Submissions

Author Guidelines

Click on the above link to start the submission process after reviewing the information below:

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS INDIANA JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES

Overview

The IJES review policy is designed to assist authors with timely and constructive feedback and shepherd manuscripts, maps, and other forms of print and digital media through the stages of scientific, technical, financial, editorial, and administrative review necessary to assure quality. Furthermore, IJES serves to guide products to public consumption and to manage scholarly communications of the Indiana Geological and Water Survey (IGWS) at Indiana University (IU) that may be published elsewhere. Given this, the type of review conducted is commensurate with the format and audience of the product. While review criteria are ultimately assigned by the Chief Editor, the levels of review are as follows:

• Director’s approval – Such documents are typically internal to the IGWS and include news items, project information sheets, product descriptions, event descriptions, photo captions, or other communications that are exempt from formal review, but must be approved by the Director of the IGWS. This category also includes abstracts or external manuscripts where contributing IGWS staff members are listed as the third author or more. It is, however, suggested that the IJES Editors review these items before release. Products that skip review will not be published within Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences and will be stored in a 'dark archive' managed by the journal and used for internal IGWS tracking. No DOIs will be assigned for all items in this dark archive.
• Administrative review – Includes internal IGWS documents, such as proposals and project reports where the IGWS Administration checks for consistency with IU Policy. This includes cases where the Administration must review the budget. Products receiving only administrative review will not be published within Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences and will be stored in the dark archive.
• Editorial Review – Includes elements from the administrative review, as needed, and includes input from the IJES editors. This review focuses on the organization, consistency, format, policy, mechanical style, language, and content. The Editors do not verify the technical or substantive accuracy of any part of the manuscript. Products produced by staff of the IGWS that will receive rigorous peer review by an external publisher fall into this category. Generally, products receiving only editorial review will not be published within Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences and will be stored in the dark archive. Specific exceptions exist, aproved on a case-by-case basis.
• Technical Review – Comprises all elements of an editorial review after the input from reviewers specific to the technical soundness of the product. Products receiving technical review may or may not be published as serial items within Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences at the discretion of the Chief Editor and the Director. Items that will not be published will be stored in the dark archive. Items that will be published in the journal will be assigned a DOI. The type of technical input is tailored to the needs of each product, but may include the following as assigned by the Managing Editor under the direction of the Chief Editor:
  • Images and Figures: Ensures the quality of the photographs and illustrations within products and makes suggestions toward their improvement.
  • Cartography: Reviews scientific aspects of maps and illustrations in products, checking them for accuracy and adherence to Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) or other appropriate standards.
  • Information technology: Reviews the cross-platform utility and functionality of online products and adherence to FGDC or other appropriate metadata standards for digital data.
  • Geologic names: Ensures that references to geologic and geographic names within reviewed products adhere to current IGWS usage, particularly with respect to Indiana-centric studies, maps, or data.
• Full Peer Review – This comprises a technical review along with the input from 1 to 3 peers who have the subject expertise to provide feedback on the quality of the data and interpretations. Full peer review is required for monographs, maps, digital media, web-based products, or other products that represent the summative outcome of research published within Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences.

Manuscripts

The preferred format for submitted manuscripts is a double-spaced Word document. The first page of the manuscript must include the paper’s title, a complete list of authors, and each author’s affiliation, email address, and mailing address. The body of the manuscript must include an abstract, in-text citations to any figures, tables, and supplemental files in chronological order, a references cited section, and figure and table captions. Please provide up to five keywords.

Abstract

A brief and objective abstract of no more than 300 words should present in capsule form the paper’s content and conclusions. A topic sentence should give the overall scope and should be followed by emphasis on new information. Omit references, figure or table callouts, and criticisms. Avoid abbreviations.

Units of Measure

Use English (Imperial) measurements in captions, illustrations, and text, followed by International System of units (metric) measurements in parentheses.

Footnotes

Avoid footnotes and parenthetical statements. Textual footnotes that are deemed necessary should be numbered consecutively with superscripts and also typed double-spaced.

Captions

Make captions precise and explain all symbols and abbreviations used; please use complete sentences. Type captions in consecutive order, double-spaced. The captions should be listed at the end of the manuscript. (Figures should not be placed into the manuscript. See instructions for figures below.)

Appendixes

Title all appendixes (for example, APPENDIX 1. Sample descriptions). Place appendixes at the end of the text before the References. References All references mentioned in the text, figures, captions, tables, and appendixes must be listed in the References section. Do not add references that are not cited in the text or captions.

Reference Style

References should be written in U.S. Geological Survey style. See the “Preparing references for Survey reports” section (pg. 234) in Suggestions to Authors of the Reports of the United States Geological Survey, seventh edition. [Available at http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/lib/lib_sta.htm.]

MAPS, ILLUSTRATIONS, AND FIGURES

Figures

For review, all figures should be submitted consecutively in one PDF with captions under each figure. (Captions should also be submitted at the end of the manuscript Word file.) When manuscript is accepted for publication, editors request that you submit each figure separately in its native file format.

Preparation of Tables

Tables should be cited consecutively in the text. Every table must have a caption. If numerical measurements are given, the units should be included in the column heading.

Preferred Submissions for Figures, Maps, and Photographs

• Vector graphics (.ai, .svg, .pdf, .eps)
• Tables and charts (Excel spreadsheets or exported PDFs)
• Maps
  • GIS data preferred (ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro if possible). Sample map layouts can be provided, and the Journal will work to style and lay out the data according to your request. All GIS data, including rasters, shapefiles, geodatabases, tables, and so on, are required to have metadata compliant with Federal Geographic Data Committee standards.
  • Vector export of maps (.ai, .svg, .pdf, .eps, and so on) if GIS cannot be provided. If you cannot provide vector graphics, artwork must be reviewed for resolution.
  • Export raster data separately from vector if needed (200 dpi minimum). Raster graphics must be redrawn or created for style guidelines of journal.
  • Provide information about scale, projection, and so on.
• Photographs (resolution of 200 dpi or greater and a width of at least 6 inches). JPEGs should be used as a last resort.
• Figures (highest resolution possible; preferably .tif or .png at 200 dpi or larger). JPEGs should be used as a last resort.

 

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

The Chicago Manual of Style: University of Chicago Press, http://www.press.uchicago.edu/index.html.

Suggestions to Authors of the Reports of the United States Geological Survey, seventh edition: http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/lib/lib_sta.htm.

Glossary of Geology: American Geosciences Institute, http://www.agiweb.org/pubs/index.html.

Geowriting: American Geosciences Institute, http://www.agiweb.org/pubs/index.html. North American Stratigraphic Code: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 89, no. 11, p. 1,547–1,591, November 2005, https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~ashworth/webpages/g410/NORTH%20AMERICAN%20STRATIGRAPHIC%20CODE.pdf.

Mathematics into Type, by Ellen Swanson, updated edition: American Mathematical Society, https://www.ams.org/publications/authors/mit-2.pdf.

 

Research Misconduct Policy

The editors of the Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences will take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. In the event that the editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct relating to a published article in their journal, the editor shall follow the Committee on Publication Ethic’s guidelines in dealing with allegations.