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Arctic is a peer-reviewed, primary research journal that publishes the results of scientific research from all areas of Arctic scholarship. Original scholarly papers in the physical, social, and biological sciences, humanities, engineering, and technology are included, as are book reviews, commentaries, letters to the editor, and profiles of significant people, places, or events of northern interest.
This guide acquaints authors with the format and style used by Arctic. Following Arctic's style minimizes the need for editorial change, which speeds up publication. Since Arctic publishes papers from a variety of disciplines, it is especially necessary to avoid disciplinary jargon and to ensure that the title and abstract are informative. Authors are solely responsible for the content and opinions expressed in their papers.
Papers reporting on research involving the use of experimental animals must be accompanied by documentation showing that they have been examined by an institutional animal care committee and adhere to the guidelines established by the Canadian Council on Animal Care or similar bodies.
Click here to download a printable PDF of the guide.
Authors should send a PDF file, with all tables and figures included, as an e-mail attachment to the editor kmccullo [at] ucalgary [dot] ca. Please check the file carefully to ensure that no symbols, equations, or special characters have defaulted. A maximum word count of 12,000 words will be considered.
Since Arctic follows a policy of blind review, the PDF file should contain two title pages: the first showing 1) the full title; 2) the authors’ names, listed in the order in which they are to appear in print; and 3) a complete address for each author. (This information should reflect each author’s affiliation and address at the time of the study. Updated affiliations and addresses may follow as needed.) The second title page should contain only the full title. Authors’ names should not appear elsewhere in the manuscript.
Authors must affirm that any submission to Arctic has not been and will not be published or submitted elsewhere while under consideration by Arctic. Any previously published materials used in the article must be clearly identified and accompanied by written permission from the holder of the copyright.
Following peer review, revised manuscripts should be submitted with a covering letter clearly indicating how the comments and criticisms of the reviewers have been addressed.
Original Submissions: The PDF file submitted for consideration should be double-spaced throughout, with all pages numbered. To assist reviewers, please add line numbering to your manuscript. Double spacing is also used for references, tables, appendices, and figure captions, although large tables may be single-spaced. Note that all illustrative materials are designated as “figures”; for example, the term “plate” is not used in Arctic.
Each of the following sections of a manuscript begins on a separate page: title page; abstract plus key words; text; references; appendices; tables (each on a separate page); and figure captions (running consecutively on one page, or more as necessary).
Abstracts are concise (about 200 words) and informative, able to stand alone as a summary of the paper. A list of about ten key words follows the abstract. In addition to the English abstract, authors are encouraged to supply abstracts in French and Russian if possible. Arctic will obtain a French translation of the abstract if one is not included. Russian abstracts, if supplied, must be camera-ready in a single-spaced version, giving the key words in a row (not in a column) and must use 9–9.5 point type and 6.75 inch wide text, or be reducible to those dimensions.
Arctic does not use footnotes or end notes.
Accepted Papers: Authors of accepted manuscripts should submit their final revision in Microsoft Word as an e-mail attachment or on a CD. Each figure should be submitted as a separate file (see TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS below).
Spelling: For English-language papers, either American or British spelling may be used; please be consistent.
Abbreviations: People from a wide variety of disciplines read Arctic. It is important, therefore, that when specialist abbreviations are used, the full wording precede their first mention—e.g., Initial Management Stock (IMS).
The abbreviation “Fig.” is always used in citations in parentheses, but “Figure” is spelled out when used in the text—e.g., “Figure 2 represents the study area.”
Names of organisms: Nomenclature in Arctic follows accepted international codes. Authorities may be cited either when a name first appears in the text (not in the title) or, if more appropriate (especially when citing a large number of organisms), in a table.
Common names of organisms do not begin with a capital letter (e.g., bowhead whale, snow goose) unless they contain a proper name (e.g., Dall sheep). Anglicized versions of Latin names do not begin with capitals, nor are they italicized (e.g., canid).
Dates and times: Full dates given in the text are written in the order day-month-year, without commas (e.g., 23 September 2003). Abbreviated forms may be used for dates in tables, appendices, and figures.
Numbers and units of measurement: Arctic uses metric units, following the International System of Units (SI). Metric units of distance or weight in common usage—e.g., metre, gram, kilometre—are represented by symbols (m, g, km). Less commonly used metric units are spelled out when first mentioned, followed by the symbol or abbreviation in parentheses, and thereafter referred to by symbol or abbreviation. SI abbreviations are not followed by a period or pluralized (e.g., 5 cm, not 5 cm. or 5 cms).
In the text, numbers under 10 (as distinct from measurements) are written in word form (e.g., nine samples) unless combined with a number of 10 or more (e.g., 9–14 samples).
Commas are not used in large numbers. Numbers up to 9999 are written in the form 7427 rather than 7,247. Numbers 10 000 and larger have the digits broken into groups of three, e.g., 12 101 935.
Capitalization: “Arctic” is capitalized when it is used as a noun (“the Arctic”). Used as an adjective, “arctic” is capitalized when it refers to the geographic region (i.e., Arctic communities) and lowercased when it refers to very low temperatures (i.e., arctic gale). Established names of Arctic flora and fauna are lowercased (i.e., arctic fox). The same rules apply for “subarctic.” “North” is capitalized only when referring to a specific geographical area or as part of a geographical name, never when used as a direction. “Antarctic” is always capitalized, as it refers to one of the great divisions of the earth’s surface and also to a particular continent, from which the adjective is derived.
It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that all references are complete and accurate. Reference lists are double-spaced. Journal titles must be completely spelled out, not abbreviated. In titles of books and articles, only the first word is capitalized, as well as any proper names. Works are ordered alphabetically within two categories: first a single author, and next the same author with one other author. The “et al.” citations (three or more authors) are ordered chronologically. In references with up to ten authors, all names should be listed. For references with 11 or more authors, only the first seven should be listed, followed by "et al." If more than one reference by a given author or authors was published in the same year, these are differentiated as 1995a, 1995b, etc. both in the reference list and when citing references in the text. If a reference has a digital object identifier (doi) assigned to it, please add it at the end of the reference. The basic style is as follows:
Some references do not fit readily into these forms. In such cases (e.g., archives, public records), authors should provide full information on the reference and the editors rule on the form to be used.
References to websites should be kept to a minimum. The editors will ensure that all URLs cited are active at the time of publication.
When citing references in the text, the following forms are used: Brodeur (1991) or (Brodeur, 1991); Reid and Reed (1994) or (Reid and Reed, 1994). Works having three or more authors are cited by the first author's name followed by "et al." (e.g., Ringnes et al., 1986). Several references cited together should be ordered by year of publication and separated by semicolons.
If material is quoted directly from another work, the page number on which it is found must be included in the citation: (Baffin and Banks, 1995:27).
The phrase "in press" is used only for papers already accepted for publication. Papers "in press" have the title of the paper and the name of the journal in the reference list.
Unpublished material not "in press" is cited according to the year it was written. Citation of unpublished manuscripts is done only when there is a permanent repository at which copies are available. Such unpublished works are listed in the reference list with the full address of the repository included. For example:
JOHNSON, M.M. 1994 Japanese/Russian/American Chukchi Sea circulation study: Marine mammal and seabird observations. Unpubl. ms. Available at the Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, U.S.A.
In cases of personal communication with no publication involved, the name and year are given in the text (e.g., A. Heiberg, pers. comm. 1995). Such citations are not listed in the References section. Personal communications should be used only with the knowledge and agreement of the person cited.
Tables: Tables are typed one table per page, and each table is referred to in the text. A concise but informative title should be provided for each table. Additional information may be given in footnotes below the table. Tables are to be included on disk as part of the word processing/text file or in Microsoft Excel.
Figures: Drawings, maps, charts, and photographs are provided by the author, each on a single page, with the figure number given outside the margins of the figure. Each figure is referred to, in numerical order, in the text. Captions are given consecutively on a separate sheet, typed double-spaced.
Final figures should be supplied in digital format, with each figure in a separate file. All digital files must be in a format suitable for high-quality offset print production. Figure numbers and captions should not be included on the digital files.
Halftones: Digital files of halftones (photographs) should be provided at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi at the final size for reproduction. In Arctic, single-column width is 3.5 inches (minimum width); double-column width is 7.25 inches. Digital halftone files should be scanned as RGB and saved in TIFF format.
Lineshots: For diagrams, maps, graphs and all other non-photographic figures (lineshots), digital files should be created as vector graphics in Freehand, Illustrator, or CorelDraw and supplied in both native and EPS (encapsulated PostScript) formats. Please do not submit PDF, PowerPoint, PICT, DOC, or Excel files, as these formats cannot be used in the production path employed for Arctic. Select a clear sans-serif typeface (e.g., the Helvetica family) to use consistently in all figures, ensuring that all typeface elements will be legible when the figure is reduced to print size (either 3.5 or 7.25 inches wide). Avoid using CAPS, bold, or italic whenever possible. If using more than one font point size, vary the point sizes only slightly—for example, 10 pt and 12 pt, not 12 pt and 18 pt.
Typeface defaults are the most common error with digital files, so if Adobe Type 1 fonts are unavailable, a copy of the illustration should be saved and renamed with the suffix CTP. Then all typeface elements in that copy should be converted to paths (curves, elements or objects; the term varies with the application) before saving the file as a Macintosh EPS or TIFF graphic, with a screen preview. Converting all type elements to paths overrides any requirement to include screen and printer font files with the figures and prevents typeface defaults when the paper goes to print.
Figures should be supplied on a CD-ROM that is Macintosh-compatible. If the files are not too large (each file should be under 5 MB or a series of files should cumulatively not exceed 5 MB), they can also be sent as e-mail attachments. Each file should be identified by senior author name and number: eg., HayesFIG. 1, HayesFIG. 2, etc., and the software application and version number in which the file was created should be noted.
If lineshots cannot be sent as EPS files, they should be output at 1200 dpi on a high quality, smooth laser paper stock (i.e., 24 lb Hammermill or Xerox, bright white, 98 brightness).
Shaded elements and patterns: Wherever possible, avoid the use of halftone, grayscale screens to shade a component of a histogram or an area on a map. Instead, use tint values of 20%, 50%, 60% and 80%, or 25%, 50%, and 75%. As an alternative to grayscale screens, pick clearly differentiated patterns that can be presented in black and white, and include solid black and solid white.
Colour photographs or illustrations can be printed in colour only if the author agrees to pay the extra cost of production.
Notes: Arctic also publishes short manuscripts with significant findings as Notes. A note manuscript has the same requirements as full-length manuscripts and is subject to the same peer review. Arctic does not publish extended abstracts.
Arctic Profiles: Short essays on significant people, places, and events of northern interest are published as Arctic Profiles. Such pieces are accepted at the discretion of the editor.
Book Reviews: The editor receives new publications from publishers for review in Arctic. If the editor considers a book to be of interest to the readership, a reviewer is invited to prepare a book review according to Arctic’s Book Review Guidelines.
Letters to the Editor: Letters of general interest to the readership are published at the discretion of the editor. Short constructive critiques of papers appearing in Arctic are encouraged. These are sent to the author of the paper for reply, and the discussion is published as Letters to the Editor.
Obituaries: Upon the death of an individual who has made a significant contribution to the North, Arctic typically publishes a one-to-two page obituary written by a colleague or personal acquaintance, along with a photograph of the deceased.
Proofs: A PDF file page proof is sent to the author (or, in cases of multiple authorship, to the corresponding author) for expeditious examination. Subsequent page proofs are checked only by the editor.
Page charges: Nonmandatory page charges are levied for papers published in Arctic to help defray production costs. Authors, especially those with institutional and grant support, are urged to take all reasonable steps to pay the charges.
Offprints: Authors may purchase offprints in lots of 25, 50 or 100. An offprint order form is sent to authors with the page proof file and must be returned with any revisions, as the offprints are printed at the same time as the journals.
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USA: University of Alaska P.O. Box 6808 Rasmuson Library Fairbanks, Alaska USA 99775-6808 Telephone: (907) 474-7450 Fax: (907) 474-7290 |
