Manuscript Types
In the context of GMD, 'model' generally means a computer code which implements a numerical model of a physical, chemical or biological process or system, which forms a component of the Earth system.
- Model description papers are comprehensive descriptions of numerical models which fall within the scope of GMD. The papers should be detailed, complete, rigorous, and accessible to a wide community of geoscientists.
- They should describe both the underlying science of the model, and details of the numerical schemes employed. The scientific goal is reproducibility: ideally, the description should be sufficiently detailed to in principle allow the reimplementation of the model by others, and so all technical details which could affect the numerical output should be described.
- The model description should be contextualised appropriately. For example, the inclusion of discussion of the scope of applicability and limitations of the approach adopted is expected.
- Examples of model output should be provided, with comparison to standard benchmarks, observations and/or other model output included as appropriate. In this, authors are expected to distinguish between verification (checking that the chosen equations are solved correctly) and validation (assessing whether the model is a good representation of the real system).
- The publication will typically consist of three parts: the main paper, a user manual, and the source code (ideally supported by some summary outputs from test case simulations). In cases where pre-existing copyright prohibits the publication of source code, this may be omitted. The source code and user manual will not be formally reviewed, but reviewers may make suggestions for improvement if they wish.
- The main paper must give the model name and version number in the title. The model webpage URL, the hardware and software requirements and the license information should be given in the text. If papers are describing subsequent development to a paper already published in GMD, they will be electronically linked to the previous version(s), and an overview webpage will be created.
- Model evaluation papers typically comprise a more in-depth evaluation of an already-published numerical model than would be possible in a model description paper. Authors may address aspects of verification and/or validation, but should aim to maintain the broadest relevance in the tests employed: i.e. the validation/verification should be valid for a large a range of model parameters/scenarios as possible.
- Development and Technical papers describe technical developments relating to model improvements such as the speed or accuracy of numerical integration schemes as well as new parameterisations for processes represented in modules. Also included are papers relating to technical aspects of running models and the reproducibility of results, e.g. assessments of their performance with different compilers, or under different computer architectures. Authors are encouraged to provide code to perform any test cases described in the paper.
- Framework/component papers describe the frameworks and utility tools used to build practical modelling systems, such as coupling frameworks or other software toolboxes with a geoscientific application. As with model description papers, publication of user manuals and source code is encouraged, and the name and version number of the code being described should be included in the title.
- Data analysis/visualisation description papers discuss novel methods for data analysis or visualisation with relevance to geoscientific modelling, or the application of existing techniques to this field. These papers may be theoretical, in which case an example implementation should be provided as supplementary information, or may be based on the description of a fully-fledged software tool.
- Benchmarking development papers discuss work on developing new benchmarks for assessing model performance, or novel ways of comparing model results with observational data.
- Model experiment description papers contain descriptions of standard experiments for a particular type of model, such as might be used in a model intercomparison project (MIP). Such papers should include discussion of why particular choices were made in the experiment design, and sample model output. In the case of papers describing MIPs, they should explain any specific project protocols, should highlight differences in the application of the protocol by the different groups, and should including sufficient descriptions/figures of model results to give an overview of the project.
