BCRA > Publications > Cave & Karst Science > Guidelines

See also Copyright

Guidelines for Authors

These revised guidelines & notes were published in C&KS 33(1) in January 2007. They are also available as a single A4 page PDF (35K) by clicking here.

Scope of Articles

Authors are encouraged to submit articles for publication in Cave and Karst Science - the Transactions of the British Cave Research Association - under four broad headings...

Papers: Scientific papers, normally up to 6,000 words, on any aspect of karst or speleological science, including archaeology, biology, chemistry, conservation, geology, geomorphology, history, hydrology and physics. Manuscript papers should be of a high standard, and will be subject to peer review by two referees.

Reports: Shorter contributions, normally 500-3,000 words, on aspects of karst or speleological science, as listed above, or more descriptive material, such as caving expedition reports and technical articles. Manuscripts will be reviewed by the Editorial Board unless the subject matter is outside their fields of expertise, in which case assessment by an appropriate expert will be sought.

Forum: Personal statements, normally up to 1,000 words, on topical issues; discussion of published papers, and book reviews. Where appropriate, statements should put forward an argument and make a case, backed-up by examples used as evidence.

Abstracts: Authors (or supervisors) of undergraduate or postgraduate dissertations on cave or karst themes are encouraged to submit abstracts for publication. Please indicate whether the thesis is available on inter-library loan. Abstracts of papers presented at BCRA (and related) conferences or symposiums are also welcome.

Prospective authors are welcome to contact the Editors (see contacting us for addresses), who will be pleased to advise on manuscript preparation.

The following notes are intended to help authors prepare their material in the most advantageous way. Time and effort are saved if the rules below are followed. Queries regarding the content or format of the material should be made before submitting the manuscript. On publication, authors will be provided with 20 reprints of their contribution, free of charge, for their own use.

Manuscript Style

Text: Material should be presented in a style as close as possible to that adopted by Cave and Karst Science since 1994. Subheadings within an article should follow the system used in Cave and Karst Science; a system of primary, secondary and, if necessary, tertiary subheadings should be indicated clearly.

Abstract: Material should be accompanied by an abstract, stating the essential results of the investigation or the significance of the contribution, for use by abstracting, library and other services.

References to previously published work should be given in the standard format used in Cave and Karst Science. In the text author's name and date (and page number if appropriate) should be given in parentheses - (Smith, 1969, p.42). All references cited in the text should be given in full, in alphabetical order, at the end of the manuscript, thus - Smith, D E, 1969. The speleo-genesis of the Cavern Hole. Bulletin of the Yorkshire Caving Association, Vo1.7, 1-63. Books should be cited by the author (or editor), date, title, city of publication and publisher. Periodical titles must written in full. Failure to provide full and unambiguous information may lead to a delay in publication.

Acknowledgements: Anyone who has given a grant or helped with the investigation, or with the preparation of the article, should be acknowledged briefly. Contributors in universities and other institutions are reminded that grants towards the cost of publication may be available, and they should make the appropriate enquiries as early as possible. Expedition budgets often include an element to help publication, and the Editors should be informed of this.

Speleological expeditions have a moral obligation to produce reports (contractual in the case of Ghar Parau Foundation awards). These should be concise and cover the results of the expedition as soon as possible after the return from overseas, so that later expeditions are informed for their planning. Personal anecdotes should be kept to a minimum, but useful advice such as location of food supplies, medical services, etc, may be included, preferably as appendices.

Copyright: Copyright of text, photos, and graphics that appear in this journal will not be assigned to the BCRA but the Association shall retain, in perpetuity, a non-exclusive licence to reproduce this work in any medium. This licence shall extend to the separate publication of individual articles in this journal, and to BCRA's licensing of the content of this journal to database and library services, but not to any other use of the author's material. The Association shall consider any restrictions that the author wishes to apply to this licence, and such restrictions may only be agreed in writing. Contributors must confirm that the contribution is your original work, and will not infringe any existing copyright. If you use material from other copyrighted sources, the owner's written consent must be obtained for BCRA to publish the material. Submissions (including letters to the editor) are assumed to be for publication unless stated otherwise. BCRA does not seek to own the copyright in an author's contributions, which means that you are free to use your original material elsewhere. However we request that you acknowledge publication by BCRA. See bcra.org.uk/copyright for further information.

Submission Medium

Submissions on paper: Manuscripts may be submitted on paper, if other methods are not possible. Text should be typed double-spaced on one side of the paper only, with 20mm margins on all sides. Please see below for information about diagrams, tables and photographs.

Submissions on disc: PC-compatible floppy discs or CD-ROMs are preferred. If you have any other file format or medium then submission by email is preferred. If this is not possible please contact us for advice.

Submissions via the Internet: Manuscripts may be sent by email or, if you have very large files, we can fetch them from your web or FTP server. If you need to upload to our server, please contact us for advice.

File naming: Files, whether sent via a physical medium or the Internet, can be difficult to keep track of. We advise that all your file names (including photos and graphics files) should begin with the same string of characters, e.g. your surname. If you are submitting a large number of files it is especially helpful to receive an index - a file containing a list of file names and their contents.

Manuscript Format

Text: Our preferred format for text is Microsoft Word (DOC) or Rich Text Format (RTF). If this is not possible then we can accept any format that can reliably be imported into Word. Manuscripts that do not include accented characters or symbols can be submitted as plain text (TXT) files. Please do not include tables, graphics or photos in the same file as your text. These should be supplied separately, as detailed below.

Layout: Although the material should be compatible with our 'house style' regarding headings etc., you should not attempt to match our layout. Text should be laid out in a single column with the paragraph style configured to be 'double-spaced'. Character formatting (bold, italic, sub- and superscript) can be applied, but please do not use any paragraph formatting. This is because your formatting will be stripped out when we import your text into our DTP package.

Symbols: In MS Word, special symbols other than accented Roman characters (e.g. Greek letters, mathematical symbols and icons) should, where possible, be taken from the Symbol font, and not from the font used for your Normal paragraph style.

Tables, Graphics and Photos: Tables and diagrams should be referred to in the text, where necessary, as (Table 4), (Fig. 3), etc. Photographs are welcome, but should not be referred to in the text, except where essential and then only after discussion with the Editors. The approximate position of tables, graphics and photos can be indicated by, e.g., <Insert Photo B> or a pencilled note in the margin of paper manuscripts. A full list of captions should be submitted at the end of the manuscript, after a page break (or on a separate sheet of paper). For photographs you should give the name of the photographer and if any material is not your own work, you must state that you have permission to use it.

Tables should be submitted in a separate file; numbered in sequence and provided with captions. Please use a simple format that is easily editable. For example, use tabs or table cells rather than spaces to separate data, and do not merge table cells unless strictly necessary. Separate each table using a page break (or submit on separate sheets of paper).

Graphical illustrations should be designed to make maximum use of page space. Maps must have bar scales only. Graphics should not use any colour. When submitting graphics, please bear in mind that the referees may request changes to be made (e.g. you may wish to submit a paper draft). Various Digital Graphics formats are acceptable, but some are advised against - e.g. MS Word's built-in facilities (autoshapes, text boxes and MS Draw) can cause problems. Vector formats are preferred but if you use a bit-mapped format it should have a resolution of at least 600 dpi (preferable 1200 dpi). Do not use a 'hairline' line-width setting, as this generally reproduces at a printer-default of one pixel, which is too narrow. The minimum line width should be at least 0.5pt (0.007 inch, 0.2mm, 4 pixels @ 600dpi) at final size. Type generally should not exceed 10pt nor be smaller than 6pt in the final version; 8pt type is preferred. Paper Graphics are acceptable, but they must be in black ink (not pencil!) on high-quality material (cartridge paper, tracing paper, Kodatrace, etc.). If photo-reduction is contemplated, all letters and lines must be large and thick enough to allow for their reduction. Unless CAD-generated, lettering should be done by stencil, Letraset or similar methods, not hand-written.

Photographs should be in sharp focus and of good contrast. Prints (e.g. 150 x 100mm) and 35mm transparencies are acceptable as well as digital photos, which must be of sufficient resolution - at least 300 dpi at final print size - and should not be edited before submission. (We will apply the necessary contrast adjustment and sharpening to suit our printing process, which we cannot do if the photo has already been adjusted). Preferred formats are LZW-compressed TIF, or JPG with minimal compression. Highly compressed JPGs may not be useable.