10-point quick guide to preparing your manuscript

The following are the key points that will help your paper to move quickly through the submission and review system:

1. If English isn’t the native language of any of the authors, then consider paying for our professional, pre-submission language-editing service.
2. Make sure that your figures meet our standards. They must be in the right format (.tif or .eps; not MS-Word) and they must have appropriate resolution (i.e. 300 dpi for a photograph; 600 dpi for a line diagram).
3. Make sure that the lettering on your figures is of an appropriate size. It won’t work if the lettering on the horizontal axis is 24 pt and the labelling on the vertical axis is 6 pt.
4. When creating your tables, use our format. See the full instructions further down this page.
5. There are specific uses for italic. Do not use italic (or bold) purely for emphasis.
6. When you’re submitting your manuscript to Editorial Manager, make sure that you have added line numbering. This makes the job of the editors and reviewers much easier.
7. Follow the typical manuscript structure detailed further down this page. It is very unusual for a paper to use a structure which is different from this.
8. Authors who do not follow the instructions further down this page about how to format a reference list, delay publication of their paper. It is a slow, time-consuming job to get this right.
9. Use of supplementary material is becoming increasingly common and this material is welcome in all of the Mineralogical Society journals. Make sure you cite it appropriately and follow the guidance further down this page.
10. All crystallography papers with single-crystal XRD need a crystallographic information file. Read about them further down this page.

Manuscript Style

Papers should be as concise as is possible, consistent with clarity. Unnecessary detail should be avoided and complex data (such as crystallographic structure factors or extensive tables of compositional data) must be deposited as supplementary material where appropriate - see below.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary and H.W. Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage for grammar and punctuation will be taken as standards for spelling and grammar, apart from some specific recommendations of the IUPAC (e.g. sulfur). Please avoid colloquialisms.

N.B. For submissions by authors whose first language is not English the text must be edited, prior to submission, by a person whose first language is English and who is familiar with scientific writing. The manuscript will be returned to the authors for correction if the Editors deem that the standard of English is not acceptable for peer review.

Make sure that the language in the paper is set to UK English. In MS-Word, look under Tools: Language: UK English.

Technical

Set the document template to Normal. It is much easier for our typesetter if you get rid of all possible autoformatting. You may have to reformat some headings and check tabs and spacing. To remove field codes for endnote refs use ctrl + shift + F9.

Under Format: Paragraph, be sure that hyphenation is not on, uncheck all pagination boxes (widows and orphans, etc.), indents and spacing should be set to zero. Check or set default tabs to 4 mm.

Under advanced find and replace, check for double spaces after full stops and change all to single space.

Title

The title should be concise and indicative of the content of the article. The title should be left justified and in lowercase apart from place names and proper nouns.

Abbreviations should be written out in full where practical. The use acronyms for local geographical and/or geological units should be avoided as many will not  be  familiar to readers.  Acronyms for specific analytical methods (EMPA, SEM etc)  or geochemical terms and rocks types (MORB; REE) should only be used for those in common usage.

• Running heads (authors names as written / short title)
• Title with any abbreviations in full
• Authors with * for corresponding author
• Addresses in full
• Manuscript submission dates, etc.
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Footnotes: email address for corresponding author
• Footnote: DOI in new complete form: https://dx.doi.org/.....

Highlights (Optional)

These are brief bullet points that will help readers find your work when searching using general terms. They should be short, explain any novel findings or experiments undertaken and use general terminology. Please supply 3 or 4 short pieces of text that give an overview of your work and why it is important.

Abstract

An abstract of not more than 300 words must accompany all submitted manuscripts . This should state the novel principal results of the work, conclusions drawn, and any new mineral names proposed.

Keywords

Separate keywords with commas

Keywords: words, mineral, Greenwich Imperial mine, Bodmin, Cornwall, UK, arsenic

Headings

A maximum of three levels of sub-heading is used: major sub-headings are printed in bold and ranged left, lower case. Second-order headings are in italic and ranged left, lower case. Third-order headings are in italic, ranged left, given in lower case but indented by the same amount as the following paragraph.

Common level 1 headings are: ‘Introduction’, ‘Geological setting’, ‘Experimental methods’, ‘Results’, ‘Discussion‘ and ‘Conclusions’.

Data, Tables, Figures, cifs

Data should not be repeated from the literature unless they are from ‘inaccessible’ journals and/or are discussed in the text in conjunction with novel data. It might be appropriate for papers on rare or obscure minerals to include a concise summary of available data.

The publication of new data is encouraged, although large data sets should deposited as supplementary files – see below. Powder X-ray diffraction data will normally only be published for new minerals, for new compositions in an isomorphous series, or when they are an improvement on those already in the Powder Diffraction data file. Where powder data are used for identification, a statement that they are very similar or identical to those in the literature is sufficient.

Submissions containing data on new minerals or crystal structures must include a crystallographic information file (.cif) to be checked by the Structures editor at the same time as the manuscript is under review.

Information about formatting Tables and Figures is given below.

Acknowledgements [spelt with two letters e]

Keep acknowledgements simple and avoid the use of superlatives. "We greatly thank xxx for " is better written as "The authors thank xxx for". Please acknowledge all institutional funding sources. It is good practice to acknowledge the efforts of the reviewers and editors.

References and Footnotes 

Footnotes

Footnotes to the text should be avoided. When necessary, they should be inserted on the same manuscript pages as the passage to which they refer.

References

Geo-Bio Interfaces has its own reference style. Note particularly the style used to refer to chapters from books. Author lists which number more than ten authors may be summarized with et al. A list of references styles is given here:

Edmunds W.M. (2005) Groundwater as an archive of climatic and environmental change. Pp. 341–352 in: Isotopes in the Water Cycle: Past, Present and Future of a Developing Science (P.K. Aggarwal, J.R. Gat and K.F.O. Froehlich, editors). Springer, Berlin.

Gilg H.A., Boni M., Hochleitner R. and Struck U. (2008) Stable isotope geochemistry of carbonate minerals in supergene oxidation zones of Zn–Pb deposits. Ore Geology Reviews, 33, 117–133.

Giresse P. (2005) Mesozoic-Cenozoic history of the Congo Basin. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 43, 301–315.

Intiomale M.M. (1982) Le gisement Zn–Pb–Cu de Kipushi (Shaba, Zaïre). Etude géologique et métallogénique. PhD dissertation, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

Johnson C.A., Rye D.M. and Skinner B.J. (1990) Petrology and stable isotope geochemistry of the metamorphosed zinc-iron-manganese deposit at Sterling Hill. New Jersey. Economic Geology, 85, 1133–1161.

Lombaard A.F., Günzel A., Innes J. and Krüger T.L. (1986) The Tsumeb lead–copper–zinc–silver deposit, South West Africa/Namibia. Pp. 1761–1782 in: Mineral Deposits of southern Africa, Vol. 2 (C.R. Anhaeusser and S. Maske, editors). Geological Society of South Africa, Johannesburg.

Longerich H.P., Jackson S.E. and Günther D. (1996) Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric transient signal data acquisition and analyte concentration calculation. Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, 11, 899–904.

Master S., Rainaud C., Armstrong R.A., Phillips D. and Robb L.J. (2005) Provenance ages of the Neoproterozoic Katanga Supergroup (Central African Copperbelt), with implications for basin evolution. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 42, 41–60.

Mazor E. (2004) Chemical and Isotopic groundwater hydrology. Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 453 pp.

McPhail D.C., Summerhayes E., Welch S. and Brugger J. (2003) The geochemistry of zinc in the regolith. Pp. 287–291 in: ###em (I.C. Roach, editor). Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration, CRC Press, Florida, USA.

Moore T.A. (1964) The geology of the Chisamba area: explanation of degree sheet 1428, SW quarter. Geological Survey of Zambia, Report, 5, 32.

Saini-Eidukat B., Melcher F., Göttlicher J. and Steininger R. (2016) Chemical environment of unusually Ge- and Pb-rich willemite, Tres Marias Mine, Mexico. Minerals, 6, 20. doi:10.3390/min6010020

Whyte W.J. (1966) Geology of the Broken Hill Mine, Zambia. Pp. 395–425 in: Symposium on Lead–Zinc Deposits in Africa. Association of African Geological Surveys, Tunis Meeting, April 1966, 23.

Please check that all references are cited. Do this each time the manuscript is revised. Most errors in reference list happen at revision stage.

Do not cite unaccepted ‘in prep.’ or ‘submitted’ references.

It is acceptable to use a DOI in the reference, especially when the final citation is not yet available, e.g. volume or page numbers are not known or for online only journals, where DOIs are the only permanent identifier. The traditional citation is still preferred.

General Conventions

For geological terms, use the following resources:

A Dictionary of Geology and Earth Sciences

###a href="http://www.oxfordreference.com..." target="_blank">http://www.oxfordreference.com...

For Reference list formatting, please follow the Geo-Bio Interfaces style as outlined above.

Scientific Nomenclature

###phttp://cnmnc.main.jp/ ). A dictionary is available from http://rruff.info/ima/

###phttps://doi.org/10.1180/mgm.2021.43) 'IMA-CNMNC approved mineral symbols’.

Italics and Foreign-Word Use

Use italics for foreign-language terms such as sensu lato, sensu stricto, in situ, ad hoc, and for names of vessels, e.g. research or exploration vessels, but not for foreign place names.

No bold or italics used for emphasis or new terms.

Punctuation

• Nested parentheses: use ‘( [ {  }] )’ order in the text.
• Use double quotation marks to delineate “actual quotes from a source” (which need a citation and page number; query author if needed).
• Use single quotation marks to indicate where the term ‘so-called’ might be used instead.
• Punctuation marks go outside quote marks.
• No spaces before or after en-dashes. Use a space before and after an en-dash in place of an em-dash.
• En-dashes are used to denote ranges.
• Oxford commas in simple lists including references and authors names in the headings are not used.
  • e.g. blue, green, pink and white.

Lists

• No bulleted lists; only numbered lists. The first list should be numbered (1), (2), (3), etc. A nested list should be numbered (i), (ii), (iii), etc.
• Serial commas are used in list items unless there are commas within the listed items.
• When numbering entries in a sentence list, the first list item is preceded by a colon, then the number, which is followed by a parenthesis and a space.
  • Example: This is a list of items: (1) this is the first item; (2) this is the second item, and it has a comma, so the list has semicolons as separators.

Numbers

• Use Arabic numbers and spell out whole numbers zero through nine, except when associated with an abbreviated unit of measurement
  • Example: 5 mm; 6–13 mm in diameter; 5 dm.
• All numbers beginning a sentence are spelled out. To avoid awkwardness with large numbers, a sentence can be restructured so that it does not begin with a number.
  • Example: “In all, 110 specimens were analysed” instead of “One hundred and ten specimens were analysed”.
• Place a non-breaking space between the numeral and unit of measurement (e.g. 5 mm).
• Spell out measurement units when not accompanied by a numeral (e.g. metres, kilometres, centimetres, etc.)
• Ordinal numbers are spelled out (e.g. twentieth century).
• Convert Roman numerals to Arabic numerals (e.g. in reference to figures).
• Spell out fractions (e.g. two thirds).
• Geographic coordinates should be reported without a space before N or E, and a comma between latitude and longitude
  • Example: 49.8207°N, 13.9593°E 
• Use no hyphenation with measurements:
  • Example:  “2 m thick”, NOT “2-m-thick”
• Common units: cm^–1, Ǻ, wt.%, µm, apfu
• Special units: 2V this is an optical angle symbol.  Do not put a space in, do not italicise.
• Radiation peaks should have the peak in italics but not the Greek symbol. Run the symbols together.
  • FeKα radiation
• En dash is used for minus symbols

Geological Ages and age references

• Formally proposed and accepted time and time-rock designations (e.g. Middle Ordovician, Upper Cretaceous) are capitalized, whereas informal designations (e.g. late Paleozoic, middle Cretaceous, upper Aptian) are not, except when used as the first word in a sentence.
• Use Ga, Ma, and ka to indicate geological ages (billions, millions, and thousands of years before present, respectively).
• Use G.y., M.y. and k.y. to indicate duration or span of time.
• Example: 66 Ma versus 66.6–65.9 M.y.
• Numeric decades have no apostrophe (1980s)
• Use “ca.” (circa) before approximate age. (ca. 66 Ma, there was a great extinction.)
• When a hierarchy is listed, separate the names with a comma (e.g. Oxfordian, Upper Jurassic).
• Express calendar dates as: 1 December 1998; “during the 1800s” (not “1800’s”); “from 1990 to 1995” (not “1990–1995,” not “1990 to 95,” not “1990–95”).

Abbreviations

Only use acronyms which are in common usage e.g. EMPA, XRD, REE, etc. All abbreviations should be defined on first usage, with the abbreviated version used thereafter. Do not use complex acronyms for geological formations or geographical localities.

• No abbreviations at the start of a sentence.
• Watch for repetition of the acronym e.g. “crystallographic .cif file” or “EMPA analyses”
• EPMA or EMPA are both okay but make sure the acronym is the same throughout the text, tables and figures.
• ‘For example’ is abbreviated as e.g. and is italicized.
• A comma is not used after e.g. (e.g. this is when to use a comma).
• i.e. or ‘that is’ is abbreviated as ‘i.e.’ and is italicized. A comma is not used after i.e. (i.e. a comma is not needed after i.e. in most cases)
• Sensu stricto and sensu lato are used instead of ‘in the strict sense’ and ‘in the broad sense’. Do not abbreviate.
• in situ is not hyphenated

Capitalization 

• Proper nouns are always in caps.
• “Formation” is capitalized; “formations” is not.
• Check capitalization individually for Mountain/mountains, Island/islands, etc.
• mine, quarry are not capitalized
• Tectonic plate names must also be capitalized, e.g. South China Block, South China Plate.

Spellings to Standardise: Always use UK English Spellings

• Caesium, sulfur, sulfates, aluminium, centred, modelled, metre, labelled, focused, modelled, ageing, mould, colour, neighbour, grey, baryte (not barite) ......
• hydroxylapatite not hydroxyapatite
• Geological (not geologic), towards (not toward) and upwards (not upward) and one eighth not one-eighth
• We use ise spellings where possible
• e.g. Digitised, mineralised, utilised, emphasising, normalised, crystallised
• Palaeo-  (not paleo-, except when quoting original text)

Hyphens

Add hyphens to compound adjectives and some compound words

“hard rocks”     no hyphen     but       “hard-rock data”  or  “cross-cut”

Do not hyphenate compound adverbs: e.g. do not hyphenate "tetrahedrally coordinated". 

Generally, if a hyphen is not required for clarity, do not use one. e.g. “the Sr site was full” not “the Sr-site was full”

Do not hyphenate Latin e.g. in situ, ab initio

Energy-dispersive spectrometry End-member compositions Secondary-electron image (SEM image) Back-scattered electron image (BSE image) Selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) Powder-diffraction data

Equations and Symbols

• Use × instead of x for magnification or multiplication.
• Use “%” and “ ° ” rather than spelling out percent and degree.
• Be sure to use a ° symbol for degree instead of a superscript o.
• Check that symbols translate properly. Some authors use fonts where symbols or Greek letters get scrambled. Delta, rho, phi, alpha, beta and gamma often don’t translate.
• A tilde (not ca.) is used for ‘approximately’ in front of a numerical measurement. (~50,000 in situ specimens were examined for the study.)
• ca. is used in front of a time measurement (ca. 66 Ma, the dinosaurs became extinct)
• Capital italic N is used to designate sample size (N = 516).
• Lowercase p is used to designate probability of significance (p ≤ 0.05)
• Use spaces around = or + signs
• Equations are numbered sequentially (in parentheses), and the equation is centred with blank line above and below, labelled as (1).
  • Example: 

A = π r²  (1)

• In equations, variables should be marked in italic, vectors in bold. Greek symbols should not be italicized or emboldened. The standards used in equations should be followed elsewhere, i.e. in the text and in the figures/tables .

Citations in Text

• Use past tense for discussing published works
• Commas separate author(s) from years, and semicolons separate references in a list.
  • Example: (Pratt, 1996, 1999; Hageman, 2014)
• Citations in a text list should be listed in order of appearance of the paper (year), not alphabetical order.
  • Example: (Pratt, 1996, 1999; Hageman and Pratt, 2004; Pratt et al. 2012; Hageman, 2014).
• If an author has more than one publication in the same year, use a, b, c...
  • Example: (Pratt, 1996a,b,c; 1997; 1998a,b)
• Include page number after a comma when a direct quote is used
  • Example:  (Hageman, 2010, p. 1301).
• Don’t use brackets inside parentheses for citations if possible
  • Example: (see Sumrall et al. 1998; Smith, 2008, and references therein).
• When there is a reference to one paper inside another, e.g. for a mineral named by Author(s) X in a paper by Author(s) Y, cite only the encompassing paper.
  • Example: “Ding et al. in Lin et al. 1995." The cited reference would be "Lin et al., 1995."
• Paper cited as in press or pre-published: if possible, provide full details before publication; quote the DOI if no other final publication data are available..
• Papers in preparation or submitted should not be cited. Query author to change/remove (see unpublished data).
• Information known to the author(s) but not formally published is cited by the author's name and year
  • Example: (unpublished data, Hageman, 2015).
• Personal communications are cited in text by the source’s initial(s), last name, and year
  • Example: (S.R. Westrop, 2014, pers. comm.).
• Personal communications and unpublished data are not included in the reference list.
  • Examples:
  • Single author: (Smith, 1973) use initials only if different authors have the same surname, e.g. (A. Smith, 1973; B. Smith, 1984).
  • Two authors: (Smith and Jones, 1973)
  • Three or more authors: use et al. (Smith et al., 1973) no italics, full stop and comma after ‘al.’
  • In press: (Smith, in press) papers ‘in press’ are accepted for publication, but not yet published.
  • Quotation: (Smith, 1973, p. 16) page number is given for direct quotation.
  • Multiple citations of same author: (Smith, 2012a,b, 2015) are listed chronologically oldest to newest as years separated by a comma.
  • (Smith, 1973; Walker, 1982; Smith and Jones, 1995) Multiple citations are listed chronologically, separated by a semi-colon.
  • (W. Smith, pers. comm., 2016). Spell out with year included. Not cited in References.
• Authors with the same last name: Single-author references: two or more references by the same year and by authors with the same family name (but different given names)
  • Example: “Jin, J., 2010” and “Jin, Y.-G., 2010”. Cite in text as (J. Jin, 2010; Y.-G. Jin, 2010)
• Authors with the same last name: Double-author references: two or more references in the same year and by two authors with the same family names (but different given names)
  • Example: “Jin, J., and Zhang, H., 2008” and “Jin, J., and Zhang, Y.D., 2008”. Cite in text as (Jin and H. Zhang, 2008; Jin and Y.D. Zhang, 2010)
• Authors with the same last name: Multi-author references: two or more references in the same year and by first authors with the same family name (but different given names)
  • Example: “Chen J., Chen Z.-Q., and Tong J.N., 2010” and “Chen Z.-Q., Tong J.N., Liao Z.T., and Chen J., 2010”. Cite in text as: (J. Chen et al., 2010; Z.-Q. Chen et al., 2010)
• If there are references with three or more authors with same first author, or first and second authors, these are to be cited in the text using first author’s last name et al. year letter (Smith et al., 2014a,b). Therefore, please be sure that in the reference section, these citations that have the same first or first and second author and year include an a, b, c...

Figures

• Labels should be in the form (a), (b), (c).
• Use commas for 10,000 and 100,000 etc., but not 1000; make sure a scale is present; check µm is correct form and minus symbols are given as en-rules ‘–’ 
• Check references are cited correctly
• Check any key is the same style as used in text

Figures cited in Text

• Check to be sure all figures are cited in the text/tables and in the correct order. Check also that all figures cited in the text/tables actually exist.
• Figures are generally called out in the text as abbreviations within parentheses (Fig. 1).
• Figures may also be called out within the text as Fig. 1.
• Use singular Fig. if parts of the same figure are cited.
• If two parts of a single figure are referenced, use a comma between them, otherwise use an en-dash between ranges.
• Use Figs (no full stop) if more than one figure is cited.
  • Examples: (Fig. 1) (Fig. 1a,c) (Fig. 1b–e) (Figs 1b, 2, 3b)
• Renumber any ‘plates’ or ‘schemes’ as figures using the order of citation to renumber them. Use f for figure in lower case if cited from another publication. (e.g. Smith, 1990, figs 4.3, 5, 8).
• Semicolons are used to separate distinct references, but any listing of components within a single manuscript are separated by commas
  • Example: (Smith, 2016, p. 456, figs. 6, 7; Waters, 2016, p. 56, fig. 2a)
• If tables and figures are cited together, always list the figures first. Always use semicolons to separate figures from tables:
  • Examples: (Fig. 1; Table 1) (Figs 1, 2, 3; Table 1) (Fig. 1; Tables 1, 2) (Figs 1, 2, 3; Tables 1, 2)

Ensure that the labels used for parts of Figures are also used in Figure captions, Figure citations in the text, and that the Figure parts match. Parts should be labelled a, b, c, d etc. on the figure.

Figure Captions

• Fig. in bold. Space after full stop.
• References to figure part numbers in the caption should be enclosed in parentheses immediately before the relevant text.
• Parts of figures should be separated by semicolons or full stops, as appropriate.
  • Examples: Fig. 1. Chlorite from the lower Smith Formation: (a) wrapped around pre-existing quartz grains; (b) neoformed. Fig. 2. Maps showing localities where sections were sampled: (a) geology of Smith Formation; (b) section 1; (c) section 2. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Tables

• Tables should be in a simple form. They should not be used if text or illustrations give the same information. They can either be submitted as separate files (Microsoft Word or Excel) or embedded within the main manuscript text file. Each table must be accompanied by a clear and concise caption.
• Tables are cited as ‘Table’ or ‘Tables’ in the text. There is no abbreviation.
• Examples: There are many examples of neoformed minerals (Table 1). There are many types of illite from various localities (Tables 1, 2).
• Tables are numbered/ordered in the sequence that they are cited in the text.
• Tables need to be formatted according to the typesetting guide with clear instructions on the layout
  • Remove internal borders
  • Remove merged cells where possible
  • List styles for aligning columns
  • No zeros in tables. i.e. 0.00; instead use n.d. (if not detected) or n.a. (if not analysed)
  • Note presence of symbols, italics, bold
  • Note presence of empty cells, rows and columns
  • Mark the preferred size of the table, and any good/bad break points
  • Try to avoid wrapping formulae
  • Mark or replace overbars and other equation symbols
  • Lists of oxides for mineral compositions are traditionally given in order of decreasing valence with cations preceding anions. Elements with similar valence are given in order of increasing atomic number. However, many instrumental methods of analysis report data in terms of increasing atomic number.
  • Data are generally aligned on the decimal point.
• Our page size is now A4. Large tables may run over several pages. Large and complex tables may have to be reorganized or transposed to fit.
• Supplemental tables MUST be numbered using the prefix S as a separate sequence.

Table Captions

• Table 5. In bold, full stop, space after full stop.
• All abbreviations are defined in the table caption or in a footnote.
  • Example: Table 1.

All tables need to have all abbreviations and units defined, e.g. ‘LA = length of aperture’ in the footnotes.

References

• A one-to-one correspondence must exist between works cited and those listed in References. Check Tables and Figures for citations
• For dealing with Russian (and other Slavic languages using Cyrillic) references, the square brackets around the English-language title indicate that the article is solely or primarily in a language that does not use the Latin alphabet.
• Where possible, use only the version of record when citing previous works. When this is not possible, give the DOI (digital object identifier).

Appendix

• Needs to be cited in text.
• If multiple appendices are required, each should be numbered consecutively and cited in the text, e.g. (Appendix 2).

Other Journal and Science Conventions

• Generally speaking, use ‘since’ only when referring to time rather than as a conjunction in place of ‘because’.
• For ‘often’ write ‘commonly’ or ‘typically’.
• For ‘likely’ write ‘probably’
• For ‘heavily altered’ write ‘extensively altered’
• For ‘chemical composition’ write ‘composition’
• For ‘representative microprobe analyses’ write ‘representative compositions’
• For ‘age dates’ write ‘radiometric ages’ or specify the method e.g. ‘Rb-Sr age’
• For ‘Dating’ write ‘radiometric age determination’

Other

Appendices are rarely required in Geo-Bio Interfaces but may be necessary for additional information such as calculations or methods. Information not essential to the paper should be lodged as Supplemental data.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material should be referenced in the text using the following information (where S stands for supplemental:

Figure S1 has been deposited with the Principal Editors of Geo-Bio Interfaces and is available as Supplementary material (see below).

Copy editing and page proofs

The publisher reserves the right to copyedit manuscripts to conform to the style of the journal. The corresponding author will receive page proofs for final proofreading. No rewriting of the final accepted manuscript is permitted at the proof stage, and authors may be charged for substantial changes.

File formats for figures

Since use of authors’ electronic figures for publication became common, we have encountered many difficulties with file type, image size, image format and image resolution. Please follow the guidelines below closely when creating your figures.

1. The following formats are acceptable: .tif, .bmp, .eps and .ai (Adobe Illustrator). Do not send figures which are embedded in MS-Word or other Microsoft files.

2. Line diagrams must be saved as 1-bit, i.e. bitmapped, or as vector images. Drawings which include grey shading must be saved as greyscale images. Photographs (otherwise known as halftones) must be saved as greyscale images. Use CYMK as the colour type rather than RGB. For Mineralogical Society journals, production of figures in colour  is free of charge.

3. Line diagrams and greyscale drawings must have a resolution of at least 600 dpi. Photographs (halftones) must have a resolution of at least 300 dpi. (This applies whether colour is involved or not.)

Bear in mind that the physical size of reproduction of an image and its resolution work hand in hand. An image which has a resolution of 600 dpi, but which is saved at 2 cm wide, will only have a resolution of 120 dpi if it is to be published at 10 cm width.

4. For legends and other labelling on figures, use Arial or similar sans-serif font. Keep in mind the final size of reproduction of the figure when choosing the font size, i.e. make sure that the final size will be neither too big nor too small, and try to achieve some consistency between each of your figures. Do not use italic for anything other than variables. Do not italicize Greek letters.

5. When creating your e-files remember to embed all fonts in all figures (e.g. in Adobe Illustrator). If you don’t, we won’t be able to read any text you add to the figures unless your fonts match exactly those we have on our computers.

Remember, if the images you send do not look clear and sharp to you, they won’t be usable for publication. If you are unable to match these instructions exactly and produce clear sharp images at the appropriate resolution etc., then please arrange, at an early stage, to create high-quality printed versions of your figures (print them from the original software in which they were created on high-quality glossy paper) and send them to the editor.