Guidelines for Authors

Geologica Carpathica  »  Submission  »  Guidelines for Authors

Journal policy

  • GEOLOGlCA CARPATHlCA (GC) is an international scientific journal that publishes original studies concerned with all aspects of the geology of the Alpine–Carpathian–Himalayan orogenic system and the surrounding regions. These studies should be consequential and should have implications for geoscience research in this orogenic system.
  • GC publishes original research papers, review articles, and short communications which cover tectonics, stratigraphy, paleontology, paleobiology, sedimentology, mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry, and ore deposits, preferably from orogenic belts. We particularly welcome papers with a wide appeal to the development of geosciences in fields related to orogenic belts, papers introducing new concepts, correlations, procedures, or applications of new approaches to the solution of geological problems.
  • GC does not publish papers that have local implications only or are overly descriptive, papers that cannot be generalized to regions outside of the studied area.
  • Author(s) retain full copyright and proprietary rights (if applicable) related to the contribution.

General instructions

Types of manuscript

The types of contributions published are represented by regular research articles, review articles, short communications, and comments/replies.

  • Regular articles document new and significant research results within the journal scope. They should not exceed 15,000 words (text including references + figure and table captions) and should not have more than 15 figures and tables.
  • Review articles should summarize the state of the art and provide an outlook, however, not exceed 20,000 words nor contain more than 20 figures and tables.
  • Short communications should contain important new information which has not been previously published elsewhere. The length of the Short communication should not exceed 6000 words nor contain more than 5 figures and tables.
  • Comment/Reply related to a published manuscript should be submitted in a timely manner not longer than one year after the publication of the commented-on manuscript. The author(s) of the original paper will be given the opportunity to reply to the comment. If available, the comment and reply will be published together. The length of Comments/Replies should not exceed 6000 words nor contain more than 5 figures and tables.

Submission

  • Manuscripts must be submitted online via the editorial system of GEOLOGlCA CARPATHlCA (PKP Open Journal Systems) to be accessed via the GC journal website: http://geologicacarpathica.com –> Submit manuscript, or https://journals.savba.sk/index.php/gc/login. You can learn more about the submission process at this webpage: https://docs.pkp.sfu.ca/learning-ojs/en/authoring#submitting-an-article. You can contact the Managing Editor for additional information or help during submission (mailto:silvia.antolikova@savba.sk)
  • Authors should prepare their manuscript (MS) both as a (1) .doc (docx) file with numbered lines (without figures and tables, but with figure and table captions at the end of the MS) and (2).pdf file with numbered lines, with tables and figures at the end of the MS.
  • MS should be written in English (American or British, but not a mixture of these).
  • The author of the submitted MS will receive an e-mail notification from the Managing Editor and can track the progress of MS throughout the peer-review process.
  • Geologica Carpathica uses single-blind peer-review by default, but offers an opportunity for reviewers to participate in signed peer-review.
  • In the cover letter, authors should state the names and e-mail addresses of min. 3 potential reviewers. Note that the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used.
  • The review process starts with the Editor-in-Chief who assesses the suitability of new submissions and assigns the new manuscript to one of the Associate Editors (AE), depending on the field of specialization.
  • The reviewers have 30 days for the review completion. After submission of the reviews, the AE summarizes the reviews and forwards reviews and editorial recommendations to the authors. Authors are required to revise the manuscript according to the comments of AE and reviewers, explain revisions in the rebuttal letter, and indicate the changes in an annotated version of the revised manuscript. The standard time for revisions of reviewed manuscripts is 60 days (an extension can be granted by editors).
  • The AE decides whether the revised manuscript can be recommended for acceptance (in such case, the Editorial Board officially decides about the acceptance, based on the recommendation of the AE) or whether a new round of reviews and revisions is needed.
  • Once the revisions are completed and accepted by the Editorial Board, the manuscript will be copyedited and proofread. In this stage, the author will be asked to submit all figures and tables as separate high-quality files.
  • The corresponding author will be notified via the online system when proofs are ready. Any corrections must be returned as soon as possible and should only cover typesetting. Any new data cannot be inserted into the text at the time of proofreading without correspondence with the Managing Editor. 
  • The journal checks the submitted contributions for plagiarism.

Fees

  • Articles not exceeding 16 printed journal pages will be published without any charge, including colour figures and tables (1 journal page = ca. 1000 words). Max 25 pages are possible for review articles.
  • Larger manuscripts can also be accepted, however the expenses involved will be charged to the account of the author (40 EUR for one printed page over the limit). The supporting material can be published online as electronic supplements.
  • The publisher may ask authors for voluntary article production fee.
  • Authors can use an Eglish language editing service of Geologica Carpathica, with the cost of 50–100 € (up to 10,000 words 50 €, up to 15,000 words 75 €, up to 20,000 words 100 €).

Structure of the manuscript

  • The structure of MS must comply with the journal requirements. Manuscripts that do not meet the standards explained below will be returned to the author.
  • Manuscripts (regular article, review article) should be generally organized in the following order: Title – Full Name(s) and Affiliation(s) – Abstract – Keywords – Introduction – Methods – Results – Discussion – Conclusions – Acknowledgments – References – Appendix – Table Headings and Figure Captions – Tables – Figures.
  • The title should be as short, informative, and concise as possible. It must be related to the major findings or implications in the manuscript.
  • Enter the full first name and surname of all authors and their addresses. Clearly mark the corresponding author. The postal addresses of the author(s) should be given in the following order: institution, department/section, address, state; e-mail addresses for all authors or only for the corresponding author.
  • The abstract (not exceeding 300 words) should contain highlights for a general audience and should make clear why the results and interpretations are noteworthy.
  • Keywords (maximum 7 items) should be arranged in succession from more general to more specific ones, e.g.: Western Carpathians, Low Tatra Mts., granitoids, geochemistry, REE.
  • The introduction must include the objectives as to why the results of the research are being presented. The main text body consists of Methods, Results, Discussion, and optionally Conclusions (because abstract can present the conclusions).
  • Acknowledgments must be short and concise.

Preparation of the manuscript

Text

  • The manuscripts must be clear and concise, and thus should avoid vague, redundant, or unnecessary words or statements. We recommend that authors limit the manuscript size to 15,000 words for a regular article and 20,000 words for a review article. 16 printed pages are published free of charge, so try to prepare the appropriate number of figures and tables (max. 15). Others can be submitted as electronic supplements.
  • Do not format text in columns.
  • Organise sections and sub-sections to a maximum of 3 heading levels. 
  • Include line numbers in the manuscript. Use continuous line numbers (do not restart the numbering on each page).
  • Define abbreviations upon their first appearance in the text.
  • Units should have a single space between the number and the unit, and preferentially follow official SI nomenclature.
  • Species names should be written in italics. Authors of species or higher taxa should be mentioned only in taxonomic papers devoted to the discussion of their taxonomic status or validity, or when the taxonomic determination of a given species (or higher taxon) is controversial. Taxonomic authorities of well-documented or non-controversial taxa thus should not be appended to taxon names and will not be referred to in the main text. For example, Linnaeus (1758) will not be cited when the authors mention the class Bivalvia.

References

  • All citations in the text, figures, or tables must be in the reference list and vice-versa.
  • The reference list should only include articles that are published or accepted for publication. If a paper has been accepted, but has not been published, the term “in press” should be used instead of a date. Unpublished data, submitted manuscripts, or personal communications should be cited within the text only.
  • References to archival reports, theses, and dissertations should be omitted in the case that the data were published elsewhere.

In-text citations

  • Use surname of author and year of publication: Walker (2000) or (Walker 2000). Insert initials only if there are two different authors with the same surname and same year of publication.
  • Different references cited together should be in ascending order of year, and two or more references published in the same year by the same author are differentiated by the letters a, b, etc.

    Example: (Kráľ et al. 1997; Petrík & Kohút 1997; Brown 1999, 2010a, b; Broska et al. 2013, 2018).

Reference list

  • Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author.
    For references with two authors, list alphabetically by the first author, then alphabetically by the second author, and afterwards in chronological order. For references with more than two authors, list alphabetically by the first author, and then chronologically with the earliest year first.
  • Authors should assign a digital object identifier (DOI) to all references, if available.
  • Journal names must be spelled out in full.
  • Quotations of papers published in the non-Latin alphabet should be translated into English with an indication of the original language in parentheses, e.g. (in Russian).
  • Online references should have the full URL for the reference and the date when the reference was last accessed.

Examples

Articles

Janák M., O’Brien P.J., Hurai V. & Reutel C. 1996: Metamorphic evolution and fluid composition of garnet-clinopyroxene amphibolites from the Tatra Mountains, Western Carpathians. Lithos 39, 57–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-4937(96)00019-9

Finger F., Gerdes A., René M. & Riegler G. 2009: The Saxo-Danubian Granite Belt: magmatic response to post-collisional delamination of mantle lithosphere below the south-western sector of the Bohemian Massif (Variscan orogen). Geologica Carpathica 60, 205–212. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10096-009-0014-3

Books

Vozár J., Ebner F., Vozárová A., Haas J., Kovács S., Sudar M., Bielik M. & Péró Cs. 2010: Variscan and Alpine terranes of the Circum-Pannonian Region. Geological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, 1–233.

Taylor S.R. & McLennan S.M. 1985: The continental crust: Its composition and evolution. Blackwell Scientific Publications, London, 1–312.

Chapters in a book

Walker G.P.L. 2000: Basaltic volcanoes and volcanic systems. In: Sigurdsson H., Houghton B.F., McNutt S.R., Rymer H. & Stix J. (Eds.): Encyclopedia of volcanoes. Academic Press, San Diego, 283–290.

Tables and figures

  • At the initial submission stage, authors are required to incorporate tables and figures into the main PDF article file, ensuring that any figures are of sufficient quality to be clearly legible. Table- and figure captions must be placed at the end of the MS after References.
  • All figures and tables must be cited in the text in a correct numerical sequence.
  • When the manuscript is accepted, authors will be prompted to upload all tables and figures as separate files, ensuring that the quality and formatting conforms to the specifications below.

Tables

  • Please submit tables as editable text (docx, xlsx) and not as images.
  • Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Text references to tables should appear as Table 1 or (Table 1) as appropriate.
  • The number of tables should be limited to an essential amount. Large tables with raw data can be published as an Electronic Supplement.
  • Tables should not exceed 1 journal page in extent (170×235 mm, portrait or landscape, with font size 7 pt).

Figures

  • Colour figures are free of charge for online and printed publication.
  • Number figures consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Text references to figures should appear as Fig. 1 or (Fig. 1) as appropriate or unabbreviated at the beginning of the sentence (Figure 1 shows…). When referring to other papers, use small letters (e.g., Salaj 1970, fig. 5)
  • Produce figures near to the desired size of the printed version – maximum 170×235 mm (two columns), 82×235 mm (one column), or max. 120×235 mm (one and a half column).
  • Figures should be sent in the following formats:

Vector drawings (line art) as EPS, CDR (max. ver. 2020), or TIFF with a minimum resolution of 600 dpi. Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.

Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones) as TIFF. A minimum resolution of 300 dpi is required (600 dpi is recommended). If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves.

Combinations bitmapped line/halftone (color or greyscale) as TIFF. A minimum of 600 dpi is required.

  • Do not use hairlines. The minimum width of the line is 0.25 pt. The smallest font size in the printed version is 7 pt. Avoid large areas with an empty background.
  • All maps should contain a northward arrow, metric scale, and longitude and latitude coordinates. Figure explanation or map explanation (legend) should be included in the figure itself, not in the form of numbered explanations in the caption.
  • If previously published figures occur in the manuscript, it is necessary to submit written permission from the copyright owner, and a credit line must be included in the figure caption.

Supplementary materials

  • Additional data and files can be uploaded as Supplementary files during the manuscript submission process. The supplementary material will also be available to the reviewers as part of the peer-review process. Any file format is acceptable, however, we recommend that common, non-proprietary formats be used wherever possible. Supplementary files will be published as received from the author without any conversion, editing, or reformatting.