New Web-Based Electronic Manuscript Submission and Peer Review
Astrobiology is proud to announce the launch of its web-based manuscript submission and peer-review system called Manuscript Central.
We invite all authors to submit online any new manuscripts that are to be considered for publication. Please enter the following URL: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/astrobiology
Astrobiology brings together research scientists from around the world to advance theories and methodologies regarding the origins of life, the search for life, our understanding of the distribution and evolution of life, and the ways in which life interacts with its environment. Topics included in this multidisciplinary science are discussed in articles by Morrison (2001) in Astrobiology Volume 1, Issue 1, and by Des Marais et al. (2003) in Astrobiology Volume 3, Issue 2, available at www.liebertpub.com Astrobiology also welcomes research papers in fundamental space biology, that is, papers that discuss the responses of terrestrial life when exposed to conditions (such as microgravity and enhanced radiation) that would apply beyond the Earth. Such research is basic to understanding the ability of Earth life to move beyond its planet of origin.
Original scientific contributions that further an understanding of any aspect of astrobiology and space biology, including relevant observational, experimental, and theoretical investigations, will be considered for publication. Astrobiology publishes Research Papers, Reviews, invited Mini-Reviews, Rapid Communications, Hypothesis and Education Papers, and News and Views contributions.
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION AND COPYRIGHT AGREEMENT FORM
The Copyright Agreement form (available from web site at http://www.liebertpub.com/media/content/transfer_of_copyright.pdf.) should be submitted once your paper has been accepted for publication. Manuscripts cannot be published without this form. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining signatures of coauthors. Authors not permitted to release copyright must still return the form signed under the statement of the reason for not releasing the copyright. Upon acceptance of your paper, please fax the Copyright Agreement form to 914-740-2108.
SUBMISSION PREPARATION
Please submit all manuscripts using the following url: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/astrobiology.
The review process for all manuscripts will be initiated when authors submit (a) a “.doc” or a ".rtf" or LaTex file that contains the manuscript, references, tables, and figures legends, and (b) a single high-resolution “.tif” or “.eps” file of each figure (note that LaTex cannot be used for printing if the paper is accepted – see detailed note about LaTex below). Guidelines for preparing the various components of the contribution, including the preparation of high-resolution digital figure files, are provided below. Incomplete or improperly formatted contributions will be returned to the authors unread.
Manuscripts are judged on the basis of significance, originality, quality and clarity of presentation, and appropriateness of the subject matter. The decision regarding publication is the responsibility of the Editors, based in part on the recommendations of the Referees, Editorial Board Members, and Guest Editors.
MANUSCRIPTS. Manuscripts should be double-spaced and formatted for US Letter (8.5 x 11 inches) with 1.5 inch margins on top, bottom, and sides. Times or Times New Roman (12 point) is the preferred font. Manuscript pages should be numbered consecutively.
Manuscripts should be organized as follows: On the first page give the title of the article, the full names and institutional affiliations of all authors, the name (with complete address, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail address) to whom correspondence should be directed, and a running title of no more than 40 characters (including spaces). Supply an Abstract of about 200 words, stating the aims, results, and conclusions drawn from the study, and 3–6 keywords or phrases. The Abstract page should be followed by the remainder of the manuscript organized with headings to distinguish the Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions and/or Implications, Acknowledgments, References, Tables, Figure Legends, and the Figures. Results and Discussion should be separate manuscript sections.
Disclosure Statement
Immediately following the Acknowledgments section, include a section entitled “Author Disclosure Statement.” In this portion of the paper, authors must disclose any commercial associations that might create a conflict of interest in connection with submitted manuscripts. This statement should include appropriate information for EACH author, thereby representing that competing financial interests of all authors have been appropriately disclosed according to the policy of the Journal. It is important that all conflicts of interest, whether they are actual or potential, be disclosed. This information will remain confidential while the paper is being reviewed and will not influence the editorial decision. Please see the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals at http://www.icmje.org/index.htlm#conflicts for further guidance.
If no conflicts exist, the authors must state “No competing financial interests exist."
When naming your figure files, please label them with your manuscript number, followed by a period (.), and then list the figure number. Ex: MET-2008-0123.Fig1. Label figures and tables inside the files in addition to naming the file with the figure or table number. (ie: When figures or table files are opened, the figure or table number should appear inside the file.)
_______________________________________________________
IMPORTANT:
Please upload individual files of all manuscript material — do NOT upload a single PDF file containing all text, figure, and table files of your paper. Once all individual files are uploaded on to Manuscript Central, the system will automatically create a single PDF proof for you and the peer-review process.
_____________________________________________________________
If no conflicts exist, the authors must state “No competing financial interests exist."
It is recommended that authors review the style and clarity of their manuscript with colleagues before submission to ensure its consideration for publication and avoid delay in review and publication processing. Manuscripts may be edited if needed to ensure clear grammatical English usage. The editors welcome suggestions concerning potential reviewers that serve on the Editorial Board of Astrobiology as well as those from the international scientific community.
News and Views
The News and Views section of the journal may contain: reports and discussion of active mission findings, reader’s comments and author’s replies regarding published contributions, reader’s letters and author’s response with regard to discussion and debate about issues published in the Reviews and Mini-Reviews, and other news of interest -- such as White Papers for Sponsoring Funding Agencies -- to the general astrobiology readership. Authors, Referees, or Reviewers may submit comments with regard to papers that will or have been published. Such comments should be written only to clarify matters of scientific content. Authors of the papers under discussion will be invited to write a brief reply. Both comments and replies are subject to review. The commentor and replier will have the opportunity to see each other’s final manuscripts to ensure that only one round of comments will appear in the Journal. Comments and replies should be sent directly to the Editorial Office.
Research Papers and Rapid Communications, Hypothesis and Education Papers
Research Papers should describe results of observational and experimental approaches that characterize astrobiology. A Rapid Communication for rapid publication (~4 months) should communicate timely scientific or methodological information in the field. Page limits are not imposed on Research Papers, though authors are encouraged to submit manuscripts no longer than fifteen journal pages. A Rapid Communication should be four journal pages (about 3,000 words), including Tables and Figures.
Hypothesis Papers should communicate succinctly the basis of the author’s hypothesis to encourage discussion and creative hypothesis testing by members of the scientific community. The hypothesis must be reasonably testable. In particular, philosophical and semantic discussions, speculations on the sociology of aliens, and the ramifications for life, if the laws of Physics differed from the observed ones, are beyond the scope of the Journal. Astrobiology is an inappropriate venue for new physics/biology/chemistry, that is, modifications to widely accepted fundamental laws of physics/biology/chemistry. Though page limits are not imposed, authors are encouraged to submit manuscripts no longer than four journal pages (about 3,000 words). Hypothesis Papers should include an Abstract (about 200 words), Acknowledgments, References, Tables, Figure Legends, and Figures. Authors should contact the hypothesis editor Norman Sleep (norm@pangea.stanford.edu) for questions regarding the appropriateness of their paper’s topic.
Education Papers should communicate topics of interest to scientists involved in education, outreach, and training components of astrobiological research. Authors should contact Senior Editor David Morrison (david.morrison@arc.nasa.gov) regarding the appropriateness of their paper’s contents and organization.
Reviews and Invited Mini-Reviews
Authors interested in contributing Reviews and Mini-Reviews should contact S.L. Cady at the Editorial Office, e-mail: astrobiology@pdx.edu. Such papers should not merely reiterate previously published data. Reviews should be a selective, though balanced, representative compilation of previously published information assembled for the purpose of analyzing and reinterpreting it to reveal new insights and advance science. Reviews are subject to the same review procedures as Research papers. Mini-Reviews are generally invited by the editors, but unsolicited manuscripts will be considered.
Book Reviews
Book Reviews are generally commissioned by the editors, but unsolicited reviews will be considered. Ideas for books to be reviewed are welcome and may be sent to the Editorial Office, e-mail: astrobiology@pdx.edu. Book Reviews should be less than 1,500 words in length. Please send review copies of books to the Editorial Office, ATTN: S.L. Cady.
REFERENCES. All references should be cited by author(s) and date within the text [for example: The initial interpretations of the ALH84001 meteorite included nanometer-scale morphological features likened to the remains of nanobacteria (McKay et al., 1996).]. If three or more authors are involved use an italicized “et al.” notation after the first author’s name [for example: (Cady et al., 2003)]. If more than one paper by the same author(s) and year is cited use a lower case letter designation to indicate the individual paper [for example: (Smith, 1984a)]. Use the same designation in the reference list. Multiple citations in a parenthetical list should be separated by semicolons and ordered by date, oldest first. Multiple citations with same date should be ordered alphabetically by first author. The reference list should be double-spaced and in alphabetical order at the end of the paper. Each reference should include a complete list of authors and the complete title of the cited article. Examples that could appear in a reference section include:
Cady, S.L. (1998) Astrobiology: A new frontier for 21st century
paleontologists. Palaios, 13, 95-97.
Cady, S.L. (2001) Formation and preservation of bona fide microfossils. In Signs of Life: A Report based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques, Committee on the Origins and Evolution of Life, National Research Council, National Academies Press, Washington, DC, pp. 149-155.
Cady, S.L. and Farmer, J.D. (1996) Fossilization processes in siliceous thermal springs: Trends in preservation along thermal gradients. In Evolution of Hydrothermal Ecosystems on Earth (and Mars?), Ciba Foundation Symposium 202, edited by G.R. Bock and J.A. Goode, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, UK, pp. 150-173.
Cady, S.L., Farmer, J.D., Grotzinger, J.P., Schopf, J.W., and Steele, A. (2003) Morphological biosignatures and the search for life on Mars. Astrobiology 3, 351-368.
Gilmore, I., Hill, H.G.M., Pearson, V.K., Sephton, M.A., and Nuth, J.A. (2002) Production of high molecular weight organic compounds on the surfaces of amorphous iron silicate catalysts: implications for organic synthesis in the Solar Nebula [abstract
1613]. In 33rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference Abstracts, LPI Contribution No. 1109, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston.
Grotzinger, J.P. and Chan, K. (1999) Stromatolite morphogenesis [abstract]. GSA [Abs] 30(7), 393.
If a work is in press, give the journal in which it is to be published. Abbreviations of journal names should follow the style of MEDLINE.
TABLES. Present each table with its caption on a separate page of the manuscript. Use Arabic numerals to number tables. Information given in the text should not be repeated in tables unless advised by the editors. Tables should not be used for data that can be given in the text in one or two sentences. The typesetter will determine the final format of manuscript tables.
FIGURES. Figure legends should be supplied for each illustration. All figure legends should be numbered consecutively and typed double-spaced. Figures must be numbered in the order cited in the text. Figures will be reproduced in the journal at column (8 cm) or page (16.5 cm) width. Illustration text should be no smaller than 10 point Helvetica at column width.
High-resolution digital files of photographs or line art must be uploaded onto Manuscript Central. Each figure should be submitted as a separate file in “tif” or “eps” file format (byte order for Macintosh) at the final print size (8.5 or 16 cm width) and resolution (see below). Figure filenames must include the last name of the first author, figure number, and format extension (e.g., Cady.Fig1.tif). Figure resolution can be confirmed using Adobe Photoshop by opening the “tif” file, selecting image, image size, and print size. Authors should avoid artificially increasing the image resolution using Adobe Photoshop, which is possible by checking “resample image” when viewing the print size.
Resolution and format requirements for images at the print size: line art (bar scales, schematic drawings, etc.) should be no less than 1,200 dpi, photographs no less than 300 dpi (same as ppi in Adobe Photoshop). Black and white (halftone) photographs should be saved as “grayscale” images, and color photographs as “cymk” images.
The Journal will publish color photographs, but the author will be charged for the cost of color separations and printing at the rate of $275 per piece of color art plus $1,200 per page of color. The Publisher will provide the author with a more precise cost estimate when the figures are received. For further details, contact the Publisher.
A Note about LaTex. Though LaTex files can be submitted to the Journal and sent out for review, we require the final manuscript be in the “.doc” format. Once a manuscript in LaTex format has been recommended for publication, it will be the Author’s responsibility to have that version of the manuscript converted, scanned, or retyped into MS Word as a “.doc” file so that it can be readied for production. Should the paper contain complicated equations or formulas, the “.doc” version of the manuscript should be marked to show where they should be inserted and a hard copy list of all equations and formulas forwarded to the Editorial Office.
COVER ART. As of 2004, Astrobiology will individualize each issue by featuring a distinctive cover. Authors and scientific illustrators are encouraged to submit for consideration low resolution versions of their figures and artwork to S.L. Cady, e-mail:
astrobiology@pdx.edu Figures chosen for publication must meet the guidelines for high-resolution manuscript figures, but with a print size of 21.528 cm. A figure caption that explains succinctly the content of the cover art and acknowledges the contributor must be provided at the time of submission.
PERMISSIONS. The author must obtain permission whenever it is required in conjunction with the reproduction of copyrighted material such as figures and tables. Written permission must be obtained by the author from the publisher of the journal or book concerned, and if required by the original publisher, the figure or table legend should indicate the original publication. The publication from which the figure or table is taken must also be listed in the reference section. All permission listings must be obtained prior to typesetting the manuscript; they cannot be entered on proofs. Manuscripts submitted to this journal must not be under consideration elsewhere.
REPRINTS. Reprints may be ordered by using the special reprint order form that will accompany the proofs. Reprints ordered after the issue is printed will be charged at a higher rate. Authors may also elect to purchase the paper as a “.pdf.”
PUBLISHER. The Journal is published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., 140 Huguenot Street, 3rd Floor, New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215. Telephone: (914) 740–2100; fax: (914) 740–2108. E-mail: info@liebertpub.com On-line: www.liebertpub.com