Organization of Manuscripts

Regarding the organization of the scientific content in the manuscript, overall, please read the superb “recipe” for a good manuscript written by former editor, the late Fred Mumpton:

Mumpton, F.A. (1990) The Universal Recipe or How to Get Your Manuscript Accepted by Persnickety Editors. Clays and Clay Minerals, 38, 631–636. It is available here.

Once you have read it, follow its outstanding guidance. Specific matters that should be considered in preparing a manuscript for its first submission are highlighted in the following numbered items.

1. Clear identification of scientific novelty in Introduction (Statement of Purpose): Before a manuscript can be sent out for review, it must identify the novelty of the work reported in terms of advancing the frontiers of clay science. A successful manuscript should clearly identify what is new and scientifically significant about the work presented. Authors should clearly state the aim of this study (i.e., what problem is being solved, etc.). This will help readers to understand the scientific novelty of the study reported in the manuscript. Authors need to show (state clearly) how this study differs from past studies of similar clay mineral phenomena. The Introduction of the paper should define the scope of the problem to be solved by the work presented. The Introduction should provide background explaining what problem is being solved, or what gap in existing scientific-community understanding as reported in the literature is being filled, by the work reported in the paper. The Introduction should briefly explain why this problem is not already solved or why the solution in this manuscript is better than previous solutions in some specified important way. A summary of previous work followed only by a statement that the present manuscript reports an increment of continued work along a similar direction is generally not sufficient justification for the present manuscript – a successful manuscript requires a specific statement of a specific reason that the specific continuation of previous work reported in the manuscript is required. If the purpose is primarily to describe a local deposit, then either the paper belongs in a local or regional journal or the manuscript needs to better explain the scientific novelty of the work. Is this a deposit that has significant potential to change our understanding about the existence and origin of this kind of natural material, or does it only confirm that it is much like others that have been characterized and it is just adding information about this particular deposit? How does the detailed study of this unit advance scientific understanding beyond merely characterizing this locally economically important unit? If no larger scientific significance is apparent, then specifically how does the characterization reported improve the use of the resource? A description of a deposit that does not have international or global significance for understanding that type of deposit is not sufficient for an international journal. Is the work reported a process that has significant potential to change scientific or applied approaches to this kind of material? What can the community do better after the work reported here than it could do without this work? Specifically, how does the process reported in this manuscript improve upon prior art?
    
2. Title page: The title page should include: The name(s) of the author(s);  A concise and informative title; The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s); The e-mail address and telephone number(s) of the corresponding author; If available, the 16-digit ORCID of each of the author(s).
    
3. Abstract: One or two sentences at the beginning of the Abstract should state the problem being addressed in this study, and its objective. (This statement-of-problem is to be a condensation of a more complete statement of background and problem as presented in the Introduction section.) All manuscripts must contain an informative abstract that is a condensation of the essential ideas and results of the paper, and not a list of the subjects covered in the text. Abstracts must clearly and briefly state the problem being addressed by the study, objective, materials and methods used, results and main observations, and conclusions in such a manner that they can be used by current-awareness publications and other information-retrieval systems. Do not repeat information given in the title, copy verbatim the Conclusions section of the paper, or reference the literature, tables, or figures in the Abstract. It should not be subdivided into more than one paragraph. Abstracts should contain up to 250 words in length and be free of any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.
    
4. Keywords: Please provide 3 to 8 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.
    
5. Introduction: The Introduction should set the stage for the Discussion and Conclusions sections: Once the Introduction and statement of purpose have been written (as discussed above), the Discussion and, especially, the Conclusions, should clearly and explicitly link the outcomes of the research with the identified gap in community understanding as identified in the Introduction. A successful primary research manuscript should clearly distinguish conclusions arrived at as a result of this work from those arrived at from previous work. Discussion, inferences, and conclusions must be clear, and the conclusions should draw on the results and discussion of this paper, not on the introduction section and previous papers. If the previously published work is sufficient to be the main foundation for the current conclusions, there needs to be a compelling new reason to publish the results and ideas being written about. Conclude the Introduction section with a succinct rehearsal of the problem that motivated the work, the objective(s) that were designed to solve that problem, and the hypothesis(ses) (anticipated outcomes). Do not conclude the Introduction section by summarizing the study.
    
6. Materials and Methods: Please include the manufacturer/ supplier name and location (city, State if in the US, and country) for all equipment, materials, and chemicals used.
    
7. Results: Only results necessary to arrive at novel conclusions should be presented, discussed, and used as a basis for interpretation. Inconclusive or non-essential results (statements that are true but not essential to the inferences and conclusions) should be excluded, and not included simply because the work was done. The only permissible exception to this exclusion is if it is important to include such information to show both (1) that these observations of these materials resemble observations of similar materials by similar methods, and (2) that this similarity is scientifically important.  Successful manuscripts should be specific and detailed in discussing Methods, Results, and the basis for drawing inferences in the Discussion. Methods must be thoroughly described. Results and Discussion should be separate sections – a Results section describing the observations upon which the inferences are based, and a Discussion section drawing inferences from the observations and articulating the implications of the inferences for the literature. The Abstract and Conclusions should address briefly the findings thoroughly described and discussed elsewhere in the text, especially in the Results and Discussion.
    
8. Conclusions: The Conclusion sections: The Conclusion should: (1) summarize the most significant interpretations, outcomes, and implications for the literature, from the Discussion; (2) identify how the results of the present manuscript differ from or add to the previous papers about the studied phenomenon that were cited in the Introduction; and (3) clearly distinguish conclusions arrived at as a result of this work from those arrived at from previous work. The Conclusions are not an appropriate place to introduce new information that should be in the Background or Discussion. It is acceptable to include a statement that future work is required and to identify such future work; the end of the Discussion, however, is generally a better place than the Conclusions for such a statement.
    
9. References: See below.

References

The references cited should consist almost exclusively of primary literature. The original literature reporting or describing a principle, phenomenon, or material must also be cited rather than later studies that add nothing new to the original information. Citing one’s own abstracts, guidebooks, or other gray literature should be considered unacceptable, except for matters such as sample-locality descriptions or to establish chronologic priority (and in this case, mentioning the abstracts and presentations in Acknowledgements may be sufficient). Work that remains exclusively in abstract form after many years has never been peer-reviewed, and is, therefore, not suitable material to be cited in a peer-reviewed journal. If a body of unpublished (non-peer-reviewed) work (available only as abstracts, guidebooks, or other gray literature) describes no results significantly different from those reported in peer-reviewed papers by other authors, then there is no reason to cite the gray literature. Only if the manuscript under consideration claims as original to itself inferences or conclusions also stated in unpublished work is there potential infringement of the priority of the gray literature. Citing abstracts, guidebooks, or other gray literature by others is an act of desperation that should only be allowed under extreme circumstances.

Absent conflicts of priority, we do not convey proper scholarship to our readers (especially students or the public) by citing work that was never peer-reviewed and thereby elevating it to the level of other citable, peer-reviewed work. If previous work is publishable and citable, is should be published so it can be cited. Otherwise, as far as the refereed literature is concerned, the previous work does not exist. Also, authors and reviewers alike should beware of erroneously elevating gray literature by citing peer-reviewed secondary literature (e.g., review papers, or refereed papers that used non-refereed gray literature as part of their basis for drawing inferences). Misconceptions can be introduced into and propagated through the peer-reviewed literature by citing secondary papers that depend on non-peer-reviewed gray literature for some of the primary data, observations, or previous conclusions. This weakens the authority of peer-reviewed literature and, therefore, should be avoided. 

References are cited in the text by the name of the author and the year of publication, e.g. Noh (1998) or Brandt & Kydd (1998). For references with more than two authors, use ‘‘et al." as in White et al. (1992). Citations in parentheses must include a comma, e.g. (White et al., 1992).

Clays and Clay Minerals follows the APA 7 reference style. Full references are listed alphabetically by author at the end of the paper and with the year in parentheses. For several publications of an author with different co-authors the following order must be followed: (a) publications of the author alone, in chronological order; (b) publications of the author with a single co-author, in alphabetical order of co-authors; (c) publications of the author with more than one co-author, in chronological order (as they are cited in the form ‘Jones et al.‘ in the text). The name of the author is given surname first, followed by a comma and the initials, with each initial followed by a period and without a space between initials. Do not abbreviate journal names. Volume numbers are in bold. For example: 

Journal article: Varga G., Kukovecz Á., Kónya Z., Korecz L., Muráth S., Csendes Z. et al. List all authors (2016) Mn(II)-amino acid complexes intercalated in CaAl-layered double hydroxide – well-characterized, highly efficient, recyclable oxidation catalysts. Journal of Catalysis, 335, 125–134.

Book/report: Aras A., Yılmaz H., & Ağrılı H. (1993) Mine Geology of Taşmış–Pütürge (Malatya) Pyrophyllite Deposit. MTA Report 9598. MTA, Ankara, Turkey (in Turkish), 22 pp.

Software: Zeelmaekers, E., McCarty, D., & Mystkowski, K. (2007) ‘Sybilla’ user manual. Chevron Proprietary Software. Texas, USA. 

Book chapter: Zeng Z., Li C., Xue W., Chen J., & Che Y. (2012) Recent developments on the mechanism and kinetics of esterification reaction promoted by various catalysts. Pp. 255–282 in: Chemical Kinetics (V. Patel, editor). IntechOpen, London, UK.

Web document: Andrews, S. (2010) A quality control tool for high throughput sequence data. Retrieved from http://www.bioinformatics.babr...

Personal communications or other unpublished observations may be cited in the text, such as: (J. Jones, pers. comm., 1996) or (J. Jones, unpublished data, 1996). These citations should not be included in the reference list, but the address of the person (e.g. J. Jones) referred to in the communication may be given in the Acknowledgements at the discretion of the author.

Text

Text must be in a concise and readily understandable style (see “style” section below). Sufficient detail must be included to enable other investigators to repeat the work. However, extremely detailed technical descriptions of the methods used should only be given when such methods are not published elsewhere or represent a new approach.

Style and Nomenclature: Manuscripts should be submitted in MS-Word or equivalent. Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text. Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages. Also, use the automatic line numbering function to number the lines; use the continuous mode rather than starting over with each page and placethe line numbers on the left not the right. Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar. Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.

New mineral names require the approval of the IMA Commission on New Mineral Names. Mineral nomenclature and terminology must conform to IMA, CMS Nomenclature Committee, and AIPEA Nomenclature Committee guidelines. SI units are mandatory, but angstrom (Å) and bar (b) may be used also if usage is consistent within the manuscript. Footnotes should be used sparingly. For the first time an acronym (e.g. TEM) is used (both in the Abstract and in the Text), spell in full and place the acronym in parentheses. Thereafter, use the acronym only. Polytype symbols (e.g. muscovite-2M₁) should have the letter only in italics. Latin terms (e.g., etc., et al., i.e.) are in italic. The symbols ‘‘M’’ for ‘‘molar’’ and ‘‘N’’ for ‘‘normal’’ are not italic. Use I-S and not I/S for illite-smectite interstratification. Use d₀₀₁ where 1 is a number, but d_00l where l is a letter, in this case "el". Use “sheet,” not “layer,” when referring to the octahedral or tetrahedral sheet; use “layer,” not “sheet,” when referring to the unit obtained with the unification of the tetrahedral and octahedral sheets. Use “organo-clay” rather than “organoclay” or “organo clay.” 

Headings

This journal allows three levels of heading. Indicate which heading you intend by adding (Heading 1), (Heading 2), or (Heading 3) before the heading in your manuscript.

Equations

Chemical and mathematical equations are to be offset from the text above and below by centering on the line, provided with a sequence number in parentheses, such as (1), and with each new symbol defined immediately below in the text. Equations should be cited as Eqn. 1 or (Eqn. 1) or Eqns 1, 2 in the text.

Footnotes

Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list.

Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data). 

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section on the title page. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

Scientific style

• Please always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units (SI units).
• Nomenclature: Insofar as possible, authors should use systematic names similar to those used by Chemical Abstract Service or IUPAC.
• Genus and species names should be in italics.
• Generic names of drugs and pesticides are preferred; if trade names are used, the generic name should be given at first mention.
• Please use the standard mathematical notation for formulae, symbols, etc.: Italic for single letters that denote mathematical, variables, and unknown quantities, roman/upright for numerals, constants, operators, and punctuation, and commonly defined functions or abbreviations, e.g., cos, det, e or exp, lim, log, max, min, sin, tan, d (for derivative) and bold for vectors, tensors, and matrices.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter. For mineral-name abbreviations, use this list by Warr (2020) Recommended abbreviations for the names of clay minerals and associated phases. Clay Minerals, 55, 261 –264. https://www.cambridge.org/core...

Tables

Tables should be embedded in the manuscript for review purposes and also be uploaded as separate files, to retain their quality in production.

All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals. Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order. For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table. Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

Additional style recommendations

The Editor-in-Chief further emphasizes the following points of style:

• A ‘serial’ comma must be inserted before “and” or “or” when three or more items are listed in a series. If series are nested, semi-colons should be used to separate the items in the first-level series.
• Avoid writing in the first person, i.e., avoid using personal pronouns I, we, our, my, etc.
• Avoid starting a sentence with “it” (unless “it” clearly refers to an antecedent noun) or “there” and avoid using phrases like “there is,” “there are,” “there was,” “there were,” “there has,” “there have,” “it is/was/has” (unless “it” clearly refers to an antecedent noun), “it seems/appears/. . . ,” etc. While spoken and casual English use these phrases extensively, scientifically written English should be more succinct.
• Generally speaking, use “since” only when referring to time rather than as a conjunction in place of “because.”
• Use American English spellings. Examples: aluminum, not aluminium; color, not colour; behavior, not behaviour; stabilize, not stabilise; acknowledgements, not acknowledgements; etc.
• Use past tense verbs when describing methods, observations, results, and conclusions; use present tense only when referring to something that is widely accepted or generally considered to be true.
• When referring to States or Provinces, spell out the name rather than using postal code abbreviations (e.g., Illinois, not IL), unless it is a specific postal address being given (e.g. Urbana, IL 61801 USA).
• When reporting experimental data that are listed in a table or displayed in a figure, the preferred style is to describe the data, but identify the corresponding table or figure using parentheses instead of explicitly within the sentence. For example: “Experimental measurements of x (Fig. 1) revealed that . . . .”; rather than, “Experimental measurements of x are given in Fig. 1. These results revealed that . . . .”
• When using qualifying words, such as “however,” “therefore,” etc., insert this word within the sentence rather than beginning the sentence with it, and separate it from the surrounding text with commas
• The abbreviation “ca.” (abbreviation for circa) refers to time, not to quantity.
• If using “either,” use “or,” if using “neither,” combine with “nor.”
• Don’t begin a sentence with a number (e.g. use “Twenty” instead of “20”).
• Be careful to match the number (singular vs. plural) of articles, subjects, and verbs.
• When referring to an element that may exist in more than one oxidation state, and the oxidation state is being specified, use the superscript Arabic valence number, e.g. Fe³⁺; if in a complex or solid state, use the Roman Numeral in parentheses, e.g. Fe(III).

Artwork

All figures, artwork and tables should be embedded in the manuscript for review purposes and also be uploaded as separate files, to retain their quality in production. Further guidance on artwork requirements can be found in Cambridge's Journals artwork guide.

For the best quality final product, you must submit all of your artwork – photographs, line drawings, etc. – in electronic format. Your art will then be produced to the highest standards with the greatest accuracy to detail. The published work will directly reflect the quality of the artwork provided.

Electronic Figure Submission

• Supply all figures electronically.
• For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for photographs please use TIFF format.
• Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
• Name your figure files with "Fig" and the figure number, e.g. Fig1.eps.
   

Line Art

• Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.
• Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.
• All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
• Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi at the final size.
   

Halftone Art

• Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.
• If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves.
• Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
   

Combination Art

• Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g. halftones containing line drawing, extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.
• Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.
   

Color Art

• Color art is reproduced free of charge .
• Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB.
   

Figure Lettering

• To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts).
• Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 2–3 mm (8–12 pt).
• Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.
• Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.
• Do not include titles or captions within your illustrations.
   

Figure Numbering

• All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
• Figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
• Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).
• If an appendix appears at the end of your article and it contains one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. DO NOT number the appendix figures, "A1, A2, A3, etc." Figures in online appendices (Electronic Supplementary Material) should, however, be numbered separately as S1, S2, etc.
   

Figure Axis Labels

• Figure axis labels should be in the format “Label (units)”. The label should be in sentence format, i.e. the first word begins with an upper case letter but all other words are lower case except for proper nouns. Notice the space before “(“. For X-ray diffraction patterns, the label for the horizontal axis should be “°2θ”.
   

Figure Captions

• Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.
• Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
• Place all figure captions together at the end of the manuscript. Do not intersperse them in the text.
• No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.
• Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
• Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.
   

Figure Placement and Size

• Place all figures and tables together after the list of figure captions. Do not intersperse them within the text.
• Figures will be made to fit either a single or double column based on their size during the production process. Figures should not exceed 180mm in width.
   

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your figures, please make sure that:

• All figures have descriptive captions (blind users could then use a text-to-speech software or a text-to-Braille hardware)
• Patterns are used instead of or in addition to colors for conveying information (visually deficient users would then be able to distinguish the visual elements)
• Any figure lettering has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1

Electronic supplementary material

The journal accepts electronic multimedia files (animations, movies, audio, etc.) and other supplementary files to be published online along with an article. This feature can add context to the author's article.

Further guidance on supplementary material can be found on Cambridge's Publishing supplementary material page.

Submission

• Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.
• Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names; affiliation, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
• To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.
   

Audio, Video, and Animations

• Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 4:3
• Maximum file size: 25 GB
• Minimum video duration: 1 second
• Supported file formats: avi, wmv, mp4, mov, m2p, mp2, mpg, mpeg, flv, mxf, mts, m4v, 3gp
   

Text and Presentations

• Submit your material in MS-Word format; these will be converted to .pdf form which is more compatible with long-term viability.
• A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.
   

Spreadsheets

• Spreadsheets should be submitted as .csv or .xlsx files (MS Excel).

Numbering

• If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.
• Refer to the supplementary files as “Supplementary Material”, e.g., "... as shown in the animation (Supplementary Material 3)", “... additional data are given in Supplementary Material 4”.
• Name the files consecutively, e.g. “ESM_3.mpg”, “ESM_4.pdf”.
   

Captions

• For each piece of supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of the file.
   

Processing of supplementary files

• Electronic supplementary material will be published as received from the author without any conversion, editing, or reformatting.
   

Data availability

The journal encourages authors to provide a statement of 'Data availability' in their article. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found, including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. Data availability statements can also indicate whether data are available on request from the authors and where no data are available, if appropriate.

Data availability statements can take one of the following forms (or a combination of more than one if required for multiple datasets):

1. The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS].
2. The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
3. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
4. All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].

More examples of template data availability statements, which include examples of openly available and restricted access datasets, are available here.

Proof reading

The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g. new results, corrected values, title and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor.

After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.