Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh publishes peer-reviewed, original scientific research papers, reviews and short communications on fields across the broad spectrum of the Earth and its surface environments. Articles do not need to have a specifically Scottish focus, nor are authors required to be Fellows of the Society. Articles should have relevance to a worldwide audience, even if the study is focused on a single geographic site. Papers should make topical, substantial and scholarly contributions, and the Editors are keen to encourage interdisciplinary papers. Discussions of articles previously published in the Transactions and reviews of topics of current interest are also invited. There are no page charges and all new submissions are sent to at least two reviewers. Any questions regarding the submission process should be sent to the Editorial Office at eestrse@cambridge.org.  
 
1. Submission  Manuscripts should be submitted electronically, with separate Text, Table and Figure files - Text in WORD format; Tables in Excel; Figures as low-res PDFs, preferably at publication size. Any queries regarding submission may be sent to the Editorial Office, as above – eestrse@cambridge.org. All new submissions should be uploaded to the EESTRSE ScholarOne site through the following link: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tre. Submissions to Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh must not have been published, or be under consideration, elsewhere. 
 
2. Preparation of Papers 

2.1. Language  We recommend that non-English-speaking authors have their manuscripts checked by an English language native speaker before submission, to ensure that submissions are judged exclusively on academic merit. A number of third-party services specialising in language editing and/or translation can be found here:  http://www.cambridge.org/academic/author-services/. Please note: the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the authors’ own expense. 
 
2.2. Title page  The first page should show: (a) a title that is concise and informative; (b) the name(s) and full address(es) of the author(s); (c) a running head abbreviation of the title of no more than 50–60 characters; and (d) a competing interest statement for each author.. 
 
2.3. Abstract, Key Words and Competing Interests The second page should contain an Abstract of around 300 words, intelligible without reference to the text or references, and a list of Key Words (NB: words not already in the title) of no more than 150 characters, in alphabetical order.
 
All authors must include a competing interest declaration in their title page. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article.  Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations. If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors. 
 
Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author A is employed at organisation B. Author C is on the Board of company E and is a member of organisation F. Author G has received grants from company H.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.   2.4. Text  Text should start on the third page. Words to be printed in italics, e.g. names of taxa, should be underlined, unless already in italic typeface. Use capital letters for formal terms only. The metric system should be used throughout. Abbreviate compass points to N, NW, NW, SE etc. Enclose map references in square brackets, e.g. [NM 4437 0293]. In papers on systematic palaeontology, anatomical abbreviations should be included in the relevant Figure captions, rather than listed in a separate section. See a recent issue for general systematics style.   2.5. Headings  The introductory section should have no heading. The first headed section after the introduction should be numbered as 1. Primary headings are numbered consecutively 1, 2, 3, etc. Secondary headings are 1.1., 1.2., 1.3., etc. Both should appear flush left, with their text starting on a separate line below. Tertiary headings (1.1.1., 1.1.2., etc.) should start a new paragraph, with indent, and should be followed by a full stop and the text to which they refer. All headings should be in bold. Cross-references in text should be to a section (e.g., (see section 2.3)), not to a page. 
 
2.6. Footnotes  Do not use footnotes in main text. 
 
2.7. References  All publications cited in the text, including those pertaining to the authorship of taxa, must be included in the Reference list, which is arranged in alphabetical order by author.    2.7.1. Citation of Figures and References in text.  References to Figures are "Figure la" in a sentence, but "(Fig. la)", "(Figs 1, 3a, 5)" in parentheses.  References to other authors' figs etc. take lower case initial to differentiate from references to Figures in current paper: "(Smith 1990, fig. 4; Adams 1993 pl. 2, fig. 3; Fig. 3)” When referring to Refs in text: "Smith & Jones (1990)" – for author plus one other; "Smith et al. (1992)" - when more than two authors.  When listing Refs in parentheses: date order, and alphabetical within that; allow ampersands :"(Smith 1990, 1997, 2000; Adams et al. 1993; James & Drury 1993; Smith et al. 2000; Smith & Jones 2001; James et al. 2004)"  (NB: ‘pers. comm.’ citations in the text should include the name of the person and the date (year) of the communication; these should not be included in the Reference list.)  2.7.2. References at end. Only published or in press items, or unpublished theses with the University clearly specified, are to be included in the References. Journal and series titles should be written out in full, upper and lower case italics; no comma after; volume numbers in bold; one space between author initials (i.e., Clarkson, E. N. K., not Clarkson, E.N.K.); ampersand (&), not ‘and’ for final author in multi-authored papers (i.e., Smith, Brown & Clark, not Smith, Brown and Clark). References at the end should be ordered thus:  (i) single author – alphabetically by initials, and then by date; e.g., Smith, A. B. 1990; Smith, A. B. 1996; Smith, C. D. 1989; Smith, C. D. 1990.  (ii) author plus two or more co-authors (et al. in text) – by date; e.g., Smith, Jones & Clerk 1993; Smith, Brown & Clerk 1995a (= Smith et al. 1995a in text); Smith, Jones & Clerk 1995b (= Smith et al. 1995b in text); Smith, Clerk, Brown & Jones 1997. (iii) author plus one other – alphabetical by 2nd author, and then by date within that; e.g., Smith & Brown 1997; Smith & Jones 1987; Smith & Jones 1996.      Set out as in examples below:  Copper, P. & Gourvennec, R. 1996. Evolution of the spire-bearing brachiopods (Ordovician–Jurassic). In Copper, P. & Jin, J. (eds) Brachiopods, 81–88. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.  Chappell, B. W. & White, A. J. R. 1992. 1-and S-type granites in the Lachlan Fold Belt. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 83, 1–26.  Jarvik, E. 1980. Basic structure and evolution of vertebrates Vol. 1, 74–98. London: Academic Press. 
 
2.8. Third-party permissions Authors must also obtain permission, where necessary, to use any material in a paper which is copyright or the property of any other persons or entity, including their employers. Any fees incurred are the sole responsibility of the author(s).     

3. Preparation of Tables and Figures

3.1. Tables  Tables should be numbered, and cited, consecutively throughout the paper, and provided on separate pages at the end of the MS, not embedded in the text. Each Table should have a caption. For layout of analytical data, see tables published in previous issues. Authors should send published analyses of igneous rocks to the UK~IGBA file. 
 
3.2. Figures  Illustrations should be numbered, and cited, consecutively throughout the paper. A list of figure captions should be provided on a separate page after the References; figures and figure captions should not be embedded in the text. A scale should be shown on the figure (e.g., a bar scale on a photomicrograph), rather than giving magnifications in the caption, in case figures are reduced or enlarged. Large figures can be subdivided for reproduction on facing pages. Fossil illustrations should be illuminated top left. Figures in PDF format are sufficient for submission purposes. Should a paper be accepted for publication, high-quality electronic files will be requested.  All figures should be supplied in our preferred formats. All figures should be supplied as separate files, unless you are using LaTeX. The figure files should be named in a logical way (e.g. [first author surname] Fig1.tif). Please ensure that the material you submit is of the best possible quality. We cannot improve overall appearance and resolution. Resolution: colour and black and white halftone images must be saved at 300 dpi (dots per inch) at approximately the final size. Line drawings should be saved at 1000 dpi, or 1200 dpi if very fine line weights have been used. Combination figures must be saved at a minimum of 600 dpi. If in any doubt, submit the source files that were used to create your figures.