Kansas Geological Survey, Current Research in Earth Sciences, Submitting papers

Submitting papers to Current Research in Earth Sciences

The Kansas Geological Survey is soliciting papers for Current Research in Earth Sciences. Each annual issue of this bulletin contains several short articles that highlight current research on any aspect of earth science. Special emphasis is given to articles relating to the midcontinent and Kansas geoscience. Formerly published as Current Research on Kansas Geology, the title has been changed to reflect the broader scope.

As part of the KGS Bulletin Series, Current Research in Earth Sciences has national and international circulation. Manuscripts are expected to be of high quality and will be peer-reviewed. Articles submitted to this bulletin will be published online following peer review, revision, acceptance, and editing. Paper copies will be made available for sale on-demand. Annual issues of the Bulletin will be archived electronically on CD-ROM.

What and where to submit

• Submit an original and three copies of the manuscript.
• Submit one set of original illustrations and three sets of photocopies. If appropriate, also submit the computer disk containing the illustration files (but still provide hard copies).
• Submit the names of three objective reviewers, along with addresses and phone numbers.
• Write a cover letter, including current address, address changes for the next several months (e.g., fieldwork address), phone and fax numbers, email address, and any special instructions.
• Accepted manuscripts will be edited and published online. Authors must submit a disk with their revised manuscript. Illustrations can be on the disk also; these should be saved in GIF or JPEG file formats (see Preparation of Illustrations below).

Submit to:
Marla Adkins-Heljeson, Current Research editor
Kansas Geological Survey
1930 Constant Avenue
The University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66047-3726
or at marla@kgs.ku.edu

General instructions

Manuscripts should be printed on 8-1/2 by 11-inch paper, with a 1-inch margin on all sides. Double-space throughout, including tables, figure captions, and references.

Do not justify margins.

Do not use italic type; underline words to be italicized.

Do not italicize common Latin words or phrases (e.g., i.e., et al., in situ, etc.).

Number every page, starting with the first page.

Cite each figure and table in the text in numerical order (i.e., don't cite fig. 2 before fig. 1).

Use "Figure" only to start a sentence; otherwise, use "fig." if singular and "figs." if plural (e.g., fig. 2, figs. 2 and 3, figs. 4-7).

Each published reference cited in the text must be listed in the References section, and vice versa. Double-check for spelling and details of publication.

Literature citations in the text are as follows:

One author:

Jones (1990) or (Jones, 1990).

Two authors:

Jones and Smith (1990) or (Jones and Smith, 1990).

Three or more authors:

Jones et al. (1990) or (Jones et al., 1990), but include all authors' names in the References section.

Manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published:

Jones (1992) or (Jones, 1992) and specify in References section that material is in press [Jones, A., 1992, Kansas rivers: Journal of Geology (in press)].

Unpublished materials:

A. Jones (unpublished data, 1991), A. Jones (personal communication, 1991) or (A. Jones, unpublished data, 1991), (A. Jones, personal communication, 1991).

Use a semicolon to separate citations of different authors:

(Jones, 1989, 1991; Smith, 1991).

Assemble manuscript in this order: (1) title page, (2) abstract page, (3) text, (4) references, (5) tables, (6) figure captions, (7) figures.

Title page

• The title page includes the title, authors, and affiliations (the complete mailing addresses of authors).
• If authors have different affiliations, each name should be followed by a footnote (superscript number) indicating the author's affiliation. If more than one author is at the same institution, you only need one number for that institution.

Abstract page

• Abstract should be concise (not more than 250 words) but include brief statements about the paper's intent, materials and methods, results, and significance of findings.
• Do not use references in abstract.
• Do not use abbreviations in abstract.

Text

• Follow general instructions above.
• First-, second-, and third-level headings will be edited to conform with bulletin style. In the manuscript authors may use any style, but they should be sure that the different levels of headings are distinguished from one another.

References

• Write out journal names completely. Do not abbreviate.
• Verify all entries against original sources, especially journal titles, diacritical marks, spelling (especially in languages other than English). Capitalize all nouns in German.
• Cite references in alphabetical order by first author's surname. References by a single author precede works by the same senior author and one co-author, which precede works by the same senior author and two co-authors, etc.
• List references by the same author(s) chronologically, beginning with the earliest date of publication.
• Use a long dash when the author (or authors) is the same as in the immediately preceding citation.
• 'In press' citations must have been accepted for publication, not just submitted or in review. The name of the journal or publisher should be included.
• Insert a period and a space after each initial of an author's name.

Tables

• Each table should be double-spaced and begin on a separate sheet.
• The word "Table" should be followed by an Arabic number and a period.
• Capitalize the first word and all proper names in the table title.
• Do not reduce the type size of tables; use the same size as in the text.
• Indicate notes to the table by superscript letters (a, b, c, etc.); do not use asterisks, daggers, etc.
• Do not use vertical or slant lines in the table.
• Column heads should not be italicized, underlined, or boldfaced.
• Place a zero in front of decimal points (0.23, not .23).

Figure captions

Double-space captions, leaving one line of space between each one.

The word "Figure" should be followed by an Arabic number and a period.

Type captions in paragraph form. If there is more than one part to a figure, use lowercase letters in parentheses to indicate each one. For example,

FIGURE 1. Arch (a) before collapse and (b) after collapse.

Try to make the figure legend part of the caption rather than placing the legend in the figure:

FIGURE 1. Rainfall in Kansas in 1992. Expected values (solid line), observed values (dashed line).

Preparation of illustrations

• Illustrations are either line drawings or photographs. Color is OK.
• GIF (Graphical Interchange Format) and JPEG are the standard graphics formats for all common WEB browsers. Figures for Current Research should be saved in one of these formats as filename.GIF or filename.JPG, or at least in the Bitmap format (filename.BMP).
• In the case of photographs, or material which you cannot create on a computer, use a scanner to convert the drafts into binary form. If it is impossible to save the scanned drafts as Bitmap, GIF or JPEG files, then TIFF (Tagged Interchange File Format) (filename.TIF) will also be acceptable.
• All figure and photograph files should be numbered in the order of their appearence in the article: fig-1.GIF, fig-2.BMP, photo-1.TIF and so on. Please do not use other file names and do not include the corresponding captions in the graphics file.
• A maximum size of 800 x 600 pixels is recommended for figures and photographs. A size of 300-400 x 200-300 pixels is ideally suited for illustrations in the text. High color resolution should be used only when necessary (e.g., for color photographs); in most instances, 16 colors should be sufficient. Text fonts such as Times Roman or Helvetica, with a size of 12 or 14 pixels, are recommended.
• If you use programs with layers, please remove them before submitting artwork. All information should be on one layer.
• Please make sure that your figures and drafts are of good quality. Otherwise, important details may be lost when scanning or converting to GIF or JPEG.
• If several photographs are grouped together in one illustration, make sure they have the same orientation (e.g., the up-direction of strata or photomicrographs should be the same).
• Scale bars should be part of the figure. State the length of the scale bar in the figure caption. Do not use magnifications; your illustration may be reduced.
• If figures have more than one part, each part must have its own lowercase letter and that letter must appear in the figure caption with the explanation.
• On the back of each figure, write the authors' names and the figure number.

Current Research Home Page || Table of Contents || How to Submit || Advisory Board

Kansas Geological Survey, Public Outreach
Updated Dec. 29, 2004
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