Article Types
Articles - Articles submitted to the Journal should frame descriptions and discoveries of new fossils, fossil assemblages, and paleontological methods within a broader context. Typically, articles are a maximum of 20 printed pages (60 pages in a submitted manuscript).
Taxonomic Notes - Taxonomic Notes are usually for nomenclatural adjustments, normally to names previously published in the Journal of Paleontology. This is not a venue for petitions to overrule provisions in the codes of zoological or botanical nomenclature. Notes do not contain an abstract and should be no more than five printed pages (15 pages in a submitted manuscript, fewer when figures are included).
Memoirs - Memoirs are longer, comprehensive manuscripts that allow for thorough description of exceptional fossil assemblages. Exceptionally long manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Paleontology will be evaluated as potential memoirs based on their content and length. (250 pages maximum in a submitted manuscript).
To submit a memoir to the Journal of Paleontology, please fill out our Memoir Proposal Form and email it to the Managing Editor at journalofpaleontology@cambridge.org.
Pre-submission Inquiry
If you are unsure if your manuscript is suitable for consideration in the Journal of Paleontology, you are welcome to submit a pre-submission inquiry consisting of a title page and an abstract. Please submit such inquiries to journalofpaleontology@cambridge.org
Preparing Your Materials
All submissions must include a cover letter, main document, all figures and tables individually uploaded, and any supplemental material mentioned in the text. Please see the below documents for concise and specific requirements for each file type at each stage of submission.
For in-depth requirements on journal style, abstracts, figures, etc., please see the following guides and resources.
Guides
• JPA–Manuscript Formatting Template —Formatting requirements and template.
• JPA–Systematic Paleontology —Guidelines for Systematic paleontology section.
• JPA–Figure Requirements —Instructions for the formatting and style of figures.
• JPA-Conventions and Style Guide Sheet —Formatting and style check sheet for article acceptance.
• JPA-Reference Formatting—Examples of formatting style for common source types.
• JPA–ZooBank Guide —Step-by-step guide to register a manuscript and new zoological taxonomic names on ZooBank.
• JPA- Editorial Policies— Information on specimen repositories, localities, and required permits and permissions.
Additional Resources
• Stratigraphy and geologic time: International Commission on Stratigraphy
• General geologic and scientific usage: Suggestions to Authors of the Reports of the United States Geological Survey
• Spelling of geologic terms: AGI Glossary of Geology
• General spelling and grammar: The Chicago Manual of Style
Author Language Services
Journal of Paleontology requires that manuscripts adhere to American English and grammar, and recommend that authors have their manuscripts checked by a native English-language speaker before submission. This ensures that submissions are assessed during peer review exclusively on academic merit. For authors seeking a language service, Cambridge University Press recommends its affiliate, American Journal Experts. Use of third party language services, including American Journal Experts, is at the author's own expense.
Policy on prior publication
When authors submit manuscripts to this journal, these manuscripts should not be under consideration, accepted for publication or in press within a different journal, book or similar entity, unless explicit permission or agreement has been sought from all entities involved. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior or duplicate publication. Authors should follow the Cambridge University Press Preprint Policy regarding preprint archives and maintaining the version of record.
Permission for Reuse of Copyrighted Material
Permission for all copyrighted material must be obtained before submission, and appropriate acknowledgment given to the original source in the manuscript.
For permission to reuse copyrighted material from a published Journal of Paleontology paper, please see our Request Permissions page.
Declaration of Competing Interests
All authors must include a competing interest declaration in their main manuscript file. 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 1 is employed at organisation A, Author 2 is on the Board of company B and is a member of organisation C. Author 3 has received grants from company D.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.
Authorship and contributorship
All authors listed on any papers submitted to this journal must be in agreement that the authors listed would all be considered authors according to disciplinary norms, and that no authors who would reasonably be considered an author have been excluded. For further details on this journal’s authorship policy, please see this journal's publishing ethics policies.
Author affiliations
Author affiliations should represent the institution(s) at which the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved. For non-research content, any affiliations should represent the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated.
For more information, please see our author affiliation policy and author affiliation FAQs.
Open Access Policies
Gold Open Access. Authors or their institution may purchase Gold OA for their article by paying an Article Processing Fee (APC) of $2,000 ($1,000 for Society members). This option allows authors to post and distribute the article (high-resolution e-book pdf reprint) freely once the article processing charge (APC) is paid in full and a final PDF of the article is available. In addition, articles with Gold Access will be free to anyone for download on all affiliated Paleontological Society Web Sites (currently the journal's member web pages at Cambridge Core, plus BioOne, and GSW). Gold Open Access articles will be published under the terms of the CC-BY- NC 3.0 license by default or CC-BY 3.0 license upon request.
Green Open Access. Authors of all articles published in the Journal of Paleontology or Paleobiology may freely post (e.g., to personal and institutional web sites) and distribute freely the final accepted manuscript file (not the pdf of the published article) under Green Open Access, 12 months after its publication. Postings must include a link to the relevant article abstract online at www.cambridge.org/core. Green Access fulfills the requirement of most funding agencies to make published results and data available to the public after a 12 month embargo period, but not before the 12 month embargo period has ended. Under no circumstances may the publisher's final version (online PDF or article) be posted or distributed under the terms of Green Open Access. All regular copyrights will apply.
Please see our Green Open Access page for more information.
Author Hub
You can find guides for many aspects of publishing with Cambridge at Author Hub, our suite of resources for Cambridge authors.
Last updated 12th of May 2023.