It is essential that contributors prepare their manuscripts according to the instructions and
specifications presented below.
General rules for writing
The work must demonstrate its novelty and its interest to geoscientists in general. Conclusions must
be justified by the study; please make your argumentation complete and be self-critical as you review
your drafts.
Open Geosciences encourages the submission of both substantial full-length bodies of work and
shorter manuscripts that report novel findings that might be based on a more limited range of
experiments. There are no specific length restrictions for the overall manuscript or individual sections;
however, we urge the authors to present and discuss their findings in a concise and accessible manner.
Use simple, declarative sentences and commonly understood terms; avoid long sentences and idle
words. Please use active voice while writing your manuscript; e.g. ‘we measured snout-vent length’
rather than ‘snout-vent length was measured. We recommend that for clarity you use the past tense
to narrate particular events in the past, including the procedures, observations, and data of the study
that you are reporting. Use the present tense for your own general conclusions, the conclusions of
previous researchers, and generally accepted facts. Thus, most of the Abstract, Methods, and Results
should be in the past tense, and most of the Introduction and some of the Discussion should be 0 in
the present tense. Editors may make suggestions for how to improve clarity and readability, as well as
to strengthen the argumen