The scientific societies which sponsor GCA also sponsor awards ("medals") for scientific achievement. These awards are generally presented at scientific conferences, usually with a brief speech ("citation") introducing the medalist and a brief acceptance speech by the medalist. At the invitation of the Executive Editor, both citationists and medalists may be invited to publish their speeches in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. The intention is that speeches should be published as promptly as is reasonable after the meeting at which they are delivered, with a submission deadline indicated in the Editor's invitation letter.

To first order, the published speech should be the same as the real-time oral presentation, but in some respects differences are inevitable or encouraged. Authors should be aware, for example, that many rhetorical devices which work well in oral presentation are ineffective or worse in print. Also, oral presentations are sometimes accompanied by extensive visual aids; for the printed version, in contrast, we request authors to forego figures (except see next paragraph), although one or two figures could be accomodated if a strong case is made. Tables should be avoided. If published scientific literature is cited, references should be included in the normal format.

We request that the medalists also supply a portrait-style photograph (head-and-shoulders, posed) for inclusion with their acceptance speeches. Photographs will be printed in black-and-white, but may be supplied in black-and-white or color.

Titles should follow a fixed format, e.g. "Citation for presentation of the 2001 Henry B. Earthmover Award to John Q. Whizkid" or "Acceptance of the 2001 Henry B. Earthmover Award". Speech-based manuscripts should be submitted with a title and the author's name and institutional affiliation, just like any other manuscript. A speech-based manuscript should not have an abstract, however, nor should the text be divided into sections in the manner of regular Articles.

A speech-based manuscript may be submitted in any way that any other manuscript is submitted, i.e. website upload, e-mail attachment, or hardcopy, and should be accompanied by a cover letter identifying it as an invited speech. These manuscripts will not be subject to scientific review in the normal sense, but they will be examined by editorial staff and revisions may be requested. Even if no revisions are requested, authors will be given the opportunity to make revisions at least once subsequent to original submission.

It is the policy of the Geochemical Society (GS) that GS-based award speeches published in GCA, with the permission of the publisher, will be reprinted in Geochemical News, the GS newsletter.

In addition, the societies also sponsor invited scientific lectures, which differ from speeches in that lectures, even if containing a substantial component of personal or historical perspective, focus on substantive scientific themes. An award may involve both an acceptance speech and a scientific lecture by the medalist. Lectures need not be directly associated with awards, however (e.g. the Ingerson Lecture, the Gast Lecture, a presidential address).

Society-sponsored lecturers may also be invited by the Executive Editor to submit written versions of their lectures for publication in GCA. Titles should identify the lecture as well as scientific topic, e.g. "2001 Hornblower Lecture: The effect of acoustic resonances on trace element partitioning in staghorn coral dolomitization". Invited lectures will be reviewed for scientific content by the standards applied to Invited Reviews, except that greater latitude will be allowed for personal or historical perspective. Manuscripts may be submitted by the same mechanisms as any other papers, at a time convenient for the author. Invited lecture manuscripts will be evaluated on a normal manuscript timescale.