Quaternary Research publishes Research Articles, Reviews, Forum contributions, and Comments and Replies.

Research articles

Quaternary Research primarily publishes articles that present the findings of original research, and which explore their implications for the Quaternary sciences. Articles with strong interdisciplinary elements are particularly welcomed. Articles concerning technique development are also encouraged if they clearly align with the journal's aims and scope.

Review articles

Review articles provide a broad, comprehensive overview or synthesis of rapidly evolving fields that are of interest or utility in research across disciplines. Authors interested in writing an unsolicited review article are encouraged to consult with an editor prior to submission.

Contributions to the QR Forum

Forum articles are intended to cast light on important new research directions or significant but under-emphasized aspects of a field that have broad implications. They differ from research or review articles in that they are intended to provoke discussion about a controversial topic. Authors interested in writing a Forum article are encouraged to consult with an editor prior to submission.

Comments and Replies

These are restricted to comments on a paper previously published in Quaternary Research; the author(s) of the original paper will be given the opportunity to prepare a Reply. Length should not exceed 1000 words and a figure or table. Normally, both the Comment and the Reply will be published in the same issue.

Manuscript organization

Research articles in Quaternary Research are generally organized into seven sections. Authors should be especially careful not to mix methods or approach with results.

Title Page (p.1)

The title page contains the article title, authors' names and complete affiliations. The title should be concise, informative, and suitable for indexing. Compound titles containing phrases set off by colons, semicolons, or dashes must be avoided. Only the first letter and proper nouns should be capitalized. If appropriate, the geographic area of the research should appear as part of the title.

Author names should be in Western format, with family names (surnames) last. Given first names, rather than initials, are required. The correspondence author and address, including e-mail address and telephone, should be identified.

Abstract (p.2)

The abstract must not be longer than 200 words in a single paragraph that summarizes the main findings of the paper. Descriptions of the paper, with phrases such as "are described" or "are discussed," should be avoided; instead, present the key findings themselves. After the abstract a list of up to ten keywords that will be useful for indexing or searching should be included.

Text

The main body of the article is generally organized into an introduction, a section on methods, the results, discussion, and conclusions. Alternative organizational structures can be used but must achieve equivalent clarity for the reader. Each section is demarcated by an informative heading. Do not include figures or tables within the text, nor placement information (such as “Place Figure 1 here”). The entire text should have continuous line numbering.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments should be brief and precede the references. They should identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article, including grant number if applicable.

References cited

All references cited in the text, figures, or tables must be included in a list of references. All articles used as reference material must be at least in press and accessible by readers via a DOI number. If such articles are accepted for publication but not yet available, this should be mentioned in the cover letter to the editors and a pdf should be available for use by the reviewers.

List of tables

Include table numbers and captions. Note that the tables themselves must be submitted as separate, individual files (see below).

List of figures

Include figure numbers and captions at the end of the text document (i.e., separate from the figure files themselves). All figures are submitted as separate files (see below).

Style Guide

Manuscripts should be double-spaced and left-justified throughout; text lines should be numbered consecutively. Submit the file in its native word-processing format (.doc or docx is best).

Headings

Headings should be unnumbered, and no more than three orders of headings should be used. First level headings should be in all caps and bold font. Only the first letter and proper nouns should be capitalized in second and third level headings. Second level headings should be in bold font and third level headings should be in regular font, but italicized. Set off all headings by blank lines.

Ages

Measured ages (except radiocarbon ages) should be expressed using the abbreviation "ka" and "Ma" for thousands or millions of years before present. Ages <1000 yr should be given in full. If preferred, yr may also be used for ages younger than 1 Ma (e.g., 150,000 yr). Historical dates should be expressed as years BCE or CE (e.g., 1850 CE; 2030 BCE). Periods are not used in any of these abbreviations.

Intervals of time should also be expressed with the abbreviations "yr," "ka," or "Ma". In accordance with the recommendation of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), other abbreviations (e.g., a, kyr, ky, Myr, etc.) should not be used.

Calibrated ¹⁴C ages should be reported as "cal" (e.g., 2450–2950 cal yr BP or 11.3–11.9 cal ka BP). Alongside the calibrated age and its uncertainty, the following should also be reported, either in a table or the text: (1) the material used for dating, (2) the radiocarbon age (e.g., 5900±180 ¹⁴C yr BP), (3) the sigma metrics of the uncertainty (e.g., 2s), (4) the calibration curve (e.g., SHCal 20; Hogg et al., 2020) and (5) software (e.g., OxCal) used.

Other radiometric (e.g., K/Ar, luminescence) ages should also include the uncertainty, with an explicitly stated zero age datum if appropriate.

For reporting luminescence ages, authors should make it clear which datum year is used for their ages. This could include the year of measurement or sampling, or expressed to AD 2000, or corrected to AD 1950 for comparison with radiocarbon ages (for further explanation see Duller, 2011, Ancient TL 29: 1-3 at http://ancienttl.org/ATL_29-1_2011/ATL_29-1_Duller_p1-4.pdf).

For cosmic ray exposure ages, the zero-age datum and production rates used must be stated clearly in the manuscript, and the source of these production rates cited. The measured nuclide concentrations should be tabulated. See Frankel et al. (2010, EOS 91: 31–32) for a complete list of parameters to report for the calculation of ages.

For all ages, any laboratory number(s) that has been assigned should be given in parentheses following the age [e.g., 2.43 ± 0.10 Ma (QL_K^-10)].

Historical dates should be expressed as years BC or AD (e.g., AD 1850; 2030 BC) (alternatively, BCE or CE). Periods are not used in any of these abbreviations

Notation and nomenclature

Chemical: International notation should be employed in all cases (e.g., ¹⁸O, ¹⁴C, ⁴⁰K).

Temperature: degrees Celsius (C) (e.g., 67°C) or Kelvins (K).

Units

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other units are mentioned, include in parentheses following their SI equivalent. 

Use a virgule, also known as a forward slash (/), in units: mm/yr, not mm yr^-1.

Geographic locations: Latitude and longitude should be used consistently throughout the manuscript, preferably in degrees and decimal minutes and with no spaces (e.g., 122°14.35'W). The datum used (e.g., WGS 84) should be specified. Formally defined geographic locations should be capitalized (e.g., "the Great Lakes"), but informal descriptors (e.g., "the northern Ural Mountains") should not.

Stratigraphic nomenclature: Follow standard practice and procedures as detailed in the 2005 update to the North American Stratigraphic Code (###a href="http://www.agiweb.org/nacsn/code2.html" target="_blank">http://www.agiweb.org/nacsn/code2.html). Authors dealing with stratigraphic nomenclature of archaeological sites are referred to the Guide to Archaeostratigraphic Classification and Terminology (Gasche, H., Tunca, O., 1983. Journal of Field Archaeology 10, 325-335).

Glacial-geologic and geologic-climate nomenclature: Use grammatically appropriate noun and adjective forms for glacial/interglacial ages: e.g., the Würm glaciation (not Würm glacial), the last glaciation or last glacial period (not the last glacial), the Würm glacial age and last interglacial age (where glacial and interglacial are used as modifying adjectives). Comparable noun and adjective forms should be used for stadial/interstadial subages (e.g., the Younger Dryas stade, Allerød interstade, Younger Dryas stadial deposits). Formally defined or widely used and well-understood stratigraphic names should be capitalized (e.g., Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 2, abbreviated "MIS 2"). Note that "glaciation," "stade," and "last glacial maximum" are not stratigraphic terms formally recognized by the 2005 Code and so are not capitalized. Avoid exclusive reference to local or regional stratigraphic terms (e.g., the Eemian interglacial period) unless the corresponding global terminology (e.g., MIS 5e) is also included for interpretation by an international readership.

Biological names: Scientific names of plants and animals must be italicized. Common names of species or plants and animals may be used only if they are accompanied by scientific names upon first usage (e.g., "quaking aspen, Populus tremuloides"). The second and subsequent appearance of a name can use its shortened form (e.g., P. tremuloides).

Figure and table citations

All illustrations and tables must be cited somewhere in the body of the paper and in sequence [e.g., "...as illustrated in Figure 5"; "...in that region (Fig. 5)"; "...in Alaska and California (Figs. 4 and 5)"; "The values in Table 6 are taken from ..."; "the data obtained in this study (Table 6)...").