Author Information: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems

Manuscripts submitted for publication should convey the author’s findings precisely and immediately to the reader. Authors are urged to have their manuscripts reviewed critically by colleagues for scientific accuracy and clarity of presentation. If a manuscript has more than one author, coauthors must consent to the final version of the manuscript and to its submission to the journal for publication.

See the journal’s overview for information on areas of interest and AGU’s Author Guide for detailed instruction on manuscript and figure preparation. To submit a manuscript, use GEMS.

All papers submitted should present new and significant results that speak to an improved understanding of the processes that control Earth and planetary systems and their evolution. Papers that provide only incremental advances or have more than minimal overlap with already published or submitted work will be returned to author. Upon submission, authors have to supply all material needed for review, e.g., references to in press publications have to be augmented by PDF files of such material.

For questions about any issues pertaining to G³‘s scope, submission formats, review and production procedures, please contact g-cubed@agu.org.

Article Types

G³ publishes several categories of papers, some of which are nontraditional. Though all papers published in G³ must meet high standards, the criteria for acceptance of each class of paper differs. Reviewers should review each paper in light of the following criteria:

Articles: previously unpublished research results that meet the most stringent standards of quality and originality and are of interest to the broader research community. The quality of G³ articles should be comparable to those published in journals such as Earth and Planetary Science Letters or Geochemica et Cosmochimica Acta. Articles should not exceed 13 pages (this includes figures, tables, and references).

Research Letters: short papers communicating particularly significant findings that justify rapid publication. The quality and impact of G³ letters should be comparable to those published in Geophysical Research Letters, Nature, and Science. Letters normally will be limited to 3200 words (plus figures, tables, and references).

Reviews: papers that are timely and appropriate in the context of recent developments in the fields covered by the journal. Quality and impact should be comparable to papers published in Reviews of Geophysics. Reviews should normally not exceed 15,000 words (plus figures, tables, and references). Authors are asked to please discuss their plans for Review Articles with one of the editors before preparation or submission of a Review.

Technical briefs: Reports of new analytical or experimental methods and other technical advances, including computer programs. Technical briefs should not exceed a maximum of 3200 words (plus figures, tables, and references).

Commentary and Editorials: G³ invites Comments on the papers it publishes and will provide authors the opportunity to Reply. G³ will also publish occasional editorials, news, and commentary on developments of interest to the Earth science community. Both Comments and Replies should be brief and to the point and should not normally exceed 1500 words.

It is our policy to allow the authors of the original paper to write a Reply to any Comment on their paper. Both the Comment and Reply will then be refereed, and the authors of each will be allowed one round of modifications before the editor decides whether to accept both for publication. If no Reply is provided, then the Comment alone will be considered for publication.

Upon receipt of the referee’s reports on the Comment and Reply, the Comment authors will be sent two items: 1. the Reply and 2. the referee’s report on the Comment. The Comment may be revised one time. At that point, the Reply authors will be sent two items: 1. the revised Comment and 2. the referee’s report on the Reply. One revision of the Reply will be allowed. Once a final version of the Reply is submitted, a final decision will be made whether or not to publish the Comment and the Reply.

Length Guidelines

G³ has established guidelines on the length of the text not because of any limitation in the publication process, but because we believe that science is better conveyed when the writing is succinct rather than verbose. We therefore encourage brevity: papers should be as long as necessary, and no longer. There are no limits on the number of figures, tables, or appendices; however, all such material should serve a clear purpose in conveying the science to the reader. In addition, G³ strives to keep the time to produce the manuscript as short as possible. Longer articles will take more time to produce. Therefore exceptions to the above indicated word limits will only occur in rare situations. Authors are reminded that G³ has a 10,000-word limit on articles and 3200-word limit on briefs.

Word limits will be enforced.

Geochemical Data Reporting

All data that are used in a publication needs to be either referenced to an accessible, persistent, and citable source, or provided in a data table associated with the publication.

Proper documentation of data/sample quality, origin, and type are fundamental to the reproducibility of research results. Authors must provide sufficient information (metadata) about the analytical process, in order to allow for true reproduction of experiments, adhering to correction procedures necessary for scholarly reproduction of the results need to be clearly presented.

For further detail please refer to the AGU’s policy on data publication as well as the Geochemical Society’s policy on data publication. Moreover, modeling results and procedures should be shared openly, in electronic form, to allow reevaluation of inversion or models results.

File Formats

AGU journals offer many ways to present research that expands articles beyond the printed page. Movies, animations, downloadable data tables, calculation worksheets, and three-dimensional models allow authors to demonstrate, rather than simply explain, scientific findings.

See AGU Author Guide for information on file formats and figure preparation.

Authors are encouraged to contact the Editors if they have questions about specific formats. In addition to other formats, G³ accepts data in Excel format.

Note: G³ accepts executable files under limited circumstances, as defined by the AGU Information Technology Committee. Content provided in the executables must be of a supporting nature to the essential findings of the manuscript, as determined by the Editor during the peer review process. Executable files cannot be archived by AGU, as future accessibility cannot be guaranteed. A disclaimer will appear with published articles that contain executable files, stating that users are running the programs at their own risk. Authors are responsible for technical support on the files, and contact information will be provided along with information on the nature of the executable file.

Copyright Permission and Accessibility

See AGU’s Copyright and Permissions Policy.

It is the intent of the founders to assure that relevant contributions published in G-Cubed can be accessed through the authorized web sites of selected scientific organizations, such as GERM (the Geochemical Earth Reference Model Initiative), whose purpose is to facilitate the dissemination of information to the scientific community. Connecting the peer-reviewed literature with the information services of sites like GERM is a critical functionality of the proposed journal. The publishers expect to meet this goal by providing seamless and unrestricted links for users from these sites to specific online G³ contributions, or by granting permission to post selected items from G³ on these sites.