Instructions for authors

Papers of theoretical, experimental or empirical nature, on all fields of Earth Sciences, are accepted for publication on e-Terra. Submitted papers must be original, concise and not being simultaneously in evaluation by other journals. The use of the potential of the new technologies, namely sound, animation and virtual reality, is recommended where pertinent.

Publication
Accepted papers will be immediately published on the internet as PDF formats. If the paper includes multimedia contents these will be placed on the e-Terra webserver and activated from links inside the papers.
No publication costs are charged to authors, and the on-line access to the journal is free. From time to time, the papers will be published on a CD-ROM that will be made available for interested Earth Sciences libraries and researchers.
Originals should be sent to one of the executive editors, including an electronic version (RTF, Microsoft Word or HTML formats) and two hard copies. Margins should retain a minimum of 2.5 cm and line spacing set to 1.5. An electronic copy of the figures should be sent separately from the text (in spite of being here also included), using TIFF, GIF, BMP or JPEG formats (minimum resolution of 200 dpi). If needed, for quality purposes, paper copies of the figures can be requested to the authors. Animated figures or movies should be submitted in the standard formats currently used by internet browsers; special formats can be considered if instructions are provided for the download of the necessary plug-ins.
After verification of the papers for accordance with the submission rules by the executive editors, the manuscript will be forwarded to one of the scientific editors. At least two specialists on the subject will be asked to review the manuscript. The final decision on the acceptance belongs to the scientific editor in charge of the paper.

Key-words
A total of five key-words should be provided by the authors.

Title and authors
The title should be concise and adequately define the subject of the paper. Identification of the authors is provided by first and last name, postal address and email address.

Example
Distortion index, cell parameters and chemical composition of cordierite from granites and hornfelses of the Tondela-Oliveira do Hospital region (Central Portugal).
Alcides J.S.C. Pereira - Department of Earth Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3049 Coimbra Codex, Portugal, apereira@ci.uc.pt
Luis J.P.F. Neves - Department of Earth Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3049 Coimbra Codex, Portugal, lneves@ci.uc.pt
Manuel M. Godinho - Department of Earth Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3049 Coimbra Codex, Portugal, mgodinho@ci.uc.pt
Paulo A.R. Legoinha - Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Lisbon, 2825-114 Caparica, Portugal

Abstract
The abstract should present in a brief way the purpose of the paper and the most important conclusions achieved; references are not to be included and the maximum length is 400 words.

Equations and notation
The equations presented in the text should be sequentially numbered (number quoted on the right). Units of the International System are to be preferentially used. The meaning of abbreviations should be explained in the text or captions, except when their large number suggests that the inclusion of an appendix is more appropriated.

Tables and figures
The originals should be submitted accordingly to the formats referred above. Captions of figures and tables should be concise and adequate; vertical and horizontal lines on tables are to be used judiciously.

References
Only the papers referred in the text are to be part of the reference list. Citations in the text should include the name of the author and year of publication; examples are Silva (2000) or (Silva 2000), the latter form to be used when the name of the author is not a part of the text. When more than one paper of the same author and year are referred, a suffix a, b, c should be used, accordingly to the following example: Silva (2000a, 2000b). For papers with more than one author, an abbreviated form of citation is to be used in the text (Silva et al. 2000), and the full citation given in the reference list.

Copyright
The inclusion of materials subjected to copyright is a responsibility of the authors, that should obtain the necessary permissions for reproduction. Copyright of papers publish on e-Terra belongs to the authors. Citations should be made in the following way:
Winbledon K. (2000) - Ultrabasic rocks from Iceland. e-Terra, vol. 1, n. 4, http://e-terra.geopor.pt.