.

For Corrigenda, the title of your manuscript should have the following format:

"Corrigendum: Title of Original Article"

The running title should be a maximum of 5 words in length.

1.7. Authors and Affiliations

All names are listed together and separated by commas. Provide exact and correct author names as these will be indexed in official archives. Affiliations should be keyed to the author's name with superscript numbers and be listed as follows: Laboratory, Institute, Department, Organization, City, State abbreviation (only for United States, Canada, and Australia), and Country (without detailed address information such as city zip codes or street names).

Example: Max Maximus1

1 Department of Excellence, International University of Science, New York, NY, United States.

The Corresponding Author(s) should be marked with an asterisk in the author list. Provide the exact contact email address of the corresponding author(s) in a separate section.

Correspondence:

Max Maximus

maximus@iuscience.edu

If any authors wish to include a change of address, list the present address(es) below the correspondence details using a unique superscript symbol keyed to the author(s) in the author list

1.8. Consortium/Group and Collaborative Authors

Consortium/group authorship should be listed in the manuscript with the other author(s).

In cases where authorship is retained by the consortium/group, the consortium/group should be listed as an author separated by "," or "and,". The consortium/group name will appear in the author list, in the citation, and in the copyright. If provided, the consortium/group members will be listed in a separate section at the end of the article.

For the collaborators of the consortium/group to be indexed in PubMed and other downstream services, they do not have to be inserted in the ES³ submission system individually. However, in the manuscript itself, provide a section with the name of the consortium/group as the heading followed by the list of collaborators, so they can be tagged accordingly and indexed properly.

Example: John Smith, Barbara Smith and The Collaborative Working Group.

In cases where work is presented by the author(s) on behalf of a consortium/group, it should be included in the author list separated with the wording "for" or "on behalf of." The consortium/group will not retain authorship and will only appear in the author list.

Example: John Smith and Barbara Smith on behalf of The Collaborative Working Group.

1.9. Abstract

As a primary goal, the abstract should render the general significance and conceptual advance of the work clearly accessible to a broad readership. In the abstract, minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references, figures or tables.

1.10. Keywords

All article types require a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 8 keywords.

1.11. Text

The entire document should be single-spaced and must contain page and line numbers in order to facilitate the review process. The manuscript should be written using either Word or LaTeX.

1.12. Nomenclature

The use of abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. Non-standard abbreviations should be avoided unless they appear at least four times, and defined upon first use in the main text. Consider also giving a list of non-standard abbreviations at the end, immediately before the Acknowledgments.
Equations should be inserted in editable format from the equation editor.
We encourage the use of Standard International Units in all manuscripts.
Chemical compounds and biomolecules should be referred to using systematic nomenclature, preferably using the recommendations by IUPAC.
Astronomical objects should be referred to using the nomenclature given by the International Astronomical Union provided here.
Life Science Identifiers (LSIDs) for ZOOBANK registered names or nomenclatural acts should be listed in the manuscript before the keywords. An LSID is represented as a uniform resource name (URN) with the following format: urn:lsid:::[:]
For Reporting standards for 40Ar- 39Ar and U-Pb geochronometric data, authors should refer to the Geological Society of London's guidelines here.

Dates and intervals

ES³ will accept either the IUPAC-IUGS recommended scheme or the one proposed by its Stratigraphy Commission. Authors may use whichever is their preference, but please be consistent.
The GSL Stratigraphy Commission recommends that Ga, Ma, ka, be used for dates and that myr and kyr be used for intervals of a million and thousand years respectively. On the other hand, IUPAC-IUGS recommends that Ma and ka mean a million and a thousand years respectively and that 'ago' or 'before present' be added if necessary where a date cannot be inferred from context. Other abbreviations for year are not acceptable in that scheme.
In addition, uncalibrated 14C dates can be presented in the form xx 14C ka BP and calibrated ones in the form xx cal ka BP.

References for dates and intervals:

Aubry, M.-P., Van Couvering, J.A., Christie-Blick, N., Landing, E., Pratt, B.R., Owen, D.E. and Ferrusquía-Villafranca, I. 2009. Terminology of geological time: Establishment of a community standard. Stratigraphy, 6, 100-105. http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~ncb/Selected_Articles_all_files/25_Stratigraphy.6.100.pdf [Note that this does not exactly match the recommendations of the GSL Stratigraphy Commission.]

Holden, N.E., Bonardi, M.L., De Biève, P., Renne, P.R. and Villa, I.M. 2011. IUPAC-IUGS common definition of and convention on the use of the year as a derived unit of time (IUPAC Recommendations 2011). Pure and Applied Chemistry, 83, 1159-1162, http://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-09-01-22

Stratigraphy

Authors should refer to 'A guide to stratigraphical procedure' (Geological Society Professional Handbook), paying particular attention to the following sections. Authors are also referred to the ICS Stratigraphic Chart. The Society's policy is to use international spellings for stratigraphical terms, so Paleozoic, rather than Palaeozoic, etc. British English will continue to be used for other words, for example, palaeontology.

Lithostratigraphical units

Fossils forming part of a lithostratigraphical unit name have a capital initial letter and are not italicized (e.g. Plenus Marls, Boueti Bed).

Biostratigraphy

Be especially careful over the nomenclature of biozones and their distinction from chronozones (see below). Fossil names forming part of a biostratigraphical unit name are italicized (e.g. Alsatites liasicus Biozone, or liasicus Biozone).

Chronostratigraphy

Only divisions with internationally agreed and ratified boundary stratotypes qualify as formal chronostratigraphical divisions. Units recognized as formally defined are listed periodically by the International Subcommission on Stratigraphy in Episodes. In chronozones, fossil species names have a capital initial letter and are not italicized (e.g. Herveyi Chronozone).

Formal and informal names and use of capital initial letters

Capital initial letters are used for expression of time (Early, Mid- or Late) only where reference to formally defined time divisions is made or intended; in all other instances, lower case initial letters should be used. Expression of relative position within a chronostratigraphical unit (i.e. lower, middle, upper) may be formal or informal, depending on context. Formal usage requires capital initial letters. Usage of lower, middle and upper in relation to lithostratigraphical units is generally informal.
Acceptable abbreviations are Gp (Group), Fm (Formation), Mbr (Member), Sst (Sandstone), Slst (Siltstone), Mdst (Mudstone), Sh (Shale), Congl (Conglomerate), Lst (Limestone), but these should be spelled out in full on first use. Use of such abbreviations should be kept to a minimum in the text but can be used to full advantage in tables and diagrams.
Avoid the use of phrases such as 'end Carboniferous' and 'top Cretaceous'. It is better to use 'latest Carboniferous' and 'uppermost Cretaceous', etc.
More information on stratigraphical terms and usage can be found on the ICS website.

Palaeontology

The most recent editions of the international codes of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) and Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) should be followed. All type, figured and cited specimens should be accompanied with a museum catalogue number, and their full geological horizon and locality given. Authorities should be cited with a date and included in the reference list. To avoid an excessively long list, omit the date in the text. Synonymy lists should be in the same style as those in Palaeontology (e.g. 1996, 39, 1068). Open nomenclature should follow Matthews (1973, Palaeontology, 16, 713-719) and Bengston (1988, Palaeontology, 31, 223-227). Note that a group of half-tone prints is referred to as a Figure, not a Plate. Photographs of fossils should be lit from the upper left. All photographic figures should include a scale bar.

Type and figured material

Type material (holotype and paratypes or syntypes, etc.) and figured specimens must be deposited in an accessible permanent public collection and catalogue numbers should be provided in the figure captions. Any datasets used in the description of a species should also be deposited in a permanent publicly accessible repository.

Mineralogy

Mineral nomenclature should follow the recommendations of the International Mineralogical Association Commission on New Minerals Nomenclature and Classification, e.g. hematite, baryte, analcime and feldspar. Note the discreditation of sphene (now titanite), acmite (now aegirine), titanaugite, barkevikite, basaltic hornblende, chalcolite, idocrase and hypersthene. More information can be found on the IMA-CNMNC website.
Standardization of names is absolute, but there is less agreement over standardization of abbreviations of mineral names we recommend: Whitney, D. L. and Evans, B. W. 2010. Abbreviations for names of rock-forming minerals. American Mineralogist, 95, 185-187, https://doi.org/10.2138/am.2010.3371

Igneous rock nomenclature

Follow the IUGS recommendations of Le Maitre et al. (eds) 2002. Igneous Rocks: A Classification and Glossary of Terms. 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press.

1.13. Sections

The manuscript is organized by headings and subheadings. The section headings should be those appropriate for your field and the research itself.

For Original Research articles, it is recommended to organize your manuscript in the following sections or their equivalents for your field:

INTRODUCTION

Succinct, with no subheadings.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This section may be divided by subheadings and should contain sufficient detail so that when read in conjunction with cited references, all procedures can be repeated.

RESULTS

This section may be divided by subheadings. Footnotes should not be used and must be transferred to the main text.

DISCUSSION

This section may be divided by subheadings. Discussions should cover the key findings of the study: discuss any prior research related to the subject to place the novelty of the discovery in the appropriate context, discuss the potential shortcomings and limitations on their interpretations, discuss their integration into the current understanding of the problem and how this advances the current views, speculate on the future direction of the research, and freely postulate theories that could be tested in the future.

For further information, please check the descriptions defined in the journal's "Article Types" page, which can be seen from the "For Authors" menu on any ES³ journal page.

1.14. Acknowledgments

This is a short text to acknowledge the contributions of specific colleagues, institutions, or agencies that aided the efforts of the authors. Should the content of the manuscript have previously appeared online, such as in a thesis or preprint, this should be mentioned here, in addition to listing the source within the reference list.

2. Figure and Table Guidelines

2.1. CC-BY Licence

All figures, tables, and images will be published under a Creative Commons CC-BY licence, and permission must be obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including re-published/adapted/modified/partial figures and images from the internet). It is the responsibility of the authors to acquire the licenses, follow any citation instructions requested by third-party rights holders, and cover any supplementary charges.

2.2. Figure Requirements and Style Guidelines

ES³ requires figures to be submitted individually, in the same order as they are referred to in the manuscript; the figures will then be automatically embedded at the end of the submitted manuscript. Kindly ensure that each figure is mentioned in the text and in numerical order.
For figures with more than one panel, panels should be clearly indicated using labels (A), (B), (C), (D), etc. However, do not embed the part labels over any part of the image, these labels will be replaced during typesetting according to the ES³ journal style. For graphs, there must be a self-explanatory label (including units) along each axis.
For LaTeX files, figures should be included in the provided PDF. In case of acceptance, our Production Office might require high-resolution files of the figures included in the manuscript in JPEG or TIF/TIFF format.

Please note that figures not in accordance with the guidelines will cause substantial delay during the production process.

2.2.1. Captions

Captions should be preceded by the appropriate label, for example "Figure 1." Figure captions should be placed at the end of the manuscript. Figure panels are referred to by bold capital letters in brackets: (A), (B), (C), (D), etc.

2.2.2. Image Size and Resolution Requirements

Figures should be prepared with the PDF layout in mind. Individual figures should not be longer than one page and with a width that corresponds to 1 column (85 mm) or 2 columns (180 mm).

All images must have a resolution of 300 dpi at final size. Check the resolution of your figure by enlarging it to 150%. If the image appears blurry, jagged or has a stair-stepped effect, the resolution is too low.

The text should be legible and of high quality. The smallest visible text should be no less than 8 points in height when viewed at actual size.
Solid lines should not be broken up. Any lines in the graphic should be no smaller than 2 points wide.

Please note that saving a figure directly as an image file (JPEG, TIF) can greatly affect the resolution of your image. To avoid this, one option is to export the file as PDF, then convert into TIFF using a graphics software.

2.2.3. Format and Color Image Mode

The following formats are accepted: TIF/TIFF (.tif/.tiff), and JPEG (.jpg) (upon acceptance).
Images must be submitted in the color mode RGB.

2.2.4. Chemical Structures

Chemical structures should be prepared using ChemDraw or a similar program. If working with another program please follow the guidelines given below:

Drawing settings: chain angle, 120° bond spacing, 18% width; fixed length, 14.4 pt; bold width, 2.0 pt; line width, 0.6 pt; margin width, 1.6 pt; hash spacing, 2.5 pt. Scale 100% Atom Label settings: font, Arial; size, 8 pt.
Assign all chemical compounds a bold, Arabic numeral in the order in which the compounds are presented in the manuscript text.

2.3. Table Requirements and Style Guidelines

Tables should be inserted at the end of the manuscript in an editable format. If you use a word processor, build your table in Word. If you use a LaTeX processor, build your table in LaTeX. An empty line should be left before and after the table.
Table captions must be placed immediately before the table. Captions should be preceded by the appropriate label, for example "Table 1." Please use only a single paragraph for the caption.
Kindly ensure that each table is mentioned in the text and in numerical order.
Please note that large tables covering several pages cannot be included in the final PDF for formatting reasons. These tables will be published as supplementary material.

Please note that tables which are not according to the guidelines will cause substantial delay during the production process.

2.4. Accessibility

ES³ encourages authors to make the figures and visual elements of their articles accessible for the visually impaired. An effective use of color can help people with low visual acuity, or color blindness, understand all the content of an article.

These guidelines are easy to implement and are in accordance with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1), the standard for web accessibility best practices.

A. Ensure sufficient contrast between text and its background

People who have low visual acuity or color blindness could find it difficult to read text with low contrast background color. Try using colors that provide maximum contrast.

WC3 recommends the following contrast ratio levels:

Level AA, contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1
Level AAA, contrast ratio of at least 7:1

Level AA Contrast ratio 4.6:1

Level AA Contrast ratio 9.5:1

You can verify the contrast ratio of your palette with these online ratio checkers:

B. Avoid using red or green indicators

More than 99% of color-blind people have a red-green color vision deficiency.

C. Avoid using only color to communicate information

Elements with complex information like charts and graphs can be hard to read when only color is used to distinguish the data. Try to use other visual aspects to communicate information, such as shape, labels, and size. Incorporating patterns into the shape fills also make differences clearer; for an example please see below:

3. Supplementary Material

Data that are not of primary importance to the text, or which cannot be included in the article because they are too large or the current format does not permit it (such as videos, raw data traces, PowerPoint presentations, etc.), can be uploaded as Supplementary Material during the submission procedure and will be displayed along with the published article. All supplementary files are deposited to Figshare for permanent storage and receive a DOI.

Supplementary Material is not typeset, so please ensure that all information is clearly presented without tracked changes/highlighted text/line numbers, and the appropriate caption is included in the file. To avoid discrepancies between the published article and the supplementary material, please do not add the title, author list, affiliations or correspondence in the supplementary files.

The Supplementary Material can be uploaded as Data Sheet (Word, Excel, CSV, CDX, FASTA, PDF or Zip files), Presentation (PowerPoint, PDF or Zip files), Image (CDX, JPEG, PDF, PNG or TIF/TIFF), Table (Word, Excel, CSV or PDF), Audio (MP3, WAV or WMA) or Video (AVI, DIVX, FLV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG or WMV).

4. Data Archiving and Availability

As per the Geological Society of London policy on data, ES³ supports the open accessibility, findability, interoperability, reusability and preservation of geoscience data (in any form, e.g. scans, 3D models) and software in order to benefit researchers, the scientific research community and the public, and to comply with funder mandates.

The Geological Society of London endorses FORCE11's Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles and is also a co-signatory on the Statement of Commitment for the Coalition for Publishing Data in the Earth and Space Sciences (COPDESS).

For geochemical data archiving COPDESS has compiled a number of domain repositories which adhere to the following criteria for inlusion:

Compliance with basic FAIR and TRUST principles, ideally also the CARE principles
Offer DOI minting; long-term preservation policy
Private review link; DOI reserved / data embargo
Basic geochemical data curation and review

Access the COPDESS Journal Guidelines for Geochemical Data Archiving here: https://www.escubed.org/files/pdf/EditorsGuidelines_v2.pdf

ES³ encourages authors to make available all data relevant to the conclusions of the manuscript. We aim to achieve the best community standards regarding data availability, ensuring increased levels of transparency and reproducibility in our published articles.

For further information, please consult our Policy and Publication Ethics page and the Geological Society for data policy information: https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/data_policy

5. References

All citations in the text, figures or tables must be in the reference list and vice-versa.
The names of the first six authors followed by et al. and the DOI (when available) should be provided.
The reference list should only include articles that are published or accepted.
Unpublished data, submitted manuscripts or personal communications should be cited within the text only, for the article types that allow such inclusions.
For accepted but unpublished works use "in press" instead of page numbers.
Data sets that have been deposited to an online repository should be included in the reference list. Include the version and unique identifier when available.
Personal communications should be documented by a letter of permission.
Website URLs should be included as footnotes.
Any inclusion of verbatim text must be contained in quotation marks and clearly reference the original source.
Preprints can be cited as long as a DOI or archive URL is available, and the citation clearly mentions that the contribution is a preprint. If a peer-reviewed journal publication for the same preprint exists, the official journal publication is the preferred source.

5.1 In-text Citations

For works by a single author, include the surname, followed by the year.
For works by two authors, include both surnames, followed by the year.
For works by more than two authors, include only the surname of the first author followed by et al., followed by the year.

5.2 Reference List

JOURNAL ARTICLE WITHOUT PAGINATION

Vermeesch, P. 2006. Tectonic discrimination diagrams revisited.

Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. 7, Q06017. doi: org/10.1029/2005GC001092

ARTICLE IN AN ONLINE JOURNAL

Cassar, J., and Vella, A. J. (2003). Methodology to identify badly weathering limestone using geochemistry: Case study on the Lower Globigerina Limestone of the Maltese Islands. Q. J. Eng. Geol. Hydrogeol.. 36, 85-96. doi: 10.1144/1470-923602-007

ARTICLE OR CHAPTER IN A BOOK

Hambrey, M. J., Christoffersen, P. et al. (2007). "Neoproterozoic glaciated basins: A critical review of the Snowball Earth hypothesis by comparison with Phanerozoic glaciations", in Glacial Sedimentary Processes and Products, ed. M. J. Hambrey, P. Christoffersen, N. F. Glasser, B. Hubbard (Blackwell), 343-399.

BOOK

Rothery, D. (2016). Geology: A Complete Introduction: Teach Yourself. London, United Kingdom: John Murray Press.

BOOK (WITH INSTITUTIONAL AUTHOR)

Metal Economics Group 2013. (2013). Worldwide Exploration Trends 2013: A Special Report from SNL Metal Economics Group for the PDAC International Convention. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: SNL Metals Economics Group.

ABSTRACT

Hendricks, J., Applebaum, R., and Kunkel, S. (2010). A world apart? Bridging the gap between theory and applied social gerontology. Gerontologist 50, 284-293. Abstract retrieved from Abstracts in Social Gerontology database. (Accession No. 50360869)

WEBSITE

World Nuclear Association. (2010). Geology of Uranium Deposits. https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/uranium-resources/geology-of-uranium-deposits [Accessed March 15, 2020].

PATENT

Marshall, S. P. (2000). Method and apparatus for eye tracking and monitoring pupil dilation to evaluate cognitive activity. U.S. Patent No 6,090,051. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

DATA

Please cite the data and software that were used in preparing the article. Please also cite any data referred to in the text. Data are considered citable products of research and should be listed in the Reference list.

A reference to the data should include:

author
year
dataset title
data repository or archive
version
persistent identifier

Examples

Institute for Social and Economic Research and National Centre for Social Research, University of Essex 2011. Understanding Society: Wave 1, 2009-2010 [computer file]. 2nd edn. UK Data Archive, Colchester, Essex. (2011) https://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-6614-2

Smith, J., and Brown, D. Late Cretaceous extension and Palaeogene rotation-related contraction in Central Anatolia recorded in the Ayhan-Büyükkışla basin. Figshare. (2014) https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12345

A reference to software should include:

Name of software
Names of software authors/contributors
Location/repository
Citable DOI of software

Examples:

Vermeesch, P. IsoplotR. (2018) https://github.com/pvermees/IsoplotRgui, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2018.04.001

Mayne, M.J . Rcrust. (2019) https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4388291

THESES AND DISSERTATIONS

Gibson, S. A. (1988) The geochemistry, mineralogy and petrology of the Trotternish Sill Complex, northern Skye, Scotland. [PhD thesis]. Kingston Polytechnic.

PREPRINT

Smith, J. (2008). Title of the document. Preprint repository name [Preprint]. Available at: https://persistent-url (Accessed March 15, 2018).

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