INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

1.Overview
2 Preparing a manuscript
3 Submitting a paper
4 Editorial review
5 Publication
6 Style guide
7 Contacts

1 Overview

RAS Techniques & Instruments (RASTI) is an Open Access, online-only, peer-reviewed scientific journal which covers topics in astronomy and geophysics ranging from instrumentation, data science, machine learning, software, and numerical and statistical methods. The journal publishes one Volume and Issue a year. Anyone may submit a paper to be considered for publication in RASTI. There are no restrictions based on nationality, institutional affiliation, qualifications etc. The processing of papers has two major – and largely separate – elements: editorial review by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS, section 4), and production by Oxford University Press (OUP, section 5). Authors are asked to read these instructions carefully.

1.1 Scope

RASTI publishes high-quality papers in all branches of Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Geophysics that describe advances in methods of collecting and evaluating data, ranging from new instrumentation to innovative data processing and analysis procedures, along with new theoretical and modelling developments. Topics include:

Artificial intelligence and other machine-learning methods for obtaining insights from datasets
Advances in statistical methods relevant to these disciplines
Software for processing data (including pipelines), data analysis and modelling, including effective use of high-performance computers
Innovations in sensors, sensor systems (including novel missions), and other aspects of instrumentation
Mission concepts including surveys, instrument development, and other research which supports both pre and post commencement of operations for both spaceborne and ground-based activities.

To be considered for review, a submitted manuscript should meet the following requirements:

a. The paper must present original research, clearly demonstrating its novelty beyond that of previously published work. Authors who submit a manuscript are expected to certify that the manuscript has not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.
b. The results must be significant and likely to make an important contribution to the advancement of their field.
c. The paper must be clearly presented, written in good scientific English, and conform to journal guidelines for content and presentation (see section 2).
d. The subject must be of interest to readers of RASTI and fall within the range of topics covered by the journal.

Members of the Editorial Board will assess whether or not manuscripts meet this minimal standard; manuscripts which do not will be rejected without external review.

1.2 Ethics and plagiarism

Authors who submit a manuscript must be able to certify that the manuscript is original work, has not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. RASTI is governed by the RAS Editorial Code of Practice and is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). As such, the journal follows the guidance provided in the COPE Core Practices. It is expected that all parties involved in the publication of content in the Journal (the publisher, editors, authors, and reviewers) follow these guidelines on best practice and publication ethics.

Authors should familiarize themselves with their obligations under the Editorial Code. In particular, authors are reminded that any of the following are considered to be serious breaches of publishing ethics, which will result in the immediate rejection of their manuscript:

Submitting a manuscript to more than one publication at the same time.
Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism (see also section 2.6).
Personal attacks directed at referees, editors or other authors.

All submissions are screened for originality using the iThenticate plagiarism detection system. Failure to properly cite material, which has previously been published, constitutes plagiarism and is a serious breach of scientific ethics. Manuscripts which are found to contain plagiarized (including self-plagiarized) material will be rejected.

The journal is committed to investigating cases of alleged editor, author, and reviewer misconduct arising from its activities, and will follow COPE Guidelines in all cases.

1.3 Authorship

Authorship is limited to those who have significantly contributed to the conception or design of the research described in the paper; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; and/or involvement in the execution of the research described. Any contributors whose participation does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged but not listed as an author. For further details of authorship, please see the RAS Editorial Code of Practice.

The Journal follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance on investigating and resolving authorship cases. For more information, please see the OUP Publication Ethics page. It is expected that all parties involved in the publication of content in the Journal (the publisher, editors, authors, and reviewers) follow these guidelines on best practice and publication ethics. The Journal is committed to investigating cases of alleged editor, author, and reviewer misconduct arising from its activities.

For articles with 50 or more authors who are part of a collaboration group, the corresponding author and up to 10 ‘main’ authors will be listed as authors (the last author in the list being the collaboration group’s name). All other members of the collaboration group will be listed as collaborators. It is a requirement to have a named person listed as the corresponding author who will be responsible for signing the license on behalf of the whole group and signing off any changes to the article if applicable.

After manuscript submission, no authorship changes (including the authorship list, author order, and who is designated as the corresponding author) should be made unless there is a substantive reason to do so. For the avoidance of doubt, changing the corresponding author in order to access Read and Publish funding is not permissible. For more information on Read and Publish funding, see the Open Access Charges section of the ITAs. The editor and all co-authors must agree on change(s), and neither the Journal nor the publisher mediates authorship disputes. If individuals cannot agree on the authorship of a submitted manuscript, contact the editorial office at [email protected]. The dispute must be resolved among the individuals and their institution(s) before the manuscript can be accepted for publication. If an authorship dispute or change arises after a paper is accepted, contact OUP’s Author Support team. COPE provides guidance for authors on resolving authorship disputes.

Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors, and the Journal will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content or images, write code, process data, or for translation) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details.

1.4 Paper types

Four types of paper are published by RASTI: Research articles, Invited Review papers, Comments and Corrections.

Research articles are the most common type of paper published. There are no page limits, but it is important for papers to be concise: referees and editors may suggest shortening of any that are not, which may lead to delay in acceptance.

Invited Review papers are solicited by members of the editorial board in order to highlight a particular subject where a review would be of interest to the wide readership.

Comments, on papers published in RASTI, should be of broad interest and constructively presented. They will be sent for peer review. The title should begin with the words “Comment on” followed by the original article title.

Corrections to previously published papers in RASTI may only be submitted by the authors of the original paper, and should be used to correct errors which may lead to significant misunderstandings or incorrect conclusions. See section 2.8 for details of corrections.

1.5 Charges

RASTI is a fully open access journal, and all articles are published in the journal under an a non-exclusive CC BY open access licence immediately upon publication. Authors retain copyright. The Article Processing Charge (APC) is £1,313 for non-members. RAS members are eligible for a 20% discount on the APC. Authors will be asked to prove eligibility for the member discount. Please note that the designated corresponding author of an accepted paper, named on the online submission system, is responsible for signing the licence and will be responsible for the Article Processing Charge.

Routes to funding:

OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means corresponding authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. The corresponding author must provide their qualifying institution as their primary affiliation when they submit the manuscript. Find out if your institution is participating and information on how to apply for funding can be found here.
Corresponding authors based in countries and regions, that are part of the developing countries initiative are eligible for a full waiver of publishing fees. For further details, please see our APC Waiver Policy.
If you are not eligible for the Developing Countries Initiative but are unable to pay the APC for your article, the RAS and OUP also grant a small number of discretionary waivers on a case-by-case basis. If you would like to be considered for a discretionary, partial or full waiver, please complete the Waiver Application form and send it to Journals Author Support at [email protected]. The application will need to be sent at the same time as your submission. You will be required to load the waiver acceptance (if relevant) upon “First Look”. Review of the waiver application and article are completely separate processes, with a waiver request in no way impacting article review.

In rare cases when authors make excessive changes to their papers at the proof stage (see section 5.3), it may be necessary to charge for the increased production costs incurred. Authors can avoid this charge by carefully checking all versions of papers before they are submitted and avoiding making substantial changes at the proof stage.

Article Processing Charges will not apply to Corrections or Invited Reviews.

1.6 Special Issue proposals

RAS Instruments and Techniques welcomes proposals for special issues on priority themes in the field.  A special issue is a group of original research articles and possibly review articles, edited by Guest Editor(s) under a common theme. 

According to journal policy, at least one member of the Guest Editor team must belong to the RAS Instruments and Techniques Editorial Board. If necessary, an Editorial Board Member can be assigned to your special issue. Please note that all submitted proposals will be subject to review, and that consideration by the journal does not guarantee acceptance.

Please note that, although we will ultimately require a full proposal for review, you are welcome to reach out to Editor in Chief, Professor Jonathan Tennyson, if you would like any initial feedback before submitting a full proposal. If you choose to do so, please share 1-2 paragraphs outlining your proposal.

Please contact the EIC for initial feedback, or to submit a full proposal:

Professor Jonathan Tennyson: [email protected]

Special issue proposals can be submitted at any time.

Proposals for new special issues must fall within the remit of the journal. Proposals should be a maximum of 6,000 words in total and include:

Contact details for each member of the Guest Editor team, as well as details of their expertise in the topic area (including any previous editorial experience).
A proposed title for the special issue.
A summary of the topic(s) covered by the contributions to the special issue.
A rationale for the special issue and the relevance to RASTI of its original contribution.
Details of whether your topic has been covered in a similar manner in any previous special issues or books.
An indication of whether you would like the journal to put out a call for papers, or whether all contributions will be invited.
A list of any confirmed contributors, with institutional affiliations.
If available, the titles and abstracts of any confirmed papers (please note that special issues typically consist of five to ten papers; these can be articles, short articles, and review articles).
Any conflicts of interest for the Guest Editor(s) or authors.
A timeline for the special issue, with milestones for completion of each stage.
An indication of whether the special issue proposal has been, or will be, submitted to another journal and the timelines involved for their decision. 
Drafts of any papers already written (excluded from the 6,000 word count).

Proposals for special issues will be evaluated based on: their fit with the journal’s remit; their original contribution to the field; the diversity of perspectives and authors reflected in the proposed special collection; and the feasibility of the special collection being completed within the specified timeframe.

We encourage submissions developed by or including scholarship from under-represented groups. Viewpoints currently under-represented in the journal are particularly encouraged to participate. 

All articles submitted for a selected special issue remain subject to the standard peer review process operated by the journal, and subject to the standard article charges/fee waiver policy of the journal. We expect Guest Editors to ensure that articles are of suitably high quality before submission to the journal and reserve the right to reject, before or after peer review, any that are not.  If the special issue is accepted by another journal, please notify the EIC as soon as possible that your proposal is no longer under consideration.

2 Preparing a manuscript

Authors may prepare their manuscripts using any word processing package which can generate the document in a suitable format (see section 3.3 for suitable file formats). It is recommended that papers are prepared using LaTeX because this is the method best suited to the mathematical nature of the material. We can usually also accept papers written using Microsoft Word or other word processing packages, although these are not suitable for papers with significant mathematical content.

2.1 LaTeX

For authors preparing their manuscripts using LaTeX. RASTI LaTeX class files, which simulate the appearance of the journal page, are available. Authors are encouraged to use these, although papers prepared using other class files can also be accepted.

2.2 Microsoft Word and other word processors

Papers will also be considered if they have been prepared using word processors such as Microsoft Word (although we encourage authors to use LaTeX). Word processed papers should follow the same style and layout as those prepared with LaTeX. Authors should pay particular attention to features which are not automated in these packages, such as references, figure numbers etc.

2.3 Contents

Authors must include the following contents in their manuscripts; any paper which does not will be returned to the authors for correction before it is considered for publication.

Pages: all pages must be numbered.
Title page: the title page must include the title of the paper, the names of the authors, full institutional addresses for each author, and the address for correspondence if that is different. E-mail addresses and present addresses (if different from those where the work was done) may be included as footnotes. Titles should be informative, and obscure acronyms should be avoided.
Abstract: authors must provide an abstract (except for Corrections, which do not have abstracts), normally of not more than 250 words. The abstract should be presented as a single paragraph and briefly summarize the goals, methods, and new results presented in the paper. All abstracts should be in English.
Key words: the abstract must be followed by between three and six key words. At least one must be selected from the following list:
- Machine Learning
- Software
- Instrumentation
- Data Methods
- Numerical methods
- Algorithms

In addition to this, authors should include at least two key words of their own choice.

Sections: the paper must be divided into a suitable number of sections and, if necessary, subsections. Sections and subsections must be numbered.
Tables and figures: numbers and captions must be provided for every table and figure; all must be cited in the text of the paper in the correct numerical order. See section 2.4 for guidelines on the preparation of figures and tables.
Mathematics: equations must be numbered.
Software papers: the software must be made publicly available, and the author should specify a bug-reporting procedure, intended for the benefit of users.
References: all citations in the text must appear in a list of references at the end of the paper, and vice versa. The reference list must be in alphabetical order. Citations must be in the Harvard author (year) style e.g. Smith & Jones (1991). Long lists of citations of previous publications, notably in the Introduction, should be avoided, unless the articles cited are directly relevant to the subject of the submission and potentially valuable to the reader, when seeking to understand its contents.
Facility acknowledgements should be placed in the Acknowledgements section, and not as footnotes.
In order to meet your funding requirements authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. For further information on this process or to find out more about CHORUS, visit the CHORUS initiative.
Deceased authors: a footnote ("Deceased") may be added to the name of the relevant author on the title page. Additional text may be included in the acknowledgements section if desired.
Data Availability Statement: The inclusion of a Data Availability Statement (DAS) is a requirement for articles published in RASTI. Data Availability Statements provide a standardised format for readers to understand the availability of data underlying the research results described in the article. The statement may refer to original data generated in the course of the study or to third-party data analysed in the article. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier. The DAS should be included in the endmatter of your article under the heading ‘Data availability’. See more information and example Data Availability Statements.
Supporting information and data: Papers may be accompanied by online supporting information (see section 2.7). Large datasets should be deposited in specialist areas, such as Zenodo, with a link.

These are the minimum requirements for consideration; authors should also see section 6 for further information on RASTI journal style.

2.4 Figures and tables

Figures should be prepared to publication standard. For line diagrams and plots, authors should use vector graphics. For images and photographs, high-quality raster formats are preferable (though please note the file size limit in section 3.3). Technical details on the preparation of figures are discussed in section 5.2.

All figures and tables must be numbered, accompanied by a suitable caption, and be mentioned in the text in the correct numerical order. They should be placed at logical points in the text (i.e. not all at the end). All figure axes must be labelled, including units where applicable.

Where possible, please ensure that your figures are colour-blind friendly. The use of red and green in the same figure is particularly problematic for some readers. Advice on the preparation of colour-friendly figures is provided. The following tools are also useful for preparing suitable figures: ColorBrewer and Color Oracle.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work. 

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs.

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article.

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text.

Special Figures

Video or animated figures should be submitted as .mp4 files, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system.

Authors may also submit 3D models for online publication as part of the article.

3D models should be submitted for peer review as separate files, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system. OUP uses Sketchfab to host 3D models. Files must be submitted in one of the formats accepted by Sketchfab or a link to the model on the author’s Sketchfab account may be submitted.

The model should be cited and numbered in the manuscript in sequence like a regular figure (Model 1, Model 2, Model 3 etc), with a caption included in the manuscript. Each Model must be presented separately in the manuscript with a separate label and caption. The file should be clearly named (e.g. Model_2.glb). Authors may alternatively upload 3D models to a personal Sketchfab account for submission. In such cases a private shareable link must be generated and included in the manuscript, or the model must be set as ‘public’ with the URL included in the manuscript. The author must also submit written permission for their model to be transferred from their personal account to the publisher’s Sketchfab account. No changes to the model should be made during peer review, except as part of submitting a revised version of the manuscript.

If custom lighting environment files are available, these should be included alongside the files for the model. Sketchfab supports .HDR and .EXR formats with a maximum file size of 50MB and a maximum resolution of 2048px × 1024 px (larger images will be downsized).

OUP does not embed 3D material in the article PDF, as many PDF-viewing applications and web browsers do not render 3D embedded content correctly. Authors submitting 3D models should also submit a representative still image (named in the format Model_2_placeholder.jpg) alongside the 3D files, for inclusion in the article PDF during production.

Presentation of 3D models as supplementary material is discouraged, as this delivers an inferior experience for readers.

2.5 Language

Authors for whom English is not their first language should have their manuscript inspected by an English-speaking colleague. Language editing, particularly if English is not your first language, can be used to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by the journal editors and reviewers. Please note that edited manuscripts will still need to undergo peer-review by the journal.

Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. For further information on this service, please visit our Language Services page. Several specialist language editing companies offer similar services and you can also use any of these.

It is not mandatory to use a language editing service. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services.

2.6 Copyright and plagiarism

It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure they have the necessary copyright permissions for any material (including, but not limited to, figures and text) used in their paper. Any re-use of material which has previously been published – even by the same authors, and/or in the same journal – must be accompanied by a citation to the original source and the necessary copyright permissions obtained. Quotation marks should be used around any text which has been reproduced from elsewhere, in addition to a citation.

Failure to properly cite material which has previously been published constitutes plagiarism and is a serious breach of scientific ethics. Papers which are found to contain plagiarized (including self-plagiarized) material will be rejected. All submissions are screened for originality using the iThenticate plagiarism detection system.

Note that the copyright for previously published material may rest with its publisher not its author, so it is not sufficient to merely obtain the original author’s permission. This also applies in the case of the author’s own previous publications. Please refer to the relevant journal or publisher websites for instructions.

Authors who wish to re-use material previously published in RASTI should refer to the instructions at the Rights and New Business Development - RAS Journals page.

Third-Party Content in Open Access papers

If your paper contains material for which you do not have Open Access re-use permissions, please state this clearly by supplying the following credit line alongside the material:

Title of content, Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rights holder] This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.

2.7 Online material

Papers may be accompanied by online supporting information, such as long data tables, videos, additional figures, or supplementary appendices. Authors should wherever possible make software and supporting data available, so readers may reproduce their results or use them for future studies.

Online material will be available for download alongside the paper on the journal website. RASTI can host all commonly used file types with a file size limit of 10 MB per file. If you have a query regarding hosting a specific file type, please contact the publishers (see section 7).

Authors who wish to make additional material available online should follow this procedure:

In the case of long tables, the paper should include a sample table consisting of the first 5–10 rows of data, and the caption should state that the full table is available online.
In the case of videos, extra figures or appendices, these should be mentioned in the text (or figure caption) along with a statement that they are available online.
The file(s) containing the online material should be uploaded to ScholarOne as ‘Supplementary material (online)’, and mentioned in the box provided.
The file(s) will be placed online in exactly the format in which they are provided – the publishers will not modify them in any way. For tables, authors should provide a machine-readable file (e.g. ASCII.txt) containing the data and a description of the columns. Authors can in addition provide a formatted PDF containing the full table if they wish. Additional figures (with captions) and appendices should be provided as PDF files. LaTeX files should be avoided, as they will not be compiled before being placed online.

2.8 Corrections

Corrections to previously published papers in MNRAS may only be submitted by the authors of the original paper, and should be used to correct errors which may lead to significant misunderstandings or incorrect conclusions. Corrections should be prepared in the same way as other papers, with the following exceptions:

The title should be ‘Correction to: [original title]’. In most cases the author list will be the same as the original paper.
There should be no abstract. Key words should be the same as the original, but with the addition of ‘errata, addenda’ at the start of the list (even if this results in 7 key words).
The first sentence should identify the original paper, which should be followed by a description of the error. There should be an explanation of how the error arose, what needs to be changed (e.g. replacement figure or table, new text), how these affect the conclusions of the earlier paper, and the correction should finish with any references. See corrections published in recent volumes of the journal for examples of the format.
When submitting on the ScholarOne website, select Correction as the manuscript type, enter ‘Correction’ instead of an abstract, and in the cover letter quote the original manuscript ID and give a one or two sentence explanation of why a correction is required.

2.9 Data Policy

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, RASTI strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code, on which the conclusions of the paper rely, available to readers. Authors are required to include a Data Availability Statement in their article.

We suggest that data be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. Information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, is available here.

Data Availability Statement

The inclusion of a Data Availability Statement is a requirement for articles published in RASTI. Data Availability Statements provide a standardised format for readers to understand the availability of data and associated software underlying the research results described in the article. The statement may refer to original data generated in the course of the study or to third-party data analysed in the article. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or software or by or providing the required unique identifier.

The Data Availability Statement should be included in the endmatter of your article under the heading ‘Data availability’.

More information and example Data Availability Statements can be found here.

Data and Software Citation

RASTI supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and the recommendations of the FORCE11 Software Citation Implementation Group. When data and software underlying the research article are available in an online source, authors should include a full citation in their reference list.

For details of the minimum information to be included in data and software citations see the guidance on citing research data and software.

2.10 Sections

The journal is arranged in sections of interest for readers. The sections are:

Cosmology
Earth & Planetary Magnetism
Extra-galactic astronomy
Galactic astronomy
Geohazards
Instrumentation, detectors and telescopes
Physical data and process
Solid Earth Geophysics
Surface processes

Authors should choose the section most appropriate for their paper.

3 Submitting a paper

New manuscripts must be submitted electronically via the ScholarOne Manuscripts submission and tracking system. Paper or email submissions are not accepted.

3.1 Newsworthy articles

The RAS Press Officer will be happy to assist with publicity and press releases in cases where submissions are likely to be of more general interest e.g. with the popular media. Authors wishing to take advantage of this service should request it during the submission process.

3.2 Submissions through ScholarOne Manuscripts

Files to upload

Manuscripts must be submitted as a single file containing all figures and tables, in a single line spaced format so that the length of the paper may be judged. ScholarOne Manuscripts is able to handle manuscripts in PDF, PS, Word, RTF or plain text formats, which are automatically converted to a single PDF for use by the editor and reviewers. Do not zip or otherwise compress this file. Designate this file as ‘Complete manuscript file (PDF, PS or DOC)’.

Files should be kept as small as possible at this stage – files larger than 10 MB are not supported and should not be uploaded without prior approval. Authors may need to reduce the quality of their figures to meet this file size requirement; if the paper is accepted then higher quality figures may be reincorporated at the production stage (see section 5).

Any material for publication as online supporting information (see section 2.7) should be uploaded as ‘Supplementary material (online)’. Authors may also upload supplementary material which they wish to make available to the editor and referee but is not intended for publication, such as additional data tables or figures. This should be designated as ‘Supplementary material (file for review)’. Both forms of supplementary material will be automatically added to the PDF generated by the system.

For authors using LaTeX: our ScholarOne website does not compile LaTeX files, so please compile a PDF or PS before uploading. PDF files generated with pdfTeX/pdfLaTeX sometimes fail on the ScholarOne Manuscripts system; this can be fixed by adding \pdfminorversion=5 to the preamble of your LaTeX file, or alternatively by converting to a PS file before uploading. Please check the PDF generated by the system before submitting.

How to submit a new paper

Log in at the submission webpage. User IDs and passwords are case sensitive. Users can check whether they already have an account, or find their user ID and password by entering their email address into the ‘Password Help’ section. Only create a new account if necessary – if you need to change the email address of an existing account please contact the editorial office. Once logged in, the main menu will appear and authors wishing to submit a new paper should select ‘Author Centre’.

To submit a new paper, click on ‘Submit a Manuscript’ on the top toolbar, or use the blue star icon. There are seven steps to complete when submitting a paper, which are listed on the left hand side of the screen. Some information, such as your name as author, is added automatically. A green tick appears next to each step as it is completed.

The steps do not have to be completed in sequence and the process can be abandoned mid-way through and picked up again in a later session, the information being stored as an ‘Unsubmitted manuscript’. To continue with the submission at a later date, click on ‘Unsubmitted manuscripts’ from the Author Centre. The paper will appear in a table and you should then click on ‘Continue’.

All stages must be completed for a successful submission. Compulsory fields are marked with a red star. Do not use your browser’s ‘back’ or ‘forward’ buttons, but move through the stages either by clicking on the step numbers on the left hand side of the page or by using the system’s ‘next’ and ‘previous’ buttons.

Step 1 - Enter the manuscript type (Research article, Invited review paper, Comment or Correction), title and abstract. Corrections do not have abstracts – please enter ‘Correction’ into the box instead.

Step 2 - Upload your files here, giving each file a designation from the drop down list. Make sure to click on ‘Upload Files’ at the bottom of the screen. All files, except those designated ‘not for review’, will be combined into a single PDF file.

Step 3 - Choose at least one key word from the list provided and a minimum of two key words of your own choice, up to a maximum total of six key words.

Step 4 - List all authors of the paper. You are automatically added as first author. Additional authors may be added and the order changed using the order drop-down box in the first column of the table. All the authors must be listed. Please use the ‘Find’ button to avoid duplication of accounts. If any co-authors do not yet have accounts on ScholarOne Manuscripts, fill out their details to create a new account and they will be notified by email.

The order of the authors on ScholarOne should match that on the PDF; the ‘first author’ is the one whose name appears first on this list. The ‘corresponding author’ is the one to be listed as such on the final published paper, whilst the ‘contact author’ is the person we will correspond with during the peer review and publication processes. The ‘submitting author’ is whichever author completes the manuscript submission process. In most cases all four of these will be the same person, but there is no requirement for this and they may be different if necessary.

Step 5 - Authors may optionally designate particular reviewers that they would prefer not to assess their paper. Reasons must be given in the cover letter (next step). The editor will be informed of the request, but is under no obligation to grant it.

Step 6 - A cover letter may be added here, which will be seen by the editorial office only (i.e. not the referee). Please do not use this to summarize your results – the abstract already does this. Instead, use this box to highlight any special handling required, or to communicate with the editorial office. For example, the cover letter should be used to highlight any online material, explain requests for non-preferred reviewers, list any companion papers or earlier papers in the same series etc. Only attach a file if absolutely necessary.

Step 7 - Here you will see a checklist of what you have entered. Before you can complete your submission, you must check the PDF generated by the system. This is exactly what will be seen by the editor and referee, so if anything is missing or wrongly included it should be corrected now. Once the PDF has been checked carefully, submission can be completed by clicking the 'submit' icon.

You will receive confirmation on screen and via email. Keep a note of your Manuscript ID; this will help you track your submission via ScholarOne Manuscripts. The Editorial Office will contact you as soon as a decision has been made. If there are any difficulties during submission, please contact the Editorial Office (see section 7).

3.3 Submissions through Overleaf

For creating manuscripts in LaTeX, RASTI recommends the use of its own LaTeX class files. Our class files are available online at Overleaf and also as a downloadable package via the links below.

Overleaf is a free, collaborative online LaTeX editor that allows you to write your manuscript in a TeX or rich text environment, to generate PDF outputs as you write, and to share your manuscript with co-authors and collaborators. You can use the template, download your files once ready, and then submit your article via the journal’s submission site. If you are submitting using Overleaf please use the link below, and adapt the .tex file provided or upload your own manuscript files.

Overleaf webpage.

Authors uploading their own manuscript files to Overleaf may also use the RASTI LaTeX class files (see section 2.1).

3.4 Preprint policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

Authors who have posted a pre-print of their manuscript to arXiv.org may supply their arXiv ID when submitting their article through ScholarOne Manuscripts. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the arXiv record will be updated with the article DOI and will link to the final published version of the article in the journal. The arXiv record will be updated when the article is published online.

4 Editorial review

Manuscripts submitted to RASTI undergo editorial review by the Royal Astronomical Society, via a process of scholarly peer review. Each paper is assessed by a Scientific Editor (a member of the Editorial Board), who in most cases will solicit the opinion of two or more expert reviewers (also called referees). Reviewers critically examine the content of the paper and make recommendations on its suitability for publication. The Scientific Editor will then decide whether or not to endorse the reviewer's recommendations, and may request revisions or accept or reject the paper. See the RAS Editorial Code of Practice for further information.

The Journal operates a single-blind peer review policy. Reviewers may choose whether to reveal their identity to the authors. The Scientific Editors are assisted by an Assistant Editor, who handles the administration of each paper and acts as the primary point of contact between authors, editors, and reviewers.

4.1 Decisions

Accept – the paper is immediately accepted for publication and forwarded to the publishers.

Minor/Moderate/Major revision – changes to the content of the paper are required before it can be published. The nature of the revisions required will be explained in the report. Once these changes have been made the paper will be reconsidered.

Reject – the editor feels that the paper is not suitable for publication, and cannot be made so through modification. All papers rejected at this stage are confirmed by a second editor before the decision is forwarded to the authors. The paper will not be considered any further, and the authors may not submit a revised version. For information about our Rejection Decision Appeals Policy, please see section 4.4.

4.2 Submitting a revised version

If the editor decides to request modifications to a manuscript, the authors are allowed a maximum of four months to complete them in the first instance, and two months for any further rounds of revision.

The revised version of the manuscript should be uploaded to ScholarOne Manuscripts by logging in, opening the Author Centre, and clicking on the purple button marked ‘Click here to submit a revision’. Do not use the blue ‘submit a new manuscript’ button for revised papers. Locate the entry for the paper in the table, and then click on the ‘create a revision’ link. Another seven-step process is then required. Steps 2–7 are identical to steps used when submitting a new manuscript (see section 3.3), and are automatically completed with the information from the original submission. Authors should check these carefully and make any modifications necessary. Step 1 is new, and requires the authors to enter a response to the editor and/or referees’ comments on their earlier version. Changes to the manuscript should be highlighted (e.g. in bold or colour), to assist the referees and editor. The response to the previous reports should be as specific as possible, and directly address each of the points raised by the editor and/or referees. The process may be interrupted and continued at a later date. The partially-complete submission can be found under ‘Unsubmitted manuscripts’ in the Author Centre.

4.3 First Look

Once a manuscript is accepted, authors will be sent an email asking them to upload their files for production. Authors should upload all of their manuscript and figure source files at this point.

For authors using LaTeX, this means the .tex, .eps, .bib etc. files. For authors using Word, this means the .doc or .docx and figure files. All the source files should be combined into a single .zip or .tar.gz archive and uploaded as ‘Source files (.zip or .tar.gz)’.

The source files will be used for typesetting purposes and must be clean, i.e. all marked changes, bold font and highlighting for the referee should be removed. The source files must correspond exactly to the complete manuscript, otherwise delays in publication will occur.

Please include an explanatory readme file in your archive. If you have used BibTeX to generate your bibliography in LaTeX, also include the .bib file in the archive along with the .bbl and .tex files; this will aid the typesetting process

4.4 Rejection Decision Appeals Policy

Authors who wish to appeal the rejection decision for their manuscript should contact the Editor-in-Chief outlining their case for reconsideration. Appeals must be submitted by the corresponding author of the paper, must be agreed by all authors, and cannot be lodged for a paper which is under consideration elsewhere.

Please note that we will only consider appeals for manuscripts that have been sent to a Scientific Editor, and not for those which have been rejected outright by the Editorial Office. Additionally, your appeal must be submitted within one month of the original rejection decision.

When lodging an appeal, authors must provide a point-by-point response to the Scientific Editor’s and/or the reviewers’ comments, and provide a clear explanation as to why the rejection decision should be overturned. Authors are welcome to provide new evidence or new data to support their appeal. Once received by the Editor-in-Chief, the Editor-in-Chief will consult the Scientific Editors who agreed on rejection for the author’s original manuscript. Further input may also be secured from additional Editorial Board Members or expert reviewers. In the case of a conflict of interest of the Editor-in-Chief, the appeal will be handled by the Deputy Editor-in-Chief or another Editorial Board Member.

If the rejection decision is overturned following the appeals process, the manuscript in question can re-enter the peer-review process. However, if the rejection decision is upheld, the Scientific Editor’s decision is considered final, and no further appeals or iterations of the manuscript will be considered by the journal.

5 Publication

Papers published in Advance Access are citable using the DOI and publication date. The paper will then be copy-edited and typeset from the supplied electronic files, with a proof being sent out by Aptara ([email protected]), a supplier of OUP. After proof correction, the final version of your article will be immediately published in an online issue, and the uncorrected proof will be taken off the Advance Access page. Once published in an issue, articles can be cited by year, volume and article page number.

5.1 Author Services

A variety of author services are available from Oxford University Press. For more information please see the ‘For Authors’ section of the Oxford Journals website.

Advice about academic writing and things to consider when preparing to publish an journal article can be found in the ‘OUP Publishing advice and guidance’ reading list. It features articles and chapters from some of OUP’s best journals and books, and contains advice about writing, editing, finding your writing style, and practical tips about titles.

Online production tracking is available for accepted articles through our author portal. The portal, where you will also sign your licence and pay any applicable charges, enables authors to track their article – once it has been accepted – through the production process to publication online.

5.2 Artwork

Guidelines for the use of figures were given in section 2.4. In this section, detailed instructions are given for the preparation of artwork which is suitable for professional publication.

Authors are asked to bear in mind, when preparing their diagrams, the likely reduction that will be needed when the figure is placed in the journal page. It is important to ensure that the line thickness used will withstand a possibly significant reduction in size. This applies to all aspects of the figure, but dotted and dot-dashed lines can cause particular problems.

For all graphics files please make sure that the line weight is acceptable – the weight should not be less than 0.3 pt at final size. When selecting line styles avoid triple-dot-dashed lines as this line style is overly complicated and is not always supported by typesetting, PostScripting and artwork software. Solid, dotted, dashed, dot-dashed, double-dot-dashed and dot-double-dashed lines are all OK.

Axis labelling, lettering and any plotting symbols should be sized appropriately for the figure and its likely final size of around font size 8 point. For example, a relatively empty figure containing only a couple of line plots will be reduced to a single journal column (84 mm wide), and should therefore have thick enough lines and large enough labelling to withstand reduction perhaps to one-half or one-third of original size, or even smaller. Labelling that is far too large for a figure can also be problematic, and may look very odd on the typeset page. Unsuitable artwork will be referred back to the author, inevitably leading to delay in publication.

Figures showing time should use labelling that allows interpolation, by providing labels in terms of seconds, days, or years.

The process of scanning material, such as typical laser printer output, can reduce the quality of the figure, sometimes very substantially, and this step should be avoided. Bitmapped elements should be produced at an effective resolution (i.e. at final printing) of 400 dpi or greater. 3D figures, such as those generated by S2PLOT, are fully supported in the online edition of the journal. The list of accepted formats is as follows: .swf, .avi, .mpeg, .mpg, .asf, .wmv and .wmx.

File formats

The preferred format for electronic graphics file is Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), although PDF and TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) files can also be used.

EPS files should be saved with a PC preview/header to allow viewing on screen, cropped tightly, and saved with a minimum amount of white space around the illustration. All fonts and any logos should be embedded as part of the file, and please use a common font like Times, Arial or Helvetica for labelling. Please also make sure that all labelling to be included in the figure [e.g. (a), (b), names of objects in multi-panelled figures, etc.] is embedded in the file – please do not use LaTeX code to include these labels as the figures are processed entirely separately from the LaTeX code.

Authors should take care in particular to make sure that the bounding box of the EPS file encompasses the entire visible area of the image. If the bounding box is not large enough, the figure will appear cropped when imported into the typesetter’s software (Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator). Ideally, the EPS file should be scaled to the final size and have the desired aspect ratio. Do not alter the aspect ratio using LaTeX code as the files are dealt with separately from the LaTeX file. Also please note that the typesetters cannot use graphics that have been produced using the LaTeX ‘picture’ environment.

TIFF files should be saved with a minimum amount of white space around the illustration, and with the PC option if possible. Please make sure that the TIFF file has sufficient resolution: this is 300 pixels per inch (ppi) for grey-scale/half-tone figures (e.g. photographs), and 800 ppi for combined line/tone figures, at final size.

For example, a figure that is to fill one column (approx. 80 mm wide, or 3.15 inches) needs to be at least 945 pixels wide if it is a photograph (3.15 × 300) or 2500 pixels wide (3.15 × 800) if it is a combination of a photograph and labelling. If the file is very large then it can be compressed: please tell us which compression method has been used.

Graphics files should be named to indicate clearly to which illustration they pertain (e.g. fig6.eps for Fig. 6). Please do not supply figures with long, complicated filenames. Please supply the figures as one figure per file and not as multi-page PS or TIFF files.

5.3 Proofs

Once a paper has been received by the publishers it is edited for style and language, and then typeset ready for publication. At this stage the authors are sent a copy of the typeset paper, referred to as the ‘proof’. This is the final chance for authors to make any corrections to their paper, so it is vital that the proofs are checked thoroughly for any mistakes. Any subsequent correction should relate only to significant errors that are identified in the scientific content of the publication, not to cosmetic changes.

Note that although papers are typeset using the author's source files as a starting point, the paper will have been converted to XML in the typesetter's own system and the PDF proofs created from this. It is therefore not possible to submit corrections using new LaTeX or Word files. Short LaTeX excerpts for mathematical corrections are acceptable.

At the proof stage the authors should carefully check their paper, including spelling, grammar, style, layout, referencing etc. If references need to be updated, please carefully check the textual citations as well. All corrections must be clearly marked and returned to the publishers as soon as possible, along with the answers to any queries made by the publishers. Changes to the substantive content or scientific results of a paper should be avoided. Proofs should be returned by the date requested if at all possible – delay in returning the proofs will lead to delay in publication of the paper.

Sometimes important new results become available between the time when a paper is accepted and when the proofs are returned. The authors may choose to mention these if they wish by inserting a 'Note added in proof' at the end of the paper, just before the references. This should not normally exceed two or three sentences in length.

Please appreciate that in order to achieve the rapid publication goal, the production schedule is very tight. If authors realize that they need to make substantive changes to their paper (beyond minor changes of e.g. spelling and grammar) after acceptance, the changes must be cleared by the RAS, and may need to be referred back to the editor and/or referees. Any such changes notified after the paper has gone into production (i.e. the day after the acceptance email is sent from the RAS) cannot be incorporated into the paper before it is typeset. Such changes will therefore need to be made as part of the proof corrections. To avoid excessive proof corrections and the delay that these can cause, authors are strongly encouraged to ensure that each version of their paper that they submit to RASTI is completely ready for publication. Authors may be charged for excessive changes during production (see section 1.3).

After typesetting, editing, and proof correction, articles are immediately published in an online issue and this constitutes official publication. Once published, articles can be cited by year, volume and article page number.

For further instructions on how to use the PXE proofing tool, please read our author FAQs.

6 Style guide

Papers published in RASTI follow the journal’s house style. The minimum requirements for papers were set out in section 2.3 . Full compliance with RASTI style will be ensured by the publishers, but the authors should note the points below (which are not intended to be exhaustive) on common points of style. Manuscripts should be prepared accordingly.

6.1 Layout

Papers should be formatted with two columns (except the abstract) and single line spaced. A single column layout may be used only if necessary for the display of numerous very long equations.

Sections should be numbered 1, 2, 2.1, 2.1.1 etc. Appendices should be labelled A, B, etc. Capital letters should be used only where they would occur in a normal sentence – e.g. ROSAT observations of the unusual star…, not ROSAT Observations of the Unusual Star…, with the exception of main section headings which are all capitals (e.g. Introduction).

The first numbered section (after the abstract) should be the Introduction, and the last numbered section should present the authors’ conclusions. These should be followed by un-numbered Acknowledgements and References sections, with any Appendices appearing at the end (after the list of references).

Figures and tables should be referred to as e.g. Fig. 1 and Table 1, unless they are from another paper, in which case fig. 1 and table 1 should be used. Where a figure has several parts, labels (a), (b) etc. should be added as appropriate. Figures (plots) containing quantitative information should have borders on all sides and fiducial marks on every border. Axes should be labelled and include the units. Tables should only have horizontal lines at the top and bottom, and under the column headings; no vertical lines should be used. Authors should note any special instructions regarding sizing or layout of figures and tables in their cover letter. Equations should be referred to as e.g. equation (1).

6.2 Spelling, grammar, punctuation and mathematics

Punctuation

Hyphens (one dash in LaTeX) should be used for compound adjectives (e.g. low-density gas, least-squares fit, two-component model). This also applies to simple adjectival units (e.g. 1.5-m telescope, 284.5-nm line), but not to complex units or ranges, which could become cumbersome (e.g. 15 km s ^–1feature, 100–200 µm observations). Some words (e.g. time-scale) are always hyphenated as part of journal style (see below).

N-rules (two dashes in LaTeX): these are longer than hyphens and are used (i) to separate key words, (ii) as parentheses (e.g. the results – assuming no temperature gradient – are indicative of …), (iii) to denote a range (e.g. 1.6–2.2 µm), and (iv) to denote the joining of two words (e.g. Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, Herbig–Haro object).

M-rules (three dashes in TeX/LaTeX) are not used in RASTI.

Spelling and grammar

Please use British English spellings – e.g. centre not center, sulphur not sulfur and labelled not labeled. For words ending in -ise/yse or -ize follow this style: use -ise/yse for devise, surprise, comprise, revise, exercise, analyse; use -ize for recognize, criticize, minimize, emphasize, organize, ionize, polarize, parametrize (note the spelling of this word in particular).

‘None’ is a singular word (none of the stars is a white dwarf), whilst ‘data’ is a plural word (these data show…).

Miscellaneous journal spellings: acknowledgements, artefact, best-fitting (not best-fit), disc (except computer disk), haloes (not halos), hotspot, none the less, non-linear, on to, time-scale.

For any other spellings, use whichever version is listed first in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Mathematics

Scalar variables are italic; vectors are bold italic (no arrows); matrices are bold Univers font (like bold sans serif); dot products are denoted by a bold centred dot • , cross-products by a bold multiplication sign ×. Differential d, complex i, exponential e, sin, cos, tan, log, etc., are roman (not italic). Sub/superscripts that are physical variables are italic, while those that are merely labels are roman (e.g. C_t and F_ν but T_eff and b_max). Equations should be punctuated as part of the sentence. Displayed equations are ranged left (i.e. no indent). Numbering of equations should follow the convention (1), (2)… throughout the whole paper, or (2.1), (2.2)… by section. Equations in appendices should be numbered (A1), (A2), (B1), etc.

6.3 References and citations

RASTI, in common with other journals in astronomy and geophysics, uses the Harvard – i.e. author (year) – referencing style, however RASTI includes publication titles in the reference lists of articles. All papers cited in the text must be included in an alphabetical list of references at the end of the paper, and vice versa. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure the accuracy of their references. This is particularly important for the online version of the journal, where links are provided to cited references. If the reference details are wrong then the links will fail, and the citations will not be counted in bibliographic databases.

Citations in the text, tables or figure captions, should use the following style:

For one author, use either the form (Brown 1999) or e.g. the observations of Brown (1999)…, as appropriate for the context.
For two authors, use an ampersand: Brown & Jones (1991).
For three authors, give all three names at first mention, e.g. (Brown, Jones & Smith 1994), but use first author et al. (in roman, not italic) thereafter, e.g. (Brown et al. 1994).
For more than three authors, use the first author et al., e.g. (Brown et al. 1994).
For several papers by the same author(s), use the style (Brown 1992, 1995) or Smith et al. (2000a,b) show that…
When several papers are cited in brackets, they should be ordered by date and separated by semi-colons, e.g. (Smith et al. 1990; Brown et al. 1995).

If any catalogues, databases or scientific software are referred to in the paper, authors should ensure that those responsible for compiling them are properly credited. Rather than citing only a URL, if at all possible a reference should also be cited (and included in the reference list), or if a reference is not available then the names of those who compiled the database, or wrote the software, should be given. Note that some catalogues, databases and software do provide guidelines on how they should be cited - if so then these guidelines should be followed.

The reference list should include no bold or italic, no commas after author surnames, and no ampersand between the final two author names. List all of the authors if there are eight or fewer, otherwise give just the first author followed by ‘et al.’.

To cite online-only conference presentations, please follow the example below: Barr, Ewan 2014, presentation at "Extreme-Astrophysics in an Ever-Changing Universe: Time-Domain Astronomy in the 21st Century", lerapetra, Crete, 16-20 June 2014. (accessed January 4, 2016)

Private communications or papers in preparation should be listed as such in the text, but omitted from the reference list, e.g. Smith (in preparation) shows that… The reference list should be in alphabetical order by surname. Spelling of author names and years must be consistent between the text and reference list. Prefixes such as de or van should be considered as part of the family name for alphabetical arrangement, and Mc should be alphabetized as if it were Mac.

If there are several references with the same first author, arrange in the following order: firstly single-author papers (by date); then two-author papers (alphabetically by co-author, then by date); then multi-author papers (by date).

The following simplified abbreviations are used for frequently used journals, as in the examples above.

A&A: Astronomy and Astrophysics
A&ARv: Astronomy and Astrophysics Review (the)
A&AS: Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series
Afz: Astrofizika
AJ: Astronomical Journal (the)
Ap&SS: Astrophysics and Space Science
ApJ: Astrophysical Journal (the)
ApJS: Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (the)
ARA&A: Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics
ASP Conf. Ser.: Astronomy Society of the Pacific Conference Series
Azh: Astronomicheskij Zhurnal
BAAS: Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society
Earth Planet Sci Lett: Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Geochem Geophys Geosyst: Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems
Geology (do not abbreviate)
Geophys J Int: Geophysical Journal International
Geophys Res Lett: Geophysical Research Letters
J Geophys Res: Journal of Geophysical Research
Mem. RAS: Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society
MNASSA: Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa
MNRAS: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Nature (do not abbreviate)
PASJ: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan
PASP: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Phys Earth Planet Inter: Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors
QJRAS: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rev. Mex. Astron. Astrofis.: Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica
Science (do not abbreviate)
SvA: Soviet Astronomy

6.4 Acknowledgements

Some facilities and funders demand particular Acknowledgments, and we accept what is required of authors. Individuals may also be thanked, for example, people not in the author list who have contributed (e.g. by giving guidance or participating in discussions). The use of facilities and equipment may also be acknowledged. It may be appropriate to thank the referee (even if anonymous). However, acknowledgments of non-research contributions or political statements are not acceptable. Conflicts of interests should also be declared within the acknowledgements.

6.5 Conflicts of Interest

When submitting a paper, you and your co-authors must declare any potential competing interests. Any conflicts of interest should be declared in the cover letter at submission and in the acknowledgements section of the paper. Where there is no conflict of interest, please include a statement noting “Authors declare no conflict of interest.”

A detailed definition of ‘conflict of interest’ is available on OUP's Ethics page.

6.6 Funding

Any funding information should be included at the end of your manuscript. Please fully cite any relevant funding information, including the full funding body name and specific grant numbers. If you do not have funding information, include a no-funding statement: “The authors declare no funding.”

6.7 Miscellaneous journal style

Non-Roman alphabets

Papers must be written in the Roman alphabet used in English. As an exception to this rule, personal names may be given in their native alphabet (e.g. Cyrillic, Chinese, Greek, Arabic etc.) in the list of authors (only), provided the Roman equivalent is given first with the native name in brackets e.g. Ivan Petrovich Sidorov (Иван Петрович Сидоров), Zhang San (張三 ).

Units

Units should be in roman type and should be separated from the number by a non-breaking space: e.g. 200 keV.
The units of time are ms, s, min, h, d, yr.
The units of length/distance are Å, nm, µm, mm, cm, m, km, au, light-year, pc.
Use superscript ^–1 , not solidus /, for units: e.g. km s ^–1 (not km/s).
The unit of arcseconds is arcsec when used to denote angular size or separation (e.g. beamsize 12 arcsec, 30 arcsec west of the star), similarly for arcmin. Use the prime and double prime symbols (not apostrophes) for coordinates (e.g. dec. –30° 29ʹ 23ʺ). If decimal points are used, these symbols should appear directly above them.
Use the degree symbol ° except to denote e.g. areas, where deg ² may be more appropriate (e.g. a survey area of 3 deg ² ).
Avoid repeating units unnecessarily (e.g. ‘1.3 and 2.6 mm’ rather than ‘1.3 mm and 2.6 mm’).
The unit of magnitudes is mag, not superscript m.
Percentages should be written per cent, not %, except in tables.

Other journal style

Use a single (not double) space after a full stop.
The abbreviations e.g. i.e. cf. etc. NB et al. are all roman (not italic). Note the punctuation.
Use single quotes ‘. . .’ not double quotes “. . .”, except where this would cause ambiguity.
Letters denoting wavebands (e.g. UBV, K -band) are set italic. Colour excess is set as E(B – V) i.e. with no subscript and using a minus sign. Extinction is set A_V i.e. with subscript.
Ionized species should be denoted by small capitals, preceded by a thin space – e.g.
Balmer, Lyman etc. lines are set as e.g. H β, Ly α (no subscript, non-breaking space).
Computer software should be in small capitals e.g.
Satellite names should be in italic e.g. Herschel , XMM-Newton , JWST .
The correct order of brackets is {[( . . . )]}.
Acronyms and abbreviations should be spelt out at the first occurrence, apart from JWST and unless they are very well known throughout astronomy and geophysics.
Dates should be written as e.g. 1998 April 14, except in tables, where months may be abbreviated as Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, June, July, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec.
Facility acknowledgements should be placed in the Acknowledgements section, and not as footnotes.

7 Contacts

There are separate points of contact for enquires relating to manuscripts which are undergoing editorial review by the RAS and those in production by OUP. Please do not contact the publishers with queries about manuscripts that are still under editorial review, or the editorial office about manuscripts which are in production.

Submitted papers

For papers which have been submitted but have not yet been accepted, please contact the assigned Assistant Editor by clicking on their name in the ScholarOne Author Centre. If this is impossible, contact the RAS Editorial Office:

Royal Astronomical Society
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London W1J 0BQ
UK
E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted papers

For papers which have been accepted and are in production, contact the publishers:

RAS Journal Production
Oxford Journals
Oxford University Press
Great Clarendon Street
Oxford OX2 6DP
UK
E-mail: [email protected]

For queries on licenses and charges please contact: [email protected]