Further guidance for authors can be provided on request. It is often an advantage for prospective contributors to discuss the length, content, and emphasis of a proposed article with the Editor in Chief prior to submission. Queries should be addressed to: pasa@cambridge.org
Detailed discussion on submitted papers will be conducted only through the peer-review system.
Aims and Scope
PASA publishes new and significant research in astronomy and astrophysics and covers a wide range of topics within astronomy, including multi-wavelength observations, theoretical modelling, computational astronomy and visualisation. PASA also maintains its heritage of publishing results on southern hemisphere astronomy and on astronomy with Australian facilities.
PASA is aimed at a professional astronomy readership. Therefore, every article must contain new and interesting observations, theory or tools of relevance to the professional astronomy community. The application of established analysis methods does not, by itself, meet the standard required for publication in PASA; papers must report new or unusual phenomena, with robust insights of astrophysical importance. PASA will consider publication of white papers, provided they are expected to have significant impact as references for the astronomical community.
The journal is published continuously, paper by paper, as one volume per year.
PASA publishes research papers, review papers, and special series on topical issues, making use of expert international reviewers and an experienced Editorial Board. The journal does not publish letters to the editor or other submissions of a more journalistic style.
View the PASA policy on interdisciplinary papers here.
Article Types
PASA welcomes the following three article types:
Research Papers contain original and significant research, or a description of a new technique or instrument. Typical manuscripts will not generally exceed 10 two-column pages including abstracts, text, references, appendices, and tables. However longer manuscripts will be considered. Authors should keep Tables and Figures to a reasonable minimum and avoid repeating tabulated data in a graphic.
Review Papers give a general overview of a subject of current interest in astronomy and astrophysics. The introduction should arouse the reader's interest, describing the background, significance, and development of the field, and should be able to be understood by a broad audience. Important: Unsolicited reviews should be discussed with the Editor-in-Chief no more than six months before submission in order to receive approval to submit a review on the topic.
The Dawes Review are a special review series written on invitation by the Editorial Board.
These article types may be eligible for APC waivers or discounts under one of the agreements Cambridge University Press has made to support open access.
Overleaf
Overleaf is a free online tool for writing and submitting scholarly manuscripts. An Overleaf template is available for this journal, which allows authors to easily comply with the journal’s guidelines.
Benefits of using Overleaf include:
- An intuitive interface, in which authors can write in LaTeX or rich text and see a preview of their article typeset in the journal’s style
- Features enabling collaboration with co-authors (the ability to share, highlight and comment on versions of articles)
- Sophisticated version control
- Clean PDF conversion and submission into the journal’s online manuscripts system (supporting materials can also be added during this process)
Overleaf is based on LaTeX but includes a rich text mode. An author writing in Overleaf would need to have some knowledge of LaTeX, but could collaborate through the tool with an author who is not a LaTeX expert. Overleaf’s tutorial pages include a two minute video and an introduction to LaTeX course, and Overleaf also provides support for authors using the tool.
Note: authors should flatten their image files before uploading them to Overleaf and the journal’s submission system. This can be done by using Photoshop or GIMP, an open source Photoshop equivalent, both of which have a ‘Flatten Image’ option in the Layer menu. If you are using a locally installed LaTeX editor, it’s also possible to use in-line commands to do a round-trip conversion – see this Overleaf help page for more information.
We recommend that you try the PASA template in Overleaf, which allows authors to easily comply with the journal's guidelines whilst submitting to ScholarOne. We've received positive feedback from authors who have tried Overleaf since we started promoting it in November 2016.
You can also contact Overleaf for general support using the tool.
Preparing your article for submission
Downloadable Zip File - PASA LaTeX template
PASA's style and layout requirements are described in the LaTeX template for manuscript layout. Use of these defaults will result in a pleasing uniformity of layout and font selection. When preparing your manuscript, please pay careful attention to the instructions in this guide. Adherence to the correct PASA style will hasten your manuscript's progress through refereeing and production. The template file also contains instructions for using LaTeX commands to include citations, figures and tables. (We recommend that you try the PASA template in Overleaf, an online authoring tool that can help authors meet these style and layout requirements, collaborate with co-authors and submit directly into the journal's ScholarOne Manuscripts system).
Accepted manuscript
Accepted manuscripts are published online as is (before copy-editing or typesetting) within approximately a week of final acceptance, provided we have received all final files and a completed license to publish form. At this point, the article will have a DOI and be considered published and citable. The Accepted Manuscript (AM) file must be a single Word (or similar word processor) file with the abstract, main text, references, tables and figures. It does not need to be laid out as the final article will be published but it must include all those elements in the single file. You cannot upload a zip or other format file as the AM file. It must be word processor and a single file. The AM file is processed in a different (and more rapid) way than the other source files which are copy edited and typeset. We need all the source files and the AM file. You will subsequently receive a proof of your typeset, edited article, which will eventually replace the accepted manuscript online and be considered the final version of record. For more information, please click here.
Abstract and Keywords
All manuscripts must include an abstract and some (1-6) standard keywords. The keywords used to categorize your paper should be selected from the Unified Astronomy Thesaurus. Abstracts describing the essence of the manuscript must be 400 words or less.
Headings
Headings should be used to help organize the manuscript. Typical headings for research articles include review of literature, method, results, discussion, and references. For theoretical manuscripts, authors are encouraged to use headings that clarify the flow of the manuscript as well as assist the reader in understanding the content of the paper. Section headings should be concise.
Mathematics
Typeface: scalar variables are italic, vectors are bold italic, matrices are bold roman. Differential d, complex i, exponential e, and trigonometic and logarithmic functions are all roman. Sub/superscripts that are physical variables are italic, while those that are just labels are roman (e.g. Ni , but Teff).
Text extractions
Please use single quotation marks, except where 'a quotation is "within" a quotation'. Long quotations of 40 words or more should be indented with quotation marks.
Tables and Figures
Both Tables and Figures should be titled with a short and concise description, numbered separately but consecutively (Table 1, … ; Figure 1, … ), and referenced in the text. Tables should be clear, concise, and able to stand alone. with footnotes included to clarify entries. Figures should be provided as a high quality format. For imported scanned material a minimum resolution is 300 dpi. In multi-part Figures, each part should be labelled (Figure 1a, Figure 1b, …).
For further information, please consult the Cambridge Journals artwork guide
Acknowledgements
Acknowledge individuals or organizations who provided advice or non-financial support. If there are no acknowledgements, include the heading 'Acknowledgements' followed by the text 'None.' For dual anonymous refereeing please include this only in the title page.
Financial Support
Provide details of the sources of financial and in-kind support for all authors, including grant numbers. Grants held by different authors should be identified as belonging to individual authors by the author's initials. Where no specific funding has been provided for research, please provide the following statement: 'This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.' For dual anonymous refereeing please include this only in the title page.
Conflicts of Interest
Conflict of interest exists when an author has interests that might influence his or her judgement, even if that judgement is not influenced. Authors must disclose potentially conflicting. Non-financial interests that could be relevant in this context should also be disclosed. If no relevant interests exist, this should be stated. This requirement applies to all the authors of a paper and to all categories of papers If there are no conflicts of interest, include the heading 'Conflicts of Interest' followed by the text 'None.' For dual anonymous refereeing please include this only in the title page.
References
All citations and references must be complete and accurate on submission. PASA papers are indexed in the NASA ADS archive and we recommend using their journal abbreviations.
Papers will be declined for publication if they have references that are found to be incomplete or inaccurate. References should be selective, appropriate, and easily accessible. All sources cited in the text and tables must appear in the reference list at the end of the paper, and all entries in the reference list must be cited in the text.
The PASA LaTeX template and the PASA Overleaf template contain a pasa-mnras.bst bibliography style to help you format references. ADS or and DOI/CrossRef links are included automatically when this reference style is applied.
If any catalogues or databases are referred to in the paper, authors should ensure that those responsible for compiling them are properly credited. Rather than citing only a URL, if at all possible a reference should also be cited (and included in the reference list), or if a reference is not available then the names of those who compiled the database should be given.
Supplementary Material
Relevant material which is not suitable for inclusion in the main article body, such as movies or numerical simulations/animations, can be uploaded as part of the initial submission. Each individual file must be accompanied by a separate caption and a suitable title (which can be provided in a Word file), such as ‘Movie 1’, and large files should be archived as a .zip or .tar file before uploading. Each individual supplementary file should be no more than 10MB. Upon publication these materials will then be hosted online alongside the final published article. Likewise, should there be detailed mathematical relations, tables or figures which are likely to be useful only to a few specialists, these can also be published online as supplementary material. Note that supplementary material is published ‘as is’, with no further production performed. For further support, please see our supplementary material preparation instructions.
Data Availability - our preferred repository is PASA Datastore
Where relevant we encourage authors to publish additional qualitative or quantitative research outputs in an appropriate repository, and cite these in manuscripts. PASA has partnered with Datastore to provide authors with the tools to do this. Datastore is a free service that gives authors the ability to deposit and provide access to the data objects or datasets that underlie the figures and tables in their published research. Datastore assigns all publically available uploads a DOI so that the datasets can be easily referenced.
Data Availability Statements
Articles should contain sufficient information to allow others to understand, verify and replicate new findings. Therefore we encourage authors to include a Data Availability Statement in their manuscript. This statement should include information on where resources such as data, materials, protocols and software code can be accessed. If data sharing is not applicable, authors should state that ‘Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.’
For further information on the Research Transparency policy for PASA please view the full policy here.
Policy on prior publication
When authors submit manuscripts to this journal, these manuscripts should not be under consideration, accepted for publication or in press within a different journal, book or similar entity, unless explicit permission or agreement has been sought from all entities involved. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior or duplicate publication. Authors should follow the Cambridge University Press Preprint Policy regarding preprint archives and maintaining the version of record.
English language editing services
Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This step is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the Editor and any reviewers.
In order to help prospective authors to prepare for submission and to reach their publication goals, Cambridge University Press offers a range of high-quality manuscript preparation services – including language editing – delivered in partnership with American Journal Experts. You can find out more on our Language Services page.
Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge-published journal.
All manuscripts must be in English. The authors are responsible for ensuring that the writing is of high quality. Spelling and punctuation should be internally consistent. Papers with a large number of grammatical and/or spelling errors will be rejected. Authors are responsible for any fees incurred in employing professional editing services (see above).
Authorship and contributorship
All authors listed on any papers submitted to this journal must be in agreement that the authors listed would all be considered authors according to disciplinary norms, and that no authors who would reasonably be considered an author have been excluded. For further details on this journal’s authorship policy, please see this journal's publishing ethics policies.
Authorship credit should be based on
- substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
- drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
- final approval of the version to be published.
Authors should meet all conditions. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship.
Author Name Changes
PASA, represented by the Editorial Board, understands and appreciates that people change their names for a variety of personal reasons. We further especially understand the importance of retroactive name changes on previously published articles and we pledge to support our authors in this process to the best of our ability, with minimal bureaucracy and maximal confidentiality. An author who has changed their name may request an author name change on articles published in this journal. This can be done silently or through an Addendum according to author preference. We do not require evidence of name changes, but changes to both surname and first name may be subject to additional checks. Authors should contact name.change@cambridge.org to request more information or a name change.
Author affiliations
Author affiliations should represent the institution(s) at which the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved. For non-research content, any affiliations should represent the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated.
For more information, please see our author affiliation policy and author affiliation FAQs.
Author Hub
You can find guides for many aspects of publishing with Cambridge at Author Hub, our suite of resources for Cambridge authors.
Competing Interests
All authors must include a competing interest declaration in their title page. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article.
Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations.
If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors.
Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author 1 is employed at organisation A, Author 2 is on the Board of company B and is a member of organisation C. Author 3 has received grants from company D.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.
Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools
We acknowledge the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the research and writing processes. To ensure transparency, we expect any such use to be declared and described fully to readers, and to comply with our plagiarism policy and best practices regarding citation and acknowledgements. We do not consider artificial intelligence (AI) tools to meet the accountability requirements of authorship, and therefore generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and similar should not be listed as an author on any submitted content.
In particular, any use of an AI tool:
- to generate images within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, and declared clearly in the image caption(s)
- to generate text within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, include appropriate and valid references and citations, and be declared in the manuscript’s Acknowledgements.
- to analyse or extract insights from data or other materials, for example through the use of text and data mining, should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, including details and appropriate citation of any dataset(s) or other material analysed in all relevant and appropriate areas of the manuscript
- must not present ideas, words, data, or other material produced by third parties without appropriate acknowledgement or permission
Descriptions of AI processes used should include at minimum the version of the tool/algorithm used, where it can be accessed, any proprietary information relevant to the use of the tool/algorithm, any modifications of the tool made by the researchers (such as the addition of data to a tool’s public corpus), and the date(s) it was used for the purpose(s) described. Any relevant competing interests or potential bias arising as a consequence of the tool/algorithm’s use should be transparently declared and may be discussed in the article.
Ethics and Transparency Policy requirements
Please refer to PASA's Publishing Ethics and Research Transparency policies when preparing your manuscript.
Seeking permission for copyrighted material
The corresponding author is responsible for providing copies of permission for lengthy quotations or reprinted or adapted tables or figures. It is the responsibility of the author to check with the publisher or copyright owner regarding specific requirements for permission to adapt or quote from copyrighted material. Appropriate acknowledgement must be given in your manuscript.
For information on how to obtain permission, please refer to this guidance document.