Quaternary Science Reviews

Quaternary Science Reviews is a review journal in the earth sciences, published by Elsevier from its Oxford office and devoted to synthesis across the whole of Quaternary research.《第四纪科学评论》是地球科学领域的一份综述期刊，由 Elsevier 在牛津的办公机构出版，专门刊载覆盖整个第四纪研究的综合成果。

Pergamon Press launched the title in 1982, and the 2025 Journal Citation Reports give it a Journal Impact Factor of 3.3, a five-year value of 3.8.该刊由 Pergamon Press 于 1982 年创刊，2025 年版 Journal Citation Reports 给出 3.3 的 Journal Impact Factor、3.8 的五年值。

It holds second-quartile positions in both of its JCR categories, physical geography and the multidisciplinary geosciences, and remains a standard venue for long-form Quaternary synthesis.该刊在 JCR 的两个类目即自然地理与地球科学综合中均列 Q2，长期是第四纪长篇综合成果的标准发表阵地。

Scope

• The stated remit is all aspects of Quaternary science, running from geology and geomorphology through geography and archaeology to soil science.刊物声明的范围涵盖第四纪科学的各个方面，从地质学与地貌学一直延伸到地理学、考古学及土壤学。
• Palaeobotany, palaeontology and palaeoclimatology form a second core, and the full range of applicable dating methods is treated as an integral part of the coverage.古植物学、古生物学与古气候学构成第二个核心方向，各类适用的定年方法被当作覆盖范围的有机组成。
• Editors do not police a hard line between review papers and papers carrying new original data, because that boundary is difficult to draw in practice.编辑部并不在综述论文与含新原始数据的论文之间划一条硬线，这条界线在实践中很难界定。
• Studies reporting fresh field or laboratory results are accepted when they also perform a review function, a rule that has shaped the journal's distinctive profile.只要同时具备综述功能，提交新野外或实验室结果的论文也会被接受，这条规则塑造了刊物独特的定位。
• Special issues collect papers from recent scientific meetings, mark substantial shifts in Quaternary subject matter, or honour the achievements of individual researchers.专辑汇集近期学术会议的论文，记录第四纪研究主题的重大转向，也用于表彰个别研究者的学术成就。
• Chronology receives particular weight in the scope. Radiocarbon and luminescence work, uranium-series and cosmogenic nuclide methods, and tephrochronology are all named as relevant.年代学在范围中占有特别的分量。放射性碳与光释光、铀系与宇宙成因核素以及火山灰年代学的工作都被明确纳入。
• Human origins and dispersals are handled together with the environmental archaeology that frames them, so archaeological sequences frequently sit beside proxy climate records.人类起源与迁徙与环境考古一并处理，后者为前者提供框架，考古层序因此常与气候代用指标并列。
• Ice cores and marine sediment cores, loess sequences and speleothems, and lake records supply much of the empirical base, and papers are expected to integrate several archives.冰芯与海洋沉积岩芯、黄土剖面与洞穴石笋以及湖泊记录构成主要的经验基础，论文通常需要整合其中数种档案。
• Modelling and quantitative synthesis have grown steadily more central, covering palaeoclimate simulation, age-depth modelling and statistical treatment of large proxy compilations.模拟与定量综合的地位稳步上升，涵盖古气候模拟、年龄-深度建模以及对大型代用资料汇编的统计处理。
• Papers on the shift from the last glacial to the Holocene, and on human-environment interaction during that interval, appear in almost every volume.讨论末次冰期向全新世过渡的论文以及该时段人地关系的论文几乎每卷都会出现。
• Regional coverage is global, with steady streams from Europe and East Asia, Africa and the Americas, and Antarctic and Arctic records recur often.地域覆盖是全球性的，来自欧洲与东亚、非洲与美洲的稿件持续稳定，南极与北极的记录也十分常见。
• Review articles are mostly commissioned, yet unsolicited proposals are considered, and the journal notes that every branch of Quaternary science is being re-evaluated as discovery accelerates.综述文章多由编辑部约稿，同时也受理未经邀请的选题建议，刊物表示随着发现速度加快，第四纪各分支都在被重新评估。
• Since the scope crosses archaeology, earth science and biology, authors are asked to write for readers outside their own specialism.因为范围横跨考古学与地球科学以及生物学，作者被要求把行文写给本专业之外的读者。
• Volcanic ash layers and tephra isochrons serve as correlation tools rather than as isolated finds, which keeps the journal close to tephrochronology practice.火山灰层与火山灰等时面被当作对比工具而不只是孤立发现，这让刊物与火山灰年代学的实务保持紧密联系。
• The scope statement closes by saying that the diversity of the journal is meant to keep Quaternary scientists in touch with the broader issues raised by new developments.范围说明的结尾指出，刊物的多样性意在让第四纪学者持续接触新进展所引出的更广泛议题。

History

• Volume 1 appeared in 1982 under Pergamon Press, and the imprint recorded in library catalogues still reads Oxford and New York for those early volumes.第 1 卷于 1982 年在 Pergamon Press 旗下问世，图书馆目录为早期各卷登记的出版地仍是牛津与纽约。
• Pergamon was absorbed by Elsevier in 1991, so the founding publisher and the present one differ, a detail often lost when the title is described simply as an Elsevier journal.Pergamon 于 1991 年被 Elsevier 收归旗下，创刊方与现出版方因此并不相同，这一点在把刊物简单称作 Elsevier 期刊时常被略去。
• Volume numbering ran unbroken through the change of owner, so the Pergamon years and the Elsevier years form one continuous sequence from volume 1 onward.卷号在出版方变更时并未中断，Pergamon 时期与 Elsevier 时期的各卷因此构成从第 1 卷起的连续序列。
• Issue frequency widened over the first two decades, and from volume 23 in 2004 the journal has run at 24 issues a year.刊期在前二十年逐步加密，自 2004 年第 23 卷起固定为每年 24 期。
• That rhythm survives in the present model, where Crossref lists roughly 24 volumes for 2025 and again for 2026, two of them opening each month.这一节奏在现行出版模式中延续，Crossref 记录显示 2025 年与 2026 年各有约 24 卷，每月推出两期。
• Articles now carry article numbers instead of page ranges, and each issue is numbered as a volume of its own on ScienceDirect, which is why one year can show two dozen volume numbers.论文以文章编号替代连续页码，每一期在 ScienceDirect 上各自编为一个卷号，一年的卷号因此可达二十几个。
• The editorial address stayed in the United Kingdom, and the correspondence address on the title's record is Elsevier's Kidlington office on Langford Lane near Oxford.编辑部地址始终留在英国，刊物记录上的通信处是 Elsevier 位于牛津附近朗福德巷的基德灵顿办公点。
• Impact climbed through the 2010s, peaked at 4.456 for 2022, then settled at 3.2 in 2023 and 3.3 in both 2024 and 2025.影响因子在 2010 年代持续走高，2022 年达到 4.456 的峰值，随后在 2023 年回落至 3.2，2024 年与 2025 年均为 3.3。
• Cumulative citations stand near 30,000 with a cited half-life of 10.5 years, a figure that shows how long Quaternary syntheses keep being consulted.累计被引接近 3 万次，被引半衰期为 10.5 年，这一数字反映出第四纪综合成果被查阅的持久程度。
• Output has grown to about 400 articles a year, and the 2025 citation reports credit 42.87 per cent of the content to gold open access.年发文量增长到约 400 篇，2025 年版引用报告认定其中 42.87% 以金色开放获取形式发表。
• Publication remains subscription-based with a hybrid option, so authors may pay for immediate open access while the back archive stays behind the paywall.刊物维持订阅制并开放混合模式，作者可以付费换取即时开放获取，过刊仍留在付费墙之后。
• Special issues form part of the output, honouring senior figures and documenting the results of major correlation and dating programmes.专辑是刊物产出的一部分，既用于致敬资深学者，也用于记录重大对比计划与定年计划的成果。
• The archive now spans more than four decades, from the first isotope-stage syntheses to current work that couples proxy data with model output.如今的过刊涵盖四十余年的成果，从最早的氧同位素阶段综合到当代把代用资料与模式输出耦合起来的工作。

Editors

• Editorial handling is organised from Elsevier's Oxford office, and manuscripts are submitted and tracked through the journal's own Editorial Manager instance.编辑事务由 Elsevier 的牛津办公室统筹，稿件通过刊物专属的 Editorial Manager 站点提交并跟踪进度。
• Every accepted paper passes external peer review before an editor decides, and the article types open to authors are set out in the journal's guide.所有被接受的论文都要经过外部同行评审再由编辑定夺，可投的文章体裁由刊物的作者指南规定。
• The article types are set by the guide for authors: research papers and invited reviews, short communications and letters to the editor, opinion papers and comments and replies.可投体裁由作者指南规定，包括研究论文与受邀综述、短通讯与致编辑信以及观点文章与评论答复。
• The invited review is the flagship format, which fits the founding purpose of a synthesis venue rather than a channel for first reporting of primary results.受邀综述是刊物的旗舰体裁，这与它作为综合平台的创刊初衷相合，而不只是首发原始结果。
• Comments and replies give readers a formal route to contest published interpretations, and the exchange appears alongside the paper under discussion.评论与答复为读者提供了正式质疑已发表解释的途径，往来文字与原文一并刊出。
• Guest editors assemble special issues, which the journal ties to recent meetings or to pronounced shifts in Quaternary subject matter.专辑由客座编辑组稿，刊物把专辑与近期会议或第四纪研究主题的明显转向联系起来。
• Authors correspond with the editorial office throughout, while proofs and licence forms are handled by Elsevier production staff.作者全程与编辑部通信，校样与版权协议由 Elsevier 的生产部门处理。
• The title follows Elsevier's publishing ethics policy, with COPE guidance applied to authorship disputes, image handling and duplicate submission.刊物执行 Elsevier 的出版伦理政策，作者身份争议与图像处理问题以及重复投稿均按 COPE 指南处置。
• Manuscripts are handled in English, and the guide for authors fixes the reference style, the figure specifications and the declaration of interest required with each submission.稿件以英文处理，作者指南规定了参考文献格式与插图规格，以及随每篇投稿提交的利益声明表。