ISSN 1851-4979
online version
1669-7316
printed version

Instructions to authors

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Editorial Criteria

The fundamental aim of the Latin American Journal of Sedimentology and Basin Analysis (LAJSBA) is to publish original research papers, reviews and technical notes dealing with all aspects of the sedimentology, sedimentary rocks, sediment dynamics and related disciplines such as basin analysis, stratigraphy, paleoecology, paleogeography, etc. that provide a timely contribution to the advance in this field of the Earth Sciences.

The Latin American Journal of Sedimentology and Basin Analysis (LAJSBA) is published twice a year in July and December.

Papers must be original and will present data, interpretations and/or synthesis unpublished or submitted elsewhere. If accepted, papers become copyright of the Asociación Argentina de Sedimentología.

Official languages of the Latin American Journal of Sedimentology and Basin Analysis (LAJSBA) are Spanish, Portuguese and English. However, considering the future expansion of the LAJSBA we will consider favorably those papers submitted in English. Papers in Spanish and Portuguese will have a RESUMEN/RESUMO in its original language and, with the object to guarantee their maximum diffusion, they will also include an EXTENDED ABSTRACT in English. Papers in English will have an ABSTRACT (in English). Keywords will be bilingual as well as figure and table captions in papers submitted in Spanish or Portuguese. Papers in English will not need bilingual keywords or captions.

Authors may submit papers in any of the following options:

Research Papers: they are original contributions within the general subject of the LAJSBA.
Short Notes: short contributions directed to inform of important discoveries that require immediate publication or to present new techniques or significant data. Short notes will have less than 4 pages typed in double space, including figures and references.
Discussions and Replies: comments and discussions about papers publishedin the LAJSBA will be encouraged and they are a demonstration of remarkable concert for the progress of science, but with respect and tolerance of the diversity of opinions. Discussions must clearly identify the complete citation of the paper. A copy of the Discussion will be sent to the first author of the paper being discussed for his/her Reply. Both the Discussion and Reply will be published together in the next available issue of the LAJSBA.
Book Reviews: they constitute technical analysis of recent published books which subject is related to the objectives of the LAJSBA
Sedimentologic Photos: the cover will include an original photo of high quality and of general interest for the LAJSBA. The Editor will select the photo from those submitted. A brief description of the photo, including author, place and date of take must accompany the submission.

MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscripts must be prepared and submitted in electronic format according to the following instructions.

The only means for submission of manuscripts is through the PPCT-PORTAL DE PUBLICACIONES CIENTÍFICAS Y TÉCNICAS (CAICYT-CONICET) (http://ppct.caicyt.gov.ar/index.php/lajsba). Please follow this link, register as an author and follow the instructions for the successful submission of your MS. After your submission you will receive a confirmation e-mail with a reference number. Please keep this number, your user name and password for future access to the system. For those authors who already have a user name for PPCT, obtained during a previous submission or review of a MS, please do not request a new user name but using the previous one.

The submitted version of the manuscript must consist of a SINGLE PDF (Portable Document Format) FILE that cannot exceed 30 MB in size. The text, figures, tables and captions (produced following the outline below), as well as a cover letter to the Editor summarizing the main new aspects of the contribution, should be compiled into this single file that will be used during the reviewing process of the MS. There is no need, at this stage, to upload figures and tables as “complementary files”. Once your MS is accepted for publication you will receive instructions on how to submit text, figures and tables as separate files.

In preparing your MS please take into account the following outline that is required for the submission of manuscripts to preliminary evaluation and reviewing.

Text

Number all pages consecutively according to the following order:

First Page: Title (both in Spanish/Portuguese and English) and authors including postal and e-mail addresses
Second and following pages:
- Resumen and Extended Abstract (papers in Spanish or Portuguese)
- Abstract and Resumen/Resumo (papers in English, only for Scielo repository after the paper is accepted)
- Keywords (in English AND Spanish or Portuguese)
- Text
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Table Captions (bilingual if papers in Spanish or Portuguese)
- Tables
- Figure Captions (bilingual if papers in Spanish or Portuguese)
- Figures

Title page must include the paper title, authors and their institutional addresses with their respective e-mail addresses. Please indicate the corresponding author if other than the first author. It is advisable to have the telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author.

Abstracts (and Resúmenes) must be less than five hundred (500) words for Research Papers. Short Notes would require an abstract with no more than two hundred (200) words. 

Extended Abstracts may have from two to four pages typed in double space. The objective of the EXTENDED ABSTRACT is to provide the maximum international diffusion of papers not written in English. It must be a synthesis of the paper, long enough as to allow any non-Spanish/Portuguese speaking reader to understand the objectives, methods, results and conclusions of the paper. Bilingual captions of tables and figures will contribute in this end. In the EXTENDED ABSTRACT most figures and those references vital to this aim should be cited.

The author that could not send directly the EXTENDED ABSTRACT in English, ready for review, he/she could send the text in Spanish/Portuguese that will be sent for translation by the Editor to a Public Translator with specialization in Geology. Any cost in this regard will be charged to the author. Similarly, for English speaking authors that require the translation of the Resumen.

Five (5) keywords (both in Spanish or Portuguese AND English) must be provided. Keywords should be arranged in order of importance, with the geographical area always last.

Text can be divided in primary, secondary and tertiary parts.

PRIMARY TITLES are full capital letters, in bold and centered in the page.
Secondary titles are in upper and lowercase, in bold and left justified.
Tertiary titles are in upper and lowercase, in bold and incorporated to the text.

Titles will not include numbers or letters.

The purpose of the paper must be clearly stated in the Introduction. Acknowledgements will go immediately after the text preceded by a Tertiary title.

Footnotes are not allowed. All non-standard terms or acronyms must be defined at first use. The International System of units is required for reporting measurements. Other units may be reported in parentheses or as primary units when conversion is not possible.

References

At the end of the text an alphabetic list of the references cited in it will be included with the Primary title REFERENCIAS BIBLIOGRAFICAS for Spanish papers, REFERÊNCIAS for Portuguese papers and, REFERENCES for papers in English.

Citations in the text must follow the format (note chronological order for a list within the text):

«...( Mazzoni et al., 1991; Orfeo, 1992a,b; Barrio and Coffield, 1992;)…»
«...according to Flint and Elliot (1992)...»
«...(Cf. Bercowski et al., 1991)...»
«...(see Fig. 3 in Zuffa and Ori, 1992)...»

When more than two authors, the citation will use “et al.”. However, in the REFERENCES all authors must be written out. The use of “(op. cit.)” will not be accepted. Citations must be ordered alphabetically in the Reference List, without leaving extra lines between paragraphs, giving the names in the original language, without abbreviations, without replacing last names by hyphens. In the case of 2 or more references for a first author, if the papers are co-authored for two people, the order will be given by last names, if papers have more than 2 authors, they will be ordered chronologically. References must be elaborated according to the following formats:

Friedman, G.M. y J. Sanders, 1978. Principles of sedimentology. John Wiley, New York, 792 pp.
Jalfin, G.A., 1987. Litofacies y paleocorrientes de la Formación Solari, provincia de Corrientes. Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina 42:101-111.
Lancaster, N., 1992. Relations between dune generation in the Gran Desierto of México. Sedimentology 39: 613-629.
Marcolini, S., G. Parker, R.A. Violante y J.L. Cavallotto, 1991. Estructuras sedimentarias actuales de la plataforma interior y media del NE de la provincia de Buenos Aires. IV Reunión Argentina de Sedimentología Actas III:1-8, La Plata.
Matheos, S. D., 1988. Sedimentología y geoquímica de las sedimentitas carbonáticas jurásicas del sector sur de la cuenca neuquina. Tesis Doctoral 47, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 223 pp. (inédito).
Odom, I.E., T.N. Willand y R.J. Lassin, 1979. Paragenesis of diagenetic minerals in the St. Peter Sandstone (Ordovician), Wisconsin and Illinois. En P. Scholle y P. Schluger (Eds.), Aspects of Diagenesis. Society of Economic Paleontologists & Mineralogists, Special Publication 26:425-443.
Reading, H.G. y J.D. Collinson, 1996. Clastic coasts. En H.G Reading (Ed.), Sedimentary Environments: processes, facies and stratigraphy, 3rd. Blackwell Science, Oxford: 232-280.
Schwarz, E., G.D. Veiga y G. Álvarez, 2009. Esquema secuencial y litoestratigráfico de la sucesión Valanginiana en la región central de la Cuenca Neuquina, República Argentina. XII Congreso Geológico Chileno Actas en CD, Santiago de Chile.
Walker, R.G., 1985. Geological evidence for storm transportation and deposition on ancient shelves. En R.W. Tillman, D.J.P. Swift y R.G. Walker (Eds.), Shelf Sands and Sand Reservoirs. Society of Economic Paleontologists & Mineralogists, Short Course Notes 13:303-342.

Tables

Tables should be reduced to a minimum including only information with a concrete relevance to the objectives of the paper. Simple listing of data, unless highly justified, will not be acceptable. Tables must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numbers and provided in a separate page. In case that the table expands more than one page, this must be indicated in each page. Exceptionally, extensive tables could be included as Appendices  

Tables will be cited in the text as: “... in table 1”, or “... (Table 1)”

Table captions must be bilingual for papers in Spanish and Portuguese, typed in double space and compiled in a list at the end of the text.

Figures

All figures must be designed to fit the size of the LAJSBA. Maximum printed size of the figures is 172 x 220 mm for full page, and 84 x 220 mm for column width. Figures must be compact, avoiding large free spaces or lacking information. Maps and geological profiles must have both graphic scales and geographic coordinates. Computer drawings must be of the highest quality preferably made with Corel Draw®, Adobe Illustrator® or equivalent.

When reproduced, letters and numbers in figures should be larger than 1 mm. Parts of one figure must be named with capital letters (e.g., A, B, C, etc.). In the figure caption every part of the figure must be described but with lower case letters (e.g., a, b, c, etc.). Likewise, description of part of the figure in the text must be named 1a. Composed figures must be integrated in such a way as they form one unique figure. In the figure caption, composed figures should read as follow: “…Figure 1. text a) text. b) text….”, etc.

Photographs must be of high quality (no less than 300 dpi at the reproduction scale), and the authors should ensure a good reproduction quality when printed at the LAJSBA format. Photographs must have some kind of scaling that should be referenced in the caption.

Figure captions must be written in double space and compiled in a list at the end of the text. All illustrations are Figures and should be referred in the text as: “...in figure 1...” or “...subsidence cycles (Fig. 1) common in other facies”.

Figures must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numbers. Citation of figures with several parts must be as “...figure 1a...” or “(Fig. 1a)”. When more than one figures must be cited use “(Figs. 1-3, 5)” or use “(Fig. 1a-c, f)” when several parts of a composed figure are cited.

Equations

Equations should be prepared preferable with the equation editor of the selected text editor. All of them must be numbered consecutively between parentheses and right justified. They will be cited in the text as: «eq. (1)».

All submitted papers will be reviewed by at least two external referees of recognized prestige and/or members of the Editorial Board. Based on the reviewer’s opinions, the Editor and Associate Editor will take the final decision about the manuscript. When the paper is accepted, the author must submit its final version in electronic format, including all the figures and tables in separate files, following the instructions provided in the PPCT website. In this, and following steps, you will need the user name and password obtained when originally submitted your MS, so it is important you keep them safe as it will not possible to get another user name for the same person. The author will access the electronic format of the galley proofs to check for possible mistakes or minor modifications to the text. Major changes to the paper at this stage will only be accepted at the sole discretion of the Editor and the possible extra expenses that may result must be covered by the author. Papers based on data obtained within the República Argentina, must comply with the rules of the Código Argentino de Estratigrafía.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

• The manuscript has not been previously published nor submitted for publication in other journal (or proper comments have been included in the “Comments to the Editor” Section)
• The text complies with the bibliographic and style prerequisites indicated in Author Guidelines, that can be found in the “About the Journal” section.
• The authors have the right or authorization for publication of all the material included in the manuscript (including text, photographs, drawings, graphs, images or any other material included in the submission). The Editors and the Publisher (Asociación Argentina de Sedimentología) are therefore … of any responsibility regarding claims that third parties could formulate regarding copyright of this submission.
• If the manuscript has been prepared with other authors, every author has been informed of the terms of this submission, they all agree with the contents of the submission and the order of authors indicated in the text.