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CHECKLIST FOR SUBMITTING
A NEW MANUSCRIPT TO
ANY AGU JOURNAL

Submitting a new manuscript: The process

For your convenience, we encourage you to use our LaTeX or Word templates. You can also submit papers directly using cloud-based authoring tools Overleaf, which is LaTeX-based, and Authorea. If you use any of these templates, the metadata, including title and abstract, from the paper will be automatically loaded into our submission system when you upload the file.

Following our guidelines will ensure that we can immediately proceed with publication, if your manuscript is accepted. Our other author resources can help guide you along your publishing journey.

If you are submitting a revised or resubmitted manuscript that has already undergone peer review, please follow the checklist for revisions and resubmissions.

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What you need for a new submission

You will need to provide the following items with your submission. For new submissions, please upload one complete Word or PDF manuscript file containing text, figures, and tables a part of the main text. For LaTeX, convert to PDF. Any supporting information should be uploaded separately for review purposes. Revisions including resubmissions of previous rejected manuscripts need separate, production-ready files and must follow the revision submission checklist.

  • 1
    A list of authors, their emails, and affiliations. Individual author contributions can be indicated using the CRediT taxonomy.
  • 2

    ORCID for corresponding author; encouraged for co-authors.

  • 3

    Three or more suggested reviewers.

  • 4

    Permissions to reuse any figures that were previously published by a non-AGU journal.

  • 5

    Open Research Section: For each dataset that supports your research, both a citation and a data availability statement must be present. The data that supports your research must be deposited in a repository compliant with FAIR principles. Please see detailed information and examples here.

  • 6

    Copies of articles cited as unpublished and an explanation of need in your cover letter. This includes companion and special collection manuscripts submitted to this or other journals.

  • 7

    Optional cover letter identifying any conflicts of interest (please enter in submission form).

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We encourage all authors to register for an ORCID. Published contributions and reviews are automatically registered to your ORCID. We encourage using International Geo Sample Numbers (IGSNs) to identify all relevant samples. IGSNs will be linked in your final paper.

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Checklist: New manuscripts

To expedite the processing of your paper, please ensure your manuscript meets the following requirements. Our complete guidelines for composing your manuscript are included on our Text Requirements page.

Your title page should include the title, authors with their affiliations, and three key points of your research.

Your abstract should be less than 250 words for all AGU journals, except Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). For Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), your abstract should be less than 150 words.

Data Availability statement: For each dataset that supports your research, both a citation and a data availability statement must be present. The data availability statement for each data set must be included in the Open Research section of your paper indicating where readers can access the data. Statements implying that data are available from authors are not allowed. See Data for Authors for more information.

Your plain language summary should be written for a broad audience that includes journalists and the science-interested public. It should state the general problem, describe what research was conducted, the result, and why the findings are important. The plain language summary improves article discoverability and allows your paper to be more widely accessible. For tips, learn how to write a plain language summary. 

This is required for the following journals: Geophysical Research Letters; Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (G-Cubed); Journal of Advances in Modeling of Earth Systems (JAMES); JGR: Biogeosciences; JGR: Oceans; JGR: Planets; and Reviews of Geophysics. For all other journals, this is optional.

Ensure all key sections have descriptive headings throughout the text for organization.

Ensure that you have continuous line numbers throughout the text for organization. Lines should be spaced 1.5-2 lines.

Check the length of your paper. Papers submitted to Geophysical Research Letters must be 12 publication units (PUs) or less, or they will be returned to the author. AGU assesses excess fees for papers longer than 25 PUs in all other journals, except Reviews of Geophysics. At the time of your submission, be prepared to enter word, table, and figure counts for an automatic PU calculation. More information on publication units and fees, is available on our Publication Fee Table.

Figures and tables should have captions. Both should be placed near where they are cited in the text.

There should be no footnotes in the text.

  • All references must be cited in the main text and reference list for indexing. If they appear elsewhere, your submission will be returned.

  • References should be formatted according to AGU’s publications style. Every reference must be available publicly online or in print before a paper can be accepted; there should be no “submitted” or “in press” references (unless the “in press” reference has a DOI and is available online). Exceptions are considered by the editor.

Your acknowledgements section should include the following items:

  • All funding information from each author pertaining to this work.

  • Any conflicts of interest for any author that are not apparent from their affiliations or funding.

  • Any additional information on author contributions.

Checklist: Supporting information

Data files that are uploaded as Supporting Information MUST ALSO be deposited in an appropriate repository. Supporting information may include other images or figures, methods text, and resources needed to explain the results presented in your paper. It should not include discussion or key analysis. Data sets, software, and sample information should be deposited in repositories practicing the FAIR principles and cited in the references.

  • 1
    Use our supporting information template and include text, captions, and figures as part of one supporting information file, saved in PDF format.
  • 2
    Please upload the PDF file. Production staff will not convert, edit, or modify your supporting information files. They will be published as-is.
  • 3
    Please deposit data tables and software to repositories practicing the FAIR principles and cite them as part of the references and according to AGU’s data policy.
  • 4
    Do not include data tables and software as part of the manuscript.
  • 5
    Include any analysis or discussion as part of the main manuscript, not supporting information.
  • 6
    References in supporting information should be included in a separate reference list below the main text under the heading "References From the Supporting Information" so that they will be discovered, linked, and indexed.
  • 7
    Do not include appendices. Appendix text and figures should be included in the main article file.
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