Introduction

The Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES) and its discussion forum, The Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems - Discussion (JAMES-D), collectively referred to as The Journal, host submissions related to a wide range of problems in Earth science.

The Journal invites reports on oceanic circulations on multiple scales, radiation, cloud physics, boundary layer and land surface processes, the biosphere and cryosphere, biogeochemical cycles, and the development of numerical methods for Earth science.

The Journal promotes interdisciplinary research and disseminates information to the global Earth Systems Modeling community. Through a special section devoted to policy makers and science educators, the Journal seeks to inform the general public and decision makers of the science behind important societal issues related to climate modeling.

In general, contributions should be self-contained, and concentrate on new results or techniques. The page length of an article is judged on a case-by-case basis; there is no general restriction.

Papers should be clear, concise, and written in English. They must conform to the organization and style of the journal with correct spelling and good sentence structure. Correct English is the responsibility of the Author(s), although the Editor(s) and the Reviewers are kindly asked to help in language editing of the manuscript if necessary. On request by the Editor, articles will also be copy-edited.

See the submission preparation checklist for general manuscript submission requirements.

 

Online Submissions

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Submit a Manuscript

 

Author Guidelines

Submit to JAMES

Submissions to the formal peer review journal, JAMES, and its open discussion forum, JAMES-D, are made online through the JAMES-D web site. Users must be registered with and logged on to JAMES-D to submit a manuscript. See online submissions for a link to the author submission page.

Manuscripts are submitted by following a simple 5 Step process on the JAMES-D web site. During the submission process the Authors are asked to ensure that their submission meets general terms of the journal, to provide metadata about their submission, and upload their manuscript and any supplemental material.

During the submission process, the submitting Author must indicate their preference to participate in the journal’s open discussion forum, or to forego open discussion and submit only to formal peer review. If you wish to submit to JAMES but not participate in open discussion, indicate your preference to participate in formal peer review only (Publish in JAMES) in Step 1 of the submission process.

The submission manuscript and any supplemental material are uploaded during the submission process. The submitting Author is also asked to provide metadata for their submission. After completion of the submission process, the corresponding Author will receive an email from the Chief Editor confirming their submission. The confirmation email contains a link to the online tracking system for the submission.

If the Chief Editor determines the submission is appropriate and of sufficient quality for the journal, and if the submitting author has opted to participate in open discussion, the submission will be posted to the JAMES-D open discussion forum. At the same time, the submission will enter into the formal peer review process for publication in JAMES.

Submissions should be in PDF, Word, or LaTeX formats. Word and LaTeX files will be converted to PDF. The original submission file will be used for posting to the JAMES-D website. If a manuscript is accepted for publication in JAMES following formal peer review, the corresponding Author will be asked to submit a final revised file in Word or LaTeX format. This file will be passed on to production for typesetting and generation of page proofs.

Manuscript Types

JAMES showcases leading-edge research on Earth System Modeling in such areas as atmospheric and oceanic circulations on multiple scales, radiation, cloud physics, boundary layer and land surface processes, the biosphere and cryosphere, biogeochemical cycles, and the development of numerical methods for climate science.

JAMES maintains sections for Research Articles, Short Topics, Review Articles, and a special section for articles on Policy and Science Education related to climate science.

Research Articles are normal length articles, generally from 10 to 20 journal pages, however there is no limit set on the length of these submissions.

Short Topics include research contributions of four or fewer journal pages.

Submissions to the Policy and Science Education section should be directed to the wider non-specalist audience interested in climate science. Article that discuss policy issues related to climate change are welcome, as are science education articles that deal with climate change curriculum. This section also welcomes articles that discuss global climate models in non-technical terms. Submissions should fit with the global environmental modeling foucs of JAMES.

Review Articles are a synthesis of existing literature that often lead to generation of new research directions. Submissions to the policy and science education section should be directed to the wider non-specialist audience interested in climate science.

Submissions must be in English. Both American and British spellings are acceptable, however the Authors should be consistent in their use throughout the manuscript. JAMES encourages submissions from the international community. JAMES will provide copyediting at an additional charge if the Editor deems it necessary. If a submission contains an unwieldy amount of grammatical errors or other stylistic deficiencies then the manuscript may be returned unreviewed.

Manuscript Composition

Title
The manuscript’s title should be concise and specific to the research and/or subject matter. Avoid abbreviations if possible. Titles should be in title case. Authors should avoid using titles with more than 150 characters.
Authors and Affiliations
List all Authors by First Name or initial, middle name or initial (if used) and surname. Indicate corresponding Author and Author affiliations. Affiliations should be listed for all Authors and should include department, university or organization, city, state/province (if any), and country.
Abstract
The abstract succinctly introduces the paper. We advise that it should not exceed 300 words. It should mention the techniques used without going into methodological detail and should summarize the most important results. Please do not include any citations in the abstract. Avoid specialist abbreviations and mathematical expressions, if possible. During the submission process, the submitting Author must enter a text version of the abstract. This text version will be published in the online "Abstract" section for the article. JAMES tries to adhere to the HTML 4.0 standard for greek characters in online abstracts, so consult this list to determine if special characters in the abstract are supported.
Text
The text should be divided into sections, each with a separate heading and numbered consecutively. Section and subsection headings should be typed on separate lines using the following format:
  • 1. Primary heading
  • a. Secondary heading
    • 1) TERTIARY HEADING
    • (i) Quaternary heading

There is no specific word limit for text in each section. Large datasets, including raw data, should be submitted as supplementary material; these are published online alongside the discussion article and the accepted article.

Citations

Citations to standard references in text should consist of the name of the Author and the year of publication-for example, Smith (1990) or (Smith 1990). If there are three or more Authors, state the first Author's surname, followed by "et al." and the year of publication for example, Smith et al. (1990) or (Smith et al. 1990). When there are two or more papers by the same Author or Authors in the same year, distinguishing letters (a, b, c, etc.) should be added to the year in both the citation in text and the reference listing—for example, Smith (1990a). For multiple citations by one Author, separate years by commas—for example, Smith (1989, 1990) or (Smith 1989, 1990). Separate multiple citations by different Authors within the same parentheses by semicolons-for example, (Smith 1990; Jones 1991) or (Smith 1989, 1990; Jones 1991).

When a citation in text needs to refer to a specific section or chapter, this should be included after the year, preceded by a comma-for example, Smith (1996, chapter 7), Smith (1997, section 3.22), or (Smith 1977, section 3.22). Do not include the chapter in the citation if that chapter is explicitly identified in the reference itself (as in the case of a chapter of a multiply authored monograph). If a specific page or page range needs to be cited, this should also follow the year, preceded by a comma—for example, Smith (1996, 235–237). If a single page is cited, insert a "p." before the number—for example, Smith (1996, p. 125). Nonstandard references should be used only if they are essential to support the Author's arguments or to give proper credits. When required, the same form of text citation is used.

References to personal communications should appear only in the text and should include initials and year—for example, D. E. Smith (1982, personal communication) or (D. E. Smith 1982, personal communication).

Manuscripts that have been submitted to a journal but not yet accepted for publication cannot be included in the reference listing and must be cited in text in a manner similar to personal communication—for example, Smith (1998, manuscript submitted to Mon. Wea. Rev.). Manuscripts that have been accepted and are currently in the process of being published can be cited as regular references and should be listed in the reference section with "in press" replacing the normal page range information.

Acknowledgments
Details of the funding sources that supported the work should be included, as well as other individuals or organizations the Authors would like to acknowledge.
References

Only published or accepted manuscripts should be included in the reference list. Meetings abstracts, conference talks, or papers that have been submitted but not yet accepted should not be cited. Limited citation of unpublished work should be included in the body of the text only. All personal communications should be supported by a letter from the relevant Authors.

All references referred to in the text are listed alphabetically, without numbering, at the end of the manuscript under the heading “References”. When there is more than one reference by the same Author or team of Authors, list them in increasing chronological order by publication date. If there is more than one work by the same Author or team of Authors but in the same year, a, b, c etc. is added to the year both in the text and in the list of references. References must be complete, in standardized form, and double spaced. The general form for references in the reference list.

Journal citations,
Author(s), publication year: Article title. Journal name, volume, page range, DOI

Books,
Author(s), publication year: Book Title. Publisher, total pages, DOI

JAMES provides external reference linking using DOIs. A DOI (if available) is appended to each reference and is an active link to the referenced article’s online response page. Authors can supply DOI’s for each reference in their reference list. Optionally, DOIs will be added during the article’s typesetting for JAMES for a nominal (approximately $1U.S. per DOI) fee.

JAMES also participates in CrossRef’s Forward linking. Forward linking provides a dynamically updated list of references that cite the published article.

Tables

Tables should be included in the text file, near to the text that refers to the table. The table should not duplicate information in the text of the paper. All tables should have a concise title. Footnotes can be used to explain abbreviations. Citations should be indicated using the same style as outlined above.

Tables should be simple and should fit on one page. Tables that can fit into one journal column are a particularly efficient use of space. If abbreviated column headings are used to allow a table with several data columns to fit in one journal column, provide definitions of the abbreviations as part of the table. Larger tables can be published as supplementary material.

Figures

Figures should be integrated into the text during submission. The Authors are encouraged to supply high-resolution versions of all figures as supplementary material. Preferred image file formats are: JPEG, GIF, TIFF, EPS, MPEG, AVI, MOV, and WAV. Image strengths should, ideally, be at least 200 dots per inch. Please supply image files at least 100% of the intended printed size.

Composite figures containing multiple panels must be collected into one file before submission.

All figures will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows them to be freely used, distributed, and built upon as long as proper attribution is given. Please do not submit any figures that have been previously copyrighted unless you have express written permission from the copyright holder to publish under the CCAL license.

Figure Legends
The aim of the figure legend should be to describe the key messages of the figure, but the figure should also be discussed in the text. An enlarged version of the figure and its full legend will often be viewed in a separate window online, and it should be possible for a reader to understand the figure without switching back and forth between this window and the relevant parts of the text. Each legend should have a concise title of no more than 15 words. The legend itself should be succinct, while still explaining all symbols and abbreviations. Avoid lengthy descriptions of methods.
Equations, abbreviations and units
  • • Mathematical Symbols and Formulae: In general, mathematical symbols are typeset in italics. The most notable exceptions are function names (e.g. sin, cos), chemical formulas and physical units, which are all typeset with the normal (upright) font. Matrices are printed in bold face, and Vectors in bold face italics. A range of numbers should be specified as "a to b" or "a...b". The expression "a-b" is only acceptable in cases where no confusion with "a minus b" is possible.
  • • Equations should be numbered sequentially with arabic numerals in parentheses on the right hand side, i.e. (1), (2), etc. If too long, split them accordingly. If there are chemical formulae included, i.e. reactions, please number them (R1), (R2), etc. When using WORD, the equation editor and not the graphic mode should be used under all circumstances.
  • • Units: The metric system is mandatory and, wherever, possible, SI units should be used.
  • • Date and Time: 25 July 2007 (dd month yyyy), 15:17:02 (hh:mm:ss). Often it is necessary to specify the time if referring to local time or Universal Time Coordinated. This can be done by adding "LT" or "UTC", respectively.
  • • Abbreviations and Acronyms: Equations should be referred to by the abbreviation "Eq." and the respective number in parentheses, e.g. "Eq. (14)". However, when the reference comes at the beginning of a sentence, the unabbreviated word "Equation" should be used, e.g.: "Equation (14) is very important for the results. However, Eq. (15) makes it clear that..." The abbreviations "Sect." and "Fig." should be used when they appear in running text followed by a number unless they come at the beginning of a sentence, e.g.: "The results are depicted in Fig. 5. Figure 9 reveals that..." If acronyms or abbreviations are used throughout the article, they should be defined at first occurrence, e.g.: Quality of Life (QoL), National Science Foundation (NSF). If these names or concepts are also mentioned in the abstract, they should be defined there as well.
  • • Capitalization: In addition to proper nouns, capitalization of the first letter is applied for titles, section headings, figure and table legends but only for the first word. Abbreviations and expressions in the text such as Chap(s)., Fig(s)., Table(s), Eq(s)., Sect(s)., Paper, Theorem, etc. should always be capitalized when used with numbers, e.g., Fig. 3, Table 1, Paper III, Sect 2. The words figure(s), table(s), equation(s), theorem(s) in the text should not be capitalized when used without an accompanying number.
  • • Non-English Words and Phrases: Foreign words that have not come into general use are italicized. Words, phrases and abbreviations referenced in the Webster's are not italicized. For example, "et al., cf., e.g., a priori, eigenvalues", should not be italicized.
Supplementary Material

We encourage Authors to submit essential supporting files and multimedia files along with their manuscripts. All supporting material will be subject to peer review.

Multimedia files should be smaller than 10 MB in size because of the difficulties that some users will experience in loading or downloading files. Preferred formats are:

  • • Audio: MP3
  • • Video: MOV, progressive download, 320x240px frame size
  • • Flash: SWF

Figures, tables, multimedia files, and datasets that make up the supplementary material should be described in text and referred to with a leading capital S (e.g., Figure S4 for the fourth supplementary material figure), and should fall into one of the following categories: Figure, Table, Text, Dataset, Audio, or Video. The file name, in square brackets, should follow the reference to the supplementary material (e.g. Video S1 [MJO.MOV]). The file name will become an active hyperlink to the supplemental file in the typeset file published on JAMES.

Guidelines for supplemental material

Supplemental files, which can be in any format, might include (a) computer codes, (b) data sets, (c) figures and tables that cannot be integrated into the text itself, (d) visualizations or animations, and (3) other materials that you feel add to the contribution of your work.

Algorithm/Software Sharing: Since new algorithms and software are often important in global environmental modeling, Authors are encouraged to provide sufficient information to allow interested readers to reproduce and extend the work. In the case of new algorithms, Authors are encouraged to include a detailed description in the paper. In the case of new software, Authors are encouraged to make source code available as appendices, supplemental material, or through posting on a publicly available website.

Indexing

JAMES adheres to the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, which is the emerging standard for providing well-indexed access to electronic research resources on a global scale. Authors are encouraged, although not required, to assist in indexing their article. Author submitted metadata will be reviewed by the journal's Technical Editor for relevancy, and used to determine the article’s appropriate subject classification. Authors are asked to provide the following information about their articles:

Academic discipline and sub-disciplines. For Example, Meteorology; Atmospheric Science; Oceanography.

Keywords. For Example, Earth System Modeling; General Circulation Modeling; Numerical Weather Prediction; Climate Modeling.

Type, method or approach. For Example, Numerical Methods; Data Assimilation.

Supporting Agencies
List the agencies supporting this work, if any. Supporting agencies should also be listed in the manuscript acknowledgements. Providing this information as indexing metadata is voluntary.
General obligations for Authors
  1. An Author's central obligation is to present a concise, accurate account of the research performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance.
  2. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to public sources of information to permit the Author's peers to repeat the work.
  3. An Author should cite those publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work and that will guide the reader quickly to the earlier work that is essential for understanding the present investigation. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, should not be used or reported in the Author's work without explicit permission from the investigator with whom the information originated. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as reviewing manuscripts or grant applications, should be treated similarly.
  4. Fragmentation of research papers should be avoided. A scientist who has done extensive work on a system or group of related systems should organize publication so that each paper gives a complete account of a particular aspect of the general study.
  5. It is inappropriate for an Author to submit manuscripts describing essentially the same research to more than one journal of primary publication.
  6. A criticism of a published paper may sometimes be justified; however, in no case is personal criticism considered to be appropriate.
  7. To protect the integrity of authorship, only persons who have significantly contributed to the research and paper preparation should be listed as Authors. The corresponding Author attests to the fact that any others named as Authors have seen the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. Deceased persons who meet the criterion for co-authorship should be included, with a footnote reporting date of death. No fictitious names should be listed as Authors or co-Authors. The Author who submits a manuscript for publication accepts the responsibility of having included as co-Authors all persons that are appropriate and none that are inappropriate.
Production
  1. If the Author has selected to participate in open discussion forum, and the Editorial Office has determined that the submission meets the criteria of the journal, then the Authors' original submission file will be posted to the JAMES-D web site. Submissions posted to JAMES-D are not typeset, rather they are posted and entered into formal peer review in the format submitted by the Author.
  2. Once the formal peer reviewed and accepted article is received by the Production Office, the article is typeset to JAMES format. The article is assigned a DOI name and DOI’s are obtained for references if they are available.
  3. If requested by the Editor, the production office performs additional copyediting.
  4. The article and figures are transformed to PDF. Figures are optimized for display on the web. Hi-resolution figures are saved for reprints. Equations are saved as images for full text HTML production.
  5. Notification is sent to the corresponding Author that page proofs are available, with the request to return the corrections within 48 hours.
  6. The journal business office bills the corresponding Author based on the page count from the galley proofs.
  7. The Author sends corrections to the Editorial Office, where they are reviewed and then forwarded to the Production Office to be incorporated into the text.
  8. The production office produces full text PDF, HTML, and XML deliverables. These files are published to the JAMES web site.
  9. The article DOI and indexing metadata is deposited with CrossRef. The full citation (reference) and DOI are transferred to several major scientific databases and search engines.
  10. The electronic files are archived by the journal and by partner institutions participating in the LOCKSS archival system.
Submission Templates

JAMES provides style examples, currently as templates, to help Authors format their submission manuscripts. Currently, we have a preliminary TeX template, and the pdf file generated from the template, available as a style guide. The TeX template provided is a possible way to do LaTeX (provided as a service), and is not intended as a perfected template that must be used.

Word templates will be provided at a later date. In the meantime, Authors submitting in Word are encouraged to follow the style shown in the PDF version of the template.

The templates demonstrate a double column format, which is intended to produce pagination similar to final typeset articles provided by JAMES. Emulating final typesetting, rather than providing a submission template that produces a 'Review' format, allows Authors to place figures and equations in the text approximately where they will appear in the final typeset articles appearing in JAMES. If the Authors prefer, articles can be submitted in single column format.

Note that TeX or Word files need only be supplied when submitting your final revised manuscript. Initial submissions to JAMES-D, or initial submissions that will bypass JAMES-D and participate only in the JAMES formal peer review process, need only be in PDF. However, we encourage Authors to follow the journal's style guidelines when submitting.

JAMES-D and JAMES logos are provided to allow Authors to place the logo a the top of the first page of their submission manuscript. If the submission includes the JAMES-D logo, the logo will be changed during typesetting to the JAMES logo for articles published in the peer-reviewed journal, JAMES.

Authors are encouraged to attach DOI's to references in their article's bibliography. If available, DOI's should be appended to the end of the reference.

  • Template rendered in PDF version 1
  • Template - LaTeX TeX version 1
  • Template - Word (not currently available)
  • Logos JAMES-D JAMES
 

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).  JAMES considers articles to be published if and only if they have undergone and passed peer review in a journal.
  2. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
  3. The submission file is in PDF, LaTex or Microsoft Word format. If the submission meets the criteria of the journal, and the submitting author has selected to participate in open discussion, a PDF version of your submission file will be posted to the JAMES-D web site. The journal does not offer copyediting, typesetting or proofreading services for submissions posted to the discussion forum. If your article is accepted for publication in JAMES following formal peer review, the corresponding author will be asked to submit a final manuscript in either Word or LaTeX format for typesetting. Style guides for preparing submissions can be found in the 'Submissions' section under Submission Templates.
 

Copyright Notice

Upon submission of an article, authors are asked to indicate their agreement to abide by an open-access license. This license permits any user to download, print, extract, archive, and distribute the article, so long as appropriate credit is given to the authors of the work. This policy ensures that articles are as widely available as possible and that they can be included in any scientific archive.

 

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

 

Author Fees

This journal charges the following author fees:

Submission to and posting on JAMES-D, the open discussion venue for JAMES, is free of charge.

If your submission is accepted for publication in JAMES following formal peer review, you will be asked to pay a publication fee of $50 U.S. per typeset page. A bill will be sent to the corresponding author's mailing address after initial typesetting is completed and an accurate article page count is determined. Authors should remit payment promptly; however, nonpayment of fees will not necessarily preclude publication. We do not want to prevent the publication of worthy work.

Upon billing you will have an opportunity to request a waiver of the charges. Authors whose work is supported by funding sources that include monies for publication should not request a waiver of charges.



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