Australian Geomechanics

For Authors

Submit Manuscript

The Editorial Panel of Australian Geomechanics seeks contributions for future editions. The following comments are offered to assist would-be contributors.

Contributions can include: refereed technical papers; technical papers or notes; or news items and reports.

Technical papers can be refereed to ensure that they are of a standard similar to those published in international geotechnical journals. Authors should aim for a maximum overall length of no more than 10 pages, although shorter papers or technical notes are particularly welcome. Authors should indicate if they want their submission to be refereed; the status of the paper will be indicated on publication.

All technical papers submitted to Australian Geomechanics should be accompanied by a signed AUTHOR DECLARATION FORM which can be downloaded from the AGS website:
https://australiangeomechanics.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/AG-author-declaration-form.pdf
No technical paper will be processed unless the form is submitted.

Refereed technical papers should be original and:

  • Papers on geotechnical engineering, engineering geology and environmental geomechanics. Papers should be topical, practically oriented and preferably of national interest. Case studies describing innovative geotechnical work are particularly encouraged.
  • Papers on geotechnical or geoscience research undertaken in Australia or of relevance to Australian Geomechanics. These should clearly indicate their practical relevance and limitations.
  • Authoritative reviews of aspects of geotechnical practice or aspects of geotechnical education.

Technical papers or notes can be:

  • Items as above but submitted for rapid publishing. These will not be refereed but will be reviewed. They will be accepted at the discretion of the editorial panel. The intention is to provide a source for rapid dissemination of technical material to the geotechnical community.
  • Discussions on papers published in previous editions.

News items and reports can be:

  • Items describing significant projects, instructive failures, conferences, courses or other matters of general interest to the Australian geotechnical community.
  • Geotechnical book reviews.
  • Letters to the Editor.

It is preferable for contributors to submit formatted text, tables and figures in electronic format using Microsoft Word on Windows or Mac compatible hardware. If containing equations a PDF file should also be submitted.

Submitted material should be presented in the following format:

  • Single column format on A4 paper.
  • Left and right margins of 20 mm.
  • A top margin of 30 mm and a bottom margin of 25 mm.
  • 10 point character size of Times New Roman font with single (normal) line spacing.
  • Text should be formatted to have 6 pt after paragraphs and after headings.
  • No indent at the beginning of paragraphs.
  • Title of Paper in 14 point Times New Roman, bold, uppercase, and centred in column.
  • Main headings numbered 1, 2, 3…. etc. in 12 point Times New Roman, bold, upper-case and centred in the column.
  • Sub-headings numbered 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 … etc. in 10 point Times New Roman, bold, upper-case and left justified.
  • Minor headings numbered 2.1.1, 2.1.2 … etc. in 10 point Times New Roman, bold, lower-case and left justified
  • Items in bulleted or numbered lists should not be separated by a line, but should be indented by 10 mm.
  • Formulae typed and numbered (1), (2), (3) … etc. and centred in the column.
  • Captions for figures should be placed beneath the item and numbered Figure 1:
  • Captions for tables should be placed above the item and numbered Table 1:
  • Figures and tables should be referred to in the text as Figure 1, Table 1, etc.
  • Figures and tables should be centred in the column.
  • Do NOT use page numbers, these will be added later.
  • In text citation according to the Harvard system of author (year) or (author, year) as appropriate. Multiple references should be separated by semicolons (author 1, year 1; author 2, year 2)
  • References should be listed at the end of the paper in alphabetical order using the Harvard system: Author (year) title, publication, volume, pages, publisher with a 10 mm hanging indent and no blank line between each.
  • Underlining should be avoided and symbols shown in italics.

FIGURES AND TABLES
All the journal is published in colour.
Where possible figures and tables should be placed at the correct position in the text. Figures should be scanned. Failing this place them together at the back of the text. These should be sharp and of the correct size for incorporation into the finished document. The width of these must be less than or equal to the width of the text column (165 mm). Figures should be imported into the document as a single image and NOT constructed within the document.
Where images are included in the paper they should be sent as a separate JPEG file to improve the picture resolution.
Photographs should preferably be good contrast gloss prints and of the correct size for incorporation directly into the copy. Please ensure that all such items are clearly marked to indicate position in paper.
Authors will remain responsible for the integrity of their material and for permission to publish.
Material will be accepted at any time and published in the next available issue.

A TEMPLATE FOR PAPERS CORRECTLY FORMATTED AS ABOVE CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM THE AGS WEBSITE. https://australiangeomechanics.org/journal/editorial-policy/