Submission and Scope of Publications

Papers intended for publication in Palaeontology and Special Papers in Palaeontology must be submitted through the Palaeontology Manuscript Central electronic editorial office (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pala) , where all procedural details are available. The submission should be accompanied by the dispatch by post of a single paper copy to the Editor-in-Chief (for address, see the inside front cover of recent issues of these publications). Authors should consult the 'Notes for Authors' document for full details of submission procedure.

PALAEONTOLOGY. Manuscripts on any aspect of palaeontology will be considered for publication. Papers on Recent material may be acceptable if their palaeontological relevance is clear. Preference is given to topics that have more than local significance; those describing only one or two new species of common genera are not usually accepted. As noted above, Reviews are welcome provided that they contain a substantial amount of new information and/or new interpretations. Those solicited by the Council of the Association will be given priority of publication, as will short papers on topical issues, exceptional new discoveries and major developments that have important implications for evolution, palaeoclimate, depositional environments and other matters of general interest both within and beyond the field of palaeontology/palaeobiology. Such Rapid communications will not amount to more than ten printed pages in the journal. A paper accepted as a 'Rapid communication' will appear in the next available issue. Short contributions that are acceptable but do not merit fast-tracking will be included with revised manuscripts of regular submissions. These are published approximately in the order they are received by the Editor-in-Chief, length and possible production problems permitting.

Palaeontology is covered by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing's OnlineEarly service. OnlineEarly articles are complete papers published online in advance of their appearance in a printed issue. Because they are in their final form, no changes can be made after they have been made available in this way. Each is given a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), which allows the paper to be tracked and cited before it is allocated to an issue. The DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access it after print publication. Papers that contain descriptions of new genera and species and new combinations thereof will not be placed online until the issue in which they are to be included is published.

SPECIAL PAPERS IN PALAEONTOLOGY. These are for papers that are longer than normally accepted for Palaeontology or for thematic collections of articles. The decision on whether to publish a long paper as a Special Paper or in Palaeontology rests with the Editor-in-Chief and may sometimes depend on current production schedules.

FIELD GUIDES TO FOSSILS. Published at irregular intervals, these are designed primarily to be of value for the identification of fossils found in the British Isles, but guides to fossils encountered in successions overseas will also be considered. They should be broad in scope, and compiled and written in a style that will appeal to both amateur enthusiasts and professional palaeontologists.

FOLD-OUT FOSSILS. Published at irregular intervals, these are aimed at both professional and amateur geologists and palaeontologists who want to be able to identify particular groups of fossils in the field. The first issue, published in 2003, is a fold-out document that consists of a title page and five plates on one side, and text, including a glossary of terms, on the other.

Authors wishing to submit manuscripts for publication as a Special Paper, Field Guide or Fold-Out should contact the Editor-in-Chief in the first instance by letter or e-mail in which the proposed content, anticipated date of submission, and approximate number of manuscript pages, text-figures and plates are provided.

Notes for Authors

The current Notes for Authors, last updated March 2008, are available in PDF format. In order to be able to read and print these notes you will need a copy of Adobe Reader, which can be downloaded freely downloaded from Adobe.

Copyright

Authors of papers that are accepted for publication will be asked to sign over the copyright to the Association.

If you use Endnote, you may find the following Palaeontology Style files helpful in formatting your references for submission to Palaeontology.

Three files are available:

• Palaeontology7.ens (Palaeontology Style for PC tested with Endnote v. 7)
• Palaeontology8.ens (Palaeontology Style for MAC tested with Endnote version 8, not compatible with earlier versions)
• Palaeontology.ens (Palaeontology Style for MAC tested with Endnote pre-version 8 )

Place the right file in your Endnote "styles" folder to get them to work, and follow help instructions with Endnote if you have any problems with this.