Oceanography Magazine’s Special Issue on
Building Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Ocean Sciences
Author Guidelines
Thank you for contributing a manuscript to the Oceanography special issue on Building Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Ocean Sciences. On this page you will find guidance on preparing and submitting your manuscript.
QUESTIONS?
Please email Dr. Ellen S. Kappel, Oceanography Editor
About this Special Issue
The special issue has three main goals: (1) to serve as a resource for building diversity, equity, and inclusion in the ocean sciences; (2) to inspire people and institutions to earnestly review practices and commit to meaningful positive changes to achieve a truly equitable, inclusive, and diverse ocean sciences field; and (3) to encourage scholars from underrepresented and marginalized groups to become and remain ocean scientists.
To make this Oceanography special issue most useful as a resource to the ocean sciences community and beyond, when writing your manuscript, we ask authors to focus on effective strategies, practices, and lessons learned that will be instructive to readers; how projects were modified over time and why; and what worked and what did not. That said, please provide a sufficient description of your program such that your comments on lessons learned and modifications will make sense to readers. Program descriptions, data sources/analysis, and findings should support your narratives. Authorship from diverse scholars is essential to ensure inclusion of authentic voices on all topics.
Please keep in mind that the intent of this special issue is to reimagine our way forward, rather than continue to perpetuate ineffective practices of the past, and this includes how we construct each article. We specifically ask that you incorporate inclusive language and not use deficit language (e.g., minority).
The introduction to the special issue will include a review of the demography of ocean science workers and students, and you may cite that article. Because most papers in this special issue are built around the premise of needing to diversify the field, simply citing the introduction to support the point on demography will save space and capture readers’ attention. Naturally, any paper dealing with a special aspect of diversity, such as those with different abilities, or a particular underrepresented population that receives little attention, should feel free to provide the relevant data and references.
As mentioned in the invitation letters, some articles may be published online only so that we can include more content as part of this project.
GUEST EDITORS
• Ben Cuker, Hampton University
• Corey Garza, California State University, Monterey Bay
• Deidre Gibson, Hampton University
• Catalina Martinez, NOAA
• Wendy F. Todd (Smythe), University of Minnesota Duluth
• Cassie Xu, formerly affiliated with Columbia Climate School, Columbia University
Preparing Your Manuscript
This issue will be comprised of articles of of varying lengths. If you are unsure of the word count for your article, please refer to your invitation letter or email Oceanography Editor Dr. Ellen S. Kappel. You will find detailed guidance for each article length below.
• Feature Articles (6,000 words)
• Short Articles (3,000–3,500 words)
• Sidebars (1,000–1,500 words)
The word count for articles include author information, abstract (if any), main body text, additional text such as boxes, acknowledgements, and references.
In addition to meeting the requirements outlined below, all authors are expected to adhere to The Oceanography Society’s Policy on Professional Integrity, Ethics, and Conduct when submitting a manuscript.
Feature ArticleS
Text
No more than 6,000 words including:
- TITLE PAGE. Your title page should include the article title; authors and associated job titles, organizational affiliations, state/province, and country; and ORCID numbers. Please include contact information for the corresponding author, including email and mailing address.
- ABSTRACT. Your abstract should not exceed 200 words.
- MAIN BODY TEXT. Please ensure that your manuscript contains continuous line numbering throughout. Line spacing should be 1.5–2. Manuscripts should be prepared according Oceanography’s language style and follow Oceanography’s style conventions provided in our Style Guide.
- ADDITIONAL TEXT. Be sure to include any boxes in your total word count.
- REFERENCES. All references included in the bibliography must be cited in the main text. References should be formatted according to Oceanography’s Style Guide. The Oceanography reference style is also available for download for use in EndNote. All articles cited must be available publicly online or in print before a paper can be accepted; there should be no “submitted” or “in prep” references. Exceptions are considered by the editor.
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. Your acknowledgments section should include the following items: all funding information from each author pertaining to this work; any conflicts of interest for any author that are not apparent from their affiliations or funding; any additional information on author contributions
Figures and Tables
- Maximum of 6 figures, including tables and photographs. All figures and tables must have captions and must be called out in the text.
- When considering figures to include, please make sure that they will be available at high resolution for final submission.
- Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permissions, if required.
Short ArticleS
Text
No more than 3,000–3,500 words including:
- TITLE PAGE. Your title page should include the article title; authors and associated job titles, organizational affiliations, state/province, and country; and ORCID numbers. Please include contact information for the corresponding author, including email and mailing address.
- ABSTRACT. Your abstract should not exceed 150 words.
- MAIN BODY TEXT. Please ensure that your manuscript contains continuous line numbering throughout. Line spacing should be 1.5–2. Manuscripts should be prepared according Oceanography’s language style and follow Oceanography’s style conventions provided in our Style Guide.
- ADDITIONAL TEXT. Be sure to include any sidebars or boxes in your total word count.
- REFERENCES. All references included in the bibliography must be cited in the main text. References should be formatted according to Oceanography’s Style Guide. The Oceanography reference style is also available for download for use in EndNote. All articles cited must be available publicly online or in print before a paper can be accepted; there should be no “submitted” or “in prep” references. Exceptions are considered by the editor.
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. Your acknowledgments section should include the following items: all funding information from each author pertaining to this work; any conflicts of interest for any author that are not apparent from their affiliations or funding; any additional information on author contributions.
Figures and Tables
- Maximum of 4 figures, including tables and photographs. All figures and tables must have captions and must be called out in the text.
- When considering figures to include, please make sure that they will be available at high resolution for final submission.
- Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permissions, if required.
Permissions and Agreements
GRAPHICS PERMISSIONS
Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permissions, if necessary, from other publishers for the figures/images they submit to Oceanography. The websites of most publishing companies and journals have instructions on how to obtain copyright permission. Please send a copy of the letter(s) granting permission via email or regular mail to:
Vicky Cullen
Oceanography Assistant Editor
PO Box 687
West Falmouth, MA 02574 USA
[email protected]
REQUIRED AGREEMENTS
Upon submission of your manuscript to Oceanography, all authors must sign and return the appropriate agreement. Authors can sign and send forms individually.
There are two different types of agreements:
• The certification form to be signed by US government employees only
• The license to publish form to be signed by all others
Send agreements via email or regular mail to:
Vicky Cullen
Oceanography Assistant Editor
PO Box 687
West Falmouth, MA 02574 USA
[email protected]
If you have any questions regarding the agreements, contact the Assistant Editor.
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE CONTENT
Oceanography makes articles available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). For additional information on content usage, please go to the Permissions page.
Submitting Your Draft Manuscript
To submit your manuscript, please click on the Submit Your Manuscript button below. You will be taken to Oceanography‘s online manuscript submission portal. Click on the red Submit Manuscript button at the top right. Authors will need to create a login if they have not previously used this web app. When choosing “article type,” please select “Diversity Special Issue.”
Prior to submission, please be sure that you have created one file for peer review in MS Word or PDF format that contains all text, figures, and tables, and is numbered continuously, as outlined above in Preparing Your Manuscript. Please name your file “lastname-firstname.doc” or “lastname-firstname.pdf”. Any supporting information (including Supplementary Materials) should be provided in a separate file(s) for review purposes.
For the short (1,000–1,500 words) sidebar articles, no abstract is needed, and you do not need to provide suggestions for reviewers.
Any questions should be directed to Oceanography editor Ellen Kappel at [email protected].
Submitting Your Final Manuscript
This information will be provided soon.

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