How to report data reduced with CosmoCalc

CosmoCalc was designed to be a user-friendly program for both novice and advanced users of TCN methods. Nearly every function comes with a set of options which allow the user to change the default values of various parameters (Section 7). Although CosmoCalc's flexibility should be considered a positive feature, a danger exists that his may lead to confusion. Therefore, it is important that the data-reduction method is well documented when reporting results. Here is an example:

``Ages were calculated with CosmoCalc 1.0 (Vermeesch, 2007), using Dunai (2000) scaling factors and default values for all parameters with the following exceptions: $\rho = 3.5 g/cm^3$ and $\lambda$($^{10}$Be) = $5.17\times10^{-7}$yr$^{-1}$.''

Clearly indicating the version number is important because CosmoCalc will be updated in the future to keep track of new developments in TCN geochronology. Older versions will always be available from the CosmoCalc website (http://cosmocalc.googlepages.com). Users with useful suggestions for improvements should feel free contact the author by emailing to cosmocalc@gmail.com.

Acknowledgments. The author is financially supported by a Marie Curie Fellowship of the European Union (CRONUS-EU network, RTN project reference 511927). Many thanks to Dr. Naki Akçar for testing beta-versions of CosmoCalc and making useful suggestions which simplified the user interface and made the program more user-friendly, and to two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments.