Submissions

Author Guidelines

JOURNAL DESCRIPTION

The Ciências da Terra® – Earth Sciences Journal (CT-ESJ) is a semiannual, electronical, open access, peer-reviewed publication that aims at publish original research articles and reviews of high-quality in the area of Earth Sciences (Geology, Palaeontology, Geophysics and Engineering Geology) which constitute the main section of the journal.
In a Special Section it is also intended to publish essays and short papers (e.g. synthesis of recently approved PhD thesis) as well as bibliographic reviews and necrological informations pertaining to Portuguese geologists or foreign geologists with consistent contributions for a better knowledge of the Portuguese geology.
All published works are Open Access (CC BY 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. They are also registered in the CrossMark system which means that we have a correction policy stated at Corrections Policy guide lines, that also promotes an active policy of public discussion of results and interpretations through the publication of peer reviewed comments, responses and rejoinders.
We don’t charge any work that has been accepted for publication. Authors are completely free from any fee, except if they demand for printed copies (see table below).
From number 20 on, all the issues will be published only online, except for a very short number of printed volumes to allow the continuation of a traditional exchanges policy with other journals and publishers. The respective costs will be exclusively on charge of the Editors.

ARTICLE SUBMISSION

The whole submission and review processes for CT-ESJ are conducted exclusively online, on the journal’s webpage http://cienciasdaterra.novaidfct.pt/. Authors intending to submit any work to CT-ESJ must register at the official webpage, login and follow the indications.
Since CT-ESJ is based in OJS we invite authors to have a fast look at the Open Journals Systems users guide where you can find a guide explaining all steps needed for submitting an article online.
After a preliminary evaluation from the Editorial Board which will take into account the general interest of the submission in relation to the general scope of the journal and its quality, the article will be send to at least two reviewers specialists on the subject, and another English-born geologist which will guaranty a correct English writing. Authors can suggest a reviewer specialist on the subject providing a complete information, namely: Name, Affiliation, Email and personal URL or ORCID number in the “Comments for the Editor” (start of the submission form).

THE MANUSCRIPT

CT-ESJ only publishes articles in English. Respecting the editorial history of Ciências da Terra, the abstract has to be written also in Portuguese (Resumo) (see more informations below).
The manuscript must be submitted as a single file, preferably in the *.DOC or *.DOCX format. Nonetheless, *.RTF files may also be submitted. There are no limits for the length of the paper. Nevertheless authors must previously contact the Editor-in-chief in the case that the paper to be submit have more than 25 pages (approximately 17.500 words).
The only font accepted is Times New Roman. Please, do not use any special formatting: indentation, superscript, subscript and other special characters or formatting like small caps for example. Use italics only in taxa names and in references, according to specifications listed below. Greek characters can be used. Equations will be presented using the Equation editor. Abbreviations of Latin words are used in italic (e.g., op. cit., idem, et al., and so forth).
In what refers formatting specifications of the manuscript, the following rules must be respected:

- All the text including the title must be presented in Times New Roman size 11;

- left aligned; - no indentation in the beginning of paragraphs and subtitles;

- use double line spacing; - don’t use double spaces before and after each paragraph;

- lines and pages must be numbered.

No special formatting is asked to the authors. Final formatting is a job for the copyediting staff of CT-ESJ.
The manuscript must include, in the following order:
(1) Title page. It will include the article’s title, the author names and affiliations, the corresponding author, the abstract and keywords.
(2) The main text with an introduction and separate, numbered, chapters.
(3) The bibliographic references.
(4) Figures, tables and their respective captions. Captions are listed, by order, in the end of the document.
(5) If considered relevant, other Supporting Material can be submitted (non-doc or jpg/png files).

(1) Title page

Title – the title should be as concise and informative as possible. Ideally, the title should not extend over 150 characters, including spaces. Abbreviations should be avoided. In the submissions.
Author names and affiliations – the given and family name(s) of each author must be clearly indicated. Please ensure their accurate spelling. In the published version the name of authors will be presented in an abbreviated manner (e.g. J. A. Silva). Author’s affiliations should be clearly indicated after every author’s name with a sequential number (Arabic numbers). The full address for each affiliation, including country, should be provided, as well as the email of all authors, both in the manuscript and in the Ciências da Terra submissions platform in the Web. If available, authors should also provide their 16-digit ORCID codes.
Corresponding author – clearly indicate the person who will be responsible for handling registration, submission and other contacts with the editorial board. This should be done when inserting authors in the Ciências da Terra submissions platform in the Web. Please, ensure that the given e-mail address is correct otherwise the submitted manuscript cannot be sent for revision.
Abstract – the abstract is expected to be objective and informative, briefly focusing the methods employed, the results obtained and the key conclusions presented in the article. Being separate from the main text of the article, the abstract should not contain bibliographical references. The abstract is limited to 250 words. For the manuscript submitted by non-Portuguese speaking authors the Editorial Board can provide, at author’s request, a translation of the original abstract, exempt from any fees, which will be submitted to the corresponding author for approval – he/she can use any means they want to verify the quality of the translation.
Keywords – following the title and abstract, keywords should be concise and informative. Authors should provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes. The keywords should be separated by commas and arranged in alphabetical order. These should be placed immediately after the abstract. General and plural terms should be avoided. The keywords will also be subjected to translation in the same conditions referred for the Abstract.

NOTE: If the manuscript to submit has all this information accomplishing the rules, for the insertion of data in the Ciências da Terra submission’s platform the work is facilitated by simply use the copy and paste actions.

(2) Text

The text should be written in a clear, concise and precise manner. Italic should always be used when naming genera and species and also when using non-English terminologies (e.g. Latin).
In the manuscripts referred to the subject of Palaeontology the presentation of the author(s) of species and genera and the name of suprageneric taxa should respect the criteria used in CT-ESJ in previous volumes that can be consulted and downloaded in the journal’s webpage.
Please ensure that the following rules are accomplished:

Abbreviations - Abbreviations should be used sparsely and must be defined, in parenthesis, the first time they are used. Abbreviations used in figure or table captions should also be defined in the main text.

Units - Only SI Units (International System of Units) should be used. Any other units should be converted whenever possible. Symbols have no final point, nor bear any marks of plural.

Equations and mathematical formulae - Authors should use the Equation editor of the Word processor (MS Word is preferred; 2007 version or more recent).

Citations and referencing - References should be cited by the author's name (or names if there are only two authors) and the date of publication: Choffat (1886, 1904a,b), Teixeira & Pais (1988), Antunes et al. (1996) or (Choffat, 1886, 1904a,b; Teixeira & Pais, 1988; Antunes et al., 1996).

New taxa - Authors should conform to the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. When a new species is erected, type specimen(s) must be designated by the author(s), registered, the name and location of the institution should be clearly indicated. The abbreviation for new taxa are nov. gen., nov. sp., etc. The list of synonymies should be limited to essential references. References to previously published figure and plate numbers that were originally given in Roman numerals should be transliterated into arabic numerals, e.g. 1948. Schizoneura algarbiensis nov. sp.; Teixeira, p. 17, Pl. 3, fig. 5-11 2007. Crestaites meneghinii (Bonarelli); Elmi, Mouterde, Rocha & Rulleau, p. 90, Pl. 1, fig. 1a-b.

Figure and table captions - Figure and table captions are submitted in the end of the manuscript starting in a new page headed by “Figure Captions”. Use the same criteria for tables a separate file that should be named “Captions”. Authors should ensure that each figure and table has a caption comprised by a brief title or description of the materials presented. The caption is not included in the figures nor tables themselves. In the caption list of figures they are referred to as “Fig. 1 - ….” and tables as “Table 1 - ….”. In the case of multiple pictures/photos/inserts in the same figure they must be named, sequentially by a. b. c. etc. The citation of figures and tables within the text should use the same format. Figure captions should be complete and informative. All figures should be referred to in the text and in the correct order.
Figures should only contain sans serifs font types or Symbol, i.e. fonts similar to Arial, Calibri, etc. Text imbedded within figures should not be smaller than 8 pt. Scale bars (simple colour lines) should accompany each figure as appropriate (e.g., maps, stratigraphic columns, composite figure with photographs of outcrops, fossils, and thin sections).
Photographs should be of medium contrast and extremes of black and white or poorly contrasting tones should be avoided.
The minimum acceptable image file resolution is 300 DPI, and from 600 to 1000 DPI for charts and diagrams. The minimum width for all image files is 16 cm. For photographs, only *.JPG (maximum quality), *.PNG (preferred) or *.TIFF formats are accepted. The same applies for line drawings and diagrams, for which original files in Adobe Illustrated or CorelDraw are encouraged to be send to the editor.
Tables must have text in rows and columns consistently aligned and must submitted in the same quality and formats described in the previous paragraph for charts and diagrams. Only tables to be included as Supporting Material (see below) can be submitted as spreadsheets in formats like *.XLS or *.XLSX.

Article structure - The article should be clearly divided into numbered sections. All headings should be numbered adding a digit to their respective section, i.e. section 1. should be followed by subsection 1.1. (1.1.1., 1.1.2. …), 1.2., etc. Headings should not surpass three levels. The Abstract and the References are not included in section numbering.

Although it is not mandatory, all articles should contain the following sections:

Introduction – The introduction should set the study in its context, stating its objectives and its significance. Detailed literature reviews and summarizing the results in this section should be avoided.

Materials and Methods – Materials and methods should be provided in detail enough in order to allow the work to be replicated. Previously published our well-established methods should be indicated by a reference or cited.

Results – A clear and precise description of the experimental results should be provided. Authors are encourage to use Supporting Material (for example raw data which support the results presented and discussed or other types of files which cannot be included in the core text because are presented in formats other than *DOC, *.DOCX or *.JPG (or *PNG); please see “Supporting Material” below.

Discussion – In the discussion section authors should explore their results (not repeat them) and compare them with their initial hypothesis and with previous studies. Major findings and their implications should be discussed regarding their context. Any limitations found during the work should be mentioned and future research notes should be added. Extensive citations and discussion of published literature should be avoided.

Conclusions - This section should include the main conclusions of the study.

Supporting Material – if it is the case, a complete list of the supporting material added to the main paper and necessary for a better understanding of the text should be presented in after Conclusions and before the References. Supporting Material and References are sections not numbered.

Footnotes - Footnotes should seldom be used. They should be numbered consecutively throughout the article. Footnotes should not be used for references or acknowledgements and they should not include any figures or tables.

Acknowledgments & funding sources - Acknowledgments include the listing of entities who collaborated with the authors during the research. Acknowledgments should be placed at the end of the article and before the references. They should not be included in the title page, as a footnote or otherwise. If applicable, the listing of funding sources should also be added to the present section. Detailed descriptions of the grant programs should be avoided; short and objective sentences, like the following example, are preferred: “This work was supported by XXXX [grant number ####] and YYYY [grant number ####]”. The names of all entities and organizations should be written in full. This information must be also inserted in a proper place in the online submission platform.

References - All the works cited in the text (and only they) should be included in the references list. Also, all the references listed in this section should correspond to citations in the text.

References – They must be indexed, when available in the web, to links where readers can access the full text directly (in PDF format or html webpages) or ask for them for free. Links can only be addressed to:

i) open access journals; example:

Mouterde R., Rocha R. B. & Delance J. (1981) - Atlas des fossiles caractéristiques du Lias Portugais: I – Lias inférieur. Ciências Terra 6, 49-76. http://cienciasdaterra.novaidfct.pt/index.php/ct-esj/article/view/75

ii) institutional open resources (e.g. RCAAP for Portuguese language countries); example:

Kullberg J. C. (2000) - Evolução tectónica mesozóica da Bacia Lusitaniana. PhD thesis Univ. Nova Lisboa, 361 p. https://run.unl.pt/handle/10362/1465

iii) personal repositories (e.g. ResearchGate social networking site for scientists and researchers) where references are directly downloadable or readers can ask for the full text to the authors; example:

Mateus O. & Milàn, J. (2010) - A diverse Upper Jurassic dinosaur ichnofauna from central-west Portugal. Lethaia 43 (2), 245–257. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227718806_A_diverse_Upper_Juras¬sic_dinosaur_ichnofauna_from_central-west_Portugal

iv) consortia of editors with special contracts with countries which allow the researchers of research entities (universities, public laboratories) to access the full text (e.g. b-on in Portugal); example:

Azerêdo A. C., Silva R. L., Duarte L. V. & Cabral M. C. (2010) - Subtidal stromatolites from the Sinemurian of the Lusitanian Basin (Portugal). Facies 56, 211-230. DOI: 10.1007/s10347-009-0198-0

Organizing References –When the author's name also appears in co-authored publications, they should be arranged alphabetically, as demonstrated in the following example:

(…)
Rocha R. B. (1977)
Rocha R. B. (1980a)
Rocha R. B. (1980b)
Rocha R. B., Mouterde R. & Tintant H. (1972)
Rocha R. B. & Tintant H. (1975)
Sharpe D. (1850)
(…)

Articles:

Antunes M. T. (1976) - Dinossauros Eocretácicos de Lagosteiros. Ciências da Terra 1, 35 p. http://cienciasdaterra.novaidfct.pt/index.php/ct-esj/article/view/28

Boehm J. (1903) – Description de la faune des couches de Pereiros. Com. Serv. Geol. Portugal 5 (1), 1-48.

Dommergues J.-L. & Meister C. (1986) – Une espèce nouvelle de Fuciniceras du Domérien des Causses – Fuciniceras fontaneillesi nov. sp. Geobios 19 (5), 653-660. DOI: 10.1016/S0016-6995(86)80062-6

Books and book chapters:

Kullberg J. C., Rocha R. B., Soares A. F., Rey J., Terrinha P., Callapez P. & Martins L. (2006) – A Bacia Lusitaniana: Estratigrafia, Paleogeografia e Tectónica. In: Dias R., Araújo A., Terrinha P. & Kullberg J. C. (Eds.) - Geologia de Portugal no contexto da Ibéria. Univ. Évora, 317-368. https://run.unl.pt/bitstream/10362/1487/1/Bacia_Lusitaniana%20%28VIICNG%29.pdf

Ribeiro A. (2002) – Soft plate and impact tectonics. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1st ed., 324 p.

Haq B. U., Hardenbol J. & Vail P. R. (1988) – Mesozoic and Cenozoic chronostratigraphy and cycles of sea-level changes. In: Wilgus C. et al. (Eds.) - Sea-level changes: an integrated approach. SEPM Sp. Publ. 42, 71-108. ftp://soest.hawaii.edu/glenn/GG309/GG309%202012/Part%203%20Strata/Haq%20et%20al.%201988,%20Mesozoic%20and%20Cenozoic%20Chronostratigraphy.pdf

Reports and meetings proceedings:

Rey J. & Dinis J. L. (2004) – Shallow marine to fluvial Lower Cretaceous of central Portugal: sedimentology, cycles and controls. In: Duarte L. V. & Henriques M. H. (Eds.), Carboniferous and Jurassic Carbonate Platforms of Iberia. 23rd IAS Meet. Sedimentology, Field Trip Guide Book 1, Coimbra, 2, 7-35. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235983869_Shallow_marine_to_fluvial_Lower_Cretaceous_of_central_Portugal_sedimentology_cycles_and_controls_Pre-Meeting_Field_Trip_A5

Rosa R. N. & Rosa D. (2006) – Aferição de reservas minerais em termos de energia. VII Cong. Nacional Geologia, Estremoz, 1055-1058. http://socgeol.org/documents/afericao-de-reservas-minerais-em-termos-de-energia

Thesis:

Guéry F. (1984) – Évolution sédimentaire et dynamique du bassin marginal ouest-portugais au Jurassique (Province d’Estremadure, Secteur de Caldas da Rainha, Montejunto). PhD thesis Univ. Claude Bernard, Lyon (unpublished), 478 p.

Henriques M. H. (1992) - Biostratigrafia e Paleontologia (Ammonoidea) do Aaleniano em Portugal (Sector Setentrional da Bacia Lusitaniana). PhD thesis. Univ. Coimbra, 301 p. https://estudogeral.sib.uc.pt/handle/10316/2014

Terrinha P. (1998) – Structural geology and tectonic evolution of the Algarve Basin, South Portugal. PhD thesis. Imperial College, London (unpublished), 430 p.

When the title of a publication has been translated or transliterated, the original language should be stated in brackets at the end of the reference:

Wang J. Q. & Zhu M. (1996) – [An Ordovician vertebrate from Inner Mongolia]. Chinese Sc. Bull. 42, 1187–1189 (in Chinese).

Online documents, Webpages & Online databases:

Amador F. (2006) – A 7ª cadeira na Escola Politécnica. In: Blogue “Histórias da Geologia”, http://historiadageologia.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html, accessed on 15/04/2008

LNEG (2014) – SIORMINP - Sistema de Informação de Ocorrências e Recursos Minerais Portugueses. http://geoportal.lneg.pt/index.php?option=com_content&id=69&lg=pt, accessed on 17/06/2015.

SUPPORTING MATERIAL

Supporting information is important. Any information or data, which is relevant to the original article but cannot be included in the article’s body can be submitted for publication. Ciências da Terra - Earth Sciences Journal encourages authors to create and submit Supporting Materials with their articles. These materials can be original images (drawings, photographs, plates, charts or diagrams), tables, geological maps, video clips and animations, 3D models, slide presentations, georeferenced files like shape files, Google Earth files or others. Please, read carefully the following guidelines about the accepted file types and further requirements.
Supporting information files are submitted online together with the article and will follow the same revision process. Authors are advised to supply a brief description of each file submitted in a separate page after the figure / table captions. The submitted materials cannot be altered until feedback is given by the revisers.
By submitting supporting information to Ciências da Terra - Earth Sciences Journal, authors automatically agree to its online publication on the official webpage. By submitting these materials authors also accept for them the CC-BY conditions.

Image files - In order to improve the submitted articles, authors can submit supporting images (drawings, photographs, plates, charts or diagrams). Authors are strongly recommended to mention the supporting image files in the article’s body, which should be done similarly to standard figure referencing. Please, ensure that these references match the names and labels of the submitted image files. The preferred format for image files is *.JPG (high quality, low compression), *.PNG or *.TIFF. In order to ease uploading and downloading time, the recommended limit for the size of a single file is 25 Mb. A minimum of 300 dpi is required for all submitted image files.

Video and animation files - In order to improve the submitted articles, authors are strongly recommended to mention the supporting video files in the article’s body, which should be done similarly as the standard figure or table referencing (e.g “see video 1”). Please, ensure that these references match the names and labels of the submitted video files. The *.MP4 (or *.MPG) is the preferred format but *.MOV, *.WMV or *.AVI files are also accepted. *.GIF files can be submitted as short animations. Videos should be in 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio. Full HD and Ultra HD (or 4K) are highly suggested. In order to ease uploading and downloading time, the recommended limit for the size of a single video or animation file is 200 Mb for FHD; if 4K resolution is preferred to authors please use the Frogsoft File Size Calculator to estimate the final size of the video; it’s not recommended to use files larger than 4Gb. Frame rate should be =24 and Codec ProRes HQ. If problems occur related to the upload to the online platform, please let the Editor know.

Slide presentations - Slide presentations are brief presentations with audio that allow authors to summarize their research works, helping readers to better understand the subject of their papers. All authors are invited to submit a slide presentation version of the submitted work. In order to simplify your work, please note that: i) the maximum duration of the presentation is 5 minutes, which should be roughly equivalent to a maximum of 10 slides; ii) slide animations and transitions should not be used; and iii) every slide must be narrated individually. Slide presentations must be in one of the following file formats: *.PPT, *.PPTX and *.PPSX with an indicative maximum size of 25Mb.

Text, notes, tables & spreadsheets - The preferred file format for text, notes, tables, spreadsheets and similar documents submitted as supporting information is *.PDF. Nevertheless, the following formats are also accepted: *.DOC, *.DOCX, *.TXT, *.XLS, *.XLSX, *.PPT and *.PPTX. In order to ease uploading and downloading time, the recommended limit for the size of a single file is 25Mb.

Georeferenced files & geodatabases - Authors can enrich their articles by providing georeferenced files and geodatabases. *.KML and *KMZ files are preferred, but ArcGIS compatible files (shape files) are also accepted. The sole use of WGS 84 (Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere) coordinates is strongly recommended.

Other files - Ciências da Terra - Earth Sciences Journal do not allow the submission of: i) executable or disc image files, including but not limited to *.BAT, *.BIN, *.CMD, *.COM, *.EXE, *.ISO,*.JAR or *.WSF; ii) compressed files , including but not limited to *.BZ2, *.RAR, *.TAR.GZ, *.ZIP or *.7Z.

Any further doubts or suggestions should be addressed to the CT-ESJ editorial team to the following e-mail: cterra@novaidfct.pt. Please, do not forget to use “[CT/ESJ Supporting Material]” as part of the subject of your e-mail.

REVISION PROCESS AND PUBLICATION

The Editorial team is very committed to publish submitted articles as fast as possible. It depends on how fast peer review is done, as well as how rigorous was the preparation of the manuscript by authors attending to the rules here published and also attending the quality of the article submitted. One of our goals is to ensure a time of no longer than 1 to 2 months from the date of submission until the publication of the final version. As far as the copyediting is ready the authors version will be send to the corresponding author in order to send to the other authors, if it is the case, and also to publish it in personal web pages and disseminate to their social and professional networks.

COSTS FOR PRINTED COPIES

On demand, we can send to the authors high quality colour reprints, under the following costs. Costs refers to articles until 25 pages. Larger papers will be charged by multiplying the costs by multiples of 25 (entire numbers); for example a paper with 42 pages will be charged multiplying by 2 the costs below.

Number of copies	Net price (in Euro)	Postage charges
25	100	10,0
50	200	10,0

The NOVA.ID Editorial will send an invoice with all the details referring the payment by bank transfer. The only currency accepted is Euro.