Instructions for Authors and for Submission of Manuscripts

This version of the "Guide for Authors" replaces all previous versions.

Cover letter

Submissions should include a cover letter explaining what type of paper is being submitted (note, research article, review article, field guide, book review, etc.). The letter should indicate that the work was done by the author(s), that all coauthors agree with submission, and that it is not underconsideration for publication elsewhere. The cover letter should also briefly explain the importance of their work, and why it should be published in the Caribbean Journal of Earth Science.

Reviewers

The author(s) should provide a list of THREE potential reviewers for the work. Note that the Editor may not select those suggested. Should there be a potential reviewer who might be biased against the work the author(s) may also indicate any potential reviewers who they think might show bias.

Contribution of authors

[New for volume 51] The authors should list a statement entitled "contribution of each author" (which will be inserted before the Acknowledgement section) in which the contribution to the work of each author should be briefly explained.

General

All papers should be written in English and must not exceed 10,000 words, including the abstract, references and figure captions. Both American English and English English are acceptable, but not a mix. Papers with poor English will be returned to the authors for rewritting.

Authors are solely responsible for the accuracy of their respective papers and for the correctness of their references.

The Editor/TypeSetter will carry out minor editing wherever appropriate to make a manuscript consistent with the style of the Caribbean Journal of Earth Science.

SI units should be used throughout (equivalents in imperial units may be given with conversion for previously published units).

Footnoots should be avoided.

Use normal sentance style (capitals at start of sentances and for proper nouns, etc.) and DO NOT TRY TO FOLLOW THE JOURNAL'S STYLE for titles and references, etc. Titles should be in SENTENCE CASE and NOT in CAPS or SMALL CAPS. Formatting for publication will be done by the Journal following acceptance of the paper.

Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout and left justified (do not fully justify the text).

DO not use spaces to align any parts of the manuscript.

There are no plates; photographic illustrations should therefore be treated as figures. Figures may be inserted in the text of the paper or at the end of the paper. Figures should be saved at sufficiently high resolution (tiff or jpg format) and then embedded within the text. It will be necessary to obtain the original files for type-setting and images embedded in Word are NOT ACCEPTABLE. Please see below for further details on figures.

All correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, Caribbean Journal of Earth Science.

The entire paper will become the property of the Caribbean Journal of Earth Science after it is published and a copyright will be placed on it. By submitting the paper for publication, you are assigning the copyright of the work to the Geological Society of Jamaica.

Layout

The text should be arranged as follows:

• Title. (12 pt, proper names with captitals, remainder as lower case)
• Authors. (12 pt., only capitalize first letter of names, leave rest as lower case)
• Addresses. Addresses for each author (prefixed by 1, 2, etc.) and email for corresponding author.
• Abstract. A concise abstract of typically less that 200 words.
• Keywords. List up to five keywords or phrases.
• Numbering. There are two levels of numbering used by the CJES. First level is prefixed by a number (1., 2., etc.) with a full stop and is centred. Please use Sentence case (Journal style will be followed during typesetting). The second level is two numbers (1.1., 1.2, etc.) and is left justified. Appropriate titles to sections should be used relevant to what is standard in a discipline or following recent papers published in the CJES). Headings might include: Introduction; Methods; Observations; Results; Discussion; Summary; Conclusions.
• Authors Contributions. A short indication of which author did which part of the paper. (Not required for single author papers.)
• Acknowledgements. A short, concise Acknowledgements section can be included. This might yield funding.
• Tables. These can be included at the appropriate place in the text or at the end of the document. Tables can be set using the table function in MS Word, using a spreadsheet (e.g., Excel) or drafted in a drawing package and presented as an embedded tif file. [Complex tables should be submitted as tiff or jpeg files because of the problems with type-setting them.]
• Figures. The position of Figures in the text should be indicated by inserting "Insert Figure XX here" as a paragraph following the paragraph with the first citation to the figure in the text. Authors may highlight in bold their figure citations. All illustrations, photographs, line diagrams and maps, are called Figures. These should be prepared in electronic format. Text on figures should be at a size where it can be easily read. Final figures must be sent in tif format or jpeg format (photographs). If the files supplied are unsuitable for publication, revised copies may be requested. Illustrations at column width (77 mm) or page width (160 mm) are preferred. Page length is 220 mm. Linear scales, rather than magnification factors, should be used. Colour figures are accepted as the final version for production of pdf versions of papers, but should be designed so that they can still be read in greyscale print runs.
• References. The literature cited in the text should appear in alphabetical order at the end of the paper. The author, date system should be followed and the titles of periodicals should NOT be abbreviated. In cases where reference is made in the text to a work by three or more authors, the first name followed by et al. is to be used throughout the text, but cited in full in the references. Total page count should be given for formal reports. Examples follow:

Bertrand, R. 1987. A review of the Quaternary of Jamaica. In: Ahmad, R. (Ed.), Proceedings of a workshop on the status of Jamaican geology. Special Publication of the Geological Society of Jamaica, 331-335.

Chubb, L.J. 1980. The Wall collection of Cretaceous molluscs in the British Museum (Natural History). Journal of the Geological Society of Jamaica, 21, 52-53.

Geological Survey Department. 1954. Annual report for the financial year 1952-53. Geological Survey Department, Kingston, Jamaica, 6 pp.

Porter, A.R.D., Jackson, T.A. and Robinson, E. 1982. Minerals and Rocks of Jamaica. Jamaica Publishing House, Kingston, 174 pp.

Please note the positioning of authors initials, the use of commas, etc. Manuscripts will be returned to the author(s) if incorrect reference styles are used.

Page Proofs

Authors will receive a pdf of the paper prior to publication. Authors should check for errors in typesetting at this time, paying particular attention to non-standard symbols. Extensive revisions of the paper are generally not permitted at this time.

Offprints

The CJES no longer supplies offprints. A single high-quality copy of the final version of the paper will be sent to the corresponding author. This may be circulated in electronic format or paper format to individuals. The pdf should NOT be mounted on an open access website, unless permission is given by the Geological Society of Jamaica.

External links to the paper are permitted provided that the link indicates that it is linking to the Caribbean Journal of Earth Science.

Method for Submission

All material for the paper should be emailed or provided on an ftp site.

It is suggested that the following method is used:

1. Send an email with ONLY the covering letter as an attachment. In this email list the complete list of files being submitted.

2. Send an email with the manuscript file (in MS Word).

3. Send additional material (tables, figures, supplementary information) as successive emails

Submit papers to the editor: sherenejames@hotmail.com

Permission to Reproduce

Please contact the Editor for permission to reproduce part, or the whole, of a paper published in the Caribbean Journal of Earth Science (or its earlier incarnations Geonotes and The Journal of the Geological Society of Jamaica).