Aims and Scope
International Journal of Astrobiology publishes original papers and review articles on Astrobiology Science.
News of interest to the astrobiology community and book reviews will also feature in each issue.
The fields covered include:
- Cosmic prebiotic chemistry
- Planetary evolution
- Search for planetary systems and habitable zones
- Origins, evolution and distribution of life
- Extremophile biology and experimental simulation of extraterrestrial environments
- Life Detection in our solar system and beyond
- Technologies and space missions for astrobiology, and planetary protection
- Human expansion, ecosystems beyond Earth and terraforming
- Intelligent life and societal aspects of astrobiology
Article Types
IJA welcomes the following article types:
- Research Articles*
- Review Articles*
There are no page charges or length restrictions. All articles are submitted to peer-review.
The article types with a * are eligible for APC waivers or discounts under one of the agreements Cambridge University Press has made to support open access.
Policy on prior publication
When authors submit manuscripts to this journal, these manuscripts should not be under consideration, accepted for publication or in press within a different journal, book or similar entity, unless explicit permission or agreement has been sought from all entities involved. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior or duplicate publication. Authors should follow the Cambridge University Press Preprint Policy regarding preprint archives and maintaining the version of record.
Preparing your article for submission
Download the International Journal of Astrobiology LaTeX template here.
Papers should be in English. Either American or English conventions of spelling or grammar are acceptable as long as used consistently throughout except quotations and references. The typescript should follow the conventional form but must include: (a) A title page giving a concise but informative title; initial(s) and name(s) of the authors(s); full institutional addresses for all the authors; and the name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the nominated Corresponding Author. (b) An Abstract (not more than 300 words) describing the main aims, results and conclusions of the work, and 5-10 keywords. The metric system must be used and SI units where appropriate. Unfamiliar abbreviations should be defined when first used.
Files should be prepared in Word. PC files should be named manuscript.doc. Mac files should be prepared as .rtf files and adopt the same sort of file name, manuscript.rtf. Any Maths expressed in Word will be reset.
If authors want to submit LaTeX papers, the IJA LaTeX template (found here) should be used. When submitting LaTex papers send a LaTeX printout, the TeX source file should be named manuscript.tex, figure files should have a figure number in the file name fig1.eps. must be named accordingly to assist the production process (and numbering of figures should continue through any appendices). For example see figures \ref{fig:ka} and \ref{fig:kd}. Failure to follow figure guidelines may result in a request for resupply and a subsequent delay in the production process. Note that all figures are relabelled by the typesetter, so please ensure all figure labels are carefully checked against your originals when you receive your proofs.
Abstract and Keywords preparation
All papers should feature a single-paragraph abstract of no more than 300 words, which provides a short summary of the main aims, results and conclusions in such a way that it highlights the importance of the paper to the wider community, not only to experts in the subject. Further guidance on writing an effective abstract can be found here.
Authors should not enter keywords on the manuscript, as these must be chosen by the author during the online submission process and will then be added during the production process. Authors will be required to select two keywords from the list provided on the online submission system and may also add a third keyword of their own if desired. For further details, please see the submitting your materials page.
Equations, Tables and Artwork
Equations
Equations should be numbered consecutively as (1), (2), (3) etc. and, where necessary, referred to as such in the text. If you are preparing your paper in Word, equations can be set using MathType or Equation Editor, but should not be embedded as figures.
Tables
Tables should be headed by a self-explanatory title and referred to consecutively as Table 1 etc. Unless tables are typed with tabs and without the use of the space bar the typesetter will reset these.
Figures
Figures should be as small as possible while displaying clearly all the information required, and with all lettering readable. Every effort should be taken to avoid figures that run over more than one page.
There is no charge for colour figures. For review purposes figures should be embedded within the manuscript. Upon final acceptance, however, individual figure files will be required for production. These should be submitted in EPS or high-resolution TIFF format (1200 dpi for lines, 300 dpi for halftone and colour in CMYK format, and 600 dpi for a mixture of lines and halftone). The minimum acceptable width of any line is 0.5pt.
Each figure should be accompanied by a single caption, to appear beneath, and must be cited in the text. Figures should appear in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text and figure files must be named accordingly to assist the production process (and numbering of figures should continue through any appendices). Failure to follow figure guidelines may result in a request for resupply and a subsequent delay in the production process.
For further information, please consult the Cambridge Journals artwork guide
Citations and References
All papers included in the References section must be cited in the article, and vice versa.
In the text references should be made using the Harvard system (Author, date), with the full set of references grouped at the end of the paper in alphabetical order. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references. An abbreviated form of Harvard (without titles) can be used by those already familiar with this system.
Papers should be cited as: Burbidge, E.M., Burbidge, G. R., Fowler, W. A., Hoyle, F. 1957, Synthesis of the Elements in Stars, Rev. Mod. Phys., 29, 547-650
Because the Journal is interdisciplinary, authors are requested not to use highly compact abbreviations for journal titles.
Article titles must be included in the reference list.
Books should be cited as: Prialnik, D. 2000 An Introduction to the Theory of Stellar Structure and Evolution, Cambridge University Press, pp. 132-147.
Unpublished work should normally be referred to in the text in parentheses as, for example, 'private communication' or 'unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Univ. London, 1988', and not included in the reference list unless in the press.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements should be included at the end of the paper, before the References section or any appendicies. Please use the acknowledgements to identify all funding sources (by name and contract number, as appropriate).
English language editing services
Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This step is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the Editor and any reviewers.
In order to help prospective authors to prepare for submission and to reach their publication goals, Cambridge University Press offers a range of high-quality manuscript preparation services – including language editing – delivered in partnership with American Journal Experts. You can find out more on our Language Services page.
Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge-published journal.
Seeking permission for copyrighted material
The corresponding author is responsible for providing copies of permission for lengthy quotations or reprinted or adapted tables or figures. It is the responsibility of the author to check with the publisher or copyright owner regarding specific requirements for permission to adapt or quote from copyrighted material. Appropriate acknowledgement must be given in your manuscript.
For information on how to obtain permission, please refer to this guidance document.
Authorship and contributorship
All authors listed on any papers submitted to this journal must be in agreement that the authors listed would all be considered authors according to disciplinary norms, and that no authors who would reasonably be considered an author have been excluded. For further details on this journal’s authorship policy, please see this journal's publishing ethics policies.
During the submission process, the Corresponding Author must declare that they have the authority of all co-authors for the submission. The Corresponding Author will be asked this question when they submit the article for review.
Author affiliations
Author affiliations should represent the institution(s) at which the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved. For non-research content, any affiliations should represent the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated.
For more information, please see our author affiliation policy and author affiliation FAQs.
Author Hub
You can find guides for many aspects of publishing with Cambridge at Author Hub, our suite of resources for Cambridge authors.
Competing Interests
All authors must include a competing interest declaration in their main manuscript file. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article.
Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations.
If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors.
Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author 1 is employed at organisation A, Author 2 is on the Board of company B and is a member of organisation C. Author 3 has received grants from company D.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.
Ethics and Transparency Policy requirements
Please refer to IJA's Publishing Ethics and Research Transparency policies when preparing your manuscript.
Supplementary materials
Material that is not essential to understanding or supporting a manuscript, but which may nonetheless be relevant or interesting to readers, may be submitted as supplementary material. Supplementary material will be published online alongside your article, but will not be published in the pages of the journal. Types of supplementary material may include, but are not limited to, appendices, additional tables or figures, datasets, videos, and sound files.
Supplementary materials will not be typeset or copyedited, so should be supplied exactly as they are to appear online. Please see our general guidance on supplementary materials for further information.
Where relevant we encourage authors to publish additional qualitative or quantitative research outputs in an appropriate repository, and cite these in manuscripts.
Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools
We acknowledge the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the research and writing processes. To ensure transparency, we expect any such use to be declared and described fully to readers, and to comply with our plagiarism policy and best practices regarding citation and acknowledgements. We do not consider artificial intelligence (AI) tools to meet the accountability requirements of authorship, and therefore generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and similar should not be listed as an author on any submitted content.
In particular, any use of an AI tool:
- to generate images within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, and declared clearly in the image caption(s)
- to generate text within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, include appropriate and valid references and citations, and be declared in the manuscript’s Acknowledgements.
- to analyse or extract insights from data or other materials, for example through the use of text and data mining, should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, including details and appropriate citation of any dataset(s) or other material analysed in all relevant and appropriate areas of the manuscript
- must not present ideas, words, data, or other material produced by third parties without appropriate acknowledgement or permission
Descriptions of AI processes used should include at minimum the version of the tool/algorithm used, where it can be accessed, any proprietary information relevant to the use of the tool/algorithm, any modifications of the tool made by the researchers (such as the addition of data to a tool’s public corpus), and the date(s) it was used for the purpose(s) described. Any relevant competing interests or potential bias arising as a consequence of the tool/algorithm’s use should be transparently declared and may be discussed in the article.