Author Guidelines

Please follow the author guidelines below to prepare your article.

For manuscripts, please use the GAIA article template (.docx);  >download
Please also submit an author declaration form (.docx);  >download.

INTRODUCTION

ESSENTIAL PRELIMINARIES

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

 

INTRODUCTION

Aims and scope

GAIA – Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society is a peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to inter- and transdisciplinary research on and for sustainability transformations. 

In detail, this focus implies that:

  • Original papers begin with an introduction suitable for non-specialists.
  • The significance of the topic in the environmental context is emphasised.
  • The style is discursive, short and precise.
  • Papers end with practical conclusions.

GAIA appeals to a heterogeneous and critical audience. Articles are chosen for their scientific quality and thematic significance. Additionally, in collaboration with the authors, the editorial team refines each article to be accessible and engaging for readers from different backgrounds and disciplines.
Papers submitted to GAIA are peer-reviewed and authors are obliged to participate in the double-blind peer-review process. Details of the reviewing process are outlined in the sections that follow. Invited papers are subjected to the same reviewing process and an invitation is no guarantee of publication. Currently, the rejection rate is more than 50 percent.
GAIA is indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI) and the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI).

Types of papers

GAIA is comprised of three primary sections - Forum, Research, and Books. The authors should identify to which section they plan to submit their paper and read the appropriate guidelines for submission below.

Forum
In the Forum section, original papers are published including essays, pointed expressions of opinion and reactions to articles that have appeared in recent GAIA issues. As such, the Forum aims to challenge current understandings by providing a “forum” to articulate substantiated opinions and controversial issues, to identify new problems, and to establish actual contexts.
Generally, articles undergo a double-blind peer review. Exceptions are reactions to previously published articles, which are reviewed by at least one member of the editorial board (editorial board peer review).
Articles – including references – should not exceed the length of 24,000 characters (including spaces).

Forum section editors: Martina Blum, Ulrike Sehy

Research
The Research section of GAIA contains three categories of texts:

  1. Original research articles of environmental and sustainability research.
    Research papers should not – including references – exceed the length of 32,000 char­acters (including spaces).
  2. Review articles that place environmental problems and development in a broader context. General review papers are usually written upon invitation and in agreement with the editorial office. Authors who wish to submit review papers on their own initiative are advised to contact the editorial office in advance.
    Review papers should not – including references – exceed the length of 40,000 characters (including spaces).
  3. Design Reports focus on a challenge unique to inter- and transdisciplinary research projects: They deal with the configuration of a project in terms of its research and communication design. They are not merly reprints of the proposal or epistemological treatises but rather discuss the underlying reasoning for the project design and critically present design principles. Design Reports are a GAIA-specific format.
    Design Reports should not – including references – exceed the length of 25,000 characters (including spaces).
    For detailed information please refer to the Guidelines for Design Reports (pdf).

All articles are subjected to a double-blind peer review and cross-read by at least one person foreign to the subject. Expert opinions are based on the article’s scientific quality (e.g., theory, methods, literature relevant to the subject), on the quality of presentation (e.g., length, conciseness, style), on the novelty of empirical data, methods, theoretical analyses, interpretation and approaches to problem-solving besides the article’s relevance for environmental sciences. The non-expert reviewer will determine the transdisciplinarity of the synthesis, relevance in terms of action and comprehensibility of the manuscript.

Research section editors: Martina Blum, Almut Joedicke

Books
The Books section is dedicated to the presentation, discussion and review of new publications relevant to GAIA ’s subject matter. Contributions to the Books section are usually written upon invi­tation and in agreement with the editorial office. Authors intending to write a book review on their own initiative are advised to contact the editorial office in advance.
Articles are reviewed by at least one member of the editorial board (editorial board review).
Articles should not exceed the length of 3,800 characters (including spaces).

Book section editor: Martina Blum

Communications
Scientific institutions associated to GAIA use the Communications section to present their research as well as to link their activities to other institutions. Articles are generally written upon invitation and are reviewed by the editorial office.

 

ESSENTIAL PRELIMINARIES

Code of conduct

GAIA recognizes its responsibilities in upholding ethical standards and pursueing best practices in scholarly publishing. Authors are expected to follow the ethical guidelines laid down in GAIA’s code of conduct and in these guidelines for authors.

Author declarations

Upon submission of an article to GAIA you enter into the following arrangements and you warrant on behalf of yourself and your co-authors.

Originality
The article is original, has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal, is not under consideration for publication by any other journal and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights. 

Authorship
Authorship credit reflects the individual’s contribution to the study.
An author is considered anyone involved with initial research design, data collection and analysis, manuscript - drafting, review and editing -, and final approval. The following do not necessarily qualify for authorship: providing funding or resources, mentorship, or contributing research but not helping with the publication itself. A so-called “honorary authorship” is inadmissible.
The corresponding author assumes responsibility for the publication, making sure that the data are accurate, that all deserving authors have been credited, that all authors have given their approval to the final draft; and handles responses to inquiries after the manuscript is published. 

Use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies

  • Authors are required to disclose any use of AI tools, including generative AI and language models (LLMs), in the preparation of their manuscripts. This disclosure should include the tool’s name, version, and manufacturer and be placed in the manuscript's methods section or acknowledgements.
  • The use of translation and grammar correction tools, such as DeepL Translator and Writefull, does not require declaration. However, manual verification of their outputs remains compulsory.
  • Generative AI tools, including LLMs, must not be credited as authors. Accountability for the manuscript content rests solely with human authors.
  • Authors must ensure that AI-generated content adheres to established publication ethics and guidelines, maintaining the integrity of the submitted work

Disclosure of interests
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. 

Acknowledgement of funding sources
All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. 

Research data, data sharing, and reproducibility

GAIA actively supports the publication and citation of research data integral to the findings presented in each article. Authors are encouraged to provide a Data Availability Statement at the end of their article under the heading "Research Data". This statement should include a link to the data repository used, and a description of how the data can be accessed.

Data requirements:
Authors should ensure that dataset(s):

  • are deposited in a suitable data repository,
  • have a license permitting reuse by others (e.g., CC0 or CC-BY).
  • are assigned a persistent identifier, such as a DOI, from the data repository.

Referencing research data in GAIA signifies authors' adherence to the Open Data, Software and Code Guidelines issued by Open Research Europe. For more information on these guidelines and a list of recommended data repositories, please visit https://open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/for-authors/data-guidelines/.

Research data should be cited following the GAIA citation style.

Open Access policy

GAIA follows the Green Road to Open Access:

  • Authors can archive their article for free public use on personal websites and/or in any open access repository immediately after publication.
  • No embargo period.
  • Authors retain copyright: all articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0.
  • We strongly encourage researchers to deposit their articles in a repository.
  • This policy is fully compliant with Plan S.

Gold Option

GAIA also offers a Gold Option: With this option, authors pay a basic fee and in return readers have free access to their articles. In order to maintain our high quality standards and cover our costs, we offer the Gold Option per published article as follows:

  • Forum section: 400 EUR (VAT not included)
  • Research section: 900 EUR (VAT not included)
  • Books section: 150 EUR (VAT not included)

Authors retain copyright.

License

Articles in GAIA are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0. Under this license, anyone may access, copy, distribute, or reuse these articles, as long as the author and original source are properly cited.
By submitting your article to GAIA, you agree to the publication of your article under this license. Please contact us if you do not want to have your article be published under CC BY 4.0.
The authors are responsible to obtain the necessary rights for quotations, pictures, figure etc.
Be aware that all photos and figures are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0. Please make sure that copyright holders agree with this license.

Privacy statement

The names and e-mail addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
The data collected from registered and non-registered users of this journal falls within the scope of the standard functioning of peer-reviewed journals. Our data protection information seeks to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as is detailed in the Data Protection Statement (in German) of oekom.

Data protection information for authors: oekom processes and stores your data (name, address, e-mail, phone number) to publish and manage the master data of your article. Upon publication we will transfer your data to our sales partners (Verlegerdienst München and ingentaconnect) and if necesarry to a printing company. We will not transfer your data to third countries. You have the right to request information on how your data is processed, a right to rectification of your data, to erasure (“right to be forgotten”), to have the processing restricted, to object to the processing, a right to data portability, as well as a right to revoke your consent. To revoke your consent, please send us an email to info@oekom.de. In addition you have a right to complain to the supervisory authority. Our data protection officer can be reached via datenschutz@oekom.de. Our detailed data protection information can be found at www.oekom.de/datenschutz (in German).

 

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Technical details

Papers for the Research and Forum sections should enclose

  • a list of keywords;
  • research papers additionally require an abstract (max. 1,100 characters including spaces or 180 words).
  • All articles should include a short lead text (research papers 250 characters including spaces, articles for Forum 600 characters including spaces).
  • Additionally, please include a selection of suitable pictures/illustrations,
  • a short CV for each of the authors (i. e., first name, surname, university education, professional career, main field(s) of interest),
  • author contact information (affiliation, e-mail address, ORCID),
  • and a photograph for each author (file in TIFF or JPEG format with a resolution of at least 300 dpi at a size of 2 x 2,5 cm).

The authors should enclose a cover letter explaining their intention to publish the paper in GAIA.

GAIA is published in colour print and provides an exceptional opportunity to illustrate scientific work in the form of pictures, charts, or maps.
The authors are responsible to obtain the necessary rights for quotations, pictures, etc.
Charges for the acquisition of pictures as well as extraordinary expenditures for picture editing are borne by the authors.

GAIA publication languages are English and German; submissions to the Research section are preferably in English. The authors are responsible for the linguistic quality. They are kindly asked to have their foreign-language articles corrected by a professional editing service. Manuscripts can be rejected due to inadequate linguistic quality.

Figures and tables

Figures and tables must be numbered and should provide a short explanatory caption, which can be understood independent of the text. Figures and tables must be integrated into the text document. Additionally, all figures and tables should be submitted in separate files.

Diagrams, graphics and tables of the particular format must be saved in a graphic format (possible file extensions are .ai, .eps, .pdf or .ppt), or should be sent as original data (e. g., Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Excel/Power Point). Possible formats for photographs are TIFF or JPEG. All figures must have at least 300 dpi at desired size. Line drawings such as logos or graphs must have at least 900 dpi at the desired size.

Be aware that all photos and figures are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0. Please make sure that copyright holders agree with this license.

References

The number of references should not exceed 40 (80 for review papers), the number of footnotes should not exceed ten. Quotations follow the Author-Date System of the Chicago Manual of Style (please note the examples below). Within the text, references appear in brackets including name and date. In case of more than two authors only the first author is indicated, followed by the addition “et al.”.

The complete list of references appears at the end of the text. Please avoid the use of abbreviations of periodicals in the list of references. English titles of periodicals or books are written in small letters. In case of more than six authors only the first author is indicated followed by the addition “et al.”. Further additions are translated according to the article’s language (e. g., “Edited by” or “Herausgegeben von”; “accessed” or “abgerufen”).

Please prepare your list of relevant references particularly with regard to current, international and peer-reviewed literature, where appropriate. We recommend the citation of primary literature in favor of reviews in order to give credit to the group(s) who first reported a finding. Please indicate the DOI of a reference if provided.

Below you examples for reference list entries and in-text citations.
If you are using the reference management software EndNote, you may use the GAIA EndNote Style for formatting your references.

Monographs
Pütz, M. 2005. Regional Gouvernante. Theoretisch-konzeptionelle Grundlagen und eine Analyse nachhaltiger Siedlungsentwicklung in der Metropolregion München. München: oekom.
(Pütz 2005)

Articles in journals
Eppink, F. V., A. Werntze, S. Mäs, A. Popp, R. Seppelt. 2012.
 Land management and ecosystem services. How collaborative research programmes can support better policies. GAIA 21/1: 55 – 63. https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.21.1.14.
(Eppink et al. 2012, p. 56)

Edited volumes
In German articles: Remmert, H. (Hrsg.). 1991. The mosaic-cycle concept of ecosystems. Berlin: Springer.
In English articles: Remmert, H. (Ed.). 1991. The mosaic-cycle concept of ecosystems. Berlin: Springer.
(Remmert 1991)

Articles in edited volumes (or conference proceedings)
In German articles: Stoll-Kleemann, S. 2005. Perspektiven sozial-ökologischer Forschung: Evaluation, Interdisziplinarität und Möglichkeiten inhaltlicher Weiterentwicklung. In: Fachübergreifende Nachhaltigkeitsforschung: Stand und Visionen am Beispiel nationaler und internationaler Forscherverbünde. Herausgegeben von B. Glaeser. München: oekom. 67–99.
In English articles: Stoll-Kleemann, S. 2005. Perspektiven sozial-ökologischer Forschung: Evaluation, Interdisziplinarität und Möglichkeiten inhaltlicher Weiterentwicklung. In: Fachübergreifende Nachhaltigkeitsforschung: Stand und Visionen am Beispiel nationaler und internationaler Forscherverbünde. Edited by B. Glaeser. Munich: oekom. 67–99.
(Stoll-Kleemann 2005)

Internet references
In German articles: BGE (Bundesgerichtsentscheid). 2001. 1A.173/2000. www.bger.ch/index/jurisdiction/jurisdiction-recht-urteile2000.htm (abgerufen 02.11.2004).
In English articles: BGE (Bundesgerichtsentscheid). 2001. 1A.173/2000. www.bger.ch/index/jurisdiction/jurisdiction-recht-urteile2000.htm (accessed January 7, 2005).
(BGE 2001)

Conference papers
In German articles: Gupta, J. 2002. Capacity building and sustainability knowledge in the climate change regime. Vortrag auf der 2002 Berlin Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change “Knowledge for the sustainability transition. The challenge for social science”. Berlin, 3.–4. Dezember.
In English articles: Gupta, J. 2002. Capacity building and sustainability knowledge in the climate change regime. Paper presented at the 2002 Berlin Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change “Knowledge for the sustainability transition. The challenge for social science”. Berlin, December 3–4.
(Gupta 2004)

Gray literature
In German articles: Schadt, S. 2002. Scenarios assessing the viability of a lynx population in Germany – Szenarien für eine lebensfähige Luchspopulation in Deutschland. Dissertation, Technische Universität München.
In English articles: Schadt, S. 2002. Scenarios assessing the viability of a lynx population in Germany – Szenarien für eine lebensfähige Luchspopulation in Deutschland. PhD diss., Technische Universität München.
(Schadt 2002)

Advance online publications / online first
Lee, D. 2023. Actors, the actor network and their impact on public space management: Social network analysis as a method. Raumforschung Und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.14512/rur.683.

Forthcoming articles
In German articles: Tillmann, J. Im Erscheinen. Habitat fragmentation and ecological networks in Europe. GAIA.
(Tillmann im Erscheinen)
In English articles: Tillmann, J. Forthcoming. Habitat fragmentation and ecological networks in Europe. GAIA.
(Tillmann forthcoming)

Supplementary material

Supplementary material can be made available online for a fee of 100 euros (plus VAT). After acceptance for publication, supplementary data will be published as received from the author(s) together with the online version. A reference will be given in the print version.

SUBMISSION PREPARATION CHECKLIST

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • The authors have read and followed the code of conduct and the author guidelines.
  • The article is original, has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal, is not under consideration for publication by any other journal and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights.
  • The authors have filled out and submitted the author declaration form.
  • The text is in Microsoft Word (.docx) format. It does not exceed the maximum length (Forum: 24,000 characters; Research: 32,000 characters; Design Reports: 25,000 charachters; Review Papers: 40,000 characters including spaces), all including references.
  • A selection of suitable pictures/illustrations and/or tables is included. Figures, photographs, and tables are numbered and provide a short explanatory caption, which can be understood independent of the text. Figures and tables are integrated into the text document.
  • Additionally, all figures, photographs, and tables are submitted in separate files. This can be done in Step 2 "Upload Submission". Diagrams, graphics and tables of the particular format must be saved in a graphic format (possible file extensions are .ai, .eps, .wmf or .cdr), or should be sent as original data (e.g., Microsoft Excel). Possible formats for photographs are TIFF or JPEG (i.e., .tif or .jpg). All figures must have at least 300 dpi at desired size. Line drawings such as logos or graphs must have at least 900 dpi at the desired size.
  • Papers for the Research and Forum sections enclose a list of keywords (to be entered in the "Keywords" field in Step 3 "Enter Metadata").
  • Papers for the Research section require an abstract (max. 1,100 characters including spaces or 180 words). Abstracts can be entered in the "Abstract" field in Step 3 "Enter Metadata".
  • The article includes a short lead text (research papers 250 characters including spaces, articles for Forum 600 characters including spaces and articles for Books 460 characters including spaces).
  • The submission includes a short CV for each of the authors (i.e., first name, surname, university education, professional career, main field(s) of interest). Author CVs can be entered in the "Bio statement" field of each contributor in section "List of Contributors" in Step 3 "Enter Metadata".
  • The submission includes a photograph (TIFF or JPEG format with a resolution of at least 300 dpi) for each author as a separate data file. Author photographs can be uploaded in Step 2 "Upload Submission".
  • The number of references should not exceed 40 (80 for review papers).
  • Quotations follow the Author-Date System of the Chicago Manual of Style.
  • The authors will enclose a cover letter explaining their intention to publish the paper in GAIA. The letter can be entered into the field "Comments for the Editor" in Step 1 "Submission".
  • The authors are responsible for the linguistic quality. If written in a language foreign to the authors, the article has been corrected by a native expert or a professional editing service. The authors are aware that extensive language editing done by the editorial office may be charged to them.