This journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts (previously Manuscript Central) to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the guide for ScholarOne authors before making a submission. Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.

Alcheringa publishes research papers in two categories: ‘Original Articles' and ‘Palaeontological Notes' (normally short notes of special interest or brief taxonomical notes). Occasionally, ‘Review Articles' may be commissioned by the editors.

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. Authors must provide an e-mail address for contact purposes.

The editorial office can not provide an English editing service for authors or undertake preparation of illustrations for manuscripts. Manuscripts with an inadequate standard of English and illustrations of insufficient quality will be returned immediately without refereeing. A high standard of illustration (both line and photo) is an editorial priority.

SUBMISSION

All submissions should be made online at Alcheringa's Manuscript Central site. New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site, submissions should be made via the Author Centre.

Authors are asked to study the instructions carefully before preparing manuscripts. Authors are responsible for ensuring their text is linguistically correct prior to submission. Those unfamiliar with English are encouraged to seek the help of a competent linguist or professional editing service prior to submission. A list of commercial manuscript editing services can be supplied by contacting the editor.

The text should be supplied in Word. Indicate in red text where the illustrations should be placed. The Editor will inform author(s) of the acceptance of a manuscript after the revised MS material is received in an acceptable form.

There is no strict limit to the size of manuscripts published by Alcheringa. However, authors compiling very large (monograph-style) papers should consider publication in Alcheringa's sister journal the Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists.

After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, any requests to add, delete or rearrange author names in an article can not be accepted. Once an accepted manuscript has been published online, no further changes can be made to either the electronic or printed versions of the paper. Any necessary correction must be published separately as a corrigendum.

FORMAT

Papers are to be written in concise, simple English and, in most cases, should be illustrated. Double spacing should be used throughout the MS for the title, abstract, text, references and explanations for illustrations. Do not use page breaks. Leave 25 mm left and right margins; number all pages. Manuscripts must follow Alcheringa format throughout, and submissions must include:

a. A brief title, with only proper names capitalized; if possible begin the title with a word suitable for indexing or information retrieval;

b. Author's name (or authors' names) given in FULL CAPITALS;

c. Full reference to the paper;

d. A short abstract (400 words) describing the results of the work. Take special care with crafting the abstract as this is a concise summary of the paper and may be reproduced more widely in abstract lists. In the abstract, rather than say what the study aims to discuss, say what the study revealed. References should be avoided in the Abstract;

e. Names [followed by email addresses] and full postal addresses of all authors, including postcode and country, all in italics;

f. Three to seven key words of the author's selection.

Organization of the paper should follow the following format: introductory comments, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, References, and Figure and Table captions. Do not number each section.

In the main text, capitalise the first word of the introductory paragraph (do not use the heading ‘Introduction'); begin other sections with not more than four grades of headings typed as follows:

Grade one heading

Grade two heading

Grade three heading. With text following on the same line.

Grade four heading. With 5 mm indent and text following on the same line.

Within the introductory section, state the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Within the Material and methods provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. Outline the full details of institutional or other abbreviations used in the text. Please outline the definitions of unusual technical terms used in the article, or provide references to morphological or systematic schemes employed in the paper.

The Results should be clear and concise.

The Discussion should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section may be appropriate in some cases. Avoid extensive quotations and discussion of published literature.

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion section.

The first paragraph after any main heading is not indented but all subsequent paragraphs in the section should be indented by 5 mm.

Spell out: all numbers from one to nine inclusively, any number that begins a sentence, generic names that begin sentences, generic names when mentioned the first time in a paragraph, and compass points (i.e., northwest not NW).

Use the en-dash (–) when giving ranges of, e.g., size, measurements, pages, geological stages, years, figure references, etc. (i.e., 4–7 µm, pp. 50–58, Jurassic–Cretaceous, 1959–1963, Fig. 3A–D, etc.), but use a hyphen (-) in compound words (e.g., north-northeast, self-pollination, S-haplotype). For terms such as ‘sea level' and ‘well preserved', use a hyphen only when the term is used as an adjectival modifier preceding the noun or verb, e.g., ‘a sea-level fall' versus ‘a fall in sea level' and ‘the well-preserved fish' versus the ‘the fish is well preserved'.

Note the difference between contractions and abbreviations. Abbreviations are words that are shortened by deletion of letters including the last letter and should end in a full stop. Contractions are words shortened by the deletion of letters excluding the last letter of the word and should not terminate in a full stop. For example, ‘figures' is contracted to ‘figs' but ‘figure' is abbreviated to ‘fig.' This should also be observed in reference lists: note the difference between one editor, (ed.), and two or more, (eds).

Avoid the use of statements such as ‘Table I shows …' or ‘…. as shown in Figure 1' or ‘In Table I …'. Acceptable usage is a statement or sentence followed by the relevant reference in parentheses (Fig. 1, Table I).

Use ca (for circa; not c. or ca. or ~).

Consecutive numbers and letters: these should be given as 1, 2 and A, B not 1–2, and A–B. For larger ranges, use an en-dash (–), e.g., 1–3, and A–C.

The letter h should be preceded by the indefinite article ‘an' except when the h is not pronounced; e.g., an hour but a history.

Multiplication sign: this is typeset as × and should be used in preference to the letter x if possible

All measurements are to be in S.I. units (Système International d'Unités: see http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/index.html).

Footnotes are not allowed

BIOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE

Botanical nomenclature must be in accordance with the latest edition of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN), which can be accessed online. The rules and recommendations of the ICBN apply to all organisms traditionally treated as plants, whether fossil or non-fossil, including all palynomorphs with the exception of chitinozoa and scolecodonts, which are covered by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.

Zoological nomenclature must be in accordance with the latest edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), which can be accessed online.

Genera and species names of all organisms are to be written in italics (or in bold in the systematic headings), whereas higher taxonomical units are written in normal font (or CAPITALIZED in the systematic headings). When it does not lead to confusion, generic names should be abbreviated when they have already been cited in a running paragraph. Do not italicize modifiers (cf., aff., s.s., s.l., ?) when used with a genus or species name. When citing informal (e.g. confer/affinis) taxa, use the complete name, e.g., Lundbladispora sp. cf. L. brevicula Balme, 1963 or L. sp. cf. L. brevicula Balme, 1963, NOT Lundbladispora cf. brevicula Balme, 1963.

Explicit taxonomical ranks (Family, Order, etc) can be omitted (in phylogenetic systematics, indication of Linnaean ranks can be problematic in some cases). In these cases, please provide an explanation of the rankings used at the beginning of the systematics section.

Please provide separate diagnoses for a new genus and species even if the genus is currently monotypic. If a combined diagnosis is offered for the genus and the ONLY species, there is essentially no way to refer another species to the genus – at least not without emending the genus. This thus becomes a form of taxonomic inflation – any new form somewhat like the previous one must be described as a new genus itself. To avoid this, please keep the generic diagnoses relatively broad. In other words, a description of the most important gross morphological features of the organism. Write a specific diagnosis that focuses on finer morphological details or perhaps on the details of dimensions and dimensional ranges/variances. Such information would allow another species that is, say, half or twice the size, or with slight morphological differences, but very similar in most other respects, to be identified.

STRATIGRAPHIC NOMENCLATURE

Stratigraphic nomenclature must be in accordance with the International Stratigraphic Guide [Salvador, 1994; Murphy & Salvador, 1999; see also the website of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS)], or other formally recognized national stratigraphic guide. Use informal phrases such as ‘latest Devonian' (for time) and ‘uppermost Toarcian' (for rock). The fossil names forming part of a biostratigraphic unit (biozone) name should be in italics and written in full, e.g., the Callialasporites dampieri Biozone or the C. dampieri Biozone. Make a clear distinction between biozones and chronozones. When discussing geochronology, use an upper case initial letter for all formal subdivisions of eon, era and period, e.g., Early Triassic and Middle Ordovician. Only chronostratigraphic/geochronologic divisions with internationally ratified boundary stratotypes have formal status (see the IUGS journal Episodes, and the International Stratigraphic Chart on the ICS website). In all other instances, lower case initial letters should be used, e.g., ‘late Eocene'. In chronozones, fossil species names have a capital initial letter, and are written in Roman font, e.g. the Lamberti Chronozone. The usage of lower, middle, and upper in relation to lithostratigraphic units is generally informal and the initial letters are not capitalized, e.g., ‘the lower Grant Formation'. Fossils forming part of a lithostratigraphic unit name have an initial capital letter and are written in Roman font (e.g. Plenus Marls). Time abbreviations for ages are ‘ka' (thousand years before present) and ‘Ma' (million years before present; symbols representing simple quantities of time are ‘k.y.' and ‘m.y.' (e.g. during the 35 m.y. interval).

New Australian stratigraphic names should be registered with the Geoscience Australia (GA) Australian Stratigraphic Names Database. The GA website “How to define a lithostratigraphic unit” ( http://www.ga.gov.au/products-services/data-applications/reference-databases/stratigraphic-units/define-lithostratigraphic-unit.html ) is a useful guide.

Murphy, M.A. & Salvador, A., 1999. International Commission of Stratigraphic Classification - International Commission on Stratigraphy: International Stratigraphic Guide - An abridged version. Episodes 22, 255–271.

Salvador, A., 1994. International Stratigraphic Guide - A Guide to Stratigraphic Classification, Terminology, and Procedure. 2nd Ed., IUGS, GSA, Boulder.

Radiocarbon ages. If several radiocarbon ages are used as the basis of the chronological framework, the dates (with standard deviation) and relevant additional information (e.g., depth, dated material, δ13C, lab number, calibrated ages, see, e.g., Stuiver & Polach 1977) should be given in a table. In the text it should also be clearly stated whether the ages are expressed as conventional (conventional ¹⁴C years BP) or calibrated radiocarbon years (cal. BP, in both cases BP referring to AD 1950). Moreover, calibrated dates should be reported using the latest available international calibration curve (explicitly state which INTCAL version was used) and the calibration software (and its version number) must be stated when reporting calibrated ages. The author(s) should use one consistent chronological framework, i.e., mixing of conventional and calibrated ages in the text and figures should be avoided. Moreover, calibrated radiocarbon ages should be given in cal. years BP rather than in years BC. For historical dates the notion ‘AD' can be used (e.g. AD 1250).

Stuiver, M., Polach, H.A., 1977. Discussion, Reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19, 355–363. 

CURATION OF MATERIALS

All studied fossils should be registered in a permanent public repository so that the materials are available for later study. Registration numbers should accompany the descriptions and/or illustrations. Where fossils are illustrated in outcrop, sufficient geographical details should be provided to enable the material to be located and re-studied. Where the geographic source of materials is in a sensitive area or subject to potential illegal or excessive exploitation, then geographic source details should be filed with an appropriate responsible institution. An export permit is required for removal of fossils from most countries. Authors should ensure that their material is collected according to international best practices and any appropriate export permits have been obtained.

Special conditions relate to fossils collected in New Zealand. The New Zealand Protected Objects Amendment Act 2006 stipulates that permits for the export of Protected Objects are required. Fossil material (irrespective of how it is preserved) is listed as a Protected Object. Export permits should be obtained before removal of any fossil material from New Zealand and the studied material ought to be ultimately lodged for permanent keeping with a New Zealand institution.

New Zealand has a national database of fossil localities (FRED). This is a recording scheme for fossil localities in NZ and nearby regions including SE Pacific Islands and the Ross Sea region of Antarctica ( http://www.fred.org.nz/ ). We strongly encourage authors to assist the Geosciences Society by registering fossil localities from the areas mentioned above within this database (which can be accessed online) and to quote the appropriate locality number in their publications.

ILLUSTRATIONS

All figures must be sent electronically and at adequate resolution, care and attention to the guidelines below are essential as importing unusual graphics packages can be problematic. All figures should be submitted in digital format, at no less than 300 dpi; they must be supplied as either EPS files (for illustrations compiled in Illustrator, FreeHand or CorelDraw) or TIFF files (for illustrations compiled in Photoshop). Illustrations compiled in programs such as InDesign are not recommended. Illustrations compiled in Word or PowerPoint are not acceptable. Please indicate the software package and version used for all illustrations on an accompanying letter.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.

Figures must be submitted individually and separate to the text. Please do not embed figures in the manuscript file.

It is preferable that images, text and line art are not flattened before submission of illustrations as adjustments of individual parts of a figure may be necessary during editing.

Fossils should be illustrated in standard orientations. This may vary for different fossil groups but the head or apical end of most groups, and distal end of leaves, should normally be positioned at the top of the illustration. For palynomorphs, the principle of orientation of pollen grains/spores suggested by G. Erdtman (1952, p. 17) should be applied with polar axes oriented vertically. For fossil wood, longitudinal cells should be orientated vertically.

Erdtman, G., 1952. Pollen Morphology and Plant Taxonomy. Angiosperms. Almqvist and Wiksell, Stockholm, 539 pp.

Illustrations should be grouped economically into Figures to fit exactly the column width of 81 mm, intermediate page width of 117 mm, or full page width of 169 mm and maximum page height of 242 mm. Attempt to restrict each figure to one theme and to group photographs of similar tone. Line drawings may be combined with photographs, as long as they are in electronic format, and authors are encouraged to use arrows or other devices to identify important features.

All figures must be numbered in the order in which they appear in the paper (i.e., Fig. 1, Fig. 2). In multi-part figures, each part should be labelled (i.e., Fig. 1A, Fig. 1B). The components of figures must be designated by 14pt Arabic upper case lettering (A–Z) of a sans-serif type (i.e., fonts without serifs such as Arial). The use of bar scales is encouraged (indicate the bar's scale in the figure caption). Keep all lettering inside the figure boundaries. Inidividual illustrations should be separated from each other by a uniform gutter. Descriptive labelling in the figures should be clearly readable, and all lettering should have a minimum published size of 6 pt (2.1 mm) for features on photographs or in line art.

Be sure to refer to all components of composite figures within the body of the text to guide readers to important morphological features. Do not just listing the figure numbers next to the species heading.

Captions will normally be printed below figures and tables. Alcheringa will not print foldouts or double page spreads. No diagram should extend over more than one page. Costs for the printing of colour figures will be charged to the author(s) – contact the editor for current rates. Colour figures can be included in the online pdf copy of the paper at no charge. Authors who compile colour figures should ensure that such figures show strong contrast between the colours when printed in B/W for the hard copy version.

Illustrations in the paper are cited as ‘Figs' or ‘Fig.', and as ‘figs' or ‘fig.' for cited papers.

Captions for illustrations should be listed at the end of the main text file, not as separate electronic files.

TABLES

Each table should be uploaded as a separate Word file. They should be numbered 1, 2, 3, etc according to their sequence in the text, and have a short self-explanatory heading. Tables should not include vertical lines, but horizontal lines should be inserted above and below the column headings and at the bottom of the table. Authors should keep in mind the page layout of the journal when designing tables. Tables that fit onto one printed page are preferred. Tables may be at one or two column width (81 mm or 169 mm). Detailed explanations of symbols, units, and abbreviations should follow below the table.

ONLINE SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

Alcheringa accepts electronic supplementary data to support and enhance published research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish features such as high-resolution images, background datasets, computer software, video clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of the article. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file.

REFERENCES

References are to be cited in the text as Walter (1972), (Walter 1972), or Walter (1972, p. 60). Use a comma between the author and date only when this is a taxon authority. Do not use a comma between the author and date for general references. Successive references in the text should be given in chronological order and be separated by a comma, e.g. (Walter 1972, Jones et al. 1990). Use the ampersand (&) in references with two authors Jones & Smith (1995) or (Jones & Smith 1995).

At the first mention after the abstract of a species or genus of taxonomic relevance in the MS, the author and date must be given, along with the full reference in the list of References. If this creates a very large number of references then, as an alternative to citation of all taxon authorities in the reference list, authors may provide one or more general references in the introduction to let readers know where the full references to taxon authorities can be found.

In the case of authors of modern plant taxa, e.g., Acacia acanthoclada F. Muell., 1963. Authority names of plant taxa (genera and species) should follow The International Plant Names Index, IPNI ( http://www.ipni.org/ ).

List. References should conform to examples given below; give the full title of the publication with words in their original order, with author and editor names in Small Caps. Transliterate Russian titles using the system adopted by the International Geological Review; list, where necessary, the original language in brackets after translated or transliterated titles.

Do not use abbreviations; provide journal titles in full. Do not include part numbers except where the journal paginates each part individually from page one.

References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. Where a person is the author of single authored, two-authored, and multi-authored papers, all single author papers should appear first chronologically, then two-authored papers alphabetically then chronologically, followed by multi-authored papers purely chronologically. Where there are more than 10 authors of a paper, “& others” may be used. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication. Example of reference order:

Black, M., 2009a.

Black, M., 2009b.

Black, P., 1998.

Black, P. & Jones, H., 2006.

Black, P. & Smith, W., 1985.

Black, P., Jones, H. & Smith, W., 1979.

Black, P., Adams, T., Grimes, A. & Murray, R., 1980.

Black, P., Davis, G. & Kent, B., 1984.

Journal articles and monographs within a series

Allen, P., 1976. Wealden of the Weald: a new model. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 86 (for 1975), 389–437.

Briggs, D.J.C., 1998. Permian Productidina and Strophalosiidina from the Sydney-Bowen Basin and New England Orogen: systematics and biostratigraphic significance. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 19, 1–258.

Osborn, J.M., Taylor, T.N. & de Lima, M.R., 1993. The ultrastructure of fossil ephedroid pollen with gnetalean affinities from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 77, 171–184.

Popov, Yu.N., 1957. Nekotorye permiskie peletsipody, gastropody i ammonity Verkhoyan'ya [Some Permian pelecypods, gastropods and ammonoids of Verkhoyansk]. Nauchissledovatel'nyy Instituti Geologii Arktiki, Sbornik Stratigrafii, Paleontologii i Biostratigrafii 1, 45–60. (Russian)

Schulte, P. & 40 others, 2010. The Chicxulub asteroid impact and mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. Science 327, 1214–1218.

Walter, M.R., 1972. Stromatolites and the biostratigraphy of the Australian Precambrian and Cambrian. Special Papers in Palaeontology 11, i–x + 190 pp., 33 pl.

Books

Fang Yiting, Liang Shijing, Zhang Daliang & Yu Jinlong, 1990. Stratigraphy and Graptolite Fauna of the Lishuwo Formation of Wuning, Jiangxi. Nanjing University Publishing House, Nanjing, 155 pp., 29 pls. (Chinese with English summary)

Strehlow, T.G.H., 1971. Songs of Central Australia. Angus & Robertson, Sydney, liv + 755 pp.

Chapters/papers in edited volumes

Albert, V., Backlund, A. & Bremer, K., 1994. DNA characters and cladistics: The optimization of functional history. In Models in Phylogeny Reconstruction. Scotland, R.W. & Siebert, D.J., eds, Systematics Association Special Volume 52. Clarendon Press, London, 249–272.

Campbell, K.S.W. & McKellar, R.G., 1969. Eastern Australian Carboniferous invertebrates. In Stratigraphy and Palaeontology: Essays in Honour of Dorothy Hill. Campbell, K.S.W., ed., Australian National University Press, Canberra, 77–119.

Melchin, M.J. & Mitchell, C.E., 1991. Late Ordovician extinction in the Graptoloidea. In Advances in Ordovician Geology. Barnes, C.R. & Williams, S.H., eds, Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 90-9, 143–156.

Papers and abstracts in conference proceedings

Seilacher, A., 1997. Precambrian life styles related to biomats. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 29, A193.

Welsh, A., 1990. Applied Mesozoic biostratigraphy in the western Papuan Basin. In Petroleum Exploration in Papua New Guinea. Carman, G.J. & Carman, Z., eds, Proceedings of the First PNG Petroleum Convention, Port Moresby, 12–14th February 1990, 369–379.

Theses

Dutta, R., 1994. Ultrastructure of Mesozoic Spores and Pollen. PhD thesis, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 263 pp. (unpublished)

Computer programs

Swofford, D.L., 2001. PAUP*. Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (*and other methods). Version 4b10. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.

Websites

West, I.M., 2011. Geology of the Wessex Coast (including UNESCO Dorset and East Devon World Heritage Site - Jurassic Coast). http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/ (accessed 20.9.2011)

EVALUATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

On the basis of its evaluated scientific relevance, quality and conformity of illustrations and general presentation, the Editor or editorial committee will decide whether to reject the manuscript or to submit it to the review process. Suitable manuscripts will be sent to at least two reviewers. During the electronic submission process, authors are requested to give the names and email addresses of at least two potential reviewers. Upon completion of the review process, the Editor or editorial committee will decide to accept or reject the article; minor, moderate or major revisions can also be required prior to any final editorial decision. The corresponding author will receive an electronic copy of the reviewer's reports and annotations, together with advice on any required revisions, from the editor, and will be advised by email of all editorial decisions.

PROOFS

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