Author Instructions
All manuscripts should be submitted via ScholarOne Manuscripts.
Journal of Southern Hemisphere Earth Systems Science (JSHESS) publishes broad areas of research with a distinct emphasis on the Southern Hemisphere. The scope of the Journal encompasses the study of the mean state, variability and change of the atmosphere, oceans, and land surface, including the cryosphere, from hemispheric to regional scales.
Submission of a paper implies that the results reported have not been published and are not being considered for publication elsewhere. Abstracts from conferences would not normally be regarded as publications, but where material has been widely disseminated in report form the Editor should be consulted. The journal assumes that all authors of a multi-authored paper agree to its submission. The journal will use its best endeavours to ensure that work published is that of the named authors except where acknowledged and, through its reviewing procedures, that any published results and conclusions are consistent with the primary data. It takes no responsibility for fraud or inaccuracy on the part of the authors. All papers are refereed to international standards. Authors may suggest the names of suitable referees.
- Publishing Policies
- Peer review
- Authorship
- Licence to publish
- Open access
- Scope
- Submission of manuscripts
- Manuscript categories
- General presentation
- Use of inclusive language
- Title and Keywords
- Authors and Addresses
- Summary text for the Table of Contents
- Image for the Table of Contents
- Abstract
- Text
- Data Availability Statement
- Conflicts of Interest
- Declaration of Funding
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Units
- Mathematical equations
- Dates and times
- Tables
- Figures
- Supplementary material
- Page proofs and corrections
- Reprints
- Address for submission enquiries
Publishing Policies
JSHESS insists on high standards of ethical behaviour throughout the publication process. Our journal editors work within the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Further information on our policies can be found at https://www.publish.csiro.au/es/PublishingPolicies.
Peer review
JSHESS is a peer-reviewed journal that uses a single-blind peer-review. The Editor is responsible to maintain high-quality peer-review of papers submitted to the journal and works together with Associate Editors to ensure a thorough and fair peer-review and the highest scientific publishing standards. The Editor has complete responsibility and authority to accept a submitted paper for publication or to reject it. The Editor may confer informally with Associate Editors or reviewers for discussion of the work to assist in making this decision.
All submissions undergo preliminary assessment by the Editor, who may reject a paper before peer review when it is outside the journal’s scope or is of insufficient quality or has insubstantial findings. The Editor determines the most appropriate Associate Editor to handle the paper. If the paper falls into the Editor’s area of specialist expertise, the Editor may decide to act in the Associate Editor’s role. Associate Editors select reviewers and after at least two review reports are received, they make the decision whether to send a manuscript for revision. Further iterations of the paper are handled between the authors and the Associate Editor. The Editor is not normally involved in these steps, although the Associate Editor has the option of seeking advice from the Editor at any stage, especially if the reviewers’ reports are strongly divergent. The Associate Editor forwards an ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ recommendation to the Editor, who considers the recommendation and makes the final decision.
The Associate Editor also has the option of recommending rejection of the paper without forwarding to reviewers.
In cases where the Editor has a conflict of interest (e.g. through being an author), the Editor-in-Chief performs the usual functions of the Editor with respect to those papers. The Editor-in-Chief provides advice to the Editor when requested in the case of contentious papers or other disputes.
Authorship
The conditions around authorship for JSHESS should follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), for more information see https://www.publish.csiro.au/es/PublishingPolicies.
Licence to publish
For details regarding copyright, please see Copyright/Licence to Publish.
Open access
See Open access for more details.
Scope
See Scope for more details.
Submission of manuscripts
To submit your paper, please use our online journal management system ScholarOne Manuscripts, which can be reached directly through this link or from the link on the journal's homepage. If a first-time user, register via the 'Register here' link, or use your existing username and password to log in. Then click on the 'Author Centre' link and proceed.
A covering letter must accompany the submission and should include the name, address, telephone number, and email address of the corresponding author. The letter should also contain a statement justifying why the work should be considered for publication in the journal, and that the manuscript has not been published or simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere. Suggestions of possible referees are required during submission. Suggested referees should be independent experts in the field. Authors should be aware that approaching suggested reviewers is at the discretion of the Editor. Intentionally falsifying reviewer details will result in rejection of a manuscript.
Authors must sign a license agreement before publication, which can be found here.
Manuscript categories
JSHESS publishes a number of standard types of articles; we are, however, willing to consider formats outside these standard types. Detailed descriptions of our standard articles are provided below; in brief, Research Articles are the forum for new research results, while Reviews are overview papers, and Communications are shorter articles which have a significant impact.
- Research Articles
Research Articles are complete reports of original research results that have not previously been published, except possibly in the form of a preliminary communication, in which case a reprint should be provided. There are no word/page limitations for Research Articles however authors should aim for no more than 7500 words in total. JSHESS encourages the reporting of full and complete studies in its Research Articles. Since the journal uses an online format, colour figures and embedded videos are an accepted, and even encouraged, means for presenting data. (If provided, videos need to be supplied in a form that is available to diverse audiences and should contain both closed captions and a transcript (WCAG AA compliant)). - Reviews
Reviews are generally invited and authors considering submitting a Review should first discuss their proposal with the Editor. Reviews should give a concise, critical overview of a subject of high current interest, in which there have been important recent developments. There are no word/page limitations for review papers, however, authors should aim for no more than 7500 words in total. - Communications
Communications are concise reports of research findings of exceptional importance and interest. The text should ideally be no longer than 2500 words. Communications are 'fast-tracked' through the reviewing and publication processes. In this way, JSHESS wishes to encourage authors to quickly share their breakthrough findings even though the results might still be of a preliminary nature. - Seasonal Climate Summaries
Seasonal Climate Summaries are regular reports reviewing and describing aspects of the southern hemisphere climate for a particular season, e.g. winter 2018, summer 2019/2020. These follow a similar format to Research Articles. Authors interested in contributing to these should discuss their proposal with the coordinator, Blair Trewin.
General presentation. The work should be presented clearly and concisely in English.
Papers must be typed with double- or 1.5-line spacing throughout and with a margin of at least 3 cm on the left-hand side. Line numbers should be included. All pages of the manuscript must also be numbered consecutively, including those carrying references, tables and figure captions, all of which are to be placed after the text. Illustrations, both line drawings and photographs, are to be numbered as figures in a common sequence, and each must be referred to in the text. Figures that are of the same quality as those to be reproduced in the published paper must be submitted as separate electronic files in correct order and must be clearly named and numbered (e.g. Smith et al_Fig1).
Authors are advised to note the style of headings, tables and illustrations exemplified in the latest issues of the Journal. Strict observance of these and the requirements listed below will shorten the interval between submission and publication. Poorly prepared or unnecessarily lengthy manuscripts have less prospect of being accepted. Poor quality figures will be returned for correction and will delay acceptance.
Use of inclusive language. These guidelines should be used to assist in identifying appropriate language, but are by no means exhaustive or definitive. Inclusive language comprises carefully chosen words and phrases that are respectful and promote the acceptance and value of all people. It is language which is free from words, phrases or tones that demean, insult, exclude, stereotype, or trivialise people on the basis of their membership of a certain group or because of a particular attribute. As such, inclusive language should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, and contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on any grounds including but not limited to: age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition. We encourage the use of plural nouns (e.g., 'they' as default wherever possible instead of 'he/she'), and recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes, unless there is scientific or clinical relevance. For further guidance on inclusive language see Inclusive language | Style Manual. If there are questions about language use and/or publishing with regards to First Nations people, please contact the Journal.
Title and Keywords. The title should succinctly capture the manuscript´s main message. The title should be concise and appropriately informative and should contain all keywords necessary to facilitate retrieval by modern searching techniques. A minimum of eight keywords are recommended to improve online discoverability of your work. These can repeat words/phrases used in the title if necessary. List the keywords under the abstract, with terms separated by commas.
Authors and Addresses. The names and addresses of all authors should be presented on the first page, together with the full postal address and email address of the corresponding author. Authors of multi-authored papers may wish to assign relative values to their contributions to the work or to indicate that two or more authors contributed equally to the paper. This can be done in a note at the end of the address field on the paper. Supply of an ORCID iD is required by the submitting author. We encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID iDs to their author accounts in our submission system. To learn more about ORCID, please visit http://orcid.org/content/initiative.
Summary text for the Table of Contents. In addition to manuscript files, authors are requested to upload a summary text file for the online Table of Contents.
This text is a three-sentence paragraph of 50 to 80 words written for interested non-experts, such as journalists, teachers, government workers, etc. The text should be free from scientific jargon, and written at the level of an article in a science magazine. Your first sentence should engage the reader, convincing them that this is an important area. The second sentence should introduce the problem addressed in the paper, and state your main discovery. The final sentence should describe how the results fit into the bigger picture (i.e. implications or impact of the discovery).
Image for the Table of Contents (optional). Authors are encouraged to submit a photograph or image to support the online short summary. This image will be used in the online Table of Contents, email alerts and RSS feeds to promote the paper and assist in providing a context for the reader. It can also be used for social media marketing of the paper. A relevant image may be sourced from the paper or elsewhere provided that written permission for use of the image has been obtained by the author and full attribution provided (i.e. ‘Photograph by Joe Bloggs’ or ‘Image used with permission from BOM’). Authors are responsible for obtaining prior permission from the copyright holder for the use of figures/images from other publications. Authors may be charged a fee by the copyright holder for such reuse.
Abstract. The abstract should be fewer than 250 words and should state concisely the scope of the work and give the principal findings. The abstract should be informative but not include details. It should be complete enough for direct use by abstracting services. The abstract should cover the following four sections: why (provide context and aims), how (briefly indicate study design/methods), findings (main results and key conclusions) and implications (affecting the wider field). Avoid acronyms and references and include keywords in your abstract.
Text. The main article text should be divided into numbered sections, each with a separate heading; i.e. 1 Introduction....
A template is provided to help authors with the formatting of their manuscript. Authors should prepare their manuscript following the guidelines within this template.
Data Availability Statement
CSIRO Publishing encourages authors to share the research data underlying their papers to support transparency and reproducibility of research. A Data Availability Statement must be included at the end of the manuscript indicating whether the data used to generate the results in the paper are available and, if so, where to access them. For more information on CSIRO Publishing’s data sharing policy and for examples of what to include in the data availability statement please see https://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/publishingpolicies#6.
Authors can get credit for their work by citing their research data in the reference list of their article. Citations should include at a minimum: all authors, year of publication, title of dataset, record ID, publisher. DOI or URL if available. Examples of how to cite research data:
Wang L, Edwards D, Bailey A, Carr L, Boreham C, Grosjean E, Anderson J, Jarrett A, MacFarlane S, Southby C, Carson C, Khider K, Palu T, Henson P (2021) Well log data analysis and interpretation on the pre-Carboniferous succession in Waukarlycarly 1, Canning Basin, Western Australia. Record 2021/003 [Dataset] Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144547
Fiddes S, Pepler A, Saunders K, Hope P (2020) Southern Australia’s climate regions (Version 1.0.0) [Dataset] Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4265471
Digital Earth Australia (2021) Wetlands Insight Tool Queensland Wetlands Polygons. Version 1.0.0 [Dataset] Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144795
Conflicts of Interest. A 'Conflicts of Interest' section should be included at the end of the manuscript. It should identify any financial or non-financial (political, personal, professional) interests/relationships that may be interpreted to have influenced the manuscript. If there is no conflict of interest, please include the statement "The authors declare no conflicts of interest".
Declaration of Funding
Under a subheading 'Declaration of Funding' at the end of the text authors are required to declare all sources of funding for the research and/or preparation of the article, and the inclusion of grant numbers is recommended. Authors should declare sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in the preparation of the data or manuscript or the decision to submit for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement. If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence: "This research did not receive any specific funding".
Acknowledgements
The contribution of colleagues who do not meet all criteria for authorship should be acknowledged. Anyone included in the Acknowledgements section should have granted permission to be listed. Sources of financial support should be acknowledged in a separate ‘Declaration of Funding’ rather than here.
References. The journal uses the Harvard style of referencing. In the text, references are cited chronologically by author and date (i.e. Bloggs 2018) and are not numbered. Citations of two coauthors are linked by 'and' (i.e. Day and Night 2020); for three or more coauthors, the first author's name is followed by 'et al.' (i.e. Morning et al. 2021). All references cited must be listed alphabetically at the end of the paper; all entries in this list must correspond to references in the text. No editorial responsibility can be taken for the accuracy of the references and authors are requested to check these with special care. Titles must be included for all references as well as first and last page numbers. Papers that have not been accepted for publication may not be included in the list of references and must be cited either as 'unpubl. data' or as a 'pers. comm.'; the use of such citations is discouraged. It is the authors' responsibility to ensure that they have permission to cite material as a personal communication. Titles of periodicals must be provided in full.
References should be in the following formats:
- Chapter in a book
Sinclair ARE (1979) Dynamics of the Serengeti ecosystem. In: ‘Serengeti: Dynamics of an Ecosystem’. (Eds ARE Sinclair, M Norton-Griffiths) pp. 1–30. (University of Chicago Press: Chicago)
- Journal article
Chung CTY, Power SB (2017) The non-linear impact of El Niño, La Niña and the Southern Oscillation on seasonal and regional Australian precipitation. Journal of Southern Hemisphere Earth Systems Science 67, 25–45.
- Whole book
Clarke AJ (2008) An Introduction to the Dynamics of El Niño and the Southern Oscillation. (Academic Press: San Diego)
- Conference Proceedings
Hayman PT, Collett IJ (1996) Estimating soil water: to kick, to stick, to core or computer? In 'Proceedings of the 8th Australian Agronomy Conference, Toowoomba, 1 January 1996'. (Ed. M Asghar) p. 664. Australian Society of Agronomy: Toowoomba.
- Electronic reference
NOAA (2016) Equatorial Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Available at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/teleconnections/ENSO/indicators/sst/
Units. Authors are requested to use the International System of Units (Système International d'Unités) for exact measurements of physical quantities and where appropriate elsewhere. In writing units, the solidus (/) may be used instead of negative exponents provided ambiguity is avoided: i.e. either J kg–1 K–1 or J/(kg K) is acceptable, but not J/kg/K. Multiple use of the solidus is never justified. Words and symbols for units should not be mixed; in general, symbols should be used only when preceded by a number (thus '10 m', but 'several metres'). Note that, although the Kelvin is the unit of temperature in the SI, the degree sign must be used in writing temperatures or temperature differences in the Celsius scale, i.e. '272 K', but '22°C'. Unit symbols are not punctuated, i.e. they are not treated as abbreviations; the same symbol is used for both singular and plural.
Mathematical equations should be editable and not embedded pictures.
- Double-line fractions should not be used in the body of the text. To indicate such fractions, use the solidus (/) or the negative exponent; thus a/b, or ab–1, or b–1a. Double-line fractions should be avoided also in centred equations
- Equations are centred and followed by the equation number in parentheses
- Cite equations in the format Eqn 1
- The radical sign should be avoided. To indicate roots, use a fractional positive or negative exponent.
- Avoid double superscripts or subscripts as well as superscripts attached to the same symbol.
- Indicate vectors and matrices by placing a wavy line under the symbol. Do not underline any other symbols or use underlining as part of a symbol.
- When the number e is modified by a complicated exponent, use the symbol exp.
- Day, month and year are written '29 December 1959' (do not abbreviate names of months).
- The recommended time zone is Coordinated Universal Time, abbreviated UTC. Time, time zone, day, month and year are written '2330 UTC 29 December 1959', in some instances the use of other time zones is permissible, for example, AEST (150?E meridian civil time).
Tables
Editable tables should be prepared in Word using the 'Table' tool (not tabs), without any hard returns within cells, or can be set up in Excel. Number each table and refer to it in the text (Table 1, Table 2, etc.) in order of appearance. There is no need to add instructions on the placement of tables as long as each table is referred to in the text. Do not provide tables as images.
Table titles should be concise and clear and should fully explain the table. Use sentence case throughout the table. Supporting information relating to the whole table should be placed in the footnote. Any symbols, abbreviations or acronyms used in the table should also be defined in the footnote. Additional information relating to specific cells should be placed as table footnotes using superscript capital letters as identifiers. Symbols for units of measurement should be placed in parentheses beneath the column heading.
Keep tables as simple as possible, without excessive subdivision of column headings.
Figures
Figures should be supplied as separate files but the captions should be included in the main document (at the end). Refer to each figure in the text (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.), and number each figure according to the order in which it appears in the text. There is no need to add instructions on placement of figures as long as each figure is referred to in the text. If your figure has multiple parts label with (a), (b), (c), etc. and place the labels in the top left of each image where possible. Figure parts can be supplied as separate images if needed. Please make sure all images are supplied are at highest possible resolution.
Format
Where possible, line diagrams (graphs, charts, etc.) should be provided as editable files and prepared using either a graphics or chart/graph program such as MacDraw, Illustrator, CorelDraw, Excel, Sigmaplot, Harvard Graphics or Cricket Graph and files should be saved in one of the following formats: encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Illustrator or Excel (provided the Excel files have been saved with the chart encapsulated in it). The submission of scanned images or illustrations prepared in a paint program, e.g. Photoshop (and PICT and JPEG files) is discouraged, because of the difficulty in making editorial corrections to these files. If illustrations must be created in a paint program, save the file as a TIFF or EPS (these files should be 600 dpi for line drawings and 300 dpi for halftone figures). Photographs can be supplied in the highest resolution possible.
Fonts
Please prepare figures using a standard sans serif font. Arial preferred. Font sizes for main axis labels, part labels should not be more than 8pt. Legends and data points should be 7pt font size where possible. Font should never be smaller than 5pt to ensure readability.
Style
- Use sentence case for text within figures
- Use Australian English spelling (ise, not ize, etc.) throughout
- Use 'and' not '&'
- For ranges in numbers (5–10) or minus signs (–20) please use an en rule rather than a hyphen as this is clearer for the reader.
Graphs
Should be prepared with one main x and y axis line. Grid lines are not required. Line weight of x- and y-axes should be ~1.0 (not below 0.7). State on the axes of a graph what is being measured and give the appropriate units in parentheses. Ensure any symbols/colours used are explained in a legend on the figure, or in the caption. Ensure numbers on axes have the same number of decimal places.
Maps
Ensure north is identified and a scale is provided. Ensure any symbols used are fully explained in a legend within the figure, or the caption. If maps are taken from Google Earth (or similar) please ensure attribution information is retained either on the figure, or provided in the caption.
Photographs
Ensure that permission has been gained by the copyright holder of the photograph and include a photographer credit in your caption. If your photograph contains people, please ensure that they have provided permission for their image to be published.
Captions
Captions should be concise and clear and should fully explain the figure. Explain any symbols or abbreviations used in the caption of the figure, or in a legend. If your figure has multiple parts, ensure each part is explained in the caption. If your figure is a photograph, ensure the photographer is credited in the caption.
If your figure files are too large for upload to ScholarOne please ensure you let CSIRO Publishing know as soon as your paper is accepted and an alternative transfer will be arranged. Note: Figures used in the final paper will be based on what is provided – if the quality is low in the original, it will remain low in the final publication.
Authors are responsible for obtaining prior permission from the copyright holder for the use of figures/images from other publications. Authors may be charged a fee by the copyright holder for such reuse.
Supplementary material
Supplementary material of a detailed nature that may be useful to other researchers, but which is not essential to the published paper, may be submitted separately with the manuscript for inspection by the referees. Such material will be made available online.
Page proofs and corrections
Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author for checking prior to publication. Proofs should be checked and returned to the Production Editor within 48 h of receipt. At this stage only essential alterations and correction of printer errors may be undertaken.
Reprints
Corresponding authors will be sent a PDF of their paper upon publication. Hard copy reprints may also be ordered before publication by contacting the Production Editor.
Address for submission enquiries
For general enquires about submitted papers please contact:
Journal of Southern Hemisphere Earth Systems Science
CSIRO Publishing
Private Bag 10
Clayton South, Vic. 3169
Australia
Telephone +[61 3] 9545 8400
Email publishing.es@csiro.au
