Notes for authors

The Holocene encompasses the following subject areas:

- geological, biological and archaeological evidence for recent environmental change;

- paleoclimatic and related environmental changes on timescales of decades, centuries and millennia, including directly observed change;

- interdisciplinary studies of environmental history and prehistory;

- the use of modern analogues to elucidate the palaeo-environmental record;

- techniques for reconstructing, dating, monitoring and modelling environmental change;

- the nature, processes, mechanisms and causes of natural and human-induced environmental change;

- the development of natural and cultural landscapes and ecosystems;

- palaeoenvironmental and historical perspectives on global environmental changes and their effects;

- the prediction of future changes in the environment from the record of the past.

Contributions from the following disciplines will be welcomed: anthropology, archaeology, biology, climatology, ecology, environmental history, environmental science, geo-chemistry, geography, geology, geomorphology, geophysics, glaciology, hydrology, limnology, oceanography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology, palaeontology and pedology.

The Holocene has a fully web-based system for the submission and review of manuscripts. All submissions should be made online at The Holocene SAGETRACK website

If you would like to discuss your paper prior to submission, or seek advice on the submission process, please contact the Managing Editor, John Matthews, at the following email address: J.A.Matthews@swansea.ac.uk.

New user account

Please log onto the website. If you are a new user, you will first need to create an account. Follow the instructions and please ensure to enter a current and correct email address. Creating your account is a three-step process that takes a matter of minutes to set up. When you have finished, your User ID and password is sent via email immediately. Please edit your user ID and password to something more memorable by selecting 'edit account' at the top of the screen. If you have already created an account but have forgotten your details, type your email address in the 'Password Help' to receive an emailed reminder. Full instructions for uploading the manuscript are provided on the website.

New submission

Submissions should be made by logging in and selecting the Author Center and the 'Click here to Submit a New Manuscript' option. Follow the instructions on each page, clicking the 'Next' button on each screen to save your work and advance to the next screen. If at any stage you have any questions or require the user guide, please use the 'Get Help Now' button at the top right of every screen. Further help is available through ScholarOne's® Manuscript CentralTM customer support at +1 434 817 2040 x 167.

To upload your files, click on the 'Browse' button and locate the file on your computer. Select the designation of each file (i.e. main document, submission form, figure) in the drop down next to the browse button. When you have selected all files you wish to upload, click the 'Upload Files' button. Review your submission (in both PDF and HTML formats) and then click the Submit button.

You may suspend a submission at any point before clicking the Submit button and save it to submit later. After submission, you will receive a confirmation e-mail. You can also log back into your author centre at any time to check the status of your manuscript.

Please ensure that you submit editable/source files only (Microsoft Word or RTF) and that your document does not include page numbers;The Holocene's SAGETRACK system will generate them for you, and then automatically convert your manuscript to PDF for peer review. Furthermore, it is imperative that authors remove from their submissions any information that will identify them or their affiliations to reviewers. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revisions, will be by email.

Submitting a revised submission

Authors submitting revised manuscripts should follow the instructions above to submit through the SAGETRACK system. To create a revision, go to the 'Manuscripts with Decisions' option in your Author Dashboard and select 'create a revision in the 'Action' column. Authors of all revised submissions should, when prompted, provide information explaining the changes in your manuscript. As this will be provided to reviewers, it is important that authors do not identify themselves in these responses.

Peer review policy

The Holocene uses two independent reviewers but it is not double blind: the authors' names are revealed to the reviewers; the reviewers are given the option of having their names revealed to the authors (they have to opt for being revealed - otherwise their names are withheld).

TYPES OF CONTRIBUTION

The following are regularly published:

1 Fast-track reports: short contributions of exceptional merit that will be published within five months of acceptance. A case for special treatment must be made on submission - up to 1500 words and a maximum of three figures.

2 Research papers: substantial, original research contributions on any aspect of environmental change relevant to the last 10 000 years - maximum of 6000 words (excluding tables and references) and eight figures or tables. Whilst research papers should contain sufficient information to allow a full evaluation of the validity of research and conclusions, it is not intended that they be exhaustive in detail. Attention should also be given to the broader context.

3 Research reports: shorter research contributions including, for example, preliminary findings, brief accounts of new techniques, new applications, or simply significant results that do not require a full-length paper - maximum of 3000 words (excluding tables and references) and four figures or tables.

4 Forum articles: short, succinct conceptual contributions including, for example, philosophical viewpoints, methodological advances, critical comment, clarification of research controversies, discussions of terminology. Forum articles are intended to clarify issues by critical analysis and/or provoke discussion; while they may include controversial material and may be written in a lighter style, like all research contributions to the journal, they will be subject to rigorous peer review - maximum of 3000 words (excluding tables and references) and four figures or tables.

Occasionally the journal will publish Holocene Research Reviews: substantial reviews of major research areas within the field.

The Editor and Associate Editors would welcome enquiries from authors regarding possible contributions to increase the number of 'Forum Articles' published.

ARTICLE PRESENTATION

Your paper should be submitted double-spaced.

The title page should give a) the title and b) the name(s) and address(es) of the author(s) and email, telephone/fax numbers. An abstract of up to 250 words should precede the text and up to six key words should be given after the abstract.

Artwork guidelines
Illustrations, pictures and graphs should be supplied with the highest quality and in an electronic format that helps us to publish your article in the best way possible. Please follow the guidelines below to enable us to prepare your artwork for the printed issue as well as the website.
Resolution: Images should be supplied as bitmap based files (ie with .tiff or .jpeg extension) with a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). Line art should be supplied as vector-based, separate .eps files (not as .tiff files, and not only inserted in the Word or pdf file), with a resolution of 600 dpi.
Format: TIFF, EPS or PDF. MS Office files (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) are also accepted provided they meet certain conditions. For more information, see below.
Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel, Powerpoint): Microsoft Office is essentially a family of applications that can be used to produce a variety of document types including written documents, spreadsheets, presentations and databases. Although we prefer artwork files in TIFF, EPS or PDF format, we are also aware that a number of authors already (for convenience) submit their artwork in MS Office formats and therefore we will continue to support these submission types now and in the future. Check for more information at http://www.microsoft.com/office.

STYLE

Follow the style in a recent issue of the journal and these notes:

1 Use 'z' not 's' where there is an alternative, and in general follow the first variant given by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (eg, realize, idealize, analyse, advertise).

2 Use SI units.

3 Dates: '16 January 1990' not 'January 16, 1990'.

4 Numbers: adopt a rule that all numbers under 10 should be spelt out in letters except where attached to a unit of quantity (eg, 1 mm or 3 kg), and that all numbers of 10 or more should be rendered in digits except where the context makes this awkward (eg, use spelt-out forms at the beginning of a sentence).

5 Capitalization: avoid excessive capitalization. For titles of books and articles, capitals should be used for the initial letter of the first word only. For the titles of journals and series, the initial letter of all principal words should be capitalized.

6 Italics: use italics for emphasis very sparingly. Underline italicized words.

7 Abbreviations: the initial letter of abbreviations should be typed with no full point (eg, UK, UNESCO, BBC). Abbreviations in which the last letter of the abbreviation is the same as the last letter of the word should also have no full point (eg, Mr, St, BUT no., Str., etc.).

8 Scientific names: when first cited, genus and species should be given, whether first cited in the text or in summaries, legends, tables or graphs. Subsequently, the generic name may be abbreviated to its initial letter except where confusion can arise, in which case it should be given in full. Common names may also be used but scientific names must be given, at least at first mention.

HEADINGS

Avoid using more than three weights of subheading.

REFERENCES 

The Holocene adheres to the SAGE Harvard reference style. Click here to review the guidelines on SAGE Harvard to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style. EndNote supports SAGE Harvard – download the output file by following this link.

PERMISSIONS

Authors are required to assign world copyright to SAGE. An appropriate form assigning copyright will be issued on acceptance. Authors must obtain permission to reproduce all matter in the following categories: (i) All maps, diagrams, figures and photographs (forms are available from the publishers); (ii) Single passages of prose exceeding 250 words, or scattered passages totalling more than 400 words from any one work.

Please supply the publisher with full information for all work cited, including author, date published, publisher and page references.

EU copyright extends to 70 years after the death of the author or 70 years after publication of a scholarly edition.

Page charges: There are none.

Colour figures: These can be included with the cost charged to authors.

Proofs will be sent to authors. They should be corrected and returned to the Publisher within five days. Major alterations to the text will not be accepted as a proof correction.

English Language Editing Services: Please click here for information on professional English language editing services recommended by SAGE.

SAGE Choice and Open Access
If you or your funder wish your article to be freely available online to non subscribers immediately upon publication (gold open access), you can opt for it to be included in SAGE Choice, subject to payment of a publication fee. The manuscript submission and peer review procedure is unchanged. On acceptance of your article, you will be asked to let SAGE know directly if you are choosing SAGE Choice. To check journal eligibility and the publication fee, please visit SAGE Choice. For more information on open access options and compliance at SAGE, including self author archiving deposits (green open access) visit SAGE Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.