American Meteorological Society

BAMS Article Types

Basic categories

• Articles: The main category of substantive peer-reviewed manuscripts. Authors should justify any length beyond about 4,500 words in their Proposals. The maximum length of 7,500 words (abstract and references do not count toward the length limit) is for rare and strongly justified cases, and only with the permission from the editor-in-chief.
• Essays: Based on experience, opinion, and qualitative or quantitative analysis, these peer-reviewed contributions are designated as a “Forum” within the Articles section. The maximum is 5,000 words (but shorter is much better).
• Comment and Reply Exchanges: Up to 1,500 words. Comments are peer-reviewed and make technical points about a published article. The author of the original article is given the opportunity to write a Reply. Nontechnical comments are often published as Letters to the Editor.

Other sections

• In Box: Short peer-reviewed dispatches (less than 2,500 words with 4 or fewer figures and/or tables) on innovations and insights:

  • “Innovations”: Describe projects, products, and ideas that are breaking new ground for our sciences and services. Quickly and broadly sketch for readers what is new and unusual about what you are doing or proposing.
  • “Insights”: Explore new directions for our field, trends, markets, priorities, and accomplishments, or describe projects and products with an emphasis on what has been learned from this work (and what readers can learn). Aim to inspire by showing examples.

  Choosing between Article and In Box: To achieve brevity and general interest among busy readers, In Box articles are necessarily less formal in tone and not conducive to detailed description, documentation, or analysis. These articles are meant to spark interest in further exploration. They keep readers apprised of developments and issues that are evolving in our community and science. They are peer-reviewed, but not comprehensive. Please discuss this decision with the BAMS editors at the proposal stage.

• Map Room: Short discussion of interesting forecast situations and applications

  Particularly targeted toward operational meteorologists as well as up-and-coming forecasters and students, this section features interesting forecast situations in relatively straightforward language. It is akin to a “map room” briefing with good visual documentation, with a discussion of models where necessary. Emphasis is primarily on concepts: lessons learned or applications of science to everyday or unusual weather scenarios.

  These articles are shorter than 2,500 words; the number of figures or tables depends on content but should be relatively few. The printed versions are likely to be receive minimal or no condensation by the editorial staff.

• Nowcast Features: Short general-interest contributions

  The “magazine within the magazine” covers developments in the atmospheric and related sciences and services. In addition to these submitted Features, you will find staff-written Nowcast content like science news reports, profiles of newsmakers, activities from AMS Local Chapters, short summaries of articles and presentations of note from AMS journals and meetings, and more.

  Submitted features should similarly be simple, urgent, or important and often bring forth ideas and good work—generally one or two printed pages, so aim for less than 1,000 words and include no more than two figures (and preferably just one).

  Where In Box emphasizes innovation and insights, Nowcast features cover more broadly in even briefer formats the newsworthy people, projects, and progress in our community. Nowcast answers “who’s doing what?” and “what’s going on?” in weather, water, and climate. As the news section of BAMS, Nowcast is not generally peer-reviewed, and so does not accept new analyses, findings, or technical explanations. Nonetheless, the editors may choose to conduct a peer review of a submission for a Nowcast feature.

  Nowcast features might be, for example,

  • Newsworthy trends and research efforts, broadly applicable methods, interesting applications, technology, noteworthy events (recent or future), and products (500–1,200 words)
  • Opinion columns (500–1,200 words)
  • Q-and-A with interesting people in the field
  • Educational programs and ideas, often with ample illustration (500–1,200 words)
  • On the Web about online pages of interest to members (generally 500 words or fewer)

  Nowcast contributions do not use formal citation–reference style or include abstracts. See a recent issue of BAMS for examples.

  Nowcast can also be a space for you to be creative—anything that sheds light on our sciences, our professions, our goals, or our natural world, including art and photography. Contact Matt Gillespie for specific guidelines about submitting graphics, photos, or art. For guidelines about contributions to various standing sections of Nowcast, including News and Notes, Chapters In Action, and Technology, contact Matt Gillespie or Rachel Thomas-Medwid.

  Meeting Summaries: Synthesis of a recent meeting or workshop

  Readers want to know what participants reported and decided, but need your meeting summary to combine these individual points into the higher level, take-away messages. State briefly the scientific context and motivation for the gathering.  Do not try to cover every presentation or outline the agenda. Focus on what happened, not what was intended. The best meeting summaries read like a letter from a participant to a colleague who could not attend.

  Meeting summaries are published online and must

  • be uploaded to the BAMS Editorial Manager page in a format that meets all BAMS requirements.
  • be less than 3,000 words, not counting title, information box, and references.
  • be submitted within six months of the date of the meeting. 
  • provide the name of at least one participant of the meeting or workshop—not including the authors—who has read the summary and verified the accuracy of the contents prior to submission.
  • follow the format of recently published summaries. Note the style of the title (convey the general topic, not simply the name of the meeting) and the “What, When, Where” information box. The information box leads with the title of the meeting.

  BAMS editors will consider meeting summaries for print publication if they

  • are 600 words or less, not counting the title and information box.
  • demonstrate news value to a wider community than the people who might have attended the meeting.
  • are submitted within four months of the meeting. 
  • contain limited special formatting (e.g., no more than a quarter of the article should be in a numbered or “bullet” listing format).

  To meet this print guideline for meeting summaries, authors will find they need to focus on clearly stating the reason for the meeting and the essential take-away highlights of the meeting.

  Because the print and online guidelines require very different levels of distillation, you may choose to write a meeting summary that meets guidelines for online publication and also simultaneously submit a companion version of the summary that meets guidelines for print publication. BAMS will consider publishing both.

  In cases of high news value, BAMS editors will at times choose to prepare a short print version of the meeting summary or will contact the authors to suggest that the authors prepare such a version.

  Authors may supplement their meeting summaries with documents, tables, or figures that will be published online only.

  Meeting summaries are posted in AMS Early Online Releases within two weeks of acceptance and are published online in final form approximately four weeks thereafter. Print versions will be published in the next available print issue.

  Sometimes authors wish to prepare special types of high-interest contributions (not fitting the above guidelines) based on a meeting. Please submit an Article or In Box proposal first if you would like to do so. These manuscripts tend to be:

  • Informal overviews of a discipline or pressing challenge, with recommendations from a group of authors stemming from a workshop or meeting.
  • Group statements or reports focusing on recommendations or other opinion essays or white papers. These may represent a consensus or a broad selection of diverse views formulated at a meeting or workshop.

  In consultation with the editors, the authors may choose to write a fast-track report for the Meeting Summary section and also submit (possibly at a later time) a related essay or review for publication in another section of BAMS.

• 45 Beacon: Various topics regarding AMS and AMS membership

  Short articles about issues or projects directly related to the Society or membership in the Society, including articles about the conduct of professional meetings, announcements, and various AMS programs such as the Broadcast Seal, journals, government relations, scholarships, and continuing education. For information on submitting Obituaries or content for About Our Members, contact Rachel Thomas-Medwid or Matt Gillespie.

• Readings: Discussion of books and publishing

  Interviews and essays about books or publishing or reviews (by invitation); also book excerpts and excerpts from texts in other media. Contact Rachel Thomas-Medwid.

• Synoptics: We welcome readers’ submissions for our photo feature showing AMS community members in action. Submit as a JPG or TIF with an explanatory caption and identifying information for individual(s) featured to Rachel Thomas-Medwid.

• Letters to the Editor: Topics of concern for AMS members

  Letters to the Editor (500 words or less) are encouraged. They can be submitted through the BAMS Editorial Manager page or by e-mail at letterstotheeditor@ametsoc.org. Please include your complete contact information.