Instructions for authors

General

Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finland (BGSF) publishes research articles and short communications in all branches of geosciences. Contributions from outside Finland are welcome, provided that they contain material relevant to Finnish geology or are of general interest.

Manuscripts, conforming to the instructions given below, should be sent by e-mail to Editor-in-Chief. Traditional research articles should be concise, generally no more than about 20 printed pages (less than 10 000 words). Short communications are concise presentations of significant independent findings or novel ideas and should not contain more than about 3000 words and 2–3 figures or tables.

All manuscripts submitted to BGSF are subject to peer review by at least two referees and at least one of the editors. Submission and article processing are free of charge to the authors. Authors assign copyright to the Geological Society of Finland effective when the article is accepted for publication in the journal.

BGSF has adopted the peer-review practices as recommended by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies.

Structure of the submuission file(s)

Manuscripts must be submitted by e-mail to the Editor-in-Chief and follow these major guidelines:

  • Send the manuscript text, figures and their captions, and references compiled into a single file (.DOC/.DOCX/.RTF/.PDF). Number the sections with three section levels allowed (i.e. X., X.X., and X.X.X.). Add line numbers to the manuscript file. Figures and their captions should be placed within text, near places where they are first cited.
  • The manuscript file should not exceed 15 Mb in size, so make sure to compress the images or use low-resolution versions if needed.  The images should be clearly readable, however. Consult the Editor-in-Chief if this is not possible.
  • Tables and their captions should be sent in a separate file (.DOC/.DOCX/.RTF/.PDF) in a layout that is easily readable.

The aforementioned structure is required for every submission and its goal is to smoothen and speed up the review process. There are no strict rules for the general layout in the first submission, but some additional instructions are given below. More detailed instructions on the layout will be given if a revision is suggested. These instructions can already be accessed here, but are not required for the first submission.

Cover letter

Along with your manuscript, submit a cover letter (either as the body text of the e-mail or as a separate document) that summarizes the background and main findings of your study and the reason why it would deserve to be published. It should also contain contact information (e-mail addresses) and affiliations of all the authors (highlighting the corresponding author) and four potential reviewers that do not have a conflict of interest (not from the same work place, no supervisor/supervisee relationship, no recent collaboration).

Language and terminology

Articles must be written clearly and concisely in English (British or American, consistently). Make sure that the used terminology and classifications conform to the most recent recommendations within the field. Editors use Glossary of Geology (latest edition) as the main terminological reference. In the case of bedrock and Quaternary stratigraphy of Finland, the authors should consult "Stratigraphic framework in Finland – formal classification and practical guidance" published in 2024 in the Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Finland (vol. 418, edited by Juha Köykkä, Antti E. K. Ojala & Timo Tarvainen). Chronostratigraphy should follow the International Chronostratigraphic Chart (ICS; see www.stratigraphy.org). Deviations from such guidelines need to be justified and explained.

Abstract and keywords

Articles must be preceded by a short ca. 200 word abstract that presents the content and conclusions of the paper in a concise form. Abstracts for short communications should be shorter than this. Keywords (5–10) separated by semicolon should follow the abstract.

Authorship contribution statement

This section should appear after Acknowledgements and before References and should list how each of the authors have contributed to the preparation of the submitted manuscript. Exemplary keywords to be used for different tasks: writing, editing, analytical work, data curation, modeling, visualization, interpretation, conceptualization, background. Example:
A.A. Author – writing, modeling, interpretation; B.B. Coauthor – analytical work, data curation, interpretation; C.C. Coauthor – editing, interpretation, conceptualization, background.

References

In the first submission, the authors are free to present their reference list in any layout they wish (as long as it is complete, and each reference contains all the relevant information and can be easily traced to its source). A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) should be included and written as "https://doi.org/10..." following every reference for which it exists. Papers in preparation or in manuscript should not be cited. Meeting abstracts that have not been peer-reviewed should not be cited for data or interpretations.

Figures

BGSF is printed in full color throughout and the authors are encouraged to use color in their figures. Present the figures and number the figure captions in the order in which they are cited in the paper.

  • Present a legend for every figure, in which symbols and/or colors are used to distinguish data groups.
  • Place a white background behind lettering that crosses a dark or textured area.
  • Use lines preferably no thinner than 0.5 points.
  • On maps, please include latitude and longitude, a north arrow, and a scale in kilometers.
  • All photographs should include a scale (either in the image or drawn on the image).
  • Please, use small letters (a, b, c....), when indicating subsections of the figure in the body text, e.g.: (Fig. 1) or (Fig. 1 and 2b, d) or (Fig. 1; 2b, d; 3a-c). If outside of parentheses, write open: "Figures 1 and 2 a show...". In figure caption (starting with "Figure X." in bold), refer to the subsections as follows: a), b), C).
  • Make sure that all the figures and their text and symbols are readable in the final submission file. Use a clear sans serif typeface as Helvetica or Arial. If accepted and published, the illustrations are preferably sized to fit the width of a column (74 mm) or a page (153 mm) that is 220 mm high – it is recommended to take these constraints into account already in the first submission.

Tables

Number the tables in the order in which they are cited in the paper and, if several table files are sent separately, label the different files (e.g., SurnameOfTheFirstAuthor_Table 1.DOC). Use dot “.” as the decimal point in numerical data and align columns on the decimal. Do not leave blank spaces in analytical tables; these should be filled with, for example, n.a. (not analysed) or b.d.l. (below detection limit). Make sure that all analytical data includes clear descriptions of analytical accuracy and precision (either in the Tables, in the body text, and/or in appendices). Manuscripts without such information will not be accepted.

Electronic Appendices

To support data accessibility, we encourage authors to include large datasets as Electronic Appendices. Typical datasets include analytical data, coordinate data (e.g., spatial geological models), but also other types of data and related formats can be suggested for editors. These could be sent in a form that is most relevant for the material in question (e.g., text as .PDF and data tables as .XLS/.XLSX). Please submit all appendices in a single compressed .ZIP file. Separate documents in the compressed file should be labeled in the order they appear in the text (e.g., SurnameOfTheFirstAuthor_ElectronicAppendixA.xls). If the file size exceeds 15 Mb, consult the Editor-in-Chief on how the appendices could be submitted. Again, make sure that all analytical data includes clear descriptions of analytical accuracy and precision.