Editorial policy
The Annals of Glaciology is a peer-reviewed, thematic journal published 3 to 4 times a year by the International Glaciological Society (IGS). Publication frequency is determined and volume/issue numbers assigned by the IGS Council on a year-to-year basis and with a lead time of 3 to 4 years.
Themes can be on any aspect of the study of snow and ice. Individual members can make a suggestion for a theme for an Annals issue to the Secretary General, who will forward it to the IGS Publications Committee (which includes, as an ex officio member, the IGS Chief Editor; see new IGS Chief Editor job description). The IGS Publication Committee will make a recommendation for an individual themed Annals issue, together with a potential Annals Chief Editor for that issue, to IGS Council. The IGS Council will make the decision whether to proceed, taking into account the spread of topics and the overall capacity for publication of pages in Annals.
Once the decision to proceed has been made, an Annals Chief Editor for the Annals issue will be appointed. The IGS Secretary General will then issue a call for papers and outline a schedule of deadlines for receipt of submissions by the Annals Chief Editor and final accepted papers by the IGS Production Manager.
The Annals Chief Editor will set up a team of ‘topical’ experts to act as Scientific Editors for the Annals issue. The Scientific Editors, in turn, will be responsible for soliciting reviewers for all papers assigned to them by the Annals Chief Editor. The Annals Chief Editor will, on the basis of recommendations from the Scientific Editors, make the decision whether to accept or reject papers, and will forward accepted papers to the IGS Production Manager.
The Annals Chief Editor will report to the IGS Chief Editor on a monthly basis throughout the editorial process and, upon its completion, will submit a final report within 2 weeks of the last paper in the issue being accepted.
The IGS Chief Editor shall then ‘sign off’ the issue and forward the final report to the chairperson of the Publication Committee and the IGS Production Manager.
Annals numbering system
With the new Annals editorial policy, the volume and issue numbering system for Annals of Glaciology has changed. Presently the Annals are given a single volume number, e.g. Annals Volume 40 etc. A new system is being introduced that is similar to the Journal numbering system.
The volume numbering will start with number 50. That is the volume number originally assigned to the Mass Balance Annals. That will avoid any conflict with older Annals volumes. The issue number will be the ‘old’ volume number. E.g. Annals 51 from the Radioglaciology issue will be
Annals 50(51), i.e. volume 50 and issue 51, published in 2009 and an ‘arbitrary’ issue number, that ‘happens’ to be in sequence to the old Annals system. Hence we will have
Mass Balance Measurements and Modelling, Annals 50(50)
Radioglaciology, Annals 50(51)
Dynamics of Glaciology, Annals 50(52)
Glacier inventory, Annals 50(53)
Snow and Snow Avalanches, Annals 51(54)
and so on.
This way we keep the old numbering system and bring in a new system similar to the Journal, reinforcing the concept that the Annals is a ‘journal’.