Guidelines to Authors

1. Aims and scope

The international journalSciences in Cold and Arid Regions, is devoted to publishing the latest re search achievements in processes and the patterns of the Earth s urface s ystem in cold and arid r egions. Research in cold r egions e mphasize particularly on the cold-region-characterized physical, chemical and bi ological processes and their interactions, and on the response of cr yosphere to glob al change and human activities as well as their effects on environment and the acclimatizable strategies; focus on the object s of glacier, snow, river, lake, sea ice, permafro st and seasonal frozen ground, and periglacial geomorphology,etc.; and think much of cold regions engineering and technology. Research in arid regions emphasize particularly on the arid-region-characterized physical, chemical and biological processes and their interactions, and on the response of arid regions to global change and human activities as well as their effects on environment and the acclimatizable strategies; focus on the objects of desert, oa sis, loess, and aeolian landfor ms,etc.; and sup port integrated studies o n mountain-desert-oasis system in arid watershed with water resources as masterstroke, so as to provide reliable technological support for water safety, ecology safety and food safety in arid regions.

2. Manuscript submission

SCARoperates an online sub mission and peer review system that allows authors to submit articles online and track their progress via a web interface. T o s ubmit a m anuscript, pleas e ent er J ournal's Hom epage, http://www.scar.ac.cn or directly enter https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/scars, get an account, and follow the instruction s to upload the paper files (in Word format). The signed Copyright Transfer Form (Download on Jour nal's Homepage) should be sca nned and uploaded as "Supplementary files not f or review" with the online submission of your article. Authors are encouraged to suggest the names and fu ll contact details of potential referees on the understanding that the Editor has the final decision on the selection of referees. Submission of a manuscript will be held to imply that it contains original unpublished work and is not being submitted for publication elsewhere at the same time.

3. Manuscript types

✧ Review: authoritative and foresighted articles, which review the present research status, progress an d problems of active, rapidly developing research fields, and bring forward perspicacious assume for future study; summarize the representative achievements of a certain important field, findings, progresses and problems in the emerging research fields and make suggestions for the future work.

✧ Research articles: report innovative, systematic and integrated study results.

✧ Brief exp ress: r eport pro minently innovative inv estigation with great ac ademic significance. Text comprises only a heading (no subhead) and a brief abstract, totaling less than 3,000 words (two page spaces). The full text of final investigation results c an still be published in "Research articles" of this Journal.

✧ Forum or news: introduce and co mment on quality monographs of natural sc iences, discuss and make reply to th e contributions published inSciences in Cold and Arid Regions, or introduce and comment on a controversial issue of general int erest; report important scientific news, information, and academic affairs, as well as the significant international conferences held in China (800 words).

4. Manuscript composition (in the order given)

1) Title: Concise and infor mative title is often us ed in infor mation-retrieval systems, so it is sugge sted avoiding abbreviations and formulae where possible.

2) Author names and affiliations: Please give full name details for all authors who are respon sible for the paper's gist and data, cited with given name before family name (e.g., YaFeng Shi, James S. Gardner). Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please connect them with hyphen. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a s uperscript number immediately after the author's na me. Provide the full postal address of eac h affiliation, including the country name.

3) Corresponding author: Please clearly indicate who will handle all stages of refereeing, publication, and post-publication. Ensure his or her complete postal address, telephone and permanent E-mail.

4) Abstract: Abstracts should state briefly the purpose and method of the study, the principal results and major conclusions. AnABSTRACTis often presented separate from the article, so references, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided.

5)Keywords:Immediately after the abstract, provide a m aximum of 6 keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and m ultiple concepts (avoid, for example, "and", "of").

6) Introduction: State the objectives, the method of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

7) Materials and methods: Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference.

8) Discussion and c onclusions: Please relate your findings to past and current published work, i ndicating the significance of your contribution, with its limitations, advantages and possible applications.

9) Acknowledgments: Acknowledgments include infor mation on grants received, and if applicable, the information regarding fund; recognition of people who assisted in the research or article.

10) References: Please ensure that ever y reference cited in the text is also present in the referen ce list (andvice versa). Unpublished results and p ersonal communications should not b e in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text,e.g., (Smith J, personal communication, 2006). In the text, references are cited as (Harris, 2009) for single author, as (Osterkamp and Romanovsky, 1999) for two, and a s (Bhandarkaret al., 2006) for three or more author s. Citations may be made directly (or pare nthetically). Group s of references should be listed fir st chronolo gically, then alphabetically. In the refere nce list, references should be arr anged first alphabetically and then further sorted c hronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c",etc., placed after the year of publication. Note: All authors should be listed by family name.

Examples:

➢ Reference to a journal publication:

Yao TD, Zhang YS, Pu JC,et al., 2011. Hydrological and climatological glaciers observation 20 years on Tanggula Pass of Tibetan Plateau: its s ignificance an d contribution. Scien ces in Co ld and Arid R egions, 3(3): 18 7-196. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2011.00187.

➢ Reference to a book:

Cooke RU, Warren A, Goudie A, 1993. Desert Geomorphology. 2nd edition. London: UCL Press, pp. 10-20.

➢ Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

Brouwer R, Dewit CT, 1969. A simulation model of plant growth with special attention to root gr owth and its consequences. In:

Whittington WJ (ed.). Root Growth. London: Butterworth, pp. 224-244.

➢ Reference a paper in a conference proceeding:

Sterk G, van Boxel J, Zuurbie R, 2002. Interactions between turbulent wind flow and saltation sand transport. In: Lee JA, Zobeck TM (eds.). Proceedings of ICAR5/GCTE-SEN Joint Conference, International Center for Arid and Se miarid Lands Studies. Lubbock: Texas Technology University, pp. 63.

➢ Reference to a thesis or dissertation:

Amory JY, 1996. Permaian sedimentation and tectonics of southern Mongolia. M.S. Thesis, Stanford University, pp. 183.

➢ Internet publication/Online document:

UNESCO, 2012. Tara Oceans Expedition: Call in New York (Feb. 17, 2012). http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/. Cited in Feb. 22, 2012.

5. Manuscript format (please find "The sample of manuscript" in Journal's Homepage)

1) Please write your text in good English (American or British usag e is accepted, but not a mixture of them). The manuscripts should be organized in a 10.5 pt Times New Roman font with 1 line spacing.

2) Tables should be concise and exact and must be edited in Microsoft Word easily (should not be in picture format). Tables are required to be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and placed in their corresponding places in the main text.

3) Figure captions should be concise, precise guides to the inte rpretation of each fig ure. Figure captions are required to be n umbered consecutively with Arabic numerals placed in their corresponding places in the main text.

4) It is strongly recommended that all figur es are properly processed and then in serted in a Word file "Paper figures", being compressed while uploading if necessary.

● Figure size: 70-80 mm in width (half column); 140-160 mm in width (single column); 160mm×240mm (within th e page space, including figure caption).

● Font size: letters and numerals are in Times New Roman font and th eir sizes are commonly not larger than 8 pt. Other symbols should be clearly legible.

● Photographs (or combined with drawings) should be applied with high-resolution (over 600 dpi).

6. Reviewing, revision and acceptance of manuscripts

Every manuscript is independently reviewed by peers. If two or more reviewers consider the manuscript unsuitable for publication in this journal, a statement for the decision will be sent to authors within two months of the submitting date. A manuscript sent back to corresponding author for revision should be returned to the editor without delay. One to two months before the man uscript is published, a pre ss proof in ".pdf" format will be emailed to authors. Authors check and approve the press proof, then upload or email back in 5 days.

7. Publishing

Once the article is published in thi s journal, we'll email you the up-to-date PDF version of our journal contents. Y ou can also freely download the paper s you are interested in from SCAR's Homepage. In addition, three samples (extra requirement just contact the editorial office) will be pr ovided to the corresponding author. So, the information of Corresponding author is very important (Note: the complete postal address in Chinese is also necessary for authors from China. Please write it in cover letter).

For more information, please go to: http://www.scar.ac.cn