Manuscript Types
JGR-Planets accepts the following manuscript types: research articles, brief reports, corrections, comments, and replies.
Research articles describe and summarize a scientific problem, describe the data and analysis techniques that are utilized, and present and discuss the results. Research articles are expected to make a significant advancement in the field and to contain significantly more detail than an article published in a letter or note format.
Brief Reports are designed to present and discuss a single significant idea. Brief Reports are strictly limited in length: they contain a summary that is less than 150 words in length, the entire text (including summary and captions, but excluding references) is limited to 2500 words, the combined number of tables and figures is limited to 3, and the number of references is limited to 30. Brief Reports will benefit from an expedited review process.
Corrections should not introduce new physics or assumptions to the prior manuscript, and should be limited in scope to remedying numerical errors, incorrect equations, and incorrect figures.
Comments and Replies follow the guidelines adopted by the AGU Publications Committee.
For further information concerning AGU manuscripts, please consult the AGU Author Guide.
The Editorial Process
Manuscripts submitted to JGR-Planets are typically assessed by two or three reviewers. To assure that each submission receives a quality expert evaluation, manuscripts may be assigned to an associate editor. The role of the associate editor is to help assign appropriate reviewers, to evaluate the reviews, and to provide a recommendation to the editor. Manuscript decisions are solely the responsibility of the editor.
If the author has reason to believe that a conflict of interest might exist with the editor or any of the associate editors, the author should inform the editor at the time of submission. Editors and associate editors will never be involved in the decision process for manuscripts that they co-author, or for manuscripts that come from their home institutions.
JGR-Planets strives to have an objective, thorough, and rapid review process. Manuscripts will not be sent out for review when the subject matter is outside the scope of the journal, if language problems would prevent the reviewers from assessing the scientific quality of the manuscript, or if the manuscript is not in a state suitable for publication. For those papers that are reviewed, manuscript decisions fall under one of the following categories:
Minor revisions. The manuscript may be suitable for publication after minor revisions that are carried out over the following 30 days. Revised manuscripts are often, but not always, re-assessed by one or more of the previous reviewers.
Major revisions. The manuscript may be suitable for publication after significant revisions that are carried out over the following 60 days. Revised manuscripts are typically re-assessed by the previous reviewers, and sometimes by a new reviewer.
Reject and encourage resubmission. The manuscript may eventually be suitable for publication, but it is likely that the revisions will take longer than two months, or that the final publishable manuscript will be very different from the submitted version. To avoid excessive revisions and reviews, manuscripts may be rejected with encouragement to resubmit after receiving two consecutive major revision decisions. If the authors decide to resubmit a revised paper at a later date, a rebuttal to the reviewer’s comments must be provided, and the manuscript will be treated as a new submission.
Reject. The manuscript is unlikely to be acceptable for publication, and is unlikely to be considered if resubmitted.
All editorial decisions are final and are not subject to reconsideration. Complaints about the review process should be directed to the Editor in chief.
Manuscript Fees
Research articles in JGR-Planets that are 13 pages or shorter are charged a flat fee of $1000, and each excess page beyond this limit is charged an additional $250. For additional information, please contact JGREprod@wiley.com.
Data Access
Data cited in AGU publications must be permanently archived in a data center and open to scientists throughout the world. When data sets are not available to the international community, they must be included with the manuscript as supplemental materials. Data sets of wide interest that are derived in a manuscript must also be included in electronic form as supplemental materials, or be made available at the request of any JGR-Planets reader.
For questions about any issues pertaining to JGR Planet’s scope, submission formats, and review procedures, please contact jgr-planets@agu.org.