Manuscript Guidelines

1. Submission checklist

1.1. Text format and languages: All submitted documents must be in either British or U.S. English and must be consistent throughout the manuscript. Sedimentologika also invites authors and co-authors to use inclusive / non-discriminatory language in their manuscripts (e.g., they instead of he/she). Sedimentologika encourages authors to use the native names of places in addition to “westernized” names (e.g., “the Kaikōura Canyon is located east of Te Waipounamu (the South Island of NZ)”.  When applicable, acknowledgment of indigenous peoples and their lands should be displayed. Scientific research is always a team effort. Therefore, we encourage using “we” about the authors as much as using passive voice or third person. 

1.2. Cover letter (no more than 1 page): The letter is addressed to the executive editors and explains the novelty, main highlights, and breakthroughs of the research presented in the submitted manuscript. One or two executive editors must be suggested to handle the manuscript. In addition, two or more reviewers (with their contact information) should be listed in the letter. The letter can also list reviewers who should be excluded from the review process.

1.3. Manuscript file: It consists of one single file (Microsoft Word, PDF, or Open Office) formatted using the Sedimentologika templates (but available here). The manuscript must include an abstract, with a maximum of 5 keywords, and figures and tables embedded in the text where appropriate. The manuscript should contain the email address of the corresponding author, as well as the full postal address of the corresponding author and co-authors, unless the authors decide to submit their manuscript anonymously. An additional non-technical summary will be included once the paper is accepted for publication.  

1.4. Figures and tables: In addition to embedding within the text, figures may also be added to the end of the manuscript. The authors should also provide a single PDF containing all figures and tables in a high-resolution format. Figures and tables should be clearly numbered with an appropriate caption below each figure and table.

1.5. Supplementary material should be collected and uploaded as a Zip file. Authors may use multiple Zip files for large datasets.

2. Article types

Sedimentologika will publish papers falling within one of the following categories:

Full research articles: consist of research papers presenting original contributions to the scientific community, which increase the understanding of sedimentology-related topics. Research articles should be under 10,000 words (including the abstract and excluding title, figure captions, text in tables, and references) and 12 figures/tables. Longer articles may be accepted at the journal’s discretion. However, Sedimentologika’s editorial boards and reviewers reserve the right to request the shortening of excessively long articles.

Review articles: papers synthesizing the state-of-the-art knowledge, ideas, and observations of sedimentology-related topics and previous research. Such papers should add value to existing ideas, arguments, and discussions to enrich and foster future research directions. Review articles should be under 12,000 words (including the abstract and excluding title, figure captions, texts in tables, and references) and 20-30 figures/tables. Longer articles may be accepted at the journal’s discretion. However, Sedimentologika’s editorial boards and reviewers reserve the right to request the shortening of excessively long articles. Please contact the editorial board when considering submitting a review to Sedimentologika.

Method articles: present a new or updated method, technique, or protocol that is of significant interest to scientists conducting sedimentology-related research. Method articles should be under 10,000 words (excluding title, figure captions, text in tables, and references) and 12 figures/tables. Longer articles may be accepted at the journal’s discretion. However, Sedimentologika’s editorial boards and reviewers reserve the right to request the shortening of excessively long articles.

Opinion pieces: provide an avenue for authors to sedimentology-related topics, issues, challenges, models, or ideas from a personal perspective. The authors can express their own points of view, which will not be peer-reviewed. Still, opinion pieces will be screened by Sedimentologika’s editorial board to ensure they follow Sedimentologika’s Code of Conduct. Bigotry and discrimination will not be tolerated in any form. Opinion pieces should be under 4,000 words (excluding title, figure captions, texts in tables, and references), and 3 figures/tables are preferred. These limits will not be strictly enforced. Longer articles may be accepted at the journal’s discretion. However, Sedimentologika’s editorial boards and reviewers reserve the right to request the shortening of excessively long articles.

3. Supplementary material

Authors and co-authors of each type of article should make supplementary material and raw data accessible by attaching them to the submitted manuscript or by using open data repositories (e.g., Zenodo, Pangea, Github, or Mendeley Data), unless their data is confidential or belong to a third-party who does not allow for the raw data to be published.

4. Pre-print

Pre-prints do not count as redundant or concurrent publications. Therefore, authors of each type of manuscript are strongly encouraged to upload a pre-print version of their submitted manuscripts to platforms such as Arxiv, EarthArXiv, or ESSOar. When an article is accepted for publication in Sedimentologika, authors should update their preprint with the DOI (digital object identifier) number of the final publication. Accepted articles will be freely stored and accessible on Sedimentologika’s website. Authors and co-authors are free to update their personal/institutional repository with the fully formatted version of their Sedimentologika’s article, as there is no embargo period.

5. Formatting and article templates

The use of Sedimentologika’s template is strongly encouraged.

5.1. Article structure and standards

Each submitted article should have a Title, an abstract (max 250 words), and maximum of five keywords. Each manuscript should have clear, numbered sections (1.; 1.1.; 1.1.1.; 2.; 2.1.; 2.2.2.; etc.), which include: 1. Introduction; 2. Geological Setting; 3. Material and methods; 4. Results; 5. Discussion; 6. Conclusion; 7. Acknowledgment; 8. Conflict of Interest; 9. Data Availability, 10. Author contributions.

Recommendations regarding author contribution can be found on the website of The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. 

The first and last names of the author and co-authors should be written under the title, with their complete affiliations and ORCID identifier (if applicable), and include the email of the corresponding author.

Abbreviations that are not standard to the field are not to be used in the abstract and should be introduced in the corpus of the text. The use of standard abbreviations such as “Fm.” or “Mbr.” respectively, for “Formation” or “Member” should be reserved for figures and tables, while full-length words are used in the corpus of the manuscript.

All units should be units of the International System or derivative thereof (i.e., meters rather than feet or kPa rather than PSI).

Please refer to the Figures and Tables Guidelines for the specific details about size and format. 

5.2. References

Sedimentologika invites authors and co-authors “to cite primary literature in which observations are first reported rather than reviews to give credit where credit is due” (§16 of the San Francisco Declaration of Research Assessment).

Reference can consist of peer-reviewed articles, articles in special issues of book chapters (in which case the editors of the special issue or the book should be mentioned), thesis (if available online), database, virtual outcrop data, and particular websites (with the date of access). Please refrain from using personal communications, abstracts from congresses, field guides (unless published), and any other non-accessible references.

References can appear in the text directly, e.g., Lambda et al. (1989), or can be in brackets (e.g., Lambda et al., 1989), where the references should be listed chronologically.

5.3. Reference list

Sedimentologika uses the American Psychological Association (APA) format and follows the I4OC - Initiative for Open Citations' principles.

The reference list should be ordered alphabetically. A digital object identifier (DOI) should be provided for every entry. Reference manager styles can be downloaded at the following links in .ens format (Endnote) or .csl format (Mendeley or Zotero).

6. Resources to ensure accessibility of published content 

We encourage you to ensure that the content you publish is Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust for everyone and invite you to check the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

 

N.B.: the guidelines are subject to change as Sedimentologika evolves.