Guidelines for Authors
Fossils and Strata is an international monograph series that publishes comprehensive papers in systematic palaeontology, including taxonomic descriptions, phylogeny, palaeoecology, palaeogeography, and biostratigraphy. Fossils and Strata also offers the publication of larger reviews, or thematic special issues comprising a series of shorter papers, e.g. from international conferences. Manuscripts submitted to Fossils and Strata are normally considered for publication on the understanding that they have not been submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere.
With effect from 1 January 2022 Fossils and Strata is a fully open access monograph series, and its content is published under the CC-BY 4.0 licence (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). An author submitting a manuscript to Fossils and Strata agrees that it will be published under the book series' rights licence. Normally, a book publishing charge (BPC) will apply. For pricing, possible discounts or waiver, see here.
Basic notes on manuscripts
The main content and the results of the manuscript must be new to science unless the memoir is intended as a review. Manuscripts should be written clearly and consistently in British (UK) English, and adhere to the general style of the monograph series, including heading and referencing formats. Authors are encouraged to inspect a recently published volume of Fossils and Strata in order to see the construction and style of the manuscripts. Volumes 1 through 66 of Fossil and Strata are available from the website of the Lethaia Foundation.
Minimum length of papers
Manuscripts submitted to Fossils and Strata are not constricted by a certain length, but papers of less than 50 printed pages including figures are not accepted for a single volume (one printed page roughly equates to 3.500 characters including spaces). The definite length of the single volumes of Fossils and Strata has been very variable, but to give an approximate guide, the average length is 200 printed pages including illustrations.
Nomenclatorial standards
Manuscripts that include taxonomic descriptions or other nomenclatorial acts must comply with the rules in the current edition of the relevant nomenclatorial Code (ICZN, ICNAFP etc.; see below for details. Manuscripts that do not meet these, or other standards required, will not be accepted.
Units
Fossils and Strata uses the Système Internationale (SI units, metric system) for all units. For reference, see https://www.nist.gov/pml/weights-and-measures/metric-si/si-units.
Submission of manuscripts
The manuscript files should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief (Svend Stouge, Copenhagen) by an appropriate Internet transfer service like WeTransfer or similar. For general communication, please use the e-mail address [email protected].
Text should be supplied in Word .doc or .docx format. Please do not submit text manuscripts as PDFs, as they do not permit editing. Tables should preferably be in Word (.doc, .docx) or Excel (.xls, .xlsx) format. At first submission, images should be of sufficient quality needed for the review process, and should be sent as JPG/JPEG, PDF, PNG, EPS and/or small TIFF files. High resolution images are required for optimal reproduction and may be supplied after the manuscript has been accepted for publication.
Fossils and Strata requires that the submitting author provides an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. To obtain an ORCID iD please visit https://orcid.org/.
Preparation and organization of manuscripts
Manuscripts should be written in British (UK) English, using Oxford spelling (-ize instead of -ise, -yse instead of -yze, palaeo- instead of paleo-), and prepared in the style of the monograph series, with particular attention to headings and referencing. Fossils and Strata uses normally four heading grades (including the main title).
Manuscripts should be 12-point font, double-spaced and allowing for good margins throughout. Scientific names of genera and species should be given in italics; where the term et al. is used, this should also be italicized.
Manuscripts are normally organized as follows:
Title
The title should be short, concise and informative. Use of parentheses (brackets) in titles should be avoided. Please also provide a short title of no more than eight words for use as a running header.
Authors' names
Give first and last names in full, with middle initials. Do not use superscript numbers to distinguish author affiliations/addresses, as these are provided later if necessary.
Contents
A list of contents should be included on separate page(s). If preferred, this list may be submitted at a later stage, i.e. when the wording of chapter headings is definite.
Abstract
The abstract (without heading) should be as short and concise as possible, highlighting new findings and results. Any new taxon should be mentioned here.
Author names and addresses
Full postal address of all authors (including a forename in full) must be supplied together with affiliations and e-mail addresses (in italics, e.g. Rick Marshall [...@...], University of ...).
Main text
The main text must start on a new page and should be divided into unnumbered sections. Principal sections are typically, but not exclusively: Introduction, Material and methods, Geological setting, Stratigraphy, Systematic palaeontology, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements. Heading grade is indicated by its distinctive style, e.g. bold, italics and positioning all indicate grade, but do not use capital letters. For 1st-grade headings the font size is 16, for 2nd-grade 14, and for 3rd- and 4th-grade it is 12. The 4th-grade heading is in italics and followed by text on the same line, separated by ". –".
References in the text should be cited by author surname(s) and year with an ampersand (&) between two authors (e.g. Grant & Sattler 1993) and without a comma between author name and year; for three or more authors use the first author followed by et al. (e.g. Maia et al. 1954). When page numbers need to be specified, use a comma for separation (e.g. Pratchett 1998, p. 48). When referring to taxon names, author name(s) and year are always separated by a comma (e.g. Sphaeronites Hisinger, 1828). In referring to personal communications, the year should be added (e.g. T. Oliver, pers. comm., 2004). Text quotations (excerpts) should be placed between single quotations marks with reference to paper and page (e.g. Smith 1998, p. 10).
Systematic palaeontology. – The taxonomic section is called "Systematic palaeontology" in a 2nd-grade heading. For style and structure of this section authors should consult some of the recently published volumes of Fossil and Strata obtainable here: https://lethaia.org/fossils-and-strata. Taxon names as headings (complete with author and year, seperated by a comma) are centred, suprageneric names being 2nd-grade headings, genus and species names are 3rd-grade headings in italics and bold letters. Further headings (e.g. "Type species. –") are 4th-grade headings as explained above.
Example:
The rules of the current edition of the relevant nomenclatorial Code must be strictly followed. For texts governed by the International Code on Zoological Nomenclature, this implies that the publication must be registered in the Official Register of Zoological Nomenclature (ZooBank) and contain evidence in the work itself that such registration has occurred. The correct procedure for registration in ZooBank is described here.
Figured or otherwise specified specimens should normally be deposited in a museum or other accessible public collection. Their individual repository numbers must be given in the plate and figure legends. The name of the housing institution must be mentioned in the main text, e.g. under Material and methods, or in a section headed "Repository. –" in the beginning of the Systematic palaeontology chapter.
Great care should be exercised when compiling lists of synonymy, with respect to chronology, exactness of original naming (including possible misspellings) etc. For the correct use of open nomenclature in synonym lists and elsewhere, authors are advised to consult the following publications:
Bengtson, P. 1988: Open nomenclature. Palaeontology 31, 223–227.
Matthews, S. C. 1973: Notes on open nomenclature and synonymy lists. Palaeontology 16, 713–719.
Acknowledgements
Here you may list any person(s) that significantly contributed to the improvement of the paper (such as referees etc.), host institutions that provided access to collections, or financing institutions etc.
References
The style of the references follows the Harvard system. The correctness of the references is the responsibility of the author(s). Authors are encouraged to inspect a recently published volume of Fossils and Strata to see the construction and style of the references. Previous volumes of Fossil and Strata are available from the website of the Lethaia Foundation.
Only publications cited in the text, figures etc. should appear in the Reference list. If a taxon is given with the author's name and year, the reference of that first description should be included. List references alphabetically under the author's or editor's surname and then chronologically. In listing editors of an edited book, the form: Bembow, J., Collingwood, C. & Nelson, H. should be used (not Bembow, J., C. Collingwood & H. Nelson). Book titles should have initial capital letters for each main word, e.g. On the Origin of Species ..., and should be given in italic, followed by the publisher and place of publication. Give journal names in full, not abbreviated, and in italics. Use Arabic numerals (italicized) for volume numbers. Suffixes (a, b, c, etc.) must be used to distinguish two or more works by the same author(s) in the same year. Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) should be provided were available, but are mandatory for online-only publications.
Authors should take special care to ensure that publications containing nomenclatorial acts (e.g. new taxon names or combinations) are listed with the correct year of publication. Newly introduced names are made available from the date of its first valid publication. If, for instance, a paper was published online validly according to conditions of the relevant Code, the date and year of that publishing act is the correct one, even if the paper subsequently became part of the volume of a later year
Illustrations
Illustrations should be reducible to a maximum size of 170 x 223 mm (whole page illustration, which is the standard for plates), or for the column width of 83 mm. Intermediate widths may be used by the publisher. Figures may be composed of several quadrangular units similar in tone.
Illustrations are referred to as Figures or Plates or a combination of both. If plates are used, they follow the Reference list, but precede any Appendices. All text-figures must be cited in the text and in sequence, and be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. The elements of composite figures should be designated A, B, C, etc. (not a, b, c, etc.). Labelling of the figures should be clearly readable.
In referring to figures in the text the following notation alternatives may be used: Figure 1; Figures 1 & 2; (Fig. 1); (Figs 1, 2); (Figs 4–6); Figure 2A; Figures 2A–D; (Fig. 2A); (Fig. 2A–D); (Figs 2B–4C). When referring to plates and elements on plates, please use Plate 1, figure 2 or (Pl. 1, fig. 2) etc.
Figure legends should be typed on separate pages following the Reference list or as a separate text file. Figures should be supplied as separate files in JPG/JPEG, PDF, PNG or TIFF format.
Remember to give the collection repository number for each figured specimen in the figure and plate legend(s), and to inform about the repository in the main text.
Tables
Each table must start on a separate sheet. They should be numbered in Arabic numerals according to their sequence in the text and have a short self-explanatory heading.
Appendices
Appendices may be presented at the end of the paper. They should be identified by Latin upper case characters (A, B, C, et.) and have a short self-explanatory heading. Alternatively, authors may upload expansive/extensive datasets to reputable long-term online repositories, which can then be referenced by URL in the published paper.