Invitation to submit a manuscript


Increase the impact of your research with Climanosco.

Climanosco’s mission is to make climate science accessible to everyone. One way we do this is by supporting researchers in paraphrasing climate research so that it is readily understandable to a broad audience, and by freely sharing that knowledge with and promoting it to the public.

We invite you to join our efforts with our spring 2018 thematic call for manuscripts. Participation offers:

  • The opportunity to share your (or others’) research with a larger, diverse audience
  • A fully supported editing process with feedback from scientific and accessibility focused peers
  • The chance to help increase public knowledge about climate science

This year, at the request of Climanosco’s community, we are asking for manuscripts on impacts and phenomena of climate change from a climate science perspective in areas of relevance to humans, including but not limited to:

  • Heatwaves, droughts
  • Sea level rise, floods, landslides
  • Air, water and soil pollution
  • Water or food production / scarcity
  • Infectious diseases

Manuscripts should reflect the state-of-the-art of published climate research and be approximately 1500 words (3 pages), written in a language accessible to the general public. They can include pictures, illustrations and videos. Manuscripts can provide an introduction to well-established knowledge, a general overview of an area of research, or a more detailed dive into specific facets of an area of research. Please see below for more details.

The three best articles will win exciting prizes!

If you are interested in submitting a manuscript, please notify us of your intention to participate by 15 March 2018 (extended deadline). We look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you,

The Climanosco team

Additional information

Who can participate?

You are welcome to participate if

  • you have published within the past 6 years, as one of the main authors, an article in a recognized peer reviewed scientific journal in the broad area of climate science; and
  • you have completed or are enrolled in a master or doctoral level education in climate science or in a related area of natural sciences.

What does it cost?

  • Participation is all free of charges, including registration, submission and publication.
  • Articles are published in open access by Climanosco.

What’s the publication process?

  • One of our scientific editors will take in charge your manuscript after submission.
  • The manuscript is then peer reviewed on both scientific and accessibility levels.
  • Once accepted for publication, the article will be published in open access on our web site.
  • A collection booklet will be published for this call and shipped on request to the participants for free.

Deadlines (extended):

  • Notify us of your intention to participate by: 15 March 2018 (extended from 20 February)
  • Submit your manuscript online by: 15 May 2018 (extended from 1 May)

Contacts:

About Climanosco:

Climanosco is an open, independent, non-profit organisation led by climate scientists and citizens aiming at making climate science accessible to everyone. We registered the organisation in Switzerland in 2015 as an association and have a growing number of members from around the world. We are building a platform for the interaction between citizens and climate scientists where scientists can reach out and citizens can raise questions, access to knowledge and get involved in making science accessible. This is a bottom-up initiative set to make a change by raising climate literacy around the world.

How to participate

1. Submit your notification of intent (extended deadline)

Send us an email by 15 March at call-spring2018@climanosco.org with

  • a few words describing the manuscript you intend to submit with a few main references;
  • the reference of an article of yours that was recently published in a recognized peer reviewed journal in the broad area of climate.

By sending a notification of intent, you indicate that you commit to write and submit a manuscript by the due date in the area of this thematic call which satisfies the conditions expressed in sections 3 and 4 below.

We will acknowledge reception of your notification within a few days.

2. Register with Climanosco

To access the online submission, peer review and publication panels, register as a Climanosco member at www.climanosco.org/register.

Registration is free of charge for all participants of this call. Registration can be cancelled anytime. We require that authors be registered with Climanosco for the duration of the publication process for a successful publication to ensue.

3. Prepare your manuscript

Make sure that you fulfill the following conditions:

  • The manuscript is composed of:
    • Title
    • Flash outline (max. 110 characters)
    • Outline (max. 200 words)
    • Questions addressed in manuscript (max. 3 questions)
    • Body (max. 2500 words; recommended max. 1500 words for introductory articles)
  • Manuscripts can provide an introduction to well-established knowledge, a general overview of an area of research, or a more detailed dive into specific facets of an area of research.
  • The text, and images or videos if any, are adapted to a broad audience without prior scientific knowledge.
  • The manuscript is based on scientific research that has been published in recognized peer reviewed journals in the broad area of climate science.
  • The text of the manuscript is new and original. Images and videos, if any, are either new and original, or appropriate copyrights have been secured.
  • As participant, you are the first author of the manuscript. You can add co-authors to the manuscript as desired. Co-authors do not need to be registered with Climanosco.
  • You agree with our Copyrights notice. In particular, copyrights remain with the authors and articles are published under a Creative Common Attribution License.

For more details on how to prepare your manuscript:

For more details on our peer review and publication process:

Don’t hesitate to contact us at the email address above if you have any question.

4. Submit your manuscript (extended deadline)

Submit your manuscript by 15 May at: www.climanosco.org/share-research

We will confirm within a few days of reception of the manuscript if it fulfills all requirements.

Don’t hesitate to contact us at the email address above if you encounter any problem.

5. Peer review

Here is a short summary of the peer review process and its timeline. Please make sure to fulfill the requirements at each step. For the details, see Introducing our extended peer review process and Peer review criteria for manuscripts.

Preliminary discussion (2-4 weeks): Manuscripts first enter in a 2-week preliminary discussion where all members can give a first feed-back to the authors. Authors have another 2 weeks to edit their manuscript and finalize their submission. This step may be skipped for returning first authors.

Assignments (1-2 weeks): A scientific editor takes in charge the manuscript and chooses the science and accessibility reviewers as required.

Open blind review (3 weeks): Assigned reviewers and other members have three weeks to write review reports on the manuscript evaluating their accessibility, scientific content, relevance and presentation.

Open discussion (2 weeks): All members can give last feed-backs on the manuscript.

Revision (4-6 weeks): Based on the review reports and the open discussion, the editor gives a recommendation to the authors for the revision of the manuscript. Authors then revise the manuscript online and submit an author’s reply. Based on the revised version the editor takes a final decision as to the publication.

Publication (1-2 weeks): Last proof-reading and editing, followed by publication on Climanosco’s web site.

6. Selection of best manuscripts and prizes (new)

After publication of all participating manuscripts, a jury will be elected by the Board of Directors to choose the three best manuscripts within this thematic call.

The jury is composed of an equal number of members who are registered climate scientists and who are not. It will rank the manuscripts by way of vote following the Peer review criteria for manuscripts.

All manuscripts’ first authors shall receive a paper certificate of participation. The top three manuscripts’ first authors shall in addition receive a Climanosco t-shirt and cash prizes as follows:

  1. CHF1000 for the best article
  2. CHF500 for the second best article
  3. CHF500 for the third best article

The paper certificates and t-shirts will be sent by post. Climanosco declines responsibility in cases of the loss of a parcel. The cash prizes will be sent to the winners by bank transfer. It is the responsibility of the participants to make sure that they have access to a bank account where the prizes can be deposited. It is the responsibility of the winners to declare the prizes to the tax authorities in their country. In case of a winning manuscript with co-authors, the first author is responsible for sharing the prize with the co-authors.

7. Disclaimer

We might adjust the deadlines for the submission of the notifications of intent and the submission of manuscripts depending on the response we receive.

Depending on the number of expected or submitted manuscripts, we might also separate them in successive streams.

All participants will be notified in due time of any such adjustments.

Manuscripts not participating to this thematic call can be submitted anytime to Climanosco, but they will be streamlined as editors and reviewers become available. We thank all participants for their patience.