Manuscript preparation and style

All contributions must be written in English. Papers should be as concise as clarity permits, and figures should be restricted to the minimum number required for a clear explanation. Your article should be typed in the same font throughout, no smaller than 12 point, with double-line spacing. You should ensure that text, figures, tables, citations and references adhere to the journal styles described in this document.

The Title Page should contain the full title of the paper, the category under which the manuscript is submitted, the full names and affiliations of all authors, a short title for the running headlines (limited to 50 characters), and an email address for the corresponding author. The title should be an accurate representation of the content of the paper, and it should not contain abbreviations, technical jargon or esoteric terms. Use an initial capital only in the title, except for proper nouns.

The Abstract should be an unstructured abstract. It must not exceed 250 words, but it must provide the reader with a self-contained summary of the paper. It should include a brief introduction to the paper, the method, the key findings and the conclusions. A list of 4–7 keywords for indexing should follow the summary (not words that are used in your article’s title).

The Body of the Manuscript should be broken into sections, such as the Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, Declaration of Interest, References. You should identify within the text where figures and tables should be inserted. Please ensure that all headings conform to journal style:

• Main headings: typed in bold with an initial capital only and (except Acknowledgements, Declaration of Interest section and references) numbered consecutively: ‘1. Introduction’, ‘2. Materials and methods’.
• Subheadings: typed in bold and numbered ‘a’, ‘b’, etc., within each main heading, e.g. ‘5.a. Bedrock samples’, ‘5.b. Oligo-Miocene sedimentary samples’.
• Sub-subheadings: typed in lower-case italic (except for those words and symbols which would be italicized in the text) and labelled ‘1’, ‘2’, etc., within each subheading, e.g. ‘5.a.1. Charnockites and enderbites’, ‘5.a.2. Mafic granulites and other rock types’.

The Acknowledgements should list sources of financial support (including grant numbers) for all authors, credits for permission given for reproduction of third-party material, and any other acknowledgements. Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma and a space. Where research was funded by more than one agency, the different agencies should be separated by a semi-colon, with ‘and’ before the final funder. Grants held by different authors should be identified as belonging to individual authors by the authors’ initials. For example, ‘This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (A.B., grant numbers XXXX, YYYY), (C.D., grant number ZZZZ); the Natural Environment Research Council (E.F., grant number FFFF); and the National Institutes of Health (A.B., grant number GGGG), (E.F., grant number HHHH).’ Where no specific funding has been provided for research, please provide the following statement ‘This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.’

In the Declaration of Interest section, you must report any potential conflicts of interest. Conflict of interest exists when an author has interests that might inappropriately influence his or her judgement, even if that judgement is not influenced. Authors must disclose potentially conflicting interests so that others can make judgements about such effects. Such disclosure will not preclude publication, but it is necessary because of the potential of negative or positive bias. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article.

At the time of submission, authors should disclose any arrangements or connections they may have that are pertinent to the manuscript (financial or non-financial) and that may be perceived as potentially biasing their paper. Conflicts may include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, funding sources for the reported study, personal or family financial interest in a method/product or a competing method/product.

This list of potential conflicts is not all inclusive, and it is the responsibility of each author to ensure that all of their ‘potential conflicts’ are reported. It is the corresponding author’s ethical responsibility to explicitly check with each of his/her co-authors to ensure that any real or apparent conflict of interest is appropriately disclosed. Authors should err on the side of full disclosure and if, authors are uncertain about what constitutes a relevant conflict, they should contact the editorial office (www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine).

Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Declaration of interest: Author A is employed at company B. Author C owns shares in company D, is on the Board of company E and is a member of organisation F. Author G has received grants from company H.” If no conflicts of interest exist, the declaration should state “Declaration of interest: The author(s) declare none”.

The list of References should give details of all references cited in your paper. The entries should be styled as described in the ‘References’ section of this document.

Any Appendices should be submitted as online-only Supplementary Material.

Figures

You can find further information about how to prepare your figures at the following link: www.cambridge.org/core/services/authors/journals/journals-artwork-guide

Formats

All figure files must be saved as TIFF or EPS files, at final size and at appropriate resolution (1000–1200 dpi for line drawings, 300 dpi for photographs and halftone images, and at least 600dpi for combination figures). Other file formats or figures ‘pasted’ into Word files are not accepted. Colour figures should be saved in CMYK (not RGB, except for Supplementary files).

If your figures are too large to upload to the submission site easily, you should compress your files before uploading or break your figures into two or more smaller figures. When you save your figure as a TIFF, you will receive the option of ‘Image Compression’. If you wish to compress your figure, please select the ‘LZW’ option. This setting should substantially reduce the size of the file, making it easier to upload.

Design

Design your figures with the journal’s page format in mind, making best use of page space. Figures must fit in either single-column (80 mm) or double-column (169 mm) width. The height of figures may vary up to a maximum of 235 mm. Do not exceed these limits even by fractions of a millimetre or the edges may disappear.

Do not include the figure number (e.g. Figure 1) within the figure. However, in figures that are made up of multiple parts, you must include labels in lower-case font for each part of the figure: (a), (b), (c) etc. Each part should be explained or described in the figure caption.

For labelling figures, use a sans-serif font, such as Arial, which will print at 9pt at final size. Labels on graph axes must have an initial capital and they should run along the graph axes, not perpendicular to the axes. Use scale bars, not magnifications. You may need to include a legend, e.g. a key explaining all symbols, within the figure. Acronyms can be used within figures provided they are explained within the caption or legend. Landscape figures should have no lettering upside-down on the final printed page.

Captions

Figure captions should be inserted at the end of the main text file, not typed within the figure. Use the following style: ‘Figure 1. Thin-section photomicrographs of (a) the Canonbie Bridge Sandstone Formation and (b) the Becklees Sandstone Formation. Scale bar is 0.55 mm across.’, ‘Figure 2. (a) Reference map of Morocco. (b) Close-up of the outcrop localities studied in the Atlas Mountains.’. If your figure contains third-party copyrighted material, you should include a credit in your figure caption.

Maps

Detailed maps or multiple logs may require a whole page, and the size of the lettering should be appropriate. Put one or two latitude/longitude labels around the edge of the main map. Ensure that in the latitude/longitude labels you use the degree symbol (not letter oh or zero), and use prime symbols not apostrophes for minutes and seconds. If you use National Grid coordinates instead, please state that in the figure caption, and give the reference letters for the grid in that area.

Photographs

In figures composed of photographs (known as half-tones), each component part should be labelled with a lower-case letter and each part should be explained in the figure caption. Ensure each photograph has a scale object or scale bar, with dimension stated within the caption, or state field of view or height of cliff in the caption.

Colour figures

Colour figures will be published online free of charge, however, if you request colour figures in the printed version, you will be contacted by CCC-Rightslink who are acting on our behalf to collect Author Charges. Please follow their instructions in order to avoid any delay in the publication of your article. It is not necessary for authors to indicate that a figure should be displayed in colour online. Cambridge will assume that any author who submits figures in colour wants and agrees to their being produced in colour online. It is the author’s responsibility to declare otherwise. Colour figures must be submitted before the paper is accepted for publication, and cannot be received later in the process. Authors cannot submit two versions of the same figure, one for colour and one for black and white; only one version can be submitted.

Authors need to carefully consider the following when submitting figures in colour that will be published in colour online only.

• The colours chosen must reproduce effectively and the colours must be distinguishable when printed in black and white. You should check this by printing out the figures in black and white using a desktop printer.
• The descriptions of figures in text and captions must be sufficiently clear for both online and print copy.
• When submitting figures to be in colour online only, authors must include the phrase <<colour online>> in the figure captions. This is the author’s responsibility. Here is an example of a figure caption for a colour online only figure:

Figure 1. (Colour online) Experimental (red dotted curve) and simulated (blue solid curve) X-ray diffraction spectra.

Colour figures submitted to Geological Magazine will be published in colour online free of charge with the following exceptions:

• The colour figure file is deemed unusable due to production standards or poor colour quality and must be converted to black and white.
• The author gives explicit instructions to convert the colour figure to black and white.
• The author gives explicit instructions that the figure should be published in colour both in print and online, and agrees to pay the additional charge associated with colour printing. This must be conveyed to journals production at Cambridge no later than the proof correction stage.

Authors will see these colour figures when viewing their author page proofs on screen. Authors should always print their page proofs in black and white to see how they will appear in print. Authors will NOT be allowed to submit colour figures to replace black and white figures in the page proof stage.

To maximize the probability that figures will be published in colour online and also print as good quality black and white or grayscale graphics, authors are encouraged to follow these figure submission guidelines:

• Submit a colour graphic in Tagged Image File Format (.tiff).
• Submit colour graphics with a resolution of at least 300 dpi (600 dpi if there is text or line art in the figure).
• Submit colour graphics in CMYK format.
• Submit figures sized to fit the actual column or page width of the journal so that reduction or enlargement is not necessary.
• Submit multipart figures in one single electronic file.

Tables

Tables should be placed in the main manuscript file at the end of the document, not within the main text. Each table should be placed on a separate page and its approximate position in the text must be indicated in the typescript. Tables must be supplied in a modifiable format, not as graphics. Large tables or additional tables could be submitted as online-only Supplementary Material.

Your tables should be designed, whenever possible, to be printed in the normal orientation of the text. Place single rules above and below the column headings at the top of the table, and another rule at the foot of the table. Within the body of the table, the data should be grouped so as to make the use of rules unnecessary (do not use horizontal and vertical lines within the body of the table). Do not use any background shading. Use an initial capital in column headings and row headings.

Type the table number and a short title at the top of the table, and place all the notes at the foot of the table. Use the following style for the title of the table: ‘Table 1. Carbon- and oxygen-isotope ratios’.

Footnotes should be placed beneath the table, written in roman font. Table footnotes should ordinarily employ the symbols *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, etc., in that order.

Citations

You should cite all figures, tables and Supplementary files within the text. Figures/tables should be numbered sequentially as they appear in the text. Parts of figures should be written in lower case, e.g. ‘Figure 7b, c’, ‘Figure 6a–d’. Use the whole word at the start of a sentence and in open text, e.g. ‘Figure 3’, ‘Figures 4, 5’, ‘Table 4’, ‘Tables 6–8’. For figures, use the abbreviation in parentheses, e.g. ‘(Fig. 2a)’, ‘(Figs. 3b, 4)’, ‘(Figs. 6–8, 10)’, but refer to ‘(Table 2)’, ‘(Tables 4, 5)’.

For citations of papers, use ‘&’ for two authors and ‘et al.’ for four or more authors. Use ‘a’, ‘b’ etc. as defined by the alphabetical order in the Reference list if citing more than one paper by the same author. Arrange chronologically by year of publication in the citation. For example, ‘(Hoy, 1994a; Crampton & Bones, 1996; Hu et al. 1996; Loxdale & Lushai, 1998, 1999b)’. Use the styles ‘Zhang & Hewitt (1997)’ and ‘Harry et al. (1998)’ at the start of a sentence. Otherwise use ‘(Taylor & Davies, 1989)’ or ‘(Hu et al. 1996)’. When citing a book, also cite the page number where that information can be obtained, e.g. ‘(Tucker & Wright, 1990, p. 184)’.

Do not give cross-references by page number. Use ‘above’ and ‘below’ with the section specified, e.g. ‘Section 2.a.2 above’.

Unpublished material should be cited within the text in the form ‘pers. comm.’ or ‘T. Reinecke, unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Technische Univ. Braunschweig, 1982’.

If your paper has online Supplementary Material, refer to ‘online Supplementary Material at http://journals.cambridge.org/geo’ within the text of your article.

References

Arrange alphabetically, with space between author initials, and use ‘&’ for last author. Type author names in standard type or use the ‘Small Caps’ font option – do not type names in full capitals. All words should be spelled out in full. The article name should have an initial capital for the first word, and use lower case for all other words that are not proper nouns.

Journal

FREY, E. & MARTILL, D. M. 1996. A reappraisal of Arambourgiania (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea): one of the world’s largest flying animals. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 199, 221–47.

Book

ROBERTSON, A. H. F. 2000. Mesozoic–Tertiary tectonic-sedimentary evolution of a south Tethyan oceanic basin and its margins in southern Turkey. In Tectonics and Magmatism in Turkey and the Surrounding Area (eds E. Bozkurt, J. A. Winchester & J. D. A. Piper), pp. 43–82. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 173.

ELEWA, A.M. T. 2010. Morphometrics for Nonmorphometricians. Springer, 367 pp.

Online publications

If a paper is published online, but hasn’t yet been published in a printed issue, please list the article’s doi in the reference list. Once the paper has been published in print, the full reference should be given in the usual way.

PINTO, V.M., HARTMANN, L. A. &WILDNER, W. 2010. Epigenetic hydrothermal origin of native copper and supergene enrichment in the Vista Alegre district, Paraná basaltic province, southernmost Brazil. International Geology Review, published online 12 February 2010. doi: 10.1080/00206810903464547.

References to websites should state the date that the website was accessed, as well as the URL.

WEISSTEIN, E. W. 2005. Euler–Lagrange differential equation. Available at http://mathworld.wolfram.com/eulerlagrangedifferen... (accessed 10 April 2006).

PhD thesis

Unpublished theses should not be listed in the reference list. Published theses can be listed, but please include ‘published thesis’ as part of the entry.

YEKUTIELI, D. 2001. Theoretical results needed for applying the false discovery rate in statistical problems. PhD thesis, Department of Statistics and Operations Research, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. Published thesis.

General styles

• ‘Hard’ page or section breaks must be used – do not use ‘enter’ in order to start a new page.
• Please do not use the automatic ‘bulleted list’ word-processing facility. You should type your lists manually: (i), (ii), (iii)...; (a), (b), (c)...; (1), (2), (3).
• Use the SI system of units.
• Use single quotes (‘ ’) not double quotes (“ ”) throughout the paper.
• Use prime symbols, not apostrophes, for minutes and seconds.
• Ensure that for degree symbols and in latitude/longitude labels you use the degree symbol (not letter oh or zero).
• Standard international acronyms such as HREE, UHT, P–T, CL should be explained at first usage after the abstract and then abbreviated thereafter. Spell out local or unusual acronyms in full throughout the text (MGB, PCSS). Avoid acronyms where possible.
• Abbreviations, e.g. ‘Fm.’; contractions, e.g. ‘Gp’, ‘fms’.
• Use ka, Ma (not m.y. or Myr), Ga for thousands, millions and billions of years, both for dates and for time differences (IUGS standard).
• Use km not Km.
• Use middle/Middle and not mid.
• Use upper-case letters for Early, Middle, Late, Lower, Middle, Upper only where formally erected as divisions; use lower case elsewhere.
• Use Early, Middle, Late for time, but Lower, Middle, Upper for rock-stratigraphic terminology (whatever the capitalization).
• NNW; top-to-the-N; SW-dipping, but ‘in the north of the area’.
• Hyphenate -trending, -dipping, -striking, etc.
• Use italic for fossil names.
• Terms such as Cambrian and Palaeozoic should be used in their original adjectival sense, not as nouns. Use ‘Cambrian period’ or ‘Palaeozoic period’ instead.
• Use 40K/39Ar only for ratios; use 40K–39Ar for ages and the dating method (with the numerals as superscripts).

Supplementary Material

The online platform gives authors the opportunity to include material that it would be impossible or impractical to include in the printed version, for example, extensive datasets, complex mathematical calculations or proofs, 3D-structures, 3D-images or video files. You must upload Supplementary Material at the same time that you submit your manuscript, and you must give details in your cover letter of all supplementary files uploaded. If accepted, this material will be placed in the Cambridge University Press Supplementary Material data archive, and it will be accessible online. Authors should ensure that they mention within their article that Supplementary Material is available on the Cambridge Journals Online website.

At the head of the first page of your Supplementary Material file, type ‘Geological Magazine’, the article title, the names of the authors, the heading ‘Supplementary Material’, and then the relevant inclusions. Please note that (unlike figures included in the printed article) captions or legends should be included for all figures and tables in Supplementary Material. You should number figures or tables with the prefix ‘S’, e.g. Supplementary Figure S1, Supplementary Table S1. Colour images for online publication as Supplementary Material must be saved in RGB format (not CMYK).

Although Supplementary Material is peer reviewed, it is not checked, copyedited or typeset after acceptance and it is loaded onto the journal’s website exactly as supplied. You should check your Supplementary Material carefully to ensure that it adheres to journal styles. Corrections cannot be made to the Supplementary Material after acceptance of the manuscript. Please bear this in mind when deciding what content to include as Supplementary Material.

Ethical and regulatory guidelines

All research must meet ethical and regulatory guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of the study country.

Cambridge Language Editing Service

We suggest that authors whose first language is not English have their manuscripts checked by a native English speaker before submission. This is optional but will help to ensure that any submissions that reach peer review can be judged exclusively on academic merit. We offer a Cambridge service which you can find out more about here, and suggest that authors make contact as appropriate. Please note that use of language editing services is voluntary and at the author’s own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge-published journal.