A primary goal for MOSAiC is to advance research into the Arctic climate system, and that research will be documented via scientific publications. It is essential to establish a clear and transparent publication process that is consistent with the MOSAiC Data Policy and encourages broad participation. To enable this process, this document outlines the expected pathway for developing MOSAiC publications as well as providing information on a MOSAiC Special Feature in the journal Elementa where MOSAiC submissions are encouraged.

Figure 1: Recommended MOSAiC manuscript preparation flow chart.

Planning your manuscript

  • Inform your team coordinator so they have an overview of team activities, can support cooperation and collaboration, and can help ensure that your manuscript follows expected protocols.
  • Data Use. Ensure that data use is consistent with the MOSAiC Data Policy, including interacting directly with the official data provider / PI for any data used.
  • Consider details of authorship and/or acknowledgement consistent with the MOSAiC Data Policy (Section 9). An inclusive authorship approach is encouraged. Broadly accepted authorship standards are documented at: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html. Team leaders can help resolve authorship issues that arise.
  • Data Archival. Consider details of data submission, archival, and DOIs. Before a manuscript can be published, most journals require that the data used must itself be published in a public data repository and have a specific DOI. MOSAiC encourages this public release and documentation of data to support proper data acknowledgement and citation. This process can take up to 8 weeks, so plan accordingly (see Data Publishing below).
  • Two weeks prior to submission, send the manuscript to mosaic-office@mosaic-expedition.org. The MOSAiC Project Board will perform a formal check to ensure adherence to the MOSAiC Data Policy, including authorship, citation of research platforms, and correct acknowledgement. They will NOT evaluate the manuscripts scientific content. You will be informed of any concerns.

Manuscript Checklist

  • Include appropriate Acknowledgements:
    • [REQUIRED] Acknowledging MOSAiC including the Project_ID given for the specific expedition: “Data used in this manuscript was produced as part of the international Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of the Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) with the tag MOSAiC20192020 and the Project_ID: AWI_PS122_00”
    • [REQUIRED] Data providers that accept acknowledgement instead of co-authorship.
    • [OPTIONAL] Any additional acknowledgements such as grant numbers.
    • [OPTIONAL] Acknowledgement of key MOSAiC participants and supporters as appropriate, including personnel involved in data collection.
  • Include full citations of referenced data, and DOIs, prior to publication. Example:
    • Nicolaus, Marcel; Fang, Ying-Chih; Hoppmann, Mario (2020): Snow height on sea ice, meteorological conditions and drift of sea ice from autonomous measurements from buoy 2019S79, deployed during MOSAiC 2019/20. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.923187
  • Include citation for the appropriate research platform(s). Examples:
    • “Polarstern: Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung. (2017). Polar Research and Supply Vessel POLARSTERN Operated by the Alfred-Wegener-Institute. Journal of large-scale research facilities, 3, A119. http://dx.doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-3-163".
    • “Polar5 and Polar6: Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung. (2016). Polar aircraft Polar5 and Polar6 operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute. Journal of large-scale research facilities, 2, A87. http://dx.doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-2-153”

Data Publishing (can take up to 8 weeks!)

  • The MOSAiC Project Board recommends that data used in manuscripts be publicly archived prior to the manuscript’s final publication, consistent with most journal policies.
  • Submit the data used in the manuscript to PANGAEA or an alternate repository:
    • For PANGAEA use http://www.pangaea.de/submit and receive a PANGAEA submission ticket-ID.
    • If you are expected to publish data in an alternative repository due to funding requirements: Contact the MOSAiC Data Group to establish an Agreement with this alternative repository. Submit data to this repository and receive a submission ticket-ID.
  • PANGAEA, or the alternate repository, will manage the data archival process along with the data provider. After approval of submitted data, the data will be assigned a DOI. This DOI should be included in the manuscript’s references and cited where appropriate in the manuscript text.

MOSAiC acknowledgement

  • The MOSAiC extended acknowledgement has been published and its short reference is: Nixdorf, U. et al. (2021). MOSAiC Extended Acknowledgement. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5179738  (download as BibTex). We suggest the authors to use the following text in the manuscript acknowledgement:

    We thank all those who contributed to MOSAiC and made this endeavour possible (Nixdorf et al. 2021).

Elementa Special Feature

A MOSAiC Special Feature (https://collections.elementascience.org/mosaic) has been established in the journal Elementa (https://online.ucpress.edu/elementa).  Broad participation in this Special Feature will help the MOSAiC community to communicate and promote the many connections that cut across the various projects and components of MOSAiC. Elementa covers a broad range of topics, and is appropriate for nearly all MOSAiC research. Some special considerations for this Special Feature include:

  • The submission period is now open and will remain open for the foreseeable future. Simply indicate at submission that your manuscript is part of MOSAiC.
  • Papers are published online within a couple weeks of being accepted and clearing all publication requirements. There is no additional waiting period for a print journal. Thus, the timing from submission to final publication should be efficient and will largely depend on the length of the review and the speed with which authors respond to reviews.
  • Manuscripts have no length limitations, but a concise approach is encouraged.
  • Publication costs are a fixed rate of US$ 1450 for standard publications (no page or figure charges apply). For shorter “Commentary” publications, the rate is $650.
  • Elementa editorial policies are: https://online.ucpress.edu/elementa/pages/journalpolicies
  • Elementa Submission Guidelines are: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CSbompP2G3czNYeZFy9azyqwncNvYFRHnGAt_Pk45Yc/edit
  • For this special feature, we have a collection of guest editors, including representatives from the MOSAiC consortium, the Elementa editorial board, and others. Policies are in place to ensure an impartial editorial process
  • To support the review process, we encourage you to suggest at least three potential reviewers from outside of the MOSAiC community for your manuscript upon submission. Identification of reviewers for manuscripts will be a challenge, particularly with so many different disciplines involved in MOSAiC. Hence, suggestions independent from MOSAiC will provide a fair and impartial review of your work.
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