Eos Submission Guidelines

What Is Eos?
Eos is a source for news and perspectives about the Earth and space sciences. We publish for a broad audience that includes the worldwide scientific community and the science-engaged public.

Eos is not a journal and does not publish data or original research results that have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, nor does it publish overly technical language or jargon.

Eos does not accept simultaneously submitted or previously published articles, including articles published on preprint servers.
What Does Eos Publish?

News items are reported by staff and freelance writers. Pitches can go to [email protected].

If you’re seeking to publish about a recently deceased Earth or space science colleague, please do so on AGU’s In Memorium page.

Scientist-written articles in Eos offer the opportunity to answer questions that journals may not: Why are you studying this? What is interesting about these scientific questions? How did you find novel ways to study it?

Manuscripts should both educate and engage the Eos readership. Whether you’re describing the process behind your research in a Science Update, offering solutions to a community issue in an Opinion, or giving an overview of an area of research in a Feature, you have an opportunity to show readers why this work or these questions are exciting to you and important to science.

How Do I Submit?

Science authors may submit article proposals to Eos. Please do not submit completed manuscripts.

Proposals are evaluated by our panel of Eos Science Advisers. If your proposal is accepted, Eos will provide guidance before and during the writing process so that your manuscript is engaging and informative to Eos’s audience. Eos reserves the right not to publish manuscripts that do not follow this guidance.

On the submission form, you’ll be asked to briefly describe the focus or thesis of your topic, the key points, and why it matters to Eos readers—about 400 words in total. Next, select the type of article you’re proposing.

  • Science Updates: These articles should not contain science results that have not been peer reviewed; instead, they should offer a look into the process of the research, the challenges encountered and how (if applicable) they were overcome, and the questions that remain and how you plan to approach answering them. Your passion and excitement about the research and the importance of the conclusions you hope to reach are welcome additions to these articles.These articles may also offer insight into and context of discussions and results presented at meetings, conferences, and workshops. Our goal for science updates like this is to place descriptions of meetings within the broader context of an important issue rather than describing a meeting as an isolated event. Articles that offer only broad summaries of meeting discussions and that lack insight or context will be rejected. Procedural accounts or specifics about how a workshop operated should also be avoided.
    Science Updates are no more than 1,500 words.
  • Opinion: A persuasive manuscript that identifies a problem within the Earth and space science community (culturally or scientifically) and offers solutions for the reader. If the problem is widely known (e.g., diversity in science; the need to address climate change), it doesn’t need to be established in the manuscript, which should move quickly to recommendations.An Opinion should engage or move forward a conversation in the science community.
    Opinions are no more than 1,500 words.
  • Feature article: A solid overview of a defined topic. A good Feature article places its topic in a broad context; describes the work in a way that scientists across all disciplines can understand and appreciate; acknowledges the breadth of findings; and gives readers a sense of the history, challenges, and opportunities related to the topic discussed. A Feature article does not focus on a single program, project, meeting, or research experiment. Rather, it uses several case studies or examples to describe the topic. Some articles may be tutorial in nature. Whenever possible, the article should weave together science and policy issues related to the topic and acknowledge alternate findings.
    Features are no more than 2,000 words.
  • GeoFizz: These fun articles offer a lighthearted look into science. They can be narratives, photo galleries, or roundups of several items.
    GeoFIZZ articles are no more than 700 words.

Freelancers can also pitch us a news story, and any reader can suggest an idea that they’d like Eos to cover.

Submit your article proposal or news pitch here.

Tributes are written by invitation only, with approval from AGU section leaders. To suggest a Tribute, email editor in chief Heather Goss at [email protected].

Thinking About Writing Something for Eos? Here Are Five Things You Need to Know

1. Who Is the Eos Audience?

  • The science-engaged public
  • Geoscience educators
  • College students
  • Professionals in fields related to the Earth and space sciences
  • Policy makers
  • Your peers

2. Eos Manuscript Requirements

Once your proposal has been accepted, your manuscript must adhere to the following:

Language: Eos requires a writing style that is accessible to a broad audience. Avoid using specialized terminology and jargon. Terms that are not common to all of Earth and space science disciplines should be explained or defined. (Think of writing your manuscript as if you were describing your work over a dinner with a colleague who is not in your field—someone who is smart and interested in the topic but would likely not know a lot about the context.)

Structure: State clearly and succinctly in the first or second paragraph the significance of the topic: Why is the subject of this article important or interesting?

References: Eos allows in-line citations (with accompanying full references listed at the end of an article; see articles online for the format). However, keep references to a minimum (no more than 12), citing only those that will help point the interested reader to more information, or to information that the author has relied on heavily. Eos is not a research journal, and therefore it is not necessary to document meticulously all sources. An alternative to formal, in-line citations and references is to link text in your article to outside information or references—in some cases this is the preferred and/or necessary approach.

Images: Provide an eye-catching photograph to lead the story. It should be landscape-oriented, as high-resolution as is available, and submitted as separate files (.jpg or .png) apart from manuscript drafts. Figures, collages, and maps should not be used as main images. You may include additional images, illustrations, infographics, or maps for embedding in the article. In your manuscript text, include a caption (brief, clear, and in complete sentences) and a credit for each image. If the image is not in the public domain or available with a CC BY license, Eos needs written permission from the copyright holder of the image to publish it.

  • Figures: Be discerning when including figures. These should not be highly technical figures one would submit with a journal article. Just as Eos publishes text appropriate for a broader audience, the accompanying figures must be appropriate as well. Figures must be high-resolution, relatively simple (including only information covered by the manuscript), and visually interesting. We may insist that our graphics team redesign the figure. We may also decline to publish figures if they do not meet Eos’s standards.

Headline and Teaser: Provide a newspaper-style headline that is brief, focuses on the most important aspect of the article, and includes no acronyms or abbreviations. Headlines and teasers may be changed during editing. Author input will be considered, but final decisions regarding headlines and teasers are the responsibility of Eos.

Authorship: We allow a maximum of 5 authors per article. Authors listed in the byline must be only those who actually write the manuscript. Project team names cannot be listed as authors. Other individuals or organizations who, e.g., contributed to underlying research or who provided feedback for an Eos article, may be mentioned and/or linked to in the main article or recognized in an Acknowledgments section at the end of the main text.

Copyright: Authors (one per manuscript) must fill in and sign Eos’s copyright license agreement. This includes selecting the appropriate copyright designation for the publication of their article (Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0, Creative Commons BY 3.0, Public Domain, or Crown).

File: Submit articles as Word documents or, if necessary, .txt documents. Do not submit PDF Files or link to Google or other cloud documents, and do not include line numbers.

Basic Style: Eos style is based on the Chicago Manual of Style and Words Into Type. Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (and its Addendum), and the Glossary of Geology are used for hyphenation and spelling. Eos uses an open punctuation style, that is, only as much punctuation as necessary for clarity. Units of measure must be metric; SI units are strongly encouraged.

Eos staff editors will work with authors of accepted proposals and manuscripts to ensure that the writing standards for Eos are met. Eos staff editors are expert science communicators and will work with authors to ensure their articles are well written and widely read.

3. What Happens Once I Submit My Manuscript?

  • Your proposal or manuscript will be reviewed by Eos’s editorial staff and Science Advisers, and you should receive a response within 1–3 weeks. These reviews assess the following:
    — Interest for the Eos audience
    — Scientific accuracy and soundness
  • If your proposal is accepted, Eos will send reviewer comments and science communication guidance to the authors, which they should use to complete the manuscript within 4–6 weeks.
  • Your manuscript will enter the publishing queue, which includes substantive and line editing by Eos. This process will take approximately 2–4 weeks.
  • Your manuscript will be reviewed by a Science Adviser for success in following our guidelines and producing an engaging and educational manuscript.
  • Eos reserves the right to decline to publish completed manuscripts that do not adhere to our guidelines. Author input will be considered on headlines and teasers, but final decisions are the responsibility of Eos.
  • Time from proposal to publication is between 8 and 16 weeks, depending largely on the time the author spends writing the manuscript and the editing required once complete.

4. What Style Does Eos Follow?

Eos style is based on the Chicago Manual of Style and Words Into Type. Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (and its Addendum), and the Glossary of Geology are used for hyphenation and spelling. Eos uses an open punctuation style, that is, only as much punctuation needed for clarity. Units of measure are generally given in metric; SI units are strongly encouraged.

5. Will My Article Be Published in Eos Magazine?

Eos magazine, a benefit for AGU members, is curated from articles published on the website. Only a fraction of the articles published on the website are included in the magazine. If your article is selected for inclusion, it may be altered for style and length, and we may contact you for assistance with additional illustrations. Authors selected will be mailed copies of the issue in which their article appears.
https://eos.org/learn-more-about-eos/view-editorial-policies
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