Submissions

Author Guidelines

Language
The journal publishes papers in British English or American English; a mix of the two will not be accepted. A pre-submission check of the English language by an English mother-tongue is recommended. Information on language editing can be found at amq.aiqua.it. AIQUA assumes no responsibility on the proficiency of external services. The Authors are fully responsible for the quality of the final written language. To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the spell-check and grammar-check functions of your wordprocessor.

Submission

The manuscript, tables and figures must be sent to amq@aiqua.it with a cover letter signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors stating that:

1. the publication is approved by all the authors;
2. it has not been published previously nor being considered for publication elsewhere, except in the form of abstract or as oral communication;
3. the work including figures, tables and artworks are original.

Reproduction of figures and tables published in other journal is allowed by exhibiting the permission grant. The cover letter should also specify:

1. the complete address and contacts (e-mail, phone, fax) of the corresponding author;
2. potential reviewers with the indication of their complete address and contacts.

The introduction of extended Abstracts in Italian, French, Spanish or Portuguese, comprehensive of main references and citation of figures and tables, may be requested by the Author in the cover letter

The paper must be submitted only in a digital format.

Wordprocessing and first page
Use wordprocessor to prepare your manuscript as an editable .doc file or .docx file with a single-column and simple layout without justify. You can use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts. Secondary parts of the text can be differentiated with a smaller font. Divide your article into numbered sections. The abstract should not be included in section numbering.

1. The first page of the manuscript should contain these information:
2. Title
3. Running title (a short title to be included in the head of each page, maximum 60 characters long)
4. Authors
5. Affiliations
6. Name of corresponding author
7. Abstract
8. Keywords

Title and authors
For the title, as short and descriptive as possible, keep in mind that the terms will be used for indexing purposes and by databases and do not use all uppercase letters.
After the title, the authors' names should be in full with superscript numbers and followed by a numerical list of affiliation, full postal address and country name of authors; in the next line "Corresponding author:" and the relative e-mail address should be indicated.

Abstract and keywords
The abstract must be informative on the aims, methods and results of the paper. It should not exceed 500 words.
Up to five keywords are required. They must be specific and informative, and will be used for indexing purposes. Name of the general area is appropriate (e.g. Southern Italy), while local names must be avoided (e.g. Scilla). Use, if possible, species names instead of genus (e.g. Strombus bubonius instead of Gasteropoda, or both), and constrain time intervals (e.g. Calabrian instead of Quaternary).

Text
The manuscript normally should not exceed 15,000 words and can contain a maximum of 25 figures/ tables. Contributions longer than 15,000 words require a specific agreement with the Editor.
For the text a .doc, .docx or .txt format is required.
The introduction must briefly state the aims and background of the work.
Abbreviations should be clearly stated when they first appear in the text or in an appendix at the end of the article, to be inserted before references.
The text must be divided into chapters (e.g., 1., 2.) and paragraphs (1.1., 1.2., etc.). Terms which are not English must be in italics. Secondary parts of the text can be written with smaller body.
Acknowledgements are reported before references.

References
All references in the reference list must be cited in the text.
References should be cited in the text as follows:
In brackets: (Westaway et al., 2009)
In sentences: Westaway et al. (2009)
For works with two authors use: Westaway & Bridgland (2007).

The reference list must be reported at the end of the article in alphabetical then chronological order:

For articles:
Westaway R. (1993) - Quaternary uplift of southern Italy. Journal of Geophysical Research, 98(B12), 21741-21772.
Westaway R. (2003) - Kinematics of the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean updated. Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences, 12(1), 5-46.
Westaway R.,  Bridgland D. (2007) - Late Cenozoic uplift of southern Italy deduced from fluvial and marine sediments: Coupling between surface processes and lower-crustal flow. Quaternary International,175(1), 86-124.
Westaway R., Bridgland D.R., Sinha R., Demir T. (2009) - Fluvial sequences as evidence for landscape and climatic evolution in the Late Cenozoic: A synthesis of data from IGCP 518. Global and Planetary Change, 68(4), 237-253.

For books:
Waltam T., Bell F., Culshaw M. (2005) – Sinkholes and subsidence. Karst and cavernous rocks in engineering and costruction. Praxis Publishing Ltd, Chichester, UK.
At the end, expecially for article in press, the Digital Object Identifier could be used:
Kopp R., Simons F. J., Mitrovica J. X., Oppenheimer M. (2009) - Probabilistic assessment of sea level during the last interglacial stage. Nature, 462, 863-867, doi:10.1038/nature08686.

For web downloading journals, the indication of DOI or URL hyperlink is recommended:
Carrara C., Branca M., Pisegna Cerone E., Verrubbi V., Voltaggio M. (2006) - Calcareous tufa deposits of the Aniene Valley between Vallepietra and Mandela-Vicovaro (Latium, central Italy). Il Quaternario, 19(1), 19-44

Figures and tables
Figures must be numbered consecutively in the order they appear in the text using the prefix Fig. The same for tables using the prefix Tab.
Figures and tables should be provided with separate files, not included in the text. Figures should be in .jpg or .tif format, with a minimum 300 dpi resolution (600 dpi for graphs, drawings and maps), approximately at the same size of the printed version: 7.6 cm, 10.0 cm or 16.2 cm wide and maximum 23.4 cm high. Symbols and letters must be of appropriate size (minimum 8 pt), taking into account the final dimension of illustrations. The editorial staff reserves the right to change the size of the pictures for printing needs.
Tables should be submitted in .xls and, additionally, in .jpg or .pdf formats. Maps should be provided with an index map, latitude and longitude of extremes, north arrow and scale bar. For easier geographical reference, some elements of topography and toponyms must be also produced.

Supporting material
On request by the author, the article can be supplied with supporting material, such as large maps, graphs, database, images.
All expenses related to the insertion of the supporting material in the hard-copy version of the issue (e.g., as separate sheets, CD, etc.) rely on the author. Costs and feasibility must be previously checked and agreed with the Editor in Chief.
Maps should have an index map, latitude and longitude, north arrow and scale bar. The full reference to the article should be clearly reported in the map.
In the case that the supporting material is not inserted in the hard-copy version of the issue, the paper must nevertheless maintain its original meaning.

Units and abbreviations
Units of measurement (unit names, unit symbols, prefixes, etc.) must refer to the International System of Units. For "above sea level" the abbreviation a.s.l. should be used instead of asl.

Ages and radiometric dating
The symbols "a" and "ka" should be used for expressing year and one thousand years, respectively.
Uncalibrated radiocarbon ages should be expressed as 14C a/ka BP; calibrated calendar ages as cal a/ka BP or as years BC/AD. The calibration curve and software used for calibrating the radiocarbon datings should be clearly stated in the methods, with reference to literature. For other original radiometric dating methods (fission track, Ar/Ar, U/Th, OSL, cosmogenic nuclides ...) a brief description of the methodology and standards is recommended, referring to literature for exhaustive information. If several radiometric ages are used in the text, data should be grouped in tables.

Nomenclature
For the reference stratigraphic nomenclature it is recommended to use the formal subdivisions of the statigraphic chart referring to the guidelines of the International Commission of Stratigraphy. Regional stratigraphic frameworks should be consistent with the International Stratigraphic Code (Salvador, 1994). Units not yet formally defined in the international nomenclature (i.e. climate stratigraphy, event stratigraphy) must refer to internationally accessible, peer-reviewed published papers. All formal subdivisions must be written with an upper case initial letter. The informal terms lowermost and uppermost should be used in a chronostratigraphical framework, latest and earliest in a geochronological one. For botanical and zoological nomenclature the latest editions of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature should be respectively followed. Specialized nomenclatures (e.g. formal names, palynological types, fossil vertebrate taxa) should rely on internationally accessible, published references. Species and genus names must be in italics.

Peer-review and editing process
The Editor-in-Chief and Associated Editors receive the manuscript and assign it to the reviewers, who will carry out the revision process within three weeks. Authors must accomplish the requests of the Editors and reviewers within three weeks. Reasoned request of change to the authorship (addition, removal, rearrangement) can be sent by the Corresponding Author to the Editor before the article is published on-line; to this end the signs of all authors, including those removed, are requested.

Proofs
Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for final approval. Corrections can only concern errors introduced during the production process and must be resent within 48 hours.

Publication
The corresponding author will be notified as soon as the paper will be available online at the website amq.aiqua.it.

Copyright
AMQ does not require an explicit copyright transfer by the authors. Figures and other materials published on AMQ may be used in other publication by simply citing the source.
It is the author's responsibility to obtain written permission for the reproduction of illustrations from other copyright journals.

Publication ethics and publication malpractice statement
For ethical guidelines of the journal see here.