Manuscript types

The following types of manuscripts can be considered for peer-reviewed publication in Geoscience Communication (GC): research articles, review articles, commentaries, and special issue introduction or overview articles as detailed below.

Research articles report substantial new results and conclusions from scientific investigations of geoscience communication initiatives within the scope of the journal. Please note that the journal scope is focused on qualitative and quantitative studies of geoscience communication rather than simply reporting on public engagement initiatives.
GC Insights are research articles presenting innovative and well-founded ideas related to geoscience communication in a concise way using 500–1500 words and a maximum of one figure or table. A GC Insight must be well-founded and robust, but it does not have to be explored in detail. Supplementary material should be limited – it is reserved for files containing material to make the work transparent and reproducible (e.g. data, code, or tools such as questionnaires) or enhance communication (e.g. animations). The manuscript should have a title starting with "GC Insights:" and should have a brief abstract of two to three sentences summarizing the idea. Any informatively named sections are permitted in the main text (e.g. Introduction, Methods, etc.) although any conclusions should also be evident from the Title and Abstract. Submissions of GC Insights will only be sent out for review if the executive editors consider the content robust, transparent, and well-founded. Please see this one as an example for the GC Insights format.
GC Letters are research articles that report particularly important results and major advances in a concise and engaging style. Letters have fewer than 2,500 words in the main text, 200 words in the abstract, and an appropriate number of figures, or tables, and references. For more information, see the instructions for authors. Papers accepted for final publication as GC Letters will also become "Highlight articles", which have high visibility in EGU. GC Letters are also eligible for inclusion in EGU Letters. Manuscripts submitted for consideration as GC Letters are subject to regular peer review with interactive public discussion, and the selection procedure is overseen by the GC executive committee.
Review articles summarize the status of knowledge and outline future directions of research within the scope of the journal. Before preparing and submitting a review article, please contact an editor covering the relevant subject area and an executive editor. Review articles can be superseded by an updated version in order to incorporate a significant amount of new information (similar to the "living reviews" concept). The new article should contain a direct reference to the preceding article, both in the abstract and introduction sections. Please contact the executive editors if you would like to update your review article. Depending on the subject and further characteristics, review articles are also eligible for inclusion in the Encyclopedia of Geosciences. If you are interested in this option, please see the author instructions and contact the editors of the encyclopedia.
GC has no separate category of commentary and replies anymore. The main vehicle for commenting on a paper in GC is the interactive discussion that occurs during the first stage of the review process. Occasionally, new issues may arise at a later date. Where the main content or purpose of a paper is criticism or discussion of a preceding paper (whether in GC or elsewhere), it should be prepared, and will be considered, as a research article, with a title that describes the scientific issue. The editor will decide as for any other paper whether the issue is sufficiently substantial to warrant a new paper. However, as a courtesy, the authors should point out on submission the identity of the related paper so that the editor can be sure to invite the authors of that paper to take part (normally named) in the interactive discussion.
In addition to the above manuscript types, special issues may include an introduction article and/or an overview article. Introduction articles outline the motivation and background, and overview articles synthesize and summarize the findings of the special issue papers. The manuscript title must clearly reflect the relation to the special issue and should start with "Introduction:" or "Overview:".
Corrigenda correct errors in preceding papers. The manuscript title reads as follows: Corrigendum to "TITLE" published in JOURNAL, VOLUME, PAGES, YEAR. Please note that corrigenda are only possible for final revised journal papers and not for the corresponding preprints. Corrigenda have to be submitted to Copernicus Publications within 3 years from the publication date of the original journal article. Should there be reasons for publishing a second corrigendum within these 3 years, the first one will be substituted by a single new corrigendum containing all relevant corrections.