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Author Guidelines

Arctic – A Guide for Authors

a pdf version of this guide is available here

Arctic is a peer-reviewed, primary research journal that publishes the results of scientific research from all areas of Arctic scholarship. Original scholarly papers in the physical, social, and biological sciences, humanities, engineering, and technology are included, as are book reviews, commentaries, letters to the editor, and profiles of significant people, places, or events of northern interest.

This guide acquaints authors with the format and style used by Arctic. Following Arctic’s style minimizes the need for editorial change, which speeds up publication. Since Arctic publishes papers from a variety of disciplines, it is especially necessary to avoid disciplinary jargon and to ensure that the title and abstract are informative. Authors are solely responsible for the content and opinions expressed in their papers.

Papers reporting on research involving the use of experimental animals must be accompanied by documentation showing that they have been examined by an institutional animal care committee and adhere to the guidelines established by the Canadian Council on Animal Care or similar bodies.

SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS

Authors should send either a Word or a PDF file, with all tables and figures included, as an e-mail attachment to the editor patricia.wells@ucalgary.ca. Please check the file carefully to ensure that no symbols, equations, or special characters have defaulted. A maximum word count of 12,000 words will be considered.

Since Arctic follows a policy of blind review, the submission file should contain two title pages. The first should show 1) the full title; 2) the authors’ names, listed in the order in which they are to appear in print; and 3) a complete address for each author. (This information should reflect each author’s affiliation and address at the time of the study. Updated affiliations and addresses may follow as needed.) The second title page should contain only the full title. Authors’ names should not appear elsewhere in the manuscript.

Authors must affirm that any submission to Arctic has not been and will not be published or submitted elsewhere while under consideration by Arctic. Any previously published materials used in the article must be clearly identified and accompanied by written permission from the holder of the copyright.

The Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) provides a persistent digital identifier to authors to enable accurate attribution and improve discoverability of their published works. Arctic encourages the use of ORCID identifiers. To obtain an ORCID identifier, the corresponding author and each co-author should create a profile at orcid.org and include all ORCIDs with the article submission.

Following peer review, revised manuscripts should be submitted with a covering letter clearly indicating how the comments and criticisms of the reviewers have been addressed.

MANUSCRIPT FORMAT

Original Submissions: The file submitted for consideration should be double-spaced throughout, with all pages numbered. To assist reviewers, please add continuous line numbering to your manuscript. Double spacing is also used for references, tables, appendices, and figure captions, although large tables may be single-spaced. Note that all illustrative materials are designated as “figures”; for example, the term “plate” is not used in Arctic.

Each of the following sections of a manuscript begins on a separate page: title page; abstract plus key words; text; references; appendices; tables (each on a separate page); and figure captions (running consecutively on one page, or more as necessary). Tables and figures should be placed at the end of the submission (following the references) in numerical order.

Abstracts are concise (about 250 words) and should be able to stand alone as a summary of the paper. Abstracts should be informative rather than descriptive; i.e., the abstract should be a succinct summary of the major findings, rather than listing what will be discussed. A list of about 10 key words follows the abstract. In addition to the English abstract, authors are encouraged to supply abstracts in French and Russian if possible. Arctic will obtain a French translation of the abstract if one is not included.

Arctic does not use footnotes or end notes.

Accepted Papers: Authors of accepted manuscripts should submit their final revision in Microsoft Word as an e-mail attachment. Each figure should be submitted as a separate file (see TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS below).

STYLE OF MANUSCRIPT

Spelling: For English-language papers, either American or British spelling may be used; please be consistent.

Abbreviations: People from a wide variety of disciplines read Arctic. It is important, therefore, that when specialist abbreviations are used, the full wording precede their first mention—e.g., Initial Management Stock (IMS).

The abbreviation “Fig.” is always used in citations in parentheses, but “Figure” is spelled out when used in the text—e.g., “Figure 2 represents the study area.”

Names of organisms: Nomenclature in Arctic follows accepted international codes. Authorities may be cited either when a name first appears in the text (not in the title) or, if more appropriate (especially when citing a large number of organisms), in a table.

The common names of most organisms do not begin with a capital letter (e.g., bowhead whale, polar bear) unless they contain a proper name (e.g., Dall sheep). Anglicized versions of Latin names do not begin with capitals, nor are they italicized (e.g., canid). In keeping with ornithological convention, common names of birds are capitalized (e.g., Thick-billed Murre).

Dates and times: Full dates given in the text are written in the order day-month-year, without commas (e.g., 23 September 2003). Abbreviated forms may be used for dates in tables, appendices, and figures.

Numbers and units of measurement: Arctic uses metric units, following the International System of Units (SI). Metric units of distance or weight in common usage—e.g., metre, gram, kilometre—are represented by symbols (m, g, km). Less commonly used metric units are spelled out when first mentioned, followed by the symbol or abbreviation in parentheses, and thereafter referred to by symbol or abbreviation. SI abbreviations are not followed by a period or pluralized (e.g., 5 cm, not 5 cm. or 5 cms).

In the text, numbers under 10 (as distinct from measurements) are written in word form (e.g., nine samples) unless combined with a number of 10 or more (e.g., 9–14 samples).

Commas are not used in large numbers. Numbers up to 9999 are written in the form 7427 rather than 7,247. Numbers 10,000 and larger have commas between digits broken into groups of three, e.g., 12,101,935.

Capitalization: “Arctic” is capitalized when it is used as a noun (“the Arctic”). Used as an adjective, “Arctic” is capitalized when it refers to the geographic region (i.e., Arctic communities) and lowercased when it refers to very low temperatures (i.e., arctic gale). “North” is capitalized only when referring to a specific geographical area or as part of a geographical name, never when used as a direction. “Antarctic” is always capitalized, as it refers to one of the great divisions of the earth’s surface and also to a particular continent, from which the adjective is derived.

REFERENCES

It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that all references are complete and accurate. Reference lists are double-spaced. Journal titles must be completely spelled out, not abbreviated. In titles of books and articles, only the first word is capitalized, as well as any proper names. Works are ordered alphabetically within two categories: first a single author, and next the same author with one other author. The “et al.” citations (three or more authors) are ordered chronologically. In references with up to ten authors, all names should be listed. For references with 11 or more authors, only the first seven should be listed, followed by “et al.” If more than one reference by a given author or authors was published in the same year, these are differentiated as 1995a, 1995b, etc. both in the reference list and when citing references in the text (e.g., Wright et al., 1995a, b). If a reference has a digital object identifier (doi) assigned to it, please add it at the end of the reference, using the full URL (see examples below). The basic style is as follows:

Ettema, R., and Huang, H.-P. 1990. Ice formation in frequently transited navigation channels. Special Report 90-40. Hanover, New Hampshire: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.

Godfrey, W.E. 1986. The birds of Canada, rev. ed. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.

Koerner, R.M., Alt, B.T., Bourgeois, J.C., and Fisher, D.A. 1991. Canadian ice caps as sources of environmental data. In: Weller, G., Wilson, C.L., and Severin, B.A.B., eds. International Conference on the Role of the Polar Regions in Global Change: Proceedings of a conference held 11–15 June 1990 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Vol. 2. 576–581.

Lacelle, D. 2002. Ground ice investigation in the far northwest Canada. MSc thesis, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario.

Middleton, R. 1992. The politics of cultural expression: African music and the world market. In: Allen, T., and Thomas, A., eds. Poverty and development in the 1990s. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 362–378.

Ngheim, S.V., Rigor, I.G., Perovich, D.K., Clemente-Colón, P., Weatherly, J.W., and Neumann, G. 2007. Rapid reduction of Arctic perennial sea ice. Geophysical Research Letters 34, L19504. https://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007GL031138

Vavrek, M.J., Hills, L.V., and Currie, P.J. 2014. A Hadrosaurid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Late Cretaceous (Campian) Kanguk Formation of Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, Canada, and its ecological and geographical implications. Arctic 67(1):1–9.

https://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic4362

Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., et al. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–1150.

Sheba Phase II Science Team. 1997. SHEBA Implementation Plan. Seattle: University of Washington.

Some references do not fit readily into these forms. In such cases (e.g., archives, public records), authors should provide full information on the reference and the editors rule on the form to be used.

References to websites should be kept to a minimum. The editors will ensure that all URLs cited are active at the time of publication.

When citing references in the text, the following forms are used: Brodeur (1991) or (Brodeur, 1991); Reid and Reed (1994) or (Reid and Reed, 1994). Works having three or more authors are cited by the first author’s name followed by “et al.”: for example, Reimer et al. (2009) or (Reimer et al., 2009). Several references cited together should be ordered by year of publication and separated by semicolons (e.g., Burns, 1970; Burns et al., 1981b; Braham et al., 1984; Kelly and Lentfer, 1988; Lowry and Boveng, 2009).

If material is quoted directly from another work, the page number on which it is found must be included in the citation: (Younie and Gillispie, 2016:82).

The phrase “in press” is used only for papers already accepted for publication. Papers “in press” have the title of the paper and the name of the journal in the reference list.

Unpublished material not “in press” is cited according to the year it was written. Citation of unpublished manuscripts is done only when there is a permanent repository at which copies are available. Such unpublished works are listed in the reference list with the full address of the repository included. For example:

Johnson, M.M. 1994. Japanese/Russian/American Chukchi Sea circulation study: Marine mammal and seabird observations. Unpubl. ms. Available at the Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA.

In cases of personal communication with no publication involved, the name and year are given in the text (e.g., R. Robertson, pers. comm. 2015). Such citations are not listed in the References section. Personal communications should be used only with the knowledge and agreement of the person cited.

TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Tables: Tables are typed one table per page, and each table is referred to in the text in numerical order. A concise but informative caption should accompany each table. Additional information may be given in footnotes below the table. Tables are to be included as part of the word processing/text file or in Microsoft Excel. Tables must be editable; they must not be embedded as pictures.

Figures: Drawings, maps, charts, and photographs are provided by the author, each on a single page, with the figure number given outside the margins of the figure. Each figure is referred to, in numerical order, in the text. Captions are given consecutively on a separate sheet, typed double-spaced.

Final figures should be supplied in digital format, with each figure in a separate file. All digital files must be in a format suitable for high-quality print production. Figure numbers and captions should not be included on the digital files.

Halftones: Digital files of halftones (photographs) should be provided at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi at the final size for reproduction. In Arctic, single-column width is 3.5 inches (minimum width); double-column width is 7.25 inches. Digital halftone files should be provided as TIFF files or high-resolution JPEGs.

Lineshots: For diagrams, maps, graphs and all other non-photographic figures (lineshots), digital files should be created as vector graphics in Freehand, Illustrator, or CorelDraw and supplied in both native and EPS (encapsulated PostScript) formats. Please do not submit PDF, PowerPoint, PICT, DOC, or Excel files, as these formats cannot be used in the production path employed for Arctic. Select a clear sans-serif typeface (e.g., the Helvetica family) to use consistently in all figures, ensuring that all typeface elements will be legible when the figure is reduced to print size (either 3.5 or 7.25 inches wide). Avoid using CAPS, bold, or italic whenever possible. If using more than one font point size, vary the point sizes only slightly—for example, 10 pt and 12 pt, not 12 pt and 18 pt. Font size should not be less than 8 point in the final layout size.

Typeface defaults are the most common error with digital files, so typeface elements, particularly special characters should created as outlines or converted to paths (curves, elements or objects; the term varies with the application) before saving the file as a EPS or TIFF graphic, with a screen preview. Converting all type elements to paths overrides any requirement to include screen and printer font files with the figures and prevents typeface defaults when the paper goes to print.

Figures can be sent as e-mail attachments, if the files are not too large. Each file should be identified by corresponding author name and number: eg., HayesFIG. 1, HayesFIG. 2, etc., and the software application and version number in which the file was created should be noted.

Shaded elements and patterns: Wherever possible, avoid the use of halftone, grayscale screens to shade a component of a histogram or an area on a map. Instead, use tint values of 20%, 50%, 60% and 80%, or 25%, 50%, and 75%. As an alternative to grayscale screens, pick clearly differentiated patterns that can be presented in black and white, and include solid black and solid white.

OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS

Notes: Arctic also publishes short manuscripts with significant findings as Notes. A note manuscript has the same requirements as full-length manuscripts (i.e., should contain an abstract and key words, references) and is subject to the same peer review. Arctic does not publish extended abstracts.

Arctic Profiles: Short essays on significant people, places, and events of northern interest are published as Arctic Profiles. Such pieces are accepted at the discretion of the editor.

Book Reviews: The editor receives new publications from publishers for review in Arctic. If the editor considers a book to be of interest to the readership, a reviewer is invited to prepare a book review according to Arctic’s Book Review Guidelines.

Letters to the Editor: Letters of general interest to the readership are published at the discretion of the editor. Short constructive critiques of papers appearing in Arctic are encouraged. These are sent to the author of the paper for reply, and the discussion is published as Letters to the Editor.

Obituaries: Upon the death of an individual who has made a significant contribution to the North, Arctic typically publishes a one-to-two page obituary written by a colleague or personal acquaintance, along with a photograph of the deceased.

PROOFS

Proofs: A PDF file page proof is sent to the author (or, in cases of multiple authorship, to the corresponding author) for expeditious examination. Subsequent page proofs are checked only by the editor.

Rights Granted to Authors: The final PDF file of the article, as published online, will be sent to the corresponding author. Authors are free to deposit the final published citable version of their article in an institutional repository or on a personal website and to distribute the PDF file as they see fit.

FEES

Page charges: Non-mandatory page charges are levied for papers published in Arctic to help defray production costs. Authors, especially those with institutional and grant support, are urged to take all reasonable steps to pay the charges. Page charges are currently $100 per journal page.

Immediate Open Access Fee: All back issues are freely available online except those of the current year, which are accessible only to members of the Arctic Institute. Authors wishing to provide immediate online access to their paper can pay a fee equal to the page charges to avoid the one-year embargo.