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Instructions for Authors — Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America

Source: https://www.seismosoc.org/publications/bssa-submission-guidelines/

The Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA) publishes original peer-reviewed research at the frontiers of seismology and earthquake system science.

BSSApapers demonstrate a comprehensive and rigorous focus that may include theoretical analyses, in-depth data analyses, advanced modeling and simulations, and emerging techniques and applications. Submit manuscripts to

BSSAat

https://www.editorialmanager.com/bssa/. Papers submitted to

BSSAmust not have been published previously, or under consideration for publication elsewhere, in English or any other language. It is the responsibility of the submitter to ensure that all listed authors have approved the manuscript. Membership in SSA is not a requirement for submission to

BSSA.

Types of Articles

Papers published in BSSA fall into four broad categories: articles, review articles, and comments and replies.

Articles – BSSA publishes articles that advance our understanding of seismology and seismic hazard analyses. Topics include, but are not limited to seismic source studies; seismic imaging of Earth structure; understanding fault history, seismotectonics, fault mechanics, and earthquake recurrence; general theoretical seismology; seismic wave propagation; influence of near-surface structure and wave propagation effects on ground motions; forensic seismology; development of new geological or geophysical methods; development of new instrumentation; investigations of important recent earthquakes, re-examination of significant past earthquakes, and studies of earthquake effects such as tsunamis, landslides or damages.

Review Articles – BSSA will consider review articles that explore topics of broad interest to the global seismology and earthquake science community. Review articles are intended to be accessible and educational for advanced readers and can:

BSSA welcomes ideas and proposals for consideration by the Editor-in-Chief. If you are interested in submitting a manuscript as a ** review article**, please contact the editorial office directly (

bssamss@seismosoc.org), with a brief proposal that includes the proposed paper title, list of potential authors and a one to two-page summary of the key scientific question(s) or topic(s) that your proposed review article will address. A tentative abstract, a potential outline, a selection of timely references and an overview of the topic of the review article are expected in this proposal.

Comments and Replies – We welcome Comment papers on recently published BSSA articles. Comments will only be considered for articles that have been published within the last 2 years. The Comment should address important aspects of the original paper without presenting new data or other unpublished work and should not be based on new findings/concepts that would not have been accessible to the authors when the original paper was written. Comments (and their Replies) have a six-page limit. The Editor will send the Comment to the authors of the original paper under discussion for a Reply. At the Editor’s discretion, these articles will undergo peer review to determine the appropriateness of the discussion. The Editor oversees the process to ensure clear presentation of ideas and resolution of any conflict.

To help ensure you have all the information you need when you are ready to submit your manuscript, we have provided a Submission PDF Checklist here.

Submission Requirements and Formatting Guidelines

Before you submit your manuscript, please proofread it carefully. If English is not your first language, we strongly recommend you ask a colleague whose first language is English for help in preparing the paper or work with a language editing service. Well-written manuscripts generally spend less time in the review process. Ideas that have not been expressed clearly and concisely are likely to be misunderstood by referees which could lead to rejection of a manuscript that might otherwise have been of interest to readers.

During the submission process you will be asked to provide contact information; background information that might be helpful to the Editor, Associate Editor and referees; type of article (article, comment, reply, or erratum); choice of issue (regular or special issue); names of potential referees (optional but helpful); names of people you wish to exclude as referees (optional); and up to 4 (four) classification terms.

Authorship

When submitting an article to BSSA, the author(s) warrant that the material is original and is not currently under consideration by another journal. BSSA will consider papers previously posted on preprint servers such as ESSOAr and other non-profit preprint servers, so long as the authors have retained copyright and the preprint has not been posted under a Creative Commons license.

All manuscripts received by BSSA will be screened for plagiarism using iThenticate’s CrossCheck Plagiarism Screening software. The U.S. Office of Integrity Research defines plagiarism as “theft or misappropriation of intellectual property and the substantial unattributed textual copying of another’s work.” If plagiarism of any kind (including self-plagiarism/duplicate publication/text recycling) is detected by BSSA, it will be assessed by the Editors and the paper may be rejected without peer review. Additionally, the Editors will alert co-authors about the plagiarism in the submitted manuscripts, and in extreme cases may opt to alert your institution. Use of content published online, for example in a theses, copyrighted to the author, is not considered a violation.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all contributors are listed as authors and that all authors have agreed to the manuscript’s content and its submission to BSSA. Co-authors will be required to confirm their authorship in advance of publication (prompted via email).

Permissions

If you wish to use excerpts from copyrighted work in your BSSA submission, you must obtain permission from the copyright owners and cite the original publication. Some publishers and journals require written permissions while others do not. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to secure permissions from the original copyright holder when required. The same applies to adaptations of figures from copyrighted works.

Once you have all of the necessary files prepared, log in to the BSSA submission system as an author. If you start the process, but do not complete it, the system will save your submission and you can log back in at a later time and finish the process.

The following items are required for submission:

Publishing Agreement License

Authors publishing with BSSA may select between two licensing options: Page Charges or Open Access. Please review the relevant terms and conditions and share with your co-authors as appropriate. All authors must agree to use the same license type and must electronically sign the appropriate form prior to publication.

Please see SSA’s Author Sharing, Copyright Transfer, and Open Access policies for further information.

Manuscript, organized as follows:

For Revised Papers, the following items are required, in addition to the items above:

** Title Page. **Include all author names and affiliations as well as the complete address of the corresponding author. Each author is allowed only one main affiliation. If you need to list a “now at” or “also at” affiliation as well, please note this in your manuscript, and we will add it as a footnote to page 1 of the published paper.

You will also be required to provide three Key Points for your paper; these Key Points will be printed at the front of the article for readers to get a quick overview. These must be

Key Points.complete sentencesaddressing the following:

Each point must be 110 characters or less (including spaces).

** Abstract.** Abstracts may be up to 300 words and limited to one paragraph.

** Manuscript. **Submit your manuscript in Word, LaTex, or PDF format. If you are using LaTeX, please read LaTeX Suggestions for making it work with our online submission system. Note, LaTeX files are only required after acceptance and you may upload a PDF for peer review. When uploading LaTeX files, do not upload your manuscript PDF; the system builds one PDF file from all of your submitted files, and your original files are stored on the server for editorial office and publisher access.

Format all pages in a standard U.S. letter size (8.5 X 11 inches) and use one-inch margins. All material should be double-spaced, using a 12-point font size. Page numbering and line numbering are both mandatory. Use continuous line numbering (do not restart numbering on each page).

Figures, tables, and equations should be numbered sequentially using Arabic numbers. Figures may be placed at the end of the manuscript or embedded near the first mention in the text. (If embedding figures, please do not wrap text around the image and ensure that text is legible in the compiled PDF.) Place the table captions above each table, and the figure captions below each figure. High resolution figures are not necessary until the paper is accepted for publication, unless specifically requested by the Editorial Office. Figures and tables MUST be cited in sequential order within the text of the paper.

Do not number section headers. Levels of headers can be identified through the use of upper/lower case letters and bold/italic type. If you include in-text citations to headers, please cite complete header titles.

Each author is allowed only one main affiliation. If you need to list a “now at” or “also at” affiliation as well, please note this in your manuscript and we will add it as a footnote to page 1 of the published paper.

All URL’s should be placed in the Data and Resources section (include the month and year you last accessed the website).

Use American English spelling. Define all technical terms, symbols, acronyms and abbreviations. Avoid the use of quotation marks and italics for emphasis. Define all abbreviations and acronyms at first mention.

** In-text Citations.** Citations in the text should appear by the name(s) of the author(s), followed by the year of publication in parentheses, e.g., Hough and Martin (2002).

This section is

Data and Resources.mandatory. SSA requires that authors identify the sources of data used during research and give information about whether those sources are available to readers. A Data and Resources section must precede the Acknowledgements section. This section should be used to identify all data sources that are not taken from published works referenced in the References. If all data sources are from published works listed in the References, authors may simply state “All data used in this paper came from published sources listed in the references” in their Data and Resources section.

An example of data from a published work would be an earthquake catalog listed in a table or electronic supplement of a published paper. If an online database is used, then it should be included here. If there is a published work describing the database, then that work can be included in the References. However, online databases should not be included in the References. When a data source is mentioned in the body of the paper, it should be followed by a pointer to the Data and Resources section; e.g., “earthquake mechanisms were obtained from the Global Centroid Moment Tensor Project (see Data and Resources).” The corresponding entry in the Data and Resources section would be, “The Global Centroid Moment Tensor Project database was searched using www.globalcmt.org/CMTsearch.html (last accessed on August 5, 2007).” This section may also be used to identify other resources such as computer codes including the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT). Such resources do not need to be mentioned in previous sections of the paper. Some examples:

Declaration of Competing Interests. SSA strives to ensure transparency in all aspects of publication. As such, all submitted manuscripts must include a disclosure of financial or other competing interests related to the submitted work that (1) could affect or have the perception of affecting the author’s objectivity, or (2) could influence or have the perception of influencing the content of the article. A Declaration of Competing Interests will publish with each article. If you have no competing interests to disclose, please state so and the published statement will read “The authors declare no competing interests.”

** Acknowledgments.** Please be sure to give credit to sources of funding, data, and/or instruments or other facilities that were used in your research as well as reviewers and/or editors who have helped you improve your work. Place this section after the Data and Resources section.

Please arrange all references alphabetically by author and follow the style of examples below. References should include only published works. Journal abbreviations can be found through a search at

References.http://journalseek.net/.

Seismic networks should be cited with DOI if available: citations can be generated at http://www.fdsn.org/networks/citation/.

** Tables.** Tables must be created and submitted in Word or LaTeX. Do not paste a table into Word as an image or from another program. Table parts are not allowed, and each table should only have one set of column headings. Column heads should be brief and contain units of measurement in parentheses. Tables should include a short descriptive title above the table, with the rest of the information in a general footnote below the table. Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. All tables must include definitions of abbreviations, even if they are also in the text. All scientific notation should be in the x 10 form. Tables should have rows and columns that are analogous to the horizontal (x) and vertical (y) axes of a graph, respectively. The data should include two sets of variables. One set of variables is defined in the top row of a table, in the column headings; the other set is defined along the far left-hand column of the table by the subheadings in each row. In-table headers are not allowed. When preparing tables, take into account the size of the journal page. Tables can be printed landscape if needed. For footnotes in the tables, use these symbols (asterisk, dagger, double dagger, section mark, parallel lines, number symbol) in this order. Label the footnotes within the table by rows, left to right, top to bottom.

High-resolution figures are not necessary until final files are requested after the paper is accepted for publication. The Editorial Office may request higher quality figures if there are legibility concerns during peer review. High resolution figures will need to be submitted in EPS, TIFF, JPEG, or high-resolution PDF format. Not all of these formats are best for publication, so please see our

Figures.SSA Art Guidelinesfor more information. Each high-resolution figure file should not exceed 10 mb per file. Label each file in the “DESCRIPTION” box on the upload screen as “Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.” The PDF file created by the online submission system will use down sampled versions of your figures to reduce the file size, but it will contain links to the high-resolution figure files in case the editors or reviewers need to view them. If you are using LaTeX, please read

LaTeX Suggestionsfor making it work with our online submission system.

Number figures sequentially and in the order of first reference in the text. Do not include within the figure a title or any text that is included in the figure caption. Figure-part labels (a) (b) (c) etc. should be placed outside of and to the top left of the figure parts. Use lowercase letters placed in parentheses. Figure parts should be labeled left to right and top to bottom. Descriptions should be placed in the figure itself or in the caption, not above the figure. Be consistent with font style, font size, units of measurement, abbreviations, and axis labels for all figures, and do not use italics. Keep figure parts consistent in size. Use “s” as the abbreviation for seconds. For text within a figure, use a standard, readable typeface such as Helvetica or Times Roman. For figures created for reproduction at 100%, use a type size between 10 and 12 points. The type size after reduction of a figure must be no smaller than 6 points. Use the same size type for elements of equal importance. Some variation in size for emphasis may be necessary, but use no more than a 2-point variation. Avoid using light or white text on a dark background. Avoid small open symbols; they tend to fill in if the figure is reduced. Ensure that superscripts and subscripts are legible. Proofread all text within a figure to ensure that it is accurate and that spellings and abbreviations are correct.

Authors should provide “alt-text” for their figures on a separate line after the figure caption. For more information on “alt-text,” see the SSA Alt-Text Guidelines.

For information on preparing figures, see the SSA Art Guidelines.

Publication and Color Charge Options.

(1) Both Publication Charges and Color Charges Will Be Paid. If you choose this option, you will be able to select which of the color figures submitted should appear in color in the printed journal, and which of the color figures should appear in grayscale in print but in color online. Any figure submitted in color will appear in color in the online version. Before choosing this option, please carefully review SSA’s Publication Charges. Each figure the author identifies to print in color will incur a fee of $250 per figure. This option requires publication charges (either Page Charges or Open Access Article Processing Charges) and color charges.

(2) Only Publication Charges Will Be Paid. All color figures submitted will appear online in color and in grayscale in the printed journal. There are no color charges for color online only. Authors are responsible for submitting color figures that are understandable when converted to grayscale for the print version and any text references, figure legends and captions should be written so they are appropriate for online viewing (in color) and in the print version (grayscale). For information on preparing figures, see SSA Art Guidelines. If you choose this option of color online and grayscale in print, it is essential that you review the Tutorial on Producing Online-Only Color Figures from the SSA Art Guidelines.

Authors may not change their color option after acceptance.

** Units.** Except where common practice in seismology dictates otherwise, units should follow the

Système Internationale(SI). We strongly encourage authors to adopt SI units for seismic moment (N m instead of dyne cm) and stress (MPa instead of bars) in order to develop an international standard.

** Mathematics and Symbols.** Use the solidus whenever possible in preference to built-up fractions, write complicated exponentials in the form exp( ), avoid subscripts or superscripts on subscripts and superscripts, and, in general, minimize unusual or expensive typographical requirements. Make subscripts and superscripts large and clear; label Greek letters and unusual or ambiguous symbols on first occurrence (for example, spell out subscript “zero” to distinguish it from “oh”). Be sure that letters in formulas are unambiguously capital or lowercase. Place equation numbers in parentheses to the right of the equations. Use italic type for variables and bold for vectors and matrices. Equations should be punctuated as sentences. Equations must be presented in an editable format, not as graphic images.

**English language editing services **

Authors for whom English is not their first language are encouraged to consider utilizing language editing services prior to submission of a manuscript. SSA has partnered with American Journal Experts, Inc. (AJE) to provide English language editing* and other manuscript preparation services for authors at a discounted rate. Authors can receive a 20% discount on AJE’s services by visiting http://secure.aje.com/c/SSA1 and registering for an account. The discount will be automatically applied when using this link.

*Please note that the use of language editing services does not guarantee that your manuscript will be sent out for peer review or accepted for publication. Articles accepted for publication will still go through normal copyediting as part of the journal production process. Editing is available for both Word and LaTeX files. All editing services are at the expense of the author. SSA receives no compensation of any kind related to services completed by AJE.

Long-term preservation

SSA’s journals have long-term preservation services with CLOCKSS and Portico.

Communication with the Editorial Office

To ensure you receive messages regarding your manuscript, we recommend adding the @ seismosoc.org and

@domains to your safe senders list.

The submission and publication of text, images, figures, or graphs created by artificial intelligence, machine learning, language model, generative artificial intelligence, or similar algorithmic technology (hereafter referred to as an “AI tool”) is discouraged at all SSA journals, unless they are part of a study’s formal research design or methods. For the purposes of these guidelines, the term “AI tool” does not include spelling, grammar and referencing tools used in word-processing software.

If AI tools are used in the preparation of a manuscript submitted to an SSA journal, authors must follow SSA’s guidelines regarding Authorship, Disclosure, and Responsible Research.

Authorship and AI:

No AI tool will be accepted as an author on a manuscript submitted to an SSA journal. AI tools cannot meet SSA’s journal requirements for authorship, such as taking responsibility for the submitted work, reporting on conflicts of interests or managing copyright and license agreements. As with all manuscripts published by SSA, authors are fully responsible for the integrity of this content and are liable for any breach of SSA publication ethics guidelines, even if an AI tool is used to create or to assist with the production of manuscript content.

Reviewing a Paper and AI:

Reviewers are fully responsible for the content and integrity of the reviews that they provide to the SSA journals. Generative AI tools should not be used to create or augment peer reviewer reports for the SSA journals. Reviewers must maintain strict confidentiality regarding submitted manuscripts; therefore, reviewers for SSA journals are prohibited from uploading manuscripts or any part of them into generative AI tools or platforms, as this is considered a violation of the confidentiality agreement;

If AI tools are used in the preparation of a review provided for an SSA journal, reviewers must follow SSA’s guidelines regarding Authorship, Disclosure, and Responsible Research.

Disclosure and AI:

Authors submitting a manuscript to an SSA journal must report any use of AI tools, including those used in the collection and analysis of data or in the creation of text, images, figures, or graphs, but not including spelling, grammar and referencing tools used in word-processing software.

Such disclosures should appear in the manuscript’s Data and Resources section. Disclosures should include a description of what content was created using an AI tool, how it was created, and the name (along with version and extension numbers, if applicable) of the tool and its author or manufacturer.

In situations where AI tools have made significant changes to a manuscript’s writing style and grammar, the submission cover letter should demonstrate the authors’ understanding of any changes and describe what steps the authors have taken to validate such changes.

Responsible Research and AI:

Scientific research publications traditionally include documentation on the data, techniques, and tools used in the research, which allows for the validation and replication of any scientific results. This can be complicated when AI tools are used because computation, data processing, and/or data analysis conducted by AI tools may not be easily accessible to human researchers.

Responsible research using AI tools should be as transparent and accessible as possible. In submitted manuscripts, researchers should disclose and describe processes of data collection, data preprocessing, AI model construction, and model training used in the study. Methods that address potential bias, risk and harm resulting from AI tool use, if applicable, should also be considered in these studies.

Data analyzed with AI tools also should be transparent and accessible. Authors should disclose which datasets were used and make them available to others. Authors should also alert others to any restrictions on data access or known biases in the data.

Note: this policy applies to authors of BSSA and SRL articles published under our Page Charges model, detailing how they may use and share the article content. For articles published under a Creative Commons license, please see SSA’s Open Access policy.

SSA permits authors to post the article citation information anywhere at any time including on social media. We encourage inclusion of a link (preferably the article DOI) back to the article on the journal website.

Per SSA’s Open Access Policy authors may post the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM), which is the final, accepted version of their manuscript, to an institutional repository or personal website immediately after publication. However, such copies must be posted under a non-exclusive license to host the AAM, not under a CC-BY or other Creative Commons license, which is not compliant with SSA’s copyright transfer policy. Instead, authors may choose to publish their articles Open Access. The final Version of Record (VoR) may not be posted unless authors select Open Access publication.

Authors may share the AAM within their institution for the purposes of research or education and make copies available to colleagues or students for their personal use. AAMs may not be uploaded or shared on commercial website or repositories, including Scholarly Collaboration Networks (SCN’s) such as ResearchGate. Authors may include the AAM as part of a grant application, submission of thesis or dissertation without express written permission of the Society. Upon request, authors may share any version of an article with individual colleagues and students as part of teaching and training (excluding open online posting/sharing).

BSSA and SRL articles are published online in the “Early Publication” section of the website with a DOI. This is the typeset and edited version of the article. It is the VoR despite not yet being compiled into volume/issue and assigned page numbers. The VoR (in PDF or other format) may NOT be publicly posted on any website, in any repository, SCN or via social media. We encourage researchers to share the article citation and/or link to the article using the DOI or URL on the BSSA and SRL websites.

When publishing in BSSA and SRL, authors are responsible for ensuring SSA’s policies align with the author’s funding agency’s requirements. SSA is not responsible for checking compliance with funding agency requirements.

There are many reasons why journal authors may change names during their publishing careers, including but not limited to marriage or divorce, gender identity, or religious conversion. SSA supports such changes as well as our authors’ privacy in such matters. Authors are not required to disclose the reason or provide documentation for a name change request. We will work together with authors to update the publication records for articles published in SSA’s journals.

SSA will only accept requests directly from the author named in the change request; we will not consider requests from other individuals on an author’s behalf. If necessary, SSA may request information to reasonably establish the identity of the requester.

Unless otherwise instructed by the author, SSA will update the article record(s) silently. The process will be completed without any public notices. Authors who prefer an official announcement may submit an erratum to accompany their name change request. Co-authors will only be notified if the author chooses to publish an erratum.

SSA will update and republish the electronic (HTML and PDF) Version of Record. No changes will be made to the printed article. Other than citations within SSA’s articles listed in the name change request, SSA is unable to correct citations to papers in which a name change has been made; however, the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for the article will remain the same.

SSA will provide the updated metadata to relevant third parties, such as abstracting and indexing services (e.g., Web of Science, Scopus). Note, we are not able to control if or when these services will update their records.

SSA will not normally facilitate changes to correct spelling errors that were present in the author versions, out-of-date affiliation details, or changes to email addresses that do not result from name changes.

To request a name change, authors should complete this online form.

Authors should include:

In addition, SSA recommends authors update their relevant profiles such as ORCID (https://orcid.org/) and Editorial Manager (BSSA: www.edmgr.com/bssa, SRL: www.edmgr.com/srl, TSR: www.edmgr.com/tsr).  SSA also recommends, when appropriate, the requesting author notify co-authors from previous publications, as this will ensure future citations reflect the name change.

If you have any questions, please contact info@seismosoc.org, listing Name Change in the subject line.

Professional Ethics Policy [1]

A. Introduction & Purpose

The mission of the Seismological Society of America (SSA) is to advance seismology and the understanding of earthquakes for the benefit of society. To achieve this mission, SSA expects its members and those who participate in SSA-sponsored programs to adhere to the highest standards of scientific integrity, personal accountability, and ethics in their professional activities.

The purpose of this Professional Ethics Policy (“Policy”) is to be clear about SSA’s conduct standards for members and others who participate in SSA-programs, and to explain SSA’s compliance and enforcement procedures. By establishing and consistently applying these standards, SSA’s overarching objective is to advance excellence and integrity – grounded in a culture of respect, inclusivity, and professional conduct – and to foster full participation for all talent within the Society and across the seismology field.

B. Applicability

This Policy applies to SSA members, as defined in the Society’s Bylaws, and all other individuals, groups, and entities that participate or are involved in SSA-sponsored programs, wherever located. Such programs include but are not limited to participating in SSA meetings and events, publications, honors and awards, and leadership.

This Policy is supported by additional policies for specific SSA-sponsored programs, including SSA’s Meetings Code of Conduct and Ethical Publishing Guidelines.  Program participants are expected to read and abide by these additional policies.

C. Oversight

The Board of Directors (“Board”) is responsible for overseeing this Policy to promote awareness and compliance with SSA’s ethics rules and to ensure that they are enforced in a fair, consistent way. In addition, the Board is responsible for conducting an annual review and assessment of this and related standards to make sure they are up to date and effective. The Board has created the Ethics Committee to assist the Board with this work. Additional details about the role, composition, and authority of the Ethics Committee are included in the Ethics Committee Charter.

D. Expected Standards of Conduct

In adopting this Policy, SSA emphasizes the importance of making ethical decisions to advance excellence and maintain the public’s confidence in the seismology profession. SSA expects all members and others covered by this Policy to:

E. Prohibited Conduct

The following conduct is prohibited – regardless of whether it takes place in person, in writing, or online – and may result in disciplinary action, including revocation of membership or awards, as set forth below in Section F.

F. Compliance Procedures

By establishing and communicating clear standards, SSA aims to promote ethical professional conduct by its members and across all SSA-sponsored programs. To help achieve this goal, SSA has established the following compliance procedures:

a. Agreements to Comply. SSA requires all SSA members and program participants to comply with applicable ethics policies and procedures as a condition of participation.  To that end, all new and renewing SSA members and program participants must certify that they have reviewed and agree to comply with applicable ethics standards before they are allowed to join or participate.  This requirement extends to SSA membership and renewal applications, SSA meetings and event registrations, and the submission of manuscripts to SSA publications.

b. Ethics Disclosure Requirement. SSA expects SSA Leaders and awardees to embody high standards of scientific integrity, personal accountability, and ethics in their professional activities.  (For the purpose of this Policy, “SSA Leaders” includes members of the Board and committees as well as Associate Editors.).  Therefore, all prospective SSA Leaders and awardees must complete an Ethics Disclosure Form to be considered for open positions.  In doing so, candidates shall disclose whether any court or another credible third party has issued a finding against them based on their professional conduct, including any instances of Prohibited Conduct listed above in Section E.  Candidates also must disclose whether they currently are under investigation by a court or another credible third party related to allegations of professional misconduct and/or instances of Prohibited Conduct.

SSA has the sole discretion to determine eligibility based on the disclosed information. Typically, individuals will be deemed ineligible if they fail to submit the Ethics Disclosure Form on time, or they disclose an adverse finding.  When candidates disclose an ongoing investigation, SSA generally will deem the candidate temporarily ineligible for further consideration pending the outcome of the investigation.

G. Enforcement

SSA members and program participants are expected to adhere to commonly held standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity, which includes complying with this Policy and other applicable SSA ethics standards.

As explained below, SSA applies different enforcement standards depending upon the nature and circumstances of potential violations. While each situation is different, SSA takes all conduct concerns seriously and is committed to maintaining fair, confidential procedures to uphold the Society’s commitment to ethics.

How to Initiate Revocation Requests.  All revocation requests must be initiated by SSA members using the Revocation Request Form.  Please refer to SSA’s Membership and Awards Revocation Procedures for details.

[1]Approved by SSA’s Board of Directors March 2022.

Publishing Ethics Guidelines

SSA is committed to upholding the integrity of the work published in Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA), Seismological Research Letters (SRL) and The Seismic Record (TSR).  Scientific research, and the preparation of the results, must be free of any impropriety or undisclosed conflicts of interest. Intentional plagiarism, fabrication, or falsification are unacceptable and have no place in SSA publications.  These Publishing Ethics Guidelines, based on the standards and best practices developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), aim to help authors, reviewers, and editors continue to maintain the highest level of scientific integrity and professional ethics in all phases of the SSA publishing process.

Authorship

Additional guidelines and requirements for authors are included in the SSA Journals section of the SSA website. See BSSA Submission Guidelines, SRL Submission Guidelines  and

TSRSubmission Guidelines.Alleged Misconduct

Suspected instances of ethical misconduct, including but not limited to plagiarism, duplicate publication, authorship issues and data fabrication or falsification, are initially reviewed by the journal Editor in Chief, SSA’s Executive Director, SSA’s Publishing Consultant and/or the Chair of the Publications Committee to assess the nature of the alleged misconduct and determine a course of action, which typically involves making a preliminary assessment and sending a letter of inquiry to the corresponding author. Letters of inquiry detail the allegation(s) and request an explanation from the author. If an allegation is raised pre-publication, the manuscript is placed on hold until resolved.

In many instances of suspected misconduct, per the COPE guidelines, the co-authors and authors’ institutions will be notified of the alleged misconduct, requesting an investigation into the allegations. Based on the outcome of the institution’s investigation, if misconduct is confirmed and depending on the severity, the journal may issue an author correction or article retraction.

In instances where the investigation is lengthy, the Chair of the SSA Publications Committee may decide to issue an “expression of concern” indicating allegations of misconduct are under investigation. At the discretion of the Chair of the Publications Committee, SSA may issue sanctions on the author(s) depending on the severity of the misconduct. Sanctions may be in the form of warnings, increased scrutiny of future submissions, and temporary or permanent bans from publication in BSSA, SRL and/or TSR.

SSA encourages authors’ institutions to work with the media and bring attention to the science published in our journals.

In interviews with media about the findings in a specific paper, authors can share that the paper will be published in an SSA journal after they receive notification of their Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM). This applies to all three journals, regardless of whether the authors choose the Page Charges or Open Access fee option.

Authors are welcome to present the results of their upcoming papers at professional meetings to colleagues.

You can help us share your research broadly by providing social media usernames and tags for individual authors and institutions related to your publication to the SSA Press Officer at

press@seismosoc.org.