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Guide for Authors for Eos

Revised 22 April 2009

This REVISED Guide for Authors details the new requirements for Eos manuscripts.

Goals

The primary goal of Eos is to forge strong interdisciplinary ties within AGU. Eos publishes timely articles, news items, meeting summaries, and other material of interest to the full range of Earth and space scientists. Such items concisely analyze or synthesize scientific activities, significant geophysical events, major scientific discoveries, or current scientific controversies and place them in perspective for readers in all geoscience fields. Eos does not publish original research results; authors may want to consider submitting such materials to AGU journals.

Eos is expected to:

• keep readers informed about developments in their own and other fields and about AGU,
• be of interest to a large proportion of AGU members,
• be thought-provoking and interesting to read, and
• be newsworthy.

Eos is a newspaper, not a research journal. Items in Eos require a writing style that is news-oriented and accessible to a broad audience. When preparing an article for Eos, the author must keep in mind that readers are not necessarily familiar with the manuscript's topic.

Eos does not consider or accept manuscripts that have previously been published or that are being considered by other publications.

Writing for Eos

Authors should carefully read the detailed guidelines that follow. Authors who follow the requirements provided here may find that their material is considered more favorably in the review process and, if accepted, is published more quickly.

Authors should not assume that every reader is familiar with the manuscript's topic; therefore, manuscripts need to provide a good framework and background. All items suitable for publication in Eos must be written to inform the reader immediately of the most important aspects of the information being presented. Unlike the typical research article, which builds to its conclusion, a well-written item in Eos begins with the conclusions and provides details later. Specialists and nonspecialists alike should not need to read to the end of an item in Eos to discover what is new, interesting, and important.

The writing style should be brisk and readable. A short, fast-paced item will be read and remembered while a lengthy one may not be.

Eos staff will work with authors of accepted contributions to ensure that the writing standards for the newspaper are met. This entails much more vigorous editing after acceptance than is typical for journals.

Authors should:

• avoid using specialized terminology and eschew jargon. Terms that are not common to all of the disciplines AGU embraces should be explained or defined;
• state clearly and succinctly in the first or second paragraph the significance of the topic: Why is the subject of this manuscript important?;
• avoid using mathematics. If equations are necessary for a deeper understanding of the topic, authors should include a brief explanation in parallel for the casual reader;
• keep references to a minimum, using only those that will help point the interested reader to more information or information that the author has relied on heavily. Eos is not a research journal, and therefore it is not necessary to document meticulously all sources;
• write figure captions that are brief, clear, and in complete sentences;
• provide a newspaper-style headline that is brief, focuses on the most important aspect of the article, and includes a 'verb' but no acronym or abbreviation;
• and spell out all acronyms and abbreviations the first time they are used.

Most frequent editing and style changes include:

• developing catchy introductory paragraphs for features, brief reports, and news;
• providing more emphasis to the news and substance of a manuscript;
• adding a concluding section;
• making sure a figure caption clearly explains the figure;
• defining abbreviations and acronyms at first use;
• removing special typefaces (i.e., italics, boldface) used for emphasis;
• adding serial commas before conjunctions;
• changing to day-month-year format: 25 January 2003;
• adding full ranges for years: 1989–1990;
• removing commas in numbers less than 10,000 (e.g., 7213);
• incorporating/abbreviating/etc., introductory “abstracts”;
• adding age ranges for geologic periods, etc.;
• adding subheadings;
• making headlines fit and be “newsy”;
• reducing the length of paragraphs;
• removing first-person pronouns from features, brief reports, meeting reports, and news; and
• changing to American spellings.

Authorship: Authors must be only those who actually write the manuscript. Authorship should not include those who were not involved in the actual writing of the manuscript, regardless of their participation in a project, program, research, etc. Project team names cannot be listed as authors.

Length Limits: Because of the space constraints of Eos, length limits have been established for all manuscript categories (see below). Length limits are expressed in word equivalents, counting text, references, figure captions, author byline, and affiliation; each figure or table counts as the equivalent of 400 words. To gage the length standard for different types of contributions, authors should consider that a full 4-column page in the Eos newspaper format is equivalent to about 2800 words.

Online Supplements: Eos makes liberal use of online supplements to include more items than are possible within the space constraints of the print version of the newspaper. Supplements might include material that expands on particular points or details that are likely to be primarily of interest to specialists in a field. Online supplements can also be used to publish dynamic content that augments what can be published in the print version.

An online supplement is stored with Eos online issues. Items accepted for publication as an online supplement to Eos must be provided for consideration along with the content submitted for the newspaper. The Eos online supplement cannot be used to archive data, models, methods, or computer programs.

The length limitations for a supplement can be found where the standards for the various categories of Eos content are given. Material for a supplement to Eos is subject to the same dual publication restrictions as for all other AGU publications. Online supplements are generally not copyedited.

Basic Style: Eos follows the same house style as AGU journals (see Tools for Authors). It is based on the Chicago Manual of Style and Words Into Type. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Webster’s New Third International Dictionary (and its Addendum), and the Glossary of Geology are used for hyphenation and spelling. AGU uses an open punctuation style, i.e., only as much punctuation as necessary for clarity. Units of measure must be metric; SI units are strongly encouraged.

More details, including a list of words commonly occurring in AGU articles and their treatment (hyphenation, capitalization, etc.), are available in the AGU Grammar and Style Guide. Authors may also find the AGU Reference Style Guide (PDF) useful.

Categories of Contributions

Eos editors will consider for publication the following types of contributions:

Feature Articles offer readers in all geophysical disciplines a solid overview of a defined topic. Much like a white paper, a good feature article places its topic in a broad context, describes the work in a way that geophysicists across disciplines can understand and appreciate the work, and gives readers a sense of the research challenges and opportunities related to the topic discussed. A feature article does not focus on a single program, project, meeting, or research experiment. Rather, it uses several case studies or examples to describe the topic. Whenever possible, the article weaves together science and policy issues related to the topic and acknowledges alternate findings. The concluding section addresses what has been learned and how it can be applied as well as potential future research directions. Scientific controversies and cutting-edge challenges are of special interest as potential feature articles. Some articles may be tutorial in nature. Each must be broad enough to be of interest to individuals in more than one sphere of scientific interest (e.g., lithosphere, biosphere, heliosphere, etc.). Eos does not publish original research results.

Maximum length of invited feature: 2500 word equivalents. Each figure or table counts as 400 words.

Brief Reports offer updates or status reports on programs, projects, or research experiments. Suitable subjects for brief reports include recent geophysical phenomena, the significance of new major scientific programs or projects, longer historical notes, vignettes of key Earth and space scientists, or discussions of applications of useful new software or publicly available data collections. Again, Eos does not publish original research results. Authorship is limited to those who actually write the manuscript. Authorship should not include others, regardless of their participation in a project, program, or research. “Project teams” cannot be listed as authors.

Maximum length: 1500 word equivalents. Each figure or table counts as 400 words.

Meeting Reports very briefly summarize the scientific highlights of recent meetings relevant to Eos readers. Their purpose is to inform interested members about key developments in other areas of research and of new and persistent challenges. The highlights should be presented in a context that shows the importance of the results for improving readers' understanding of the scientific area or application. The newspaper account may be supplemented by reference to a longer report published elsewhere or by a longer discussion published as an electronic supplement to Eos. If the author wants a longer meeting report to be considered for publication as an online supplement, it too must concentrate on the results. In no case will simple chronologies or restatements of the program be accepted for publication as a supplement. Authors should limit themselves to selecting only the most important aspects of the meeting and report them in a simple narrative style. Authorship is limited to two people who have actually written the summary, not the organizers or conveners of meetings. To be considered for publication in Eos, meeting reports must be submitted within 2 months of the meeting.

Maximum length for newspaper: 500 words; no figures.
Maximum length for supplement: 1500 words; figures will be accepted, but each figure counts as 400 word equivalents.

Meeting Announcements should be submitted via the AGU Geophysical Year Calendar. Eos publishes the date and title of the meeting, sponsor, contact information, abstract deadline, and a one- or two-sentence summary of the meeting.

News Items briefly report on recent geophysical phenomena, exciting new research findings, institutional developments, significant new research programs, or important new data collections. Augmentation of the newspaper account with an online supplement is possible at the discretion of the editor. Timeliness is a critical consideration in the publication of news items.

Maximum length: 700 word equivalents; a figure counts as 400 words.

The Geophysicists column brings to the attention of readers significant awards, personnel changes, deaths, and news about AGU members. To submit an item about honors for this column, send an e-mail to eos@agu.org. Items should be no longer than 100 words and will be edited to fit format and style. To alert AGU about the death of a member, contact Member Services at service@agu.org.

Forum contains thought-provoking contributions expected to stimulate further discussion, within the newspaper or as part of Eos Online Discussions. Appropriate Forum topics include current or proposed science policy, discussion related to current research in the disciplines covered by AGU (especially scientific controversies), the relationship of our science to society, or practices that affect our fields, science in general, or AGU as an organization. Commentary solely on the science reported in research journals is not appropriate.

Maximum length: 1500 words; usually figures are not included, but when they are, each counts as 400 word equivalents.

Letters to the Editor are short comments stimulated by items that appear in Eos. They are not expected to generate further discussion. These letters should make clear why the author has chosen to write. Those selected for publication may be shortened to just the essence of the message; an author has the right to withdraw a letter if the shortened version is not acceptable. To be considered for publication, a letter must be submitted within 2 months of the item that prompted its writing.

Maximum length: 350 words. Only in rare exceptions would figures be considered appropriate for a letter.

Comments and Replies deal with the clarification of a factual or scientific point raised in a recent Eos article. The guidelines for handling comments and replies in AGU journals govern comments and replies in Eos as well, including the need to be cordial and professional. To be considered for publication, a comment must be submitted within 2 months of the publication date of the original Eos article.

Maximum length: 350 words

Historical Notes offer insights into how historic scientific work influences, affects, or offers perspective on current science. These brief pieces can also highlight how past scientific work has become more relevant now or describe a curious twist on past research or observations.

Maximum length for newspaper: 500 words.
Maximum length for supplement: 1500 word equivalents; figures will be accepted but each figure counts as 400 word equivalents.

Obituaries are by invitation only. To suggest that an obituary of an AGU member be considered, send an e-mail to eos@agu.org with a short statement about the deceased's contributions to the science and to AGU. The history editor, the president or president-elect of the section or discipline group of the deceased member, and the AGU executive director decide if a full obituary will be invited. The annual number of obituaries from any given section or discipline group is limited to 0.1% percent, akin to the percentage for Fellows.

Maximum length: 1000 words plus photograph of the deceased.

Reviews of Books, Software, and non-AGU-affiliated Web Sites are considered for publication in Eos. A good book review for Eos should put the topic into context for all readers and thereby expand everyone's understanding of the subject. It should comment on how well the book achieves the goals intended by its authors and evaluate its contribution to the literature. It should not be a précis of each chapter. Authors are encouraged to follow the approach of book reviews found in world-class newspapers and magazines.

Software considered for review may be available either commercially or noncommercially. Web sites that will be considered for review in Eos include those that are of significant interest to members and/or teachers of Earth and space sciences at any level. Sites specifically aimed at the public will also be considered. Reviews of software and Web sites should follow the guidelines for book reviews. Web site reviews should also include something about the level of knowledge the user must have to make best use of the information on the site.

The primary standard for all material that will be considered for review is interest for the entire readership. All reviews are by invitation from the Eos editors; unsolicited reviews will not be considered.

Maximum length for any review: 750 words; no figures.

GeoFIZZ manuscripts are tidbits devoted to the lighter side. These short narratives, illustrations, or cartoons take a look at a broad issue in the Earth and space sciences from a light or unusual perspective; these items often help the members of AGU to laugh at themselves.

Maximum length for narratives: 700 words plus 1 figure.

How to Submit to Eos

Eos editors welcome contributions from authors throughout the world. The decision to accept a contribution for publication is guided by the standards described in these guidelines. In making the decision about the publication of a manuscript, the editor may or may not confer with reviewers.

Eos submissions should be made through the GEMS online interface. If you have submitted manuscripts to any AGU journal, your log-in information is the same for Eos. First-time AGU authors will be asked to register. This one-time registration is good for all AGU publications for the purposes of submission as well as review. There are hot links throughout the online process to guide authors through the process. Questions or requests for additional assistance can be directed to eos@agu.org.

Acceptable file formats for submitting text are Word, WordPerfect, or pdf.

For Eos figures, authors should follow the guidelines for preparing graphics for AGU research journals, keeping in mind readability and the figure's contribution to the overall understanding of the topic. Dynamic material for Eos is published as an electronic supplement. Figures and tables are reviewed along with the manuscripts. Authors should note that the charge for color figures in the newspaper is US$1300 for the first color figure and US$325 for each additional color figure published in the same issue. Commitment to pay this fee is required in advance of publication.

Before publication, authors must complete the Eos copyright transfer form [PDF].