1. Submission checklist

1.1 Manuscript file. We encourage the use of Tektonika Word and LaTeX templates, but this is not mandatory.

1.2 Figures and tables can be submitted as (a) embedded figures and tables at the relevant position within the Manuscript file (prefered), or (b) a separate single file (ideally PDF, but we can accept PNG, TIFF, etc.). In both cases, figures and tables should be clearly numbered and have their required captions next to each corresponding figure and table. Please see the Figure Guidelines for formatting details. 

1.3 Supplemental materials, as a single file, where applicable.

1.4 Potential reviewers. Authors are encouraged to provide a list of 3 to 5 potential reviewers, who must be free from conflicts of interest*. Authors may also oppose reviewers, with a brief justification.

* A conflict of interest is a situation in which the relationship between the reviewer and the author(s) could bias evaluation of the manuscript. Such conflicts may include, but are not limited to, present and recent students/employees/employers, colleagues working at the same institution or with whom the authors have recently collaborated. Another type of conflict of interest may arise when the reviewer and the authors are engaged in an active scientific controversy, which may induce negative evaluation biases.

 

Authors are required to comply with Tektonika's code of conduct for authors, as well as Tektonika's definitions on authorship.

Authors may wish to familiarise themselves with Tektonika's peer-review mode and download a copy of Tektonika's review form, for reference.

2. Article types

Tektonika will publish papers falling within one of the following four categories:

LETTERS:  Short papers on specific novel ideas or topics. Typically albeit not restrictedly, these papers should be no longer than 3500 words, excluding figure captions, texts in tables and references, and have no more than 4-6 figures/tables. Authors should include ‘Plain Language Summaries’ in letters.

ARTICLES:  Regular, full research papers presenting original contributions that represent a key advance in scientific knowledge or understanding. A length under 10,000 words (excluding figure captions, texts in tables and references) and 20 figures/tables are preferred, albeit not enforced. Tektonika reserves the right to request the shortening of excessively long or detailed articles. Authors should include ‘Plain Language Summaries’ in articles.

REVIEWS: Papers that advance knowledge by synthesis of existing research, ideas and observations. Such papers should add value to existing ideas, arguments and discussions to enrich future research. A length under 10,000 words (excluding figure captions, texts in tables and references) and 20-30 figures/tables is preferred, albeit not enforced. Tektonika reserves the right to request the shortening of excessively long or detailed reviews.

FIELD GUIDES: Concise accounts of key localities within geological areas of interest, providing insights into key structural geology and tectonic concepts. A length under 10,000 words (excluding figure captions, texts in tables and references) and 20 figures/tables is preferred, albeit not enforced. Tektonika reserves the right to request the shortening of excessively long or detailed field guides.

For all paper types, contributors are strongly encouraged to make supplementary data accessible either through Tektonika’s archive or from open data repositories (e.g. Zenodo, Pangea, Github, OSF).

The editors welcome consultation prior to submission on article types, formats, lengths and subject relevance.

Contact the editorial team

3. Formatting and article templates

Use of the Tektonika Word and LaTeX templates is strongly encouraged. As a volunteer-led journal, Tektonika is staffed by non-salaried editors. Typesetting is time-consuming, and conducted by the Tektonika’s typesetting team, as a workload to fit around their other duties. The process can be expedited by using the provided templates for submission.

4. Pre-print policy

- Tektonika accepts manuscripts that have been hosted elsewhere as a preprint, and in the interests of open science Tektonika encourages authors to upload manuscripts to a suitable preprint server.

- Preprints are not considered published material, because they have not been (formally) peer-reviewed, nor are they in the final typeset formatting of publication. A benefit of preprints is that comments from the interested community can ultimately result in improvements in the final publication, and reduction of the number of manuscripts that are ultimately rejected due to inherent flaws. 

- Tektonika operates an independent peer-review process, and decisions will be made on the basis of reviewer and editor comments; decisions will not be based on any external comments or feedback on externally-hosted preprints.

- If an article is accepted for publication in Tektonika, authors will be asked to update their preprint with the DOI (digital object identifier) number of the final publication.

- Accepted publications will be stored and accessible at Tektonika for free forever, and authors are free to update their personal repository with the final typeset published version of Tektonika as a postprint, with no need to wait any embargo period.

5. Copyright

Submission of an original manuscript to Tektonika will be taken to mean that it represents original work that has not been published previously, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Please see Tektonika’s Code of Conduct for further details.

Authors have the responsibility to secure permission to include any reproduced material subject to copyright.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

• Authors retain copyright and grant Tektonika the right of first publication with the work, simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship, and initial publication in Tektonika.
• Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in Tektonika (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in Tektonika.
• Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after acceptance, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
• Authors that change their names for whatever reason (marital or religious status or lack thereof, gender identity, and others…), may want to update their publication record accordingly. Tektonika respects authors rights to change their name or identity and is devising manners to secure this change is reflected in Tektonika publications retroactively.

Statement to be included in all published manuscripts:

“This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided appropriate credit to the original author(s) and source, as well as link to the Creative Commons license, and indication of changes that were made.”