Submissions

Author Guidelines

Types of Publications

Manuscripts in Ocean and Coastal Research have no restrictions in length (except for Brief Communications), although they must be concise.

Manuscripts submitted to Ocean and Coastal Research must be written in English and have neither been published previously nor be under consideration for publication in another journal. The article types are as follows:

• Original articles are designed to report detailed results of unique and innovative investigations via scientifically sound approaches, models and experiments.
• Brief Communications are appropriate for short-term investigations containing important baseline or preliminary significant information worth publishing.
• Review articles are manuscripts expected to provide a synthesis of the available relevant literature for an important research question, applying a critical approach and providing suggestions for future research.
• Assay is a manuscript type suitable for detailed reflection, with greater freedom from the author to defend a certain position, which aims to deepen the discussion or present a new contribution/approach regarding a relevant topic.
• Discussions are invited contributions related to a specific article or issue of a journal.
• Collective positioning is a document for publicizing a position or group consensus from multiple researchers who are experts in a certain subject.
• Case Reports are reports on a case study or application.
• Editorial is an opinion piece, political statement or general comment, written by a member of the editorial board, or by a guest editor.

Regardless of article type, Ocean and Coastal Research does not accept manuscripts that fail to address the results and conclusions of the research in the context of the relevant literature. Unstructured project or meeting reports and technical notes with no literature background will be promptly rejected by the Editorial Office without further peer review.

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Manuscript preparation for initial submission

The first page of every manuscript (independently of the type of contribution) must contain the title, running title, complete author information (name(s), affiliation(s), ORCID(s), indication of the corresponding author) and declaration of conflict of interest (if any). The sections Author Contributions and References are also mandatory in all manuscripts and must be placed at the end of the text, followed by Figures and Tables (if any).

Original Articles must present these components in the following sequence: Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments, Author Contributions, References, Tables and Figures. Maximum word count: no limit.

Brief Communications must present: Full text without headings, except for Acknowledgments, Author Contributions and References. Maximum word count: 3,500. Up to two figures and one table are allowed.

Review articles must include the following: Abstract, Introduction, Subsections related to the topic, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments, Author Contributions and References. Maximum word count: no limit. Structured reviews and meta-analyses must conform to PRISMA guidelines (see https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2019.100777 and references therein).

Other manuscript types are free format, but must contain the mandatory sections mentioned above.

Manuscripts accepted for publication will be subject to more detailed formatting by the publisher, according to the journal guidelines.

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Online submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts for Ocean and Coastal Research must be submitted online at the ScholarOne portal (https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/ocr-scielo). Registration and login are required for online submission and manuscript management.

During the manuscript submission process, the e-mail address of each contributing author will be requested. Please make sure that all provided e-mail addresses are correct to avoid delay in manuscript processing. The corresponding author must have circulated the manuscript among all co-authors prior to final submission, and all co-authors must be aware that the manuscript is being submitted to Ocean and Coastal Research.

Accepted File Formats

The complete manuscript (including tables and figures) should be uploaded to the ScholarOne portal in DOC or DOCX format. A Word template is available to facilitate the editing process and guarantee proper formatting. The use of such template is not mandatory but will speed up manuscript production in case of acceptance.

Cover letter and proposed reviewers

Authors are required to submit a cover letter with each manuscript submission and add it to the proper field in the manuscript submission forms. The cover letter should be concise and report on the significance of the contribution in the context of the current knowledge on the topic and adherence to the scope of the journal. Authors must confirm that the manuscript has not been submitted simultaneously to another journal or published elsewhere in its complete or partial form.

The names of proposed and excluded reviewers should be provided in the submission system, not in the cover letter. Proposed reviewers must not have any conflict of interest with the authors (e.g., close colleagues or frequent collaborators).

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General Considerations

Manuscripts must be written in English. If English is not the author's native language or if they have no previous experience in writing scientific papers in English, a thoroughly professional English revision is mandatory prior to initial submission. American or British English spellings must be consistent with only one version of English used throughout the manuscript.

Upon initial submission, if the Editor-in-Chief detects the need for improvement to the English, the manuscript will return to the responsible author without further revision. The resubmission will be only accepted followed by a certificate of revision by a professional or company specialized in reviewing scientific papers. During the peer-review process, manuscripts may undergo robust modifications. Thus, we strongly recommend counting on language reviewers who are ready to invest time and effort in the final revision of the manuscript.

Manuscripts with faulty English will be rejected after two rounds of revision, even if the scientific content has been considered satisfactory.

Manuscripts that do not comply with the instructions for authors, are out of the scope of the journal, or fail to provide the basic elements of a scientific article, may be promptly rejected by the Editor-in-Chief without being submitted to the peer-review process.

Submitted manuscripts undergo a rigorous peer-review process. An Associate Editor will request at least two review reports from scientists working as closely as possible to the topic of the submitted paper. The reviewers will evaluate and classify the manuscript according to four categories: accept, minor review, major review, or rejection. If a review is necessary, the authors will be required to submit a new version of the manuscript, incorporating the reviewers' comments and suggestions. A rebuttal letter addressing each point raised by the reviewers will be mandatory at this stage. A second round of review may be necessary if reviewers or editors find that other changes are needed after the initial review. The manuscript will be rejected if the newly revised version does not meet the requested changes, or if the authors do not have convincing explanations for not accepting the reviewer recommendations. Authors must be careful when reviewing their manuscript because usually a third round of review will not be granted in case the second review is unsatisfactory. The final decision on manuscript acceptance will be taken by the Editor-in-Chief, after hearing from the Associate Editor.

These sections should appear in all manuscript types

• Title: The title must be inserted at the top of the page, centered; it must be concise, relevant and clearly related to the findings of the manuscript. All words in the main title should be in bold and scientific names should be italicized.
• Running Title: A running title summarizing the manuscript title with up to six words and 60 characters (including spaces) should be provided after the quotation "Running title:"
• Author List: Full name(s) of the author(s) should be provided just after skipping a line from the running title. When there is more than one author, names should be separated using commas (,). Do not use "and" or "&" before the last author name. At least one author should be designated as the corresponding author, which will be indicated by an asterisk. The email address and other details should be included at the end of the affiliation section, after the quotation "corresponding author". Please read the criteria to qualify for authorship above. ORCID® (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) identifier is mandatory for all authors.
• Affiliations: Skip a line from the list of the authors to insert affiliations. Affiliations for all authors should be provided and include a complete address for correspondence (complete address information including city, postal code, state/province, and country), preferably including the name of one institution the author represents before the address, which will be included in parentheses just after the name of the institution. In the case of more than one author, superscript numbers should follow each name with a different affiliation. If all authors share a sole affiliation, superscript numbers should not be used.
• Abstract: Abstract should be limited to up to 300 words and it should give a complete understanding of the manuscript, including the main objective(s) or hypothesis/hypotheses, summarized methods, key results and final/concluding remarks. Do not use subheadings in the abstract body (such as "objective" or "results). Do not cite references.
• Keywords (Original Articles and Reviews): Up to five keywords need to be added after the Abstract.  Keywords must be separated by commas. Do not include names of countries, states/provinces, seasons, abbreviations, and general terms such as "salinity". Keywords should be specific to the article and common within the subject discipline. Avoid repetition of words already appearing in the title.

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Manuscript Sections

Introduction (Original Articles and Reviews):

The introduction should be concise and place the manuscript in a broader context. The text should present the current state of the knowledge in the topic related to the research, sharing the baseline information and citing key and relevant publications. The introduction should outline the significance and purpose of the work and clearly describe specific hypotheses being tested, in the last paragraph(s). Authors are free to describe their objective(s) as one or more hypotheses to be tested, or as a question to be answered, or even as an interesting/important environmental feature/phenomenon to be described. The Introduction must be straight to the point, and preferably without subheadings. Authors should keep in mind that the introduction must be comprehensible to scientists from other research areas unrelated to the topic of the manuscript.

Methods (Original Articles):

This section should be described with sufficient detail to allow others to replicate and build on published results. New methods and protocols should be described in detail while well-established methods can be briefly described and appropriately cited. We strongly recommend authors to reference the study/survey in time and space, if applicable. Authors should describe the main characteristics of the surveyed area and/or the experimental design. The description of data analyses is strongly recommended. The name and version of any relevant software or computer code relevant to the study should be cited or made available. Include any pre-registration codes. Research permits should be placed in this section whenever necessary.

Results (Original Articles):

This section must address the main results gathered from the sampling procedures, survey design and/or experimental work described in the Methods section. Authors are free to use specific subheadings to better share the most important results that support or reject their research hypothesis or that better describe the oceanographic features being treated in the manuscript. The information in the Results section should follow the same logical presentation provided in the Methods section. Tables and figures can be used to summarize or illustrate the results. Additional data (large tables, extra figures, images, videos, etc.) can be shared as Supplementary Material in case the manuscript is accepted. Please correctly identify such material upon submission.

Discussion (Original Articles and Reviews):

The Discussion must start with a statement of the main findings, preferably in one sentence, without repeating the results. The authors must then indicate the strengths and weaknesses of their results, in perspective with other studies, and address the meaning of their findings without entering into speculative or circular reasoning. Unanswered questions and future research directions may also be mentioned. Quote tables and figures only when it is essential to draw the reader's attention to one or more important results. Authors are free to use specific and useful subheadings according to their manuscript requirements to better discuss the results.

Conclusions (may be present in all manuscript types, except for Brief Communications):

This section is not mandatory but can be added to stress the main findings and future directions of the research, usually within one or two paragraphs. This section must have a strong link to the main objectives, questions or hypotheses. Avoid sentences such as "in conclusion ..." or "in summary...". Use the section to highlight the value of your research and position your findings within a larger context.

In the case of Brief Communications, all sections above should appear in sequence, without headings and subheadings.

Supplementary Materials:

Describe any supplementary material published online alongside the manuscript (figure, tables, video, spreadsheets, etc.). The name and title of each element should read: Figure S1: [legend], Table S1:[legend] etc.

Acknowledgments:

Acknowledgments must be brief, straight to the point. Funding agencies and other funding sources must be disclosed, with their respective grant number(s) if necessary. Keep the original names and acronyms of the native language of institutions and sponsors. Consider adding a brief acknowledgment to reviewers, as they may have contributed with insights and advice to improve your manuscript.

Author Contributions (present in all manuscript types):

Ocean and Coastal Research follows the CRediT criteria for authorship role designation. All co-authors must have at least (1) actively participated in the discussion of results, and (2) reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript. Please select the role(s) for each author as expressed on the CRediT website and inform them in this section, using author initials, followed by the respective role(s).

Example for three authors:

A.B.C.: Conceptualization; Investigation; Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing;

D.E.F.G.: Methodology; Software; Formal Analysis; Investigation; Writing – review & editing;

H.I.: Supervision; Resources; Project Administration; Funding Acquisition; Writing – review & editing. 

Conflicts of Interest:

Authors must be prepared to inform existing or potential conflicts of interest during the online manuscript submission process. A conflict of interest can be of a personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial nature when authors, reviewers or editors have interests that can influence the preparation or evaluation of manuscripts.

References:

Ocean and Coastal Research follows the Harvard style of literature referencing. For speeding up the reviewing and the publishing processes, we strongly suggest the authors use the ‘Ocean and Coastal Research’ style available in the reference manager freeware Zotero. The Citation Style Language (.CSL) file is also available on our webpage (www.ocr-journal.org) and also can be found and freely used in many reference manager software, such as Mendeley, Papers, ReadCube and others (visit https://citationstyles.org/ for a complete list). It is the responsibility of the authors to double-check the list of references and their quotations in the main text. Preparing the references using appropriate software will assist in avoiding typing mistakes, duplicated references and formatting issues. Preventing such issues is important to speed up manuscript production and final publication. Citations and References in Supplementary files are permitted if they also appear in the main text and in the reference list. Citations in the main text must include the author's names and year of publication, following the ‘Ocean and Coastal Research’ style. References to thesis, dissertations and reports are allowed as long as a valid and active URL pointing to the full text is included, along with the date of access.

Main examples of referencing literature

Journals: print and online.

One Author

In-text example: (Schneider, 2015).

Reference List Example:

SCHNEIDER, E. K. 2015. Trajectory analysis of the mechanism for westward propagation of Rossby waves. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 72, 2178-2182.

Two Authors

In-text example: (Fruman and Achatz, 2015).

Reference List Example:

FRUMAN, M. D. & ACHATZ, U. 2015. Validation of large-eddy simulation methods for gravity wave breaking. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 72, 3537- 3562.

Three or More Authors

In-text examples: (Roberts et al., 2006); Natalio et al. (2017); Albright et al. (2016).

Reference List Examples:

ROBERTS, J. M., WHEELER, A. J. & FREIWALD, A. 2006. Reefs of the deep: the biology and geology of cold-water coral ecosystems. Science, 312, 543- 547.

NATALIO, L. F., PARDO, J. C. F., MACHADO, G. B. O., FORTUNA, M. D., GALLO, D. G. & COSTA, T. M. 2017. Potential effect of fiddler crabs on organic matter distribution: a combined laboratory and field experimental approach. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 184, 158-165.

ALBRIGHT, R., CALDEIRA, L., HOSFELT, J., KWIATKOWSKI, L., MACLAREN, J. K., MASON, B. M., NEBUCHINA, Y., NINOKAWA, A., PONGRATZ, J., RICKE, K. L., RIVLIN, T., SCHNEIDER, K., SESBOUE, M., SHAMBERGER, K., SILVERMAN, J., WOLFE, K., ZHU, K. & CALDEIRA, K. 2016. Reversal of ocean acidification enhances net coral reef calcification. Nature, 531, 362-365.

Books: print and online

One Author

In-text example: (Lurton, 2010).

Reference List Example:

LURTON, X. 2010. An introduction to underwater acoustics: principles and applications, Berlin, Springer - Verlag.

Two Authors

In-text example: (Jakobse and Ozhigin, 2011)

Reference List Example:

JAKOBSE, T. & OZHIGIN, V. K. 2011. The Barents Sea: ecosystem, resources, 23 management, Trondheim, Tapir Acad. Press.

Three Or More Authors

In-text examples: Liu et al. (2015); (Mann et al., 2000); Quintell et al. (2015).

Reference List Examples:

LIU, Y., KERKERING, H. & WEISBERG, R. H. 2015. Coastal ocean observing systems, Amsterdam, Academic Press.

MANN, J., CONNOR, R. C., TYACK, P. L. & WHITEHEAD, H. 2000. Cetacean societies: field studies of dolphins and whales, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

QUINTRELL, J., LUETTICH, R., BALTES, B., KIRKPATRICK, B., STUMPF, R. P., SCHWAB, D. J., READ, J., KOHUT, J., MANDERSON, J., MCCAMMON, M., CALLENDER, R., TOMLINSON, M., KIRKPATRICK, G. J., KERKERING, H. & ANDERSON, E. J. 2015. The importance of federal and regional partnerships in coastal observing. In: LIU, Y., KERKERING, H. & WEISBERG, R. H. (eds.) Coastal ocean observing systems. Boston: Academic Press.

Chapter in a single author book

In-text example: Bourdieu (2011).

Reference List Example:

BOURDIEU, P. 2011. In front of the camera and behind the scenes. On television. Cambridge: Polity.

Maps In-Text Examples:

In-text example: (Bourillet et al., 2012); (Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment, 2001)

Reference List Examples:

BOURILLET, J. F., DE CHAMBURE, L., LOUBRIEU, B., BRETON, C. & MAZE, J. P. 2012. Geomorphological map from Blackmud canyon to Douarnenez canyon. Scale : 1 / 1000 000 (N 46 degree ) Mercator projection Ellipsoid WGS84. Versailles: Editions Quae. 1 map.

CENTER FOR COASTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT (US) 2001. Benthic habitats of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Silver Spring: U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Corporate authors

In-text examples: (BSI, 1985); (ISO, 1997); (University of Chicago Press, 2010); (WHO, 1993)

Reference List Examples:

BSI (British Standards Institution). 1985. Specification for abbreviation of title words and titles of publications. London: BSI.

ISO (International Organization for Standardization). 1997. Information and Documentation—Bibliographic References. Part 2, Electronic Documents or Parts Thereof. ISO 690-2. New York: American National Standards Institute.

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS. 2010. The Chicago manual of style. 16th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

WHO (World Health Organization). 1993. WHO editorial style manual. Geneva: World Health Organization.

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Additional guidelines

• • Abbreviations and acronyms should be kept to a minimum and defined in parentheses the first time they appear in the abstract, main text, and in figure or table captions, and used consistently thereafter.
  • SI Units (International System of Units) should be used. Imperial, US customary and other units should be converted to SI units whenever possible.
  • Accession numbers of RNA, DNA and protein sequences used in the manuscript should be provided in the Methods section.
  • Equations must be written using either the Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType add-on. Equations should be editable by the editorial office and should not appear as images.
  • Research Data and supplementary materials (SM): Note that publication of your manuscript implies that you must make all materials, data, and protocols associated with the publication available to readers. Disclose at the submission stage any restrictions on the availability of materials or information. An SM section is available for publication of materials that do not fit into the main text, including images, video files, large tables etc.
  • Footnotes are not allowed. All the information must be inserted in the main text.

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Preparing Figures, Schemes and Tables

• • Figures and Schemes at a sufficiently high resolution (minimum 1000 pixels width/height, or a resolution of 300 dpi or higher) can be uploaded in a proper field in the submission platform. Make sure figures have enough pixel definition before submission. Common formats are accepted; however, TIFF, JPEG and EPS are preferred.
  • The text within the figures and graphics must be in a font size large enough to be perfectly readable after reduction to fit the journal page format. Ocean and Coastal Research can publish multimedia files in articles or as Supplementary Materials. Please contact the editorial office for further information.
  • All Figures and Tables must be numbered following their order of appearance (Figure 1, Figure 2, Table 1, etc.).
  • All Figures and Tables should have a self-explanatory caption. Acronyms must be identified in table and figure legends, even if they have been described in the main text.
  • All table columns should have an explanatory heading. To facilitate the copy-editing of larger tables, smaller fonts may be used, but no less than 8 pt. in size. Authors should use the Table option of Microsoft Word to create tables.
  • Authors are encouraged to prepare figures in color (RGB at 8-bit per channel).

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Publication Ethics

Borders and Territories

We suggest authors to avoid using geopolitical references such as naming States, Provinces, or Countries in titles. The investigation in oceanography must be interesting to international readers, despite the State, Province or Country in which it was conducted. We recommend the use of geo-referenced terms in oceanography/marine sciences.

Bioethics and animal welfare

If the research was conducted with experiments using live organisms, it must have met animal treatment ethics guidelines, when applicable. Authors need to certify on the online submission forms that no individual organisms were harmed in conducting the research or they should submit the certification on animal ethics signed by the institution where the experiment was conducted.

Editors and journal staff as Authors

Editorial independence is extremely important to Ocean and Coastal Research. Editorial staff or editors will not be involved in processing their own submitted manuscripts. Submissions authored by editorial staff or editors will be assigned to at least two independent outside reviewers. Decisions will be made by editorial board members who do not have conflict of interests with the author(s). The ScholarOne portal prevents all editorial procedures and audit trails from being visible to authors who belong to the editorial staff of the journal, including the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, members of the Advisory Board, and managing staff.

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