The International Research and Review Journal on Advances in Quaternary Dating Techniques
Guide for Authors
Quaternary Geochronology uses an online, electronic submission system. By accessing the website http://ees.elsevier.com/quageo
you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. When submitting a manuscript to Elsevier Editorial
System, authors need to provide an electronic version of their manuscript. For this purpose original source files, not PDF files, are
preferred. The author should specify a category designation for the manuscript (full length article, review article, short communication,
etc.) and choose a set of classifications from the prescribed list provided online. Once the uploading is complete, the system automatically
generates an electronic (PDF) proof, which is then used for reviewing. All correspondence, including the Editor's decision, request for
revisions and author queries will be by e-mail via the online submission system.
Submission of Papers
Please find a submission
checklist at the end of the Guide for Authors.
Please submit, with the manuscript, the names and addresses of 4 potential referees.
Supplementary data such as lengthy tables, video clips, maps, images etc. may be archived with the accepted paper on ScienceDirect: all
such material must be submitted with the original manuscript for review.
Please be informed that: 1. Colour illustrations in
print will be charged to the author. 2. Colour illustrations on the web (ScienceDirect) are free of charge.
If you want a colour illustration on the web and the same illustration in black and white in the print version of the journal, please
note that you will then have to submit two different illustration files, one colour and one black and white version. Please see detailed
information on illustrations further below in this guide.
It is essential to give a fax number and e-mail address when submitting
a manuscript. Articles must be written in good English, and authors whose native language is not English are encouraged to seek help
at an early stage.
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the
form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere,
that all authors have seen the manuscript and approve its publication, it is approved tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities
where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other
language, without the written consent of the Publisher.
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright
(for more information on copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/locate/copyright). This transfer will ensure the widest possible
dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating
transfer of copyright will be provided.
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written
permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these
cases: contact ES Global Rights Department, P.O. Box 800, Oxford, OX5 1DX, UK; phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com.
3. Electronic format requirements for accepted articles
•General
points We accept most wordprocessing formats, but Word, WordPerfect or LaTeX is preferred. Always keep a backup copy of
the electronic file for reference and safety. Save your files using the default extension of the program used. No changes to the accepted
version are permissible without the explicit approval of the Editor
•Wordprocessor documents It is important
that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of
the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use
the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc.
Do not embed 'graphically designed' equations or tables, but prepare these using the wordprocessor's facility. When preparing tables,
if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs,
not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also
Elsevier's Guide to Publication at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/guidepublication). Do not import the figures into the
text file but, instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic text and on the manuscript. See also the section
on Preparation of electronic illustrations.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spellchecker' function
of your wordprocessor.
4. Preparation of text
Presentation of manuscript
•General
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Italics are not to be used
for expressions of Latin origin, for example, in vivo, et al., per se. Use decimal points (not commas); use a space for thousands (10
000 and above).
English language help service: Upon request, Elsevier will direct authors to an agent who can check and improve
the English of their paper (before submission). Please contact authorsupport@elsevier.com for further information.
•Provide the following data on the title page (in the order given)
1. Title Concise and
informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
2. Author
names and affiliations Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present
the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript
letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation,
including the country name, and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
3. Corresponding author Clearly
indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that telephone
and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.
4. Present/permanent address If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting
at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which
the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.
5. Abstract A concise and factual abstract is required. In general, the abstract should state briefly the purpose
of the research, the principal methods and data used, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separate
from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. References should therefore be avoided, but if essential, they must be cited in
full, without reference to the reference list. Non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be
defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
6. Keywords Immediately after the abstract, provide a
maximum of 6 keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations:
only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes. N.B. Acknowledgements.
Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise.
•Structure the main part of the article as follows:
Subdivision
of the article
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then
1.1.1, 1.1.2, ?), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing:
do not just refer to 'the text.' Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.
1. Introduction State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature
survey or a summary of the results.
2. Regional setting For papers that focus on an area, provide a brief synopsis
of the physical and geological characteristics of the area, sufficient to give the new work context, but again avoid a detailed literature
survey.
3. Materials and methods Provide sufficient detail on methods to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods
already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. Samples should normally be positioned
on a map or in a table. However, lengthy tables of precise positions should be submitted as electronic files for Supplementary Data
(see below)
4. Results This should highlight the key results (and not repeat material already in figures or tables)
and summarise the direct implications of these results.
5. Discussion This should explore the inter-relationships
of different data sets and the broader significance of the results. It may include limited speculation, that will not appear in the conclusions.
6. Conclusions The short Conclusions section should summarise the conclusions of the study that have been firmly
established. It should not duplicate either the Abstract or the Discussion.
7. Acknowledgements Place acknowledgements,
including information on grants received, before the references, in a separate section
8. Appendices If there
is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering:
(Eq. A.1), (Eq. A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, (Eq. B.1) and so forth.
9. References See separate
section, below.
10. Figure legends, tables, figures, schemes Present these, in this order, at the end of
the article. They are described in more detail below. High-resolution graphics files must always be provided separate from the main text
file (see Preparation of illustrations).
•Further information on:
a. Text graphics Present incidental graphics not suitable for mention as figures, plates or schemes at the end of the article and number them 'Graphic
1', etc. Their precise position in the text can then be defined similarly (both on the manuscript and in the file). See further under
the section, Preparation of illustrations.
b. Mathematical formulae Present simple formulae in the line
of normal text where possible. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line,
e.g.,
X/Y rather than
X Y
Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively any
equations that have to be displayed separate from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).
c. Footnotes Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors
build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text
and present the footnotes themselves on a separate sheet at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.
d. Tables Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables
below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and
ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
e. Nomenclature and
units Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities
are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI.
f. Preparation of supplementary data Elsevier now accepts electronic
supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities
to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary
files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted
material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material
in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file.
References
1. All references cited in the text are to be listed at the end of the paper. The manuscript should be carefully checked to ensure that
the spellings of authors' names and publication years are exactly the same in the text as in the reference list. Do not type author's
and editor's names in capitals.
2. In the text refer to the author's name (without initials) and year of publication, followed -
if necessary - by a short reference to
appropriate pages. Examples: "Because Peterson (1994) has shown that...". "This is in agreement
with results obtained later (Kramer, 1996, pp. 12-16)"
3. If reference is made in the text to publications written by more than
two authors the name of the first author should be used, followed by "et al.". This indication, however, should never be used in the
list of references. In this list names of authors and all co-authors must be given in full.
4. References in the text should be arranged
chronologically. The list of references should be arranged alphabetically by authors' names, and chronologically per author. If an author's
name in the list is also mentioned with co-authors, the following order should be used: Publications of the single author, arranged according
to publication year - publications of the same author with one co-author, arranged according to publication year - publications of the
author with more than one co-author, arranged according to publication year.
The following system should be used for arranging references:
a. Journal papers: Names and initials of all authors, year. Title of paper. Journal name (given in full or abbreviated using the
International List of Periodical Title Word Abbreviations), volume number (issue number): first and last page numbers of the paper.
Example: Elbaz-Poulichet, F., Guan, D.M., Martin, J.M., 1991. Trace metal behaviour in a highly stratified Mediterranean estuary:
the Krka (Yugoslavia). Mar. Chem. 32, 211-224.
b. Monographs: Names and initials of all authors, year. Title of the monograph. Publisher,
location of publisher.
Example: Zhdanov, M.S., Keller, G.V., 1994. The Geoelectrical Methods in Geophysical Exploration. Elsevier,
Amsterdam.
c. Edited volume papers: Names and initials of all authors, year. Title of paper. Names and initials of the volume editors,
title of the edited volume. Publisher, location of publisher, first and last page numbers of the paper.
Example: Thomas, E.,
1992. Middle Eocene-late Oligocene bathyal benthic foraminifera (Weddell Sea): faunal changes and implications for ocean circulation.
In: Prothero, D.R., Berggren, W.A. (Eds.), Eocene-Oligocene Climatic and Biotic Evolution. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, pp.
245-271.
d. Conference proceedings papers: Names and initials of all authors, year. Title of paper. Name of the conference. Publisher,
location of publisher, first and last page numbers of the paper.
Example: Smith, M.W., 1988. The significance of climatic change
for the permafrost environment. Final Proc. Int. Conf. Permafrost. Tapir, Trondheim, Norway, pp. 18-23.
e. Unpublished theses, reports,
etc.: Names and initials of all authors, year. Title of item. All other relevant information needed to identify the item (e.g., technical
report, Ph.D. thesis, institute, etc.).
Example: Moustakas, N., 1990. Relationships of morphological and physicochemical properties
of Vertisols under Greek climate conditions. Ph.D. Thesis, Agricultural Univ. Athens, Greece.
5. In the case of publications in any
language other than English, the original title is to be retained. Titles of publications in non-Latin alphabets should be transliterated,
and a note such as '(in Russian)' or '(in Japanese, with English Abstr.)' should be added at the end of the reference.
6. Preparation
of Illustrations
Submitting your final artwork in an electronic format helps us to produce your work to the best possible standards,
ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail.
General points • Make sure you use uniform lettering
and sizing of your original artwork. • Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font. • Only use the
following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol. •Number the illustrations according to their
sequence in the text. • Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files, and supply a separate listing of the files and
the software used. • Provide captions to illustrations separately. • Produce images near to the desired size of the
printed version.
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the
following formats (Note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below.):
EPS:
Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as "graphics".
TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum
of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (colour or
greyscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office
applications please supply "as is".
Please do not: • Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet,
presentation) document when submitting the final accepted article; • Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF,
BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low; • Supply files that are too low in resolution; • Submit graphics that are
disproportionately large for the content.
Colour illustrations
If, together with your accepted article, you submit
usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g.,
ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For
colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article.
For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to 'grey scale' (for the printed version
should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white files corresponding to all the colour illustrations.
IMPORTANT: In the PDF file, all figures and tables must be numbered and collected at the END of the manuscript. In addition,
please indicate clearly in the text where each figure/table should be positioned!
7. Proofs
When your manuscript is received
by the Publisher it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as 'drafts'.
One set of page proofs in PDF
format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the
accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.
A form with
queries from the copyeditor may accompany your proofs. Please answer all queries and make any corrections or additions required. The
Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated. Return corrections within 2 days of receipt
of the proofs. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this.
Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected
and published as quickly and accurately as possible. In order to do this we need your help. When you receive the (PDF) proof of your
article for correction, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Subsequent corrections
will not be possible, so please ensure your first sending is complete. Note that this does not mean you have any less time to make your
corrections, just that only one set of corrections will be accepted.
Submission checklist
It is hoped that this list will
be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal office for review. Please consult this Guide for
Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are present:
• One author designated as
corresponding author: • E-mail address • Full postal address • Telephone and fax numbers • Keywords
• Original artwork (high-quality prints) • All figure captions • All tables (including title, description,
footnotes)
Further considerations
• Article has been read and approved by all co-authors • Manuscript has
been "spellchecked" • References are in the correct format for this journal • All references mentioned in the Reference
list are cited in the text, and vice versa • Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources
(including the Web)
Reprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via
e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover
sheet with the journal image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use.
