American Journal of Science Instructions for Contributors
Manuscripts being submitted should be addressed as follows:
EDITORIAL OFFICE, AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE
217 Kline Geology Laboratory
PO Box 208109
New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8109
Papers submitted will be judged from the standpoint of scientific originality and subject matter. Only papers that have not been previously published can be accepted. Cover letters must state that the paper is new and original and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Papers pending in other journals will not be considered. Co-authors should be individuals who have contributed substantially to the content of the paper.
Submission of Manuscripts for Review:
For review purposes, pdf files or paper copy may be submitted. Please email pdf files of the manuscript and cover letter directly to: ajs@yale.edu. Note that the Yale email system currently does not accept files larger than 25 megabytes, so larger manuscripts need to be split into multiple files before being sent to us. Extremely large files can be accomodated by ftp transfers on a case-by-case basis. For paper submissions, please send 5 copies of the manuscript to the above address for the Editorial Office. If the manuscript is rejected, one of the five submitted copies will be returned to the authors; the others will be destroyed. For both electronic and paper submissions, manuscripts should follow the recommendations in the pamphlet Suggestions to Authors of the Reports of the United States Geological Survey, 7th ed., should be preceded by brief abstracts (no more than one journal page), and must be paginated. All measurements must be given in SI (metric units).
Preparing Electronic Files for Publication:
Once accepted, the final version of the manuscript (to be sent to the printer) must be submitted on disk (or CD or Zip) and must be accompanied by a laser printer paper copy. The electronic files must be formatted for US standard letter size paper (8.5 inches by 11 inches, with 1 inch margins) using MICROSOFT WORD AND TIMES NEW ROMAN FONT (Eurotimes font will not be accepted). Tables should be done in Word table format. Figures are to be high quality Encapsulated Postscript files or PDF files (high-quality TIFF files may be substituted in somes cases; see section on Illustrations, below). For the final electronic submission, figures and tables should be in separate files and should not be included in the main text file. The main text file should have the following structure: title page, abstract, body of paper, appendices (if present), references, and figure captions. Manuscripts that do not conform to these guidelines will be returned to the authors for revision. If manuscripts need to be converted to AJS guidelines in the AJS office, authors will be charged for this service. MANUSCRIPTS SHOULD BE CHECKED WITH SPECIAL CARE BEFORE BEING SUBMITTED TO AVOID CHANGES IN PROOF OTHER THAN PRINTER'S ERRORS.CHARGES FROM THE PRINTER FOR SUCH CHANGES MADE IN GALLEY PROOF BY AUTHORS WILL BE PASSED ON TO THE AUTHORS.
References to literature should be listed alphabetically by authors at the end of the article; all references should be complete. For articles in journals or other serial publications, the reference should give in order: Author's name, year of publication, full title: full name of periodical or series, volume number, inclusive pages. For books or other unnumbered publications, it should give: Author's name, year of publication, full title: place of publication, publisher, total number of pages. References must be given in full without abbreviations. (REFERENCES TO PAPERS WITH MORE THAN TWO AUTHORS SHOULD BE CITED THUS IN THE TEXT: (Adams and others, 1988) but in full in the References. Citations within an article should be to author and year, with specific pages wherever appropriate.
Example References:
Papers:
Manning, C. E., and Bird, D. K., 1991, Porosity evolution and fluid flow in the basalts
of the Skaergaard magma-hydrothermal system, east Greenland: American
Journal of Science, v. 291, p. 201-257.
Theses:
Palin, J. M., ms, 1992, Stable isotope studies of regional metamorphism in the Wepawaug
Schist, Connecticut: Ph.D. thesis, Yale University, New Haven, 170 p.
Note: Text references to theses should read: (author's name, ms).
Books and Related Publications:
McSaveney, M., 1992, A manual of weathering-rind dating for sandstone clasts of
the Torlesse Supergroup: Geological Society of New Zealand Miscellaneous
Publication 63A, 106 p.
Muhs, D. R., 1992, The last interglacial-glacial transition in North America: Evidence
from uranium-series dating of coastal deposits, in Clark, K. P., and Lea, P. D.,
editors, The last interglacial-glacial transitionin North America: Geological
Society of America Special Paper 270, p. 31-51.
Spry, A., 1969, Metamorphic textures: New York, Pergamon Press, 350 p.
Sverjensky, D. A., 1987, Calculation of the thermodynamic properties of aqueous
species and the solubilities of minerals in supercritical electrolyte solutions,
in Carmichael, I. S. E., and Eugster, H. P., editors, Thermodynamic modeling of
geological materials: Minerals, fluids, and melts: Mineralogical Society of
America Reviews in Mineralogy, v. 17, p. 177-209.
Tabor, R. W., and Cady, W. M., 1978, The structure of the Olympic Mountains,
Washington - analysis of a subduction zone: United States Geological Survey
Professional Paper 1033, 38 p.
Tullis, J., and Yund, R. A., 1992, The brittle-ductile transition in feldspar aggregates:
An experimental study, in Evans, B., and Wong, T., editors, Fault mechanics and
transport properties of rocks: London, Academic Press, p. 89-117.
Maps:
Fritts, C. E., 1963, Bedrock geology of the Mount Carmel Quadrangle, Connecticut:
United States Geological Survey Quadrangle Map GQ-199, scale 1:24,000.
Rodgers, J., 1985, Bedrock geological map of Connecticut: Hartford, Connecticut
Geological and Natural History Survey, Department of Environmental Protection,
scale 1:125,000.
Abstracts:
von Huene, R., 1998, Forearc highs and backstop structure: EOS, Transactions,
American Geophysical Union, v. 79, p. F917.
Sammis, C. G., 1993, Relating fault stability to fault zone structure: Geological
Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 25, no. 6, p. A115-A116.
Style issues. Section headings should be in capitals, centered on the page. Subsection headings should be in upper and lower case letters, be italicized, and be centered on the page. Sub-subsection headings should have an initial capital only, be italicized, and begin an indented paragraph. They should end in a period, followed by a long dash. The following are examples:
SECTION HEADING IN CAPITALS
Subsection Heading in Capitals and Lower Case
Sub-subsection heading with initial capital only.––
The first line of the abstract should not be indented, and should begin thus:
ABSTRACT. Mechanisms of regional metamorphic fluid flow...
Note that all text in the Abstract should be in bold-face.
Equations should be centered on the page, and be numbered sequentially with the numbers appearing in parentheses on the right margin. Equations are referred to in the text as equation (1) or in parentheses as (eq 1) or (eqs 14 and 15). If the word "equation" begins a sentence, it should be captialized, as in: Equation (1).
The word "figure" is spelled out in the text but abbreviated in parentheses (fig. 1) or in figure captions (the F in Fig. is captialized in the captions, and there is a period after the figure number). Note that the f in "figure" is not capitalized in the text, unless it begins a sentence. Different parts of composite figures are labeled with capital letters; for example figure 1A or (fig. 3A and D).
References to a data table in the text are written out in lower case (table 1), although the T is capitalized if the word begins a sentence.
We use "for example" instead of "e.g."; "et cetera" instead of "etc."; and "that is" instead of "i.e.".
Illustrations should be neat and legible and should include explanation of symbols used. All figures should be supplied as Encapsulated Postscript files, and all fonts and patterns needed for proper reproduction should be embedded. If Encapsulated Postscript is unavailable, then high resolution TIFF files (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for combination scans of text and lines) may be submitted. All digital figures should be sized to be no more than 12.7 cm (5 inches) wide or 20.3 cm (8 inches) long, and have a minimum letter height of 2 mm. Copy that cannot be reproduced cannot be accepted. When necessary, one large map or table can be accepted, if it will not exceed 20 cm in width after reduction, provided money is available from the author to help pay for it. High quality photographs or laser prints of figures can, in some cases, be accepted, but the authors will be charged a fee for custom sizing and reproduction. Figures should be numbered consecutively, in the order they appaer in the text, using arabic numerals. If two illustrations form one figure, they are A and B. Authors' requests for figures in color will be considered individually by the Editors; if allowed, Authors will be required to assume the extra costs. All measurements must be given in SI (metric units).
Reprints. A minimum of 100 reprints may be ordered by the author or his or her institution in advance of publication. Reprints are priced at 25 cents per unit of 4 pages. Order forms will be sent with galleys. The cost of reprints will, of course, be greater if the article is accompanied by plates involving unusual expense. Copies will be furnished with a printed cover giving the title, author, volume, page, and year, when specially ordered. Price information on reprint order form.
Page charges. Each institution sponsoring research reported in an article accepted for the Journal will be asked to pay a charge of $100.00 per printed page, due when galley proof is returned. Institutions or authors paying such charges will be entitled to 100 free reprints without covers. No charge will be made if the author indicates that his institution is unable to pay them, and payment of page charges on an article will not in any case be a condition for its acceptance.