Instructions To Authors
By the Editor of Geophysics
Revised January 2007

Geophysics Letters

Beginning in 2005, Geophysics introduced articles classified as "Geophysics Letters," which are published on an accelerated schedule (typically no more than eight months from submission to publication). These concise articles present important scientific advances likely to have immediate influence on the research of other investigators. In addition to authors in the applied geophysics research community, scientists in other fields with advances that will affect research in applied geophysical sciences are encouraged to publish in Geophysics Letters.

The guidelines for organizing and submitting any Geophysics article apply to letters also, including the requirement that the paper include an abstract. In addition, the following are requirements specific to Geophysics Letters:

• Authors must designate a Geophysics Letters submission as such when submitting the paper.
• Authors must identify at least four potential reviewers.
• In the cover letter, authors should include a clear statement as to why the manuscript is suitable to be published in Geophysics Letters.

Geophysics Letters papers cannot exceed four typeset pages. (A general guideline for estimating the length of a printed article is to divide the number of words by 1000 and then add 35% of the number of figures and tables.)

Manuscripts submitted to Geophysics Letters will be expected to meet high standards with respect to language. No editorial resources will be available to assist authors in this regard.

To meet rapid turnaround requirements, manuscripts may be returned to authors without being sent out for review if the editorial team considers them unsuitable for Geophysics Letters because of content or format. In such cases, authors may consider submitting the manuscripts as ordinary papers in Geophysics.

An assistant editor and six associate editors will handle papers submitted as Geophysics Letters on topics including acquisition and processing; modeling, imaging, and inversion; reservoir characterization, time lapse, and rock physics; borehole geophysics and acoustics; and interpretation, earth models, and geology.

The associate editor will have four days to assign reviewers, who will then have 14 days to review the manuscript. An article submitted to Geophysics Letters typically will receive only one cycle of review. The article can be accepted as is or marked for minor revision. (Papers that need major revision will be rejected.) The author then will have seven days to submit revisions.

Once a Geophysics Letters manuscript is approved for publication, the author(s) must submit two paper copies of it along with two copies of associated digital files and all required forms before the paper will be considered accepted. Digital submission requirements detailed elsewhere in the "Instructions to Authors" will be enforced rigorously.