Authors should ensure that papers conform as closely as possible to the format set out here to facilitate publication as speedily as possible.

Style Guidance for Authors 

Text Layout

A title page (1) containing the following information: Title, Name(s) of author(s), and Address(es). Each author should also list their ORCID number as a unique identifier. Authors without an ORCID should register for one at https://orcid.org/register. Page 2 should contain: Abstract and Key words. Begin the main text on page 3. At the end of the main text come the Acknowledgements, followed by References, Figure captions and Tables. The position of figures may be indicated in the text.

The title should be concise. Authors may suggest the running title. Authors’ names should be given in full (initials first, or if preferred one forename and surname last). The corresponding author must give an email address. Addresses must be given in full, including postcodes/zipcodes and country. Where there are several authors addresses should be keyed to the relevant authors’ names using superscript numbers. 

Abstract and keywords

This should be no more than 200 words, contain no references or abbreviations and directly address the main ideas, arguments and conclusions of the paper. The abstract should make clear what is novel about the work and its importance. Authors must suggest up to six keywords or phrases, excluding words used in the title. 

Text 

The text should be concise and should concentrate on the scientific questions investigated. Authors should normally keep presentation of results separate from any discussion or conclusions. A good guide to this is that the Results and Conclusions sections should not contain any reference citation. Reference citation may sometimes be necessary to framework results, e.g. age models for radiometric data, but, where possible, this should be incorporated in the Methods section. The main body of the text may be divided up using two orders of heading only. It is expected that most papers will start with an Introduction which must state the reason for doing the work or the hypotheses to be tested. Lists of items, arguments, etc. should be identified with lower case Roman letters. 

Acknowledgements 

These should acknowledge grants received, technical and logistical support and intellectual assistance from colleagues and reviewers. 

Author Contributions

An author is someone who has made significant and substantial contributions to a study. This should include conception, design, execution and interpretation of the findings being published, and drafting and revising the article. The journal requires that authors include a statement at the end of the manuscript that specifies the contribution of every author. Such statements can designate those authors who developed the concepts or approach, performed experiments or data analysis, and prepared or edited the manuscript prior to submission. 

References 

The accuracy and completeness of references are the responsibility of the author. References in the text should be cited in the following forms, as appropriate: 

‘According to Bloggs (l976)....’ 

‘It is a long way to walk to the South Pole (Blisters l984).’ 

Authors are encouraged to give page or illustration numbers, in order to make reference to the work much easier, thus (Green 1874, p. 148) or (Brown 1932, fig. 4). With two authors, cite as Smith & Jones (1898) or (Smith & Jones 1898); where there are more than two authors, cite as Black et al. (1957).

Separate two or more references by commas and place in chronological order. Where an author, or the same group of authors, has published more than one paper in the same year, these should be distinguished by the letters 'a, b, c', etc. Never use the terms ‘Op. cit.’ or ‘Ibid’. 

References must begin on a new page. All journal titles must be written in full including the series (where appropriate), the volume number, and the doi. Where a doi has not available then give the first and last pages of the article. Publications can only be cited as ‘in press’ if they have been accepted for publication. A copy of any paper cited as "in press" should be included as a supplementary file with the submission so that it can be seen by the Editors and reviewers. References to papers ‘in preparation’ and ‘submitted’ will not be allowed. Unpublished reports and theses may only be cited if they are deposited in a library or archive and are thus publicly accessible. 

The references should be set out in alphabetical order and in date order for a series of papers by the same author(s). In the case of various combinations of a group of authors, alphabetical order should again take precedence over date order; groups of two authors come before groups of three, etc. 

Only essential references should be cited; except for synthesis papers, there should normally be less than 40 references. When citing material from the ‘grey’ literature, please give as many details as possible. Citation of abstracts or posters, either printed or on websites, is not acceptable as they are not subject to review and do not contain enough information to contribute significantly to any argument. 

Pay particular attention to accents in non-English references. Titles of papers in languages which can be transliterated (e.g. Russian) should appear in the transliterated version followed by the title in English in square brackets. Titles in Chinese or Japanese should be given in English translation and the language indicated at the end of the reference in square brackets. 

In personal communications, the person’s full name and initials and the year of the communication should be given. Please use SMALL CAPS for author names and pay particular attention to punctuation and format. 

Supplemental Data

As a service to authors, additional data (e.g. large tables or datasets of taxonomic data, figures such as large phylogenetic trees, sequence alignments, colour pictures, movies) that may be of interest to readers can be published in the online journal where they are made freely available via a link from the paper. It is essential, however, that these data are not critical to the understanding of the paper and that the paper can stand alone. 

Supplementary data should be supplied preferably as a single PDF for the review process, must be cited in a relevant place in the text of the paper and be accompanied by a title and a self- explanatory legend. 

Supplemental materials must be briefly described in the manuscript with direct reference to each item, such as Figure S1, Table S1, Protocol S1 and Video S1 (numbering should always start at 1, since these elements will be numbered independently from those that will appear in the printed version of the article) 

Each supplemental item that is posted online should be listed at the end of the paper under the heading "Supplemental Material" along with a brief descriptive title. 

Supplemental data will be reviewed as a part of the normal manuscript review process and will be judged by the same rigorous criteria to be important but not essential to the stand-alone manuscript. Only data that are deemed appropriate for the online journal and substantially contribute to the manuscript will be accepted. Supplemental data submitted after the paper has been accepted will not be published. 

Supplemental data should NOT contain preliminary data that simply extends the scope of the study, unnecessary "control" data, or data that are thought to be not rigorous enough for the main text. 

Authors should carefully review the Supplementary data for factual, grammatical, and typographical issues since this material will not be professionally copyedited but permanently posted "as is". 

All compatible data files MUST BE combined into a single PDF for submission. Movies and large Excel files should be submitted in their native formats. 

Illustrations

All illustrations (maps, diagrams and photographs) are referred to as figures. Figures must be cited and be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text. Compound figures should have a general title followed by a description of each part, identified by letters (lowercase, bold and without brackets). All figures should be prepared to fit either a single column width (84 mm) or double column width (170 mm). Exceptionally, very complicated figures will be published in landscape format. Figures should not normally be in a box. Captions should be presented on a separate sheet. 

All lettering must be clearly legible and must follow journal conventions for abbreviations etc (e.g. Latin names italicized). Labelling should be of consistent size within each illustration. 

Maps - avoid use of shading for areas such as the sea. Latitude and longitude values and ticks should always be placed inside the margins of a map. A box surrounding a map (if needed) should be as a single, light line with no shading. Make sure that all maps have a scale bar (in km) and North arrow. 

Keys to symbols should as far as possible be placed in the figure rather than the figure caption. Authors’ attention is drawn to the need to use the most up-to-date map of Antarctica available- see: 

www.scar.org/publications/antarcticdigitaldatabase...

Halftones should have good contrast and where appropriate a scale bar. 

Antarctic Science is now a full colour journal. Any relevant coloured illustrations will be published free of charge. 

Tables 

Each table should be on a separate page and should be capable of fitting onto a single printed page. Tables designed to fit across the width (single (84 mm) or double (170 mm) column), rather than the length, of the pages are preferred. For large datasets it is recommended that no more than a few representative values be presented and that the data repository is clearly identified. Data must not be presented in both tabular and graphical form. Vertical rules must not be used. Tables must be cited and be numbered with Roman numerals in the order in which they appear in the text. Titles should be brief and written in upper and lower case. 

Short Notes 

These are limited to two printed pages and have no Abstract or Key words. They are most effective when confined to reporting a single new finding or describing a stratigraphical feature. Further guidance on this can be obtained from the Editorial Office (Mariel@AntarcticScience.org).

General Information

Conflicts of interest

Authors should avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest throughout the research process. A conflict of interest is some fact known to a participant in the publication process that if revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived (or an Author, Reviewer, or Editor feel defensive). Conflicts of interest may influence the judgment of Authors, Reviewers, and Editors. Possible conflicts often are not immediately apparent to others. They may be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial. Financial interests may include employment, research funding (received or pending), stock or share ownership, patents, payment for lectures or travel, consultancies, non-financial support, or any fiduciary interest in the company. The perception of a conflict of interest is nearly as important as an actual conflict, since both erode trust. 

All such interests (or their absence) should be declared in writing by Authors upon submission of the manuscript. If any are declared, they should be published with the article. If there is doubt about whether a circumstance represents a conflict, it should be disclosed, so that Editors may assess its significance. 

Authors should disclose in the manuscript's Acknowledgements any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. 

When submitting a manuscript, the corresponding author should avoid any possible conflict of interest, or appearance of conflict of interest, in suggesting reviewers. Examples of possible conflicts of interest include: 1) one of the authors is at the same institution as the nominated reviewer; 2) one of the authors was a member of the reviewer's dissertation committee, or vice versa; or 3) one of the authors, and the Reviewer, are currently co-authors on another manuscript or have been co-authors on a manuscript within the past three years.

Authors should not nominate individuals whom they know have already read and provided comments on the manuscript or a previous version of the manuscript since such knowledge would automatically violate the review process. 

The Editors assume that the research described conforms to the legal requirements of Antarctic Treaty legislation, that animal welfare conforms at least to the SCAR Code of Conduct and that due consideration has been paid to conservation. Where appropriate, please give clear indication of permits to access Antarctic Specially Protected Areas or collect specimens. 

Place names 

As far as possible only place names officially approved by national bodies should be used. The Journal prefers to use English place names if they are available. Unofficial names must be labelled as such the first time they are used and subsequently given in quote marks – " "

Numbers in text and tables 

Spell out numbers one to ten in the text. Follow these examples for specific applications: 3 May 1988, 1976–79, 0.03, 637l (not 6,37l or 6 37l), 800 000, or 8.8 x l05, 7%, 25°l8'35". 

Units 

Use the International System of Units (SI), and their standard abbreviations, for all measurements of physical quantities. Do not use a full stop or period after SI abbreviations except at the end of a sentence. Where it is necessary to use non-SI units, e.g. day, abbreviations should follow standard practice for that discipline. 

Formulae and equations 

Define all symbols clearly the first time they are used in the text. Beware of possible confusion between similar symbols, e.g. letter O and number zero, or Greek nu and Roman v. Specify the number of an equation, referred to in the text, between parentheses at the right hand margin. 

Abbreviations and acronyms 

These should be unambiguously defined in the text the first time that they are used, e.g. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Avoid abbreviations in the title and Abstract. 

Nomenclature 

The complete scientific name (genus, species and authority) should be cited for every organism mentioned. Latin names should be in italics. Names should be those valid under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria. For chemical nomenclature the conventions of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the recommendations of the IUPAC-IUB Combined Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature should be followed. Common names may be used once the species has been accurately cited in the text; common names should only be capitalized if derived from personal names e.g. Wilson’s storm petrel. 

Manuscript checklist 

This MUST be completed and returned with the final version of your accepted manuscript. 

Copyright 

When quoting from published work permission should be obtained from the copyright holder and the source must be acknowledged in the caption.