Guide for Authors
Quaternary
International is the official journal of the International Union for Quaternary Research. The objectives are to publish a high quality
scientific journal under the auspices of the premier Quaternary association that reflects the interdisciplinary nature of INQUA and records
recent advances in Quaternary science that appeal to a wide audience. This series will encompass all the full spectrum of the physical
and natural sciences that are commonly employed in solving Quaternary problems. The policy is to publish thematic issues including peer
refereed collected research papers from symposia, workshops and meetings sponsored by INQUA's Commission, Sub-Commission and working
groups. In addition, other organizations may request publication of their collected works pertaining to the Quaternary. Guest Editors
will be appointed for each volume.
Types of paper
Quaternary International publishes
Research and Review papers (which should not exceed 12,000 without prior agreement from the Editor-in-Chief), and Forum Communications
(which should not exceed 2000 words). Please ensure that you select the appropriate article type from the list of options when making
your submission. Authors contributing to thematic issues should ensure that they select the appropriate special issue article type from
this list.
Please note: the Editors cannot accept submissions that are not linked to a thematic issue, unless you have received
permission from the Editor-in-Chief.
Ethics in publishing
For
information on Ethics in publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see
http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics
and
http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.
Conflict of interest
All authors
are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with
other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived
to influence, their work. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Submission
declaration
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
its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and
that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any other language,
without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
Changes to authorship
This policy concerns
the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:
Before the accepted manuscript
is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal
Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed,
or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition,
removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.
Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must
follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2)
publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.
After the accepted manuscript
is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue
will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.
Copyright
Upon
acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright
see
http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information.
An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement'
form or a link to the online version of this agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles
including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution
outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions).
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: please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Retained author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details
you are referred to:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Role of the funding source
You
are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly
describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing
of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this
should be stated. Please see
http://www.elsevier.com/funding.
Funding body agreements and
policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals
published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To
learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Open access
This journal offers you the option of making your article freely available to all via the ScienceDirect
platform. To prevent any conflict of interest, you can only make this choice after receiving notification that your article has been
accepted for publication. The fee of $3,000 excludes taxes and other potential author fees such as color charges. In some cases, institutions
and funding bodies have entered into agreement with Elsevier to meet these fees on behalf of their authors. Details of these agreements
are available at
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies. Authors of accepted articles, who wish to take advantage of this
option, should complete and submit the order form (available at
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/openaccessform.pdf). Whatever
access option you choose, you retain many rights as an author, including the right to post a revised personal version of your article
on your own website. More information can be found here:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Language
and language services
Manuscripts must be written in English for international publication standards. We also accept Canadian
English, which some would consider to incorporate elements of UK and US usage.
Quaternary International will offer all necessary
editorial assistance to ensure that the English text is clearly written and grammatically correct. If you wish to have your text reviewed
by the Editor-in-Chief or editorial staff
prior to submission for scientific review, to ensure clarity and to correct any difficulties
with English grammar and spelling, please notify the Editor-in-Chief in your 'cover letter' when you submit your paper. You can also
send your paper to me directly for editing by e-mail. When it is returned to you, you will then have to enter the edited paper into
the EES.
Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/languageediting or our customer support site at
http://epsupport.elsevier.com for more
information.
Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online and you will
be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of your files. The system automatically converts source files to a single PDF file
of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF files
at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including
notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail removing the need for a paper trail.
Submit your article
Please submit your article via
http://ees.elsevier.com/quatint.
Referees
Please submit, with the manuscript, the names, addresses and e-mail addresses of three potential
referees. Note that the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used.
Electronic format requirements for accepted articles
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
Use of wordprocessing software
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. 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 the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier:
http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication).
Note that source files of figures, tables and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also
the section on Electronic artwork.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check'
functions of your wordprocessor.
Article structure
Subdivision - numbered
sections
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.
Introduction
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature
survey or a summary of the results.
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.
Material and methods
Provide sufficient detail to allow the
work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.
Results
Results should be clear and concise.
Discussion
This
should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate.
Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
Conclusions
The main conclusions
of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and
Discussion section.
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 on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.
Essential title page
information
•
Title.
Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems.
Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
•
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.
•
Corresponding author.
Clearly indicate who will 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. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.
•
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.
Abstract
A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the
research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able
to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard
or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
Editor
designates no abstract required for some regular articles.
Keywords
Immediately after the
abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and 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.
Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements in a separate
section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title
or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or
proof reading the article, etc.).
Units
Metric units should be used. If it is desirable
to include Imperial units, they should appear in parentheses.
Math formulae
Present simple
formulae in the line of normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g.,
X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively
any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).
Footnotes
Footnotes
should not be used.
Artwork
Electronic artwork
General
points
•All photographs should be numbered as figures. Please do not number the photographs separately as Plates.
•
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, Times, Symbol.
• Number the illustrations
according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions
to illustrations separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
• Submit each figure
as a separate file.
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
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: color or grayscale 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 (color or grayscale): 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;
• 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.
Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files)
and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure,
at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether
or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version.
For color reproduction in print, you will receive information
regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for color: in print or
on the Web only. 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 color figures to 'gray scale' (for the printed version
should you not opt for color in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the color illustrations.
Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the
figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (
not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in
the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
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.
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.
5. All references should be written out in full using no abbreviations
for the publication titles, and should follow the style of the Journal.
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). Marine Chemistry 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
University 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 Proceedings, International Conference on 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 University of 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 Abstract)' should be added at the end of the reference.
Citation in text
Please
ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract
must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned
in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and
should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference
as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.
Web references
As
a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author
names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the
reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.
References
in a special issue
Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations
in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.
Reference management software
This
journal has standard templates available in key reference management packages EndNote (
http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp)
and Reference Manager (
http://refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp). Using plug-ins to wordprocessing packages, authors only
need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article and the list of references and citations to these will be
formatted according to the journal style which is described below.
Supplementary data
Elsevier
accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional
possibilities to publish supporting applications, 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 provide the data
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. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Data at PANGAEA
Electronic archiving of supplementary data enables readers to replicate, verify and build
upon the conclusions published in your paper. We recommend that data should be deposited in the data library PANGAEA (
http://www.pangaea.de).
Data are quality controlled and archived by an editor in standard machine-readable formats and are available via Open Access. After processing,
the author receives an identifier (DOI) linking to the supplements for checking. As your data sets will be citable you might want to
refer to them in your article. In any case, data supplements and the article will be automatically linked as in the following example:
doi:10.1016/0016-7037(95)00105-9. Please use PANGAEA's
web interface to submit your data (
http://www.pangaea.de/submit/).
Google Maps and KML files
KML
(Keyhole Markup Language) files (optional): You can enrich your online articles by providing KML files which will be visualized using
Google maps. The KML files can be uploaded in our online submission system. KML is an XML schema for expressing geographic annotation
and visualization within Internet-based Earth browsers. Elsevier will generate Google Maps from the submitted KML files and include these
in the article when published online. Submitted KML files will also be available for downloading from your online article on ScienceDirect.
For more information see
http://www.elsevier.com/googlemaps.
Submission checklist
The
following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal for review. Please consult this
Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are present:
One author has been designated
as the corresponding author with contact details:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax
numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded, and contain:
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables
(including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been 'spell-checked' and 'grammar-checked'
• 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)
• Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print, or
to be reproduced in color on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print
• If only color on the Web is required,
black-and-white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes
For any further information please visit our customer
support site at
http://support.elsevier.com.
Use of the Digital Object Identifier
The Digital Object Identifier
(DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned
to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium
for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. The
correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal
Physics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2010.09.059
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.
Proofs
One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do
not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download
the files themselves. Elsevier now provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe
Reader version 7 (or higher) available free from
http://get.adobe.com/reader. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files
will accompany the proofs (also given online). The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site:
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/tech-specs.html.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return
them to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark
the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the
pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text,
tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission
from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately – please let us have all your
corrections within 48 hours. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully
before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that
Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.
Offprints
The
corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. For an extra charge, paper offprints can
be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. The PDF file is a watermarked version
of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions
of use.
For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including
electronic submission) please visit this journal's homepage. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially
those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher. You can track accepted articles at
http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle.
You can also check our Author FAQs (
http://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ) and/or contact Customer Support via
http://support.elsevier.com.
