Author Guidelines

Before preparing a submission for Geomorphica, familiarize yourself with the journal’s scope and our publication types to ensure relevance and alignment with our aims.

Triple-anonymous peer review process
Geomorphica employs a triple-anonymous review process to ensure fairness and reduce bias, where authors, reviewers, and the Associate Editor giving the recommendation (AE2) are anonymous. The Associate Editor (AE1) handling the manuscript and communicating with the authors, reviewers and Editor-in-Chief is not anonymous in order to have sufficient information to avoid conflict of interest and to allow good communication. 

The review process, including reviewer reports and authors’ responses, is transparent and becomes public upon the paper’s acceptance. 

Integrity, Ethics, and Conduct
The authors must confirm that they have read, understood, and agree with Geomorphica’s Editorial Policies (copyright statement). They must also state that they agree with Geomorphica’s Code of Conduct. All submissions must be original and not under consideration elsewhere. Plagiarism or duplication will lead to immediate rejection or retraction post-publication.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no competing or conflicts of interest or the existence of an actual, potential, or perceived conflict. Authors should not recommend reviewers with a known conflict of interest, such as co-authors who published together in the last three years, current and past supervisor of the author(s) or a colleague from the same institution. A short statement noting any conflicts or competing interests should be included in the “comments to the editor box” in the submission form. Personal conflicts will remain confidential but may affect whom the Associate Editor (AE1) invites as reviewers. If any conflict exists or the authors are unsure, they must communicate with the Associate Editor (AE1).

Originality
Material submitted to Geomorphica must be original and not published or concurrently submitted for publication elsewhere in any language. Plagiarism or duplicate submission (including partial duplication of manuscripts, figures, tables) will result in the immediate rejection of any manuscript, or, if detected post-publication, in retraction. 

Conference Proceedings and Extended Works
Geomorphica accepts submissions that build substantially on work previously presented in conference proceedings or reports. Submissions must extend beyond the original in terms of results, methodology, analysis, and conclusions. The handling editors determine what qualifies as a substantial extension. The authors must disclose if the manuscript is a significantly extended version of a conference paper in their cover letter.

Submission of manuscripts rejected elsewhere
Submission of a manuscript that was rejected elsewhere is possible. To enable a fair, transparent and open review process, the authors must disclose the reasons for rejection to the editor. The cover letter can be used to provide such information. For example, if it was rejected because it did not fit the scope of a journal, then it is sufficient to state the name of this journal and a brief argument why the authors believe that the manuscript fits the scope of Geomorphica. If the manuscript was rejected during the peer review process, then a statement is needed indicating the main reviewer comments and how the manuscript was modified. The editor will use this information for the evaluation of the manuscript in case a reviewer for Geomorphica also reviewed it previously.

Initial submission
Manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word, OpenOffice or LaTeX using Geomorphica templates. The initial submission should be PDF files, and final submissions after acceptance have to be docx or LaTeX files. The submission includes:

     + A cover letter, with a summary of the manuscript and a list of suggested reviewers (and/or reviewers to exclude)
      + A title page, with complete author details, acknowledgments, and declarations
      + Anonymized manuscript, which contains texts, figures, tables, and a reference list.
      + [optional] Anonymized non-English abstracts (up to two additional languages)
      + [optional] Anonymized Supplementary Materials (texts, figures, captions) files.

For further details about Geomorphica’s article structures and format requirements, please see our Formatting Guidelines.

After acceptance
After an article is accepted, authors are still required to use the Geomorphica templates (in Microsoft Word or LaTeX format) for the final submission. Figures, tables, and reference list should be uploaded separately. 

Please note that Geomorphica’s submission system does not directly interface with Overleaf, although Geomorphica’s LaTeX submission template is available in the Overleaf gallery. After acceptance, figures and reference list (e.g. bib file) must be uploaded separately for article production.

Spelling and grammar
Authors must run a complete spelling and grammatical check before submission (e.g., using (free) online tools). Geomorphica has no preference for British or American spellings, as long as manuscripts are self-consistent throughout. If the level of writing in a submission is such that it cannot be understood by the editor, then the editor may return the manuscript to the authors for correction before it is sent out for peer review.

At the beginning of submission, there is a box “Comments for the editor” in which a cover letter and reviewers suggestion should be provided. 

The cover letter should include the manuscript’s title, the publication type, a brief background of the study and the research question that is addressed in the manuscript, a brief overview of methodology used and the principle findings and significance to the scientific community. It should state that the manuscript is not currently under consideration by another journal, and that all authors have agreed to submit the manuscript to this journal. Please also disclose if the paper has been previously submitted to another journal (see Peer-review Process). 

Please suggest at least two potential peer reviewers. The potential reviewers should be active scientists. We appreciate if the name, affiliation and email address, as well as a short statement of why this person is appropriate to be selected as a reviewer, are given. For example:

“Dr. Geomorphica, Researcher at the Diamond Open Access University, admin@geomorphica.org. She has experience in geomorphological processes.”

Authors can help improve the diversity of Geomorphica’s reviewer pool by including members of underrepresented groups (considering for example gender, career stage, location) in their lists of suggested reviewers. Authors should suggest recommended reviewers in the relevant subject area. Where a submission focuses on a specific geographical location, we recommend that the authors offer at least one reviewer based in that region (assuming that the reviewer has a reasonable degree of expertise in the subject area). This effort ensures a broader diversity of reviewers and increases the impact of the scientific work. 

Here, you are also invited to list reviewers who should not be contacted due to conflicts of interest or other reasons (reasons do not have to be explained).

Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID)
Corresponding Authors and all co-authors of published papers are highly encouraged to provide their Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID). 

Author contributions statement
The title page should contain a short statement stating who did what using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT). All authors whose names appear on the submission must have followed the different steps of the research. Co-authors are required to have played a role in (i) the conception or design of the research and/or in data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation; (ii) the creation of new software/script used in the research; (iii) the writing, revising and final approval of the manuscript. Contributors who do not meet the authorship requirements should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please see further instructions and examples in our title page templates.

Role of corresponding author
The corresponding author acts on behalf of all co-authors and ensures that the submitted manuscript meets the scientific and ethical standards of Geomorphica, as well as the originality of the submitted material. The corresponding author is the sole in charge of communicating with the journal and the Editorial Board. Before manuscript submission, the corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have approved the manuscript, including the text, illustrations and tables, supplementary materials, list and order of authors, reference to funding agencies, and the Acknowledgment section. 

Changes to authorship
The corresponding author must ensure the correctness of authors names, affiliations, and addresses at the submission stage. Changes of authorship (e.g., adding authors, deleting authors, changes in corresponding author, changes in the sequence of authors) are possible only during the stage of revision of manuscripts. The corresponding author must justify any change to authorship by emailing the Editor-in-Chief, explaining the reasons for changes; the written approval of each author of the manuscript is also mandatory. Changes to authorship are not possible after acceptance of a manuscript. Approval of changes to authorship during the revision stages is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

Authorship issues
In the case of an authorship dispute at any stage of the editorial process, Geomorphica and the Editor-in-Chief will not be in the position to adjudicate. If authors are unable to clarify the dispute themselves, Geomorphica reserves the right to withdraw a manuscript from the editorial process. In case of published papers, the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board may ask authors to retract or withdraw a manuscript. Any other issue related to authorship must be discussed with the Editor-in-Chief.

Use of AI and authorship
Geomorphica supports the use of new technologies in any field of geomorphological research, for example with the use of machine learning algorithms. However, for the sake of transparency and integrity of authorship, the use of AI-assisted text generators in creating scientific content for papers is not allowed, except for grammatical or comprehension improvements of a text written by a human. Artificial Intelligence cannot be co-author as it should not be used to create substantial parts of the manuscript. But if it has been used to improve the writing or style of some parts (for example by the use of an AI-powered grammar and style checker), it is suggested to recognize this by adding a sentence in the acknowledgment. In case of doubt, please contact the Editor-in-Chief before submitting a contribution.

Author name change
An author who has changed their name (for example because of gender transition or religious conversion) may request for their name, pronouns and other relevant biographical information to be corrected on papers published prior to the change.  The author can choose for this correction to happen silently, in which case there will be no note flagging the change on either the pdf or the html of the paper, or alternatively they may do so by a formal public Author Correction.

When the research was conducted on the (previous) land(s) of indigenous people, authors should include appropriate acknowledgments for the lands and the indigenous communities in the “Land Recognition” section of the title page upon submission. For further details about requirements and examples, please see our Land Recognition Guidelines.

Authors must ensure the reproducibility of scientific results by making their data and code publicly accessible wherever possible. Upon submission, a “Data and Code Availability” statement must be included in the submitted title page. Data and code should be archived in appropriate public FAIR data repositories that provide long-term access, such as Zenodo, Figshare, and Dryad (GitHub is not considered as permanent repository to host static data and codes). Links and DOI of the data and code submission to a FAIR repository should be included in the “Data and Code Availability” statement and made publicly available upon acceptance. Complete documentation of the methodologies used must accompany the data and code, detailing the purpose of each script, the sequence they should be run, and any software or system dependencies. This ensures clarity and ease of replication for other researchers.

Statements like “please contact the authors for data access” are unacceptable unless digital distribution is not possible.

Authors must ensure that their revised manuscript comprehensively address the recommended changes to avoid multiple review cycles and reviewer fatigue. The response letter should clearly outline all changes made to the manuscript, providing detailed justifications without being terse or vague—even for minor revisions.

Respectful communication is crucial. Personal or abusive remarks towards reviewers are unacceptable and will be referred to an independent appeal committee, potentially leading to manuscript rejection. If you disagree with a reviewer, politely explain your reasoning, adhering to the journal’s Code of Conduct.

To prevent bias and ensure inclusivity, avoid gender-specific or racially charged language. We recommend using passive, gender-neutral language in your responses (e.g., “the reviewer suggests…” instead of “he/she suggests…”).

When submitting a revised version of your manuscript, please also submit a response to reviewers giving a point-by-point response to the reviewers' and Editors’ comments and "tracked" manuscript (word document or pdf), highlighting all the changes made in the document. The response to reviewers should guide the editor and reviewers through the changes, succinctly explaining the rationale behind each response to reviewer comments but comments should be addressed as much as possible within the manuscript.    
Ensure all submission files remain anonymized.

A license allows another person to use data under certain conditions set by the rights holder. A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. Authors might also consider applying open-source licenses to their software that comply with the Open Source Definition. These licenses allow software to be freely used, modified, and shared.

Authors may use any license of their choice for the preprint, but we recommend a Creative Commons CC-BY license. Before selecting a license, consult the terms of any grant or funding  related to the publication, as some programs enforce specific licenses for preprints.

Preprints and Postprints
Geomorphica considers for publication manuscripts that have been hosted elsewhere as preprints. A preprint is an author’s original version of a research manuscript prior to formal peer review at a journal, which is deposited on a public server such as ArXiv, EarthArXiv or ESSOAr. However, to maintain anonymity in our triple-anonymous review process, we discourage the use of preprint archiving. Once published in Geomorphica, articles are freely accessible, eliminating the necessity for a preprint.

Postprint Archiving
Authors may archive postprints—accepted manuscripts including modifications from peer review but before final copyediting and proofing—on any platform of their choice. However, since manuscripts accepted by Geomorphica are available as open access and the authors keep the copyright, we encourage the authors to share directly their paper published by Geomorphica.

Sharing and Self-archiving Policy
After acceptance, only the typeset, formatted version of the article is published. Authors are encouraged to share this version on platforms like ResearchGate, institutional repositories, and personal websites. The corresponding author must ensure the accuracy of all content in the proof, including details of co-authors.

Long-term Preservation Policy

Geomorphica recognizes the importance of ensuring long-term access and preservation to all of the content it publishes, as the articles retain value long after their initial publication. To ensure this long-term preservation, Geomorphica participates in a LOCKSS system via the Public Knowledge Project’s Preservation Network (PKP PN). The journal is hosted and preserved locally on Penn State University’s servers, and preserved long-term through the PN. Should the need arise for the preserved content to be made available, the PKP PN will be opened to ensure continued access to the preserved journal content.