Guidelines

Guidelines for authors as pdf
Guidelines for reviewers as pdf
Manuscript preparation template
Open Access License

GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS
(Revised June 2024)

1. SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS 
Manuscripts should be submitted in proper and good English – this is the responsibility of the authors, not the editors. Either American or British notation is accepted. Authors are encouraged to have their manuscripts read by a person fluent in English before submission. Text, figure captions, figures and tables should be combined into a single merged PDF-file no larger than 25 MB in size. Authors are also reminded that it is the aim and scope of the journal to enhance knowledge of the Alps and surrounding areas (see aims and scope section on journal website). Manuscripts that do not focus directly on this theme may be acceptable, but they need to make it clear how their content pertains to the Alpine orogens in general. 
Submission of manuscripts (and cover letter) should be made electronically via the upload link on the journal website www.ajes.at.
Submission of an article has to be accompanied by a submission cover letter that includes: 
• Submission date and full address and contact details of the corresponding author. 
• A statement that the article is original and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. 
• Suggestions of at least three unbiased potential reviewers.

Final files after reviews/revision and acceptance only:
Final submission after acceptance must include a single Word-file (including all text, references, figure- and table-captions) and individual high resolution (>600 dpi), .pdf, .eps, .tiff or .jpg files for each figure and each table. Details for submission of final files is to be coordinated with the responsible editor. 

2. PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT 
The manuscript should be prepared on a word processor with at least 1.5 line spacing and wide margins and a modern serif-free font (e.g. Calibri, Arial or similar). Use consecutive line numbering and page numbers throughout the manuscript. Mathematical formulae and equations have to be presented in professional form (e.g. using Word’s built-in ‘Equation Editor’). For AJES conform formatting instructions consult a recent AJES paper or make use of the manuscript preparation template on this website. For general information on manuscript preparation see also: http://wegener.uni-graz.at/downloads/manman.pdf

Title page information: 
The title page should include the name(s) of the author(s), their affiliations, full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and the e-mail address of each author. In the case of more than one author, please indicate the corresponding author with “*”. A formatting example is in the manuscript preparation template on this website.

Accepted manuscript types: 
The Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences accepts the following manuscript types (all being within the aims and scope of the journal – see journal website): 
• Original research articles presenting data in the context of concrete research hypotheses. 
• Authoritative review articles on all topics related to alpine orogens and their surrounding basins. (Submissions with a focus on the Geology of Austria and the European Alpine regions are especially encouraged). 
Authors who are interested in publishing articles that fall outside these manuscript types (e.g. data reports, software development, analytical method development), should contact the editor-in-chief of AJES before submission.

Abstract: 
We require a concise and factual English abstract of no more than 500 words. The abstract should 
include a brief statement of the purpose of the research (or article), the principal results and major
conclusions drawn. Please avoid references and abbreviations in the abstract.

Keywords: 
The authors are requested to supply 4-6 keywords which can be used for indexing/abstracting purposes. Avoid general and plural terms as well as multiple concepts (e.g. do not use phrases like ‘Cretaceous of England’, ‘Mesozoic climate and sea level’). Avoid keywords that also occur in the title of your manuscript to improve international visibility and indexing of your article.

Manuscript subdivision: 
Your article should be divided into well-defined and numbered sections with brief headings. Its subsections are to be numbered consecutively (excluding abstracts, acknowledgements and references) 1., 1.1., 1.1.1., then 1.2., 1.2.1. etc. Please also use these numbers for internal crossreferencing (e.g. ‘as mentioned in section 1.1.’), do not just refer to the text. 3rd level headings should be in italics.

Acknowledgements: 
Acknowledgements are to be given in a separate section before the references at the end of the article. List there the individuals who provided help during research or in preparation of the article as well as funding bodies and organizations. Avoid titles and full first names (i.e. “Thanks to M. Wagreich” instead: “Thanks to Prof. Michael Wagreich”).

Footnotes:
These should be avoided.

Tables:
Tables should be numbered according to their sequence in the text and should also be numbered sequentially in the merged PDF-file of the initial submission. When designing your table, please bear in mind that the final lettering size of tables should be between 6 and 12 pt in print and that the table needs to fit the page size of AJES (see figure and table sizing instructions below). Formatting of Tables is the responsibility of the author and not the editors or typesetter. After acceptance, please provide individual PDFs for each Table.

Figures: 
Figures should be numbered sequentially in the single PDF-file of the initial submission and positioned at the end of the manuscript. Figures should be submitted at roughly the size preferred for printing. Note that lettering in the final illustrations should be between 8 and 12 pt. The page format of the journal (ISO A4, i.e. width x height = 210 x 297 mm) should be considered when designing figures. Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork (Serif-freefonts like Calibri or Cambria are preferred). Label subfigures with ‘(a)’, ‘(b)’ and ‘(c)’ etc and surround photos with a thin black line. 
In the text refer to figures by: Figure 3a-b (capitalized and not abbreviated). At the end of the sentence or when in brackets use abbreviated form: (Fig. 1), (Figs. 1-4). 
AJES accepts two size categories of figure sizes (width x height, maximum size 170 x 240 mm): 
• Whole Page (two-column width) – 170 mm wide and max 240 mm high. 
• One Column width – 80 mm wide and max 240 mm high.
• Scale bars should be in readable size in lower-right corner if possible.

Captions of Tables and Figures: 
Please provide captions for each table, figure, or plate separately at the very end of the manuscript (after the references). Format of labels: Table 1: …, Figure 13: … with a full stop at the end of text. Refer to label sub-figures in the caption with: (a) …, (b) … etc. See manuscript preparation template for examples.

Important formatting details: 
• No capital letter regarding to orientation words like cardinal directions: write “north”, not “North”; “southwest”, not “Southwest”; “east”, not “O/E”; etc. 
• Make sure that there is a space between numbers and units: “10 m”, “600 °C”, “4 kg”. 
• Write species names in “Italics”: … the shark Cetorhinus maximus. 
• Check globally that there is only ONE type of paragraph break (free line). Automatic heading numbering is not recommended (this causes problems during copy-paste into the typesetting program). 
• No spaces between “+”,”-“ or “>” and ranges in numbers. i.e. “<50 m” and: “100-200 m”

3. REFERENCING 
References in the text should consist of the surname of the author(s), followed by the year of publication in parentheses. Multiple in line citations should be in chronological order. Use following syntax examples: 
• References with one author, cite in text at end of sentence as : “(Wegener, 1912)”, or in the running text as: “ …as Wegener (1912) said….”. 
• References with two authors, cite in text at end of sentence as : “(Wegener and Einstein, 1912)”, or in the running text as: “ …as Wegener and Einstein (1912) said….”. 
• References with more than two authors, cite in text at end of sentence as : “(Wegener et al., 1912)”, or in the running text as: “ …as Wegener et al. (1912) said….”.

All references cited in the text, tables and illustrations plus their captions must be given in the reference list and vice-versa. Referring to material ‘in preparation’ or ‘submitted’ is not accepted.

In the reference section list all references used in the text. Please consult a recent AJES article or the 
manuscript preparation template for AJES style of references. In summary: 
• Provide full journal titles (not in italics!) and journal volumes. 
• No space between initials of authors. 
• No comma between last and first names. 
• Quoting DOI in the reference section is required. 
• Use either long or short hyphen (i.e. en-dash or “Bindestrich”) with no spaces for page ranges, but be consistent for all references. No “p. for page ranges only “pp” for following 
pages.

Examples: 
• Journal articles: Strasser A., Hilgen F.J., Heckel P.H., 2006. Cyclostratigraphy - Concepts, definitions and applications. Newsletters in Stratigraphy, 42, 75–114. 
https://doi.org/10.1127/0078-0421/2006/0042-0075
• Book or edited volume: Jenkins D.G., Murray J.W. (eds.), 1989. Stratigraphical Atlas of Fossil Foraminifera, 2nd ed. British Micropaleontological Society Series. John Wiley & Sons, New Jork, 595 pp. 
• Paper in edited volume: Miall A.D., Catuneanu O., Vakarelov B.K., Post R., 2008. The Western Interior Basin. In: Miall A.D. (ed.), The Sedimentary Basins of the United States and Canada. Sedimentary Basins of the World 5. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, pp. 329–362.

Taxonomic nomenclature: 
For taxonomical citations please refer to the respective codes of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) (link: https://www.iczn.org/the-code/the-code-online/) and the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) (link: https://www.iapttaxon.org/nomen/pages/intro/title_page.html).

We further encourage all authors working with taxonomical data to treat their taxonomical identification as a scientific method, which should be clearly presented as such in the ‘Method’ section. The identification methods should also include the full citation of the literature that was used for specimen identification and the publications defining currently accepted species limits. The resulting identifications on every taxonomic level should likewise be treated as a ‘Result’. Please refer to Meier (2016 link: https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/syen.12215) for details.

4. PDF-FILE AND REPRINTS 
High resolution PDFs of all articles are published in an ‘Open Access’ manner. No free-of-charge offprints or reprints are supplied. Print-on-demand copies can be ordered directly from SCIENDO. The ÖGG publishes hard copies of annual volumes once per year

5. COPYRIGHT 
AJES papers are published under the Creative Commons license CC BY 4.0. This means that all parts of published papers are free to be used by the community, given the source is cited (see internet for details on CC BY 4.0 license). 

6. OPEN ACCESS 
The Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences is an open access journal under the responsibility of the Austrian Societies ÖGG, ÖVH, ÖMG and ÖPG. 

7. SUPPLEMENTARY DATA 
AJES does accept electronic supplementary material for online publishing only. 

8. PUBLISHING ETHICS
We work on the presumption that authors are aware of their responsibilities concerning e.g., fraud, plagiarism, authorship and order of authors listed, and follow ethical principles in their research and publication activities.