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Information for Authors Revised January 2008 PURPOSE OF THESE GUIDELINES These guidelines explain the American Mineralogist publication procedures, standardized units, and style. Following these guidelines and any revisions listed on the inside back cover of subsequent issues of the journal will reduce time spent during manuscript revision and will help assure rapid publication at reasonable cost. Click here to obtain the most recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader which is necessary for obtaining and reading proofs and just working with the system at all. As of April 1, 2002, all submissions should be done via our web-based system at http://minsocam.allentrack.net. Everyone can, and probably should, log in so that they can be called on to review papers. Once you register yourself, when you submit a paper the fields such as address or phone will be filled in for you. Please note that updates or corrections to this information will NOT be transfered to your MSA membership/subscription data. Or vice versa. If you change your contact info, then both databases will need to be updated. The data will be confidential and not sold or given to other organizations. The screen instructions break the submission process down to four steps: Files, Manuscript Information, Validate and Submit. Complete instructions are available, and constantly updated, on the submission web site. Here are the quick instructions in PDF format! Please note that you can upload Word, Wordperfect, rtf, text, LaTex, PDF files, tiff files, eps files, and probably many other types, however LaTex cannot be used for printing if the paper is accepted. A detailed note about LaTex appears below. Everything is converted by the computer into PDF files that the author must approve. This new system thus means that the editors, associate editors, reviewers -- who may all be in different countries -- can all access the same files and work together easily. This change in submission procedure does not mean that it must be a paperless system. If you are called on to be a reviewer, there are instructions and suggestions right on the system. Reviewers might choose to read the material on-line; download or print out the text files or even fax the associate editor marked-up copies in addition to filling out the form on-line. When those reviewers in turn are authors, then someone else might download or print out their manuscript. This system is very flexible and should work however you are most comfortable. As always, the system of scientific peer review depends on people contributing their time, or perhaps paper/computer space, for others for the benefit of the worldwide scientific community. The idea has always been that help for someone else today will be returned as help to you in the future. Reviewers and associate editors are vital to maintain our standards of quality, and indeed for the system of science to continue working at all. Thanks go to everyone who helps makes it work; we gratefully appreciate your efforts. Please note and search for specific NEW crystallographic data table info toward the end of this document! Skip to Submission Guidelines Skip to Tables Skip to Figures UPDATED March 2008 Skip to All About Characters Skip to All About Units Skip to All About References or More About References Download the Author Self Check Form for
authors. (Please also consult the sections above regarding unit abbreviations
and references.) THE SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL American Mineralogist, the journal of the Mineralogical Society of America (MSA), publishes the results of original scientific research in the general fields of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, and petrology. Specific areas of coverage include, but are not restricted to, igneous and metamorphic petrology, experimental mineralogy and petrology, crystal chemistry and crystal-structure determinations, mineral spectroscopy, mineral physics, isotope geochemistry, major and trace element geochemistry, planetary material science, clay minerals, mineral surface science, geochemistry of mineral-fluid systems, environmental mineralogy, biomineralization, geomicrobiology, new minerals and mineral occurrences, petrography and petrogenesis, ore deposits, and mineralogical apparatus and techniques. Any author who is concerned about the suitability of the subject of their paper should contact one of the Editors for advice. (new editor Dana T. Griffen is at dana_griffen@byu.edu ; Robert F. Dymek is at bob_d@levee.wustl.edu ) Manuscripts are judged on the basis of significance, originality, appropriateness of subject matter, and clarity of presentation. The decision regarding acceptance or rejection of a manuscript is the responsibility of the Editors and is based in large part on the recommendations of Associate Editors and reviewers. Membership in MSA is not a prerequisite for publication in American Mineralogist. The journal publishes regular scientific articles, letters, review articles, discussions and replies, book reviews, and memorials. Most manuscripts are submitted as regular scientific articles . Those articles have an average length of eight journal pages, which corresponds to less than 30 manuscript pages, including references, tables, and figures. Manuscripts longer than 50 pages (counting each figure and table as 1 page) are generally returned unless the subject justifies the extraordinary length. Authors should contact one of the Editors beforehand about submission of a paper that exceeds this 50-page limit. This rule is now being strictly enforced, and we mean 8.5 x 11 inch paper, double-spaced, 12 pt type. Papers that are large (1) take longer in peer review, (2) are harder to find reviewers for because of the time it takes to read, (3) cost more in content creation and page printing. Our priority is to publish more papers, not more over-all pages. Letters generally provide rapid publication (~4 months) of results that are judged to be timely, significant, and of sufficient general interest to be read by those outside the specific field of interest that the paper addresses. Letters have a maximum of four journal pages. To be considered as a Letter, manuscripts must be no more than 15 pages in length, counting the title page and each figure and table as a separate page. A manuscript submitted for consideration as a Letter that is either too long or not appropriate may be either returned to the author or, with the author's approval, converted to a regular manuscript. Rapid publication of Letters requires that little or no revision is necessary; if extensive revision is required, the manuscript will ordinarily be rejected. Manuscripts may be submitted for publication as an electronic article. Articles especially suitable for electronic publication are those in which extensive use of color, animations, or interactive figures are an integral part of the scientific presentation. Abstracts of electronic articles will appear in the paper version of American Mineralogist, and the complete article will appear online with the text as a pdf file linked to other features in appropriate formats. To see examples of publication enhancements possible in electronic articles, visit gmr.minsocam.org/ExamplesLink.html or look at previously published electronic articles. Authors who areinterested in submitting an electronic article should contact one of the electroic article editors, John Brady or Frank Spear, who will be happy to provide assistance with technological details. Submit papers via the web at minsocam.allentrack.net -- quicktime video files can be uploaded. If a different type of file is needed that cannot be uploaded contact the managing editor. Authors may submit brief discussions of papers already published. Such discussions should be written only to take issue with or to clarify matters of scientific content; anything of a personal nature will be removed by the editor. Authors of an article under discussion will be invited by the editor to write a brief reply. Both discussions and replies are subject to review. The discussant and the replier have the opportunity to see each other's final manuscript to assure that only one round of discussions will appear in print. Because these files tend to be small, and there is that need for the opposite authors to have access, we allow these papers to be submitted via e-mail to editorial@minsocam.org or via the mail to our editorial office. The journal may publish review papers on subjects of general interest from time to time. Such papers should not merely be a reiteration of previously published data, but should serve to assemble selectively previously published information and to then analyze and reinterpret it in such a way that new insights are gained and science is advanced. Review papers are subject to the same review procedures as technical manuscripts. Authors interested in submitting a review paper should contact the editors first. The journal also publishes reviews of books received by the editorial office. The book review editor selects the books and solicits reviews; contact the editorial office if you need more information. American Mineralogist also publishes approved new mineral names and IMA committee reports. Lastly, as a service to the Society, the journal publishes memorials and award citations. MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION NEW! -- Web-based manuscript submission -- as of April 1, 2002, please go to http://minsocam.allentrack.net and log in and upload your submission. Cover letters are entirely optional because the web site is requiring contact info and allows room for comments, notes, to the editors. It is very helpful on the "comments to editor" screen if you list both how many files you uploaded, and the number of pages your text is, the number of figures, and the number of tables. For example, "1 file uploaded; 13 pages text, 2 tables, 4 figures" or "10 files uploaded; 10 pages of text and 9 figures." As you can see, one big file or many little files does not, at this time, matter. Files that are
uploaded cannot contain links. You are sending the data to a computer in
Kansas. It cannot maintain a link to another file which resides on your
computer. Links must be closed or embedded. What should my manuscript look like? MANUSCRIPT FORMAT Manuscripts must be typed with double spacing throughout in a size comparable to Times Roman 12. Print the manuscript on one side only, and all pages must be numbered. The parts of the manuscript should appear in the order given here. No separate listing of table titles is needed, nor is there a need to begin each main section on a new sheet of paper. Figures and tables must be mentioned in numerical order in the text. Avoid the use of complex symbols in titles. To facilitate identification in indexing and abstracting, it is recommended that authors spell out one of their given names rather than precede surnames with initials only. Write concisely. Unnecessarily long manuscripts will be rejected. Please note that it is helpful and conserves paper and time to have title, authors, affilations, and abstract all on the same page whenever possible. Conserve paper by not putting in section breaks, but simply run the sections together. Also note that a lot of the details below are more necessary for the final version as opposed to the submission version. However, a little extra at the beginning should save you a lot of time at the end plus make everything clearer to the editors and reviewers. Title Capitalize only the first letter of the title and the first letter of the subtitle, if any, as you would in any sentence. Do not begin the title with a number, symbol, or Greek letter. Examples: Beryl stability in local hydrothermal and chemical environments in a mineralized granite Coordination of Ti4+ in silicate glasses: A high-resolution XANES spectroscopy study at the Ti K edge Name and addresses of authors Names should be typed normally, not with all caps and not in small caps. All names are listed together with commas as appropriate and "and" used before the last author. Addresses should be keyed to the author's name with superscript numbers, with the address typed normally. Example: Don Jones1,* and Hilda Smith2 1Department of Earth Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 00000, U.S.A. 2Department of Geology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 00000, U.S.A. * Present address: Department of Geology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 00000, U.S.A. E-mail: jones@uiuc.edu (If the second author had a change of address, then the † (dagger) symbol would be used, and so on for multiple authors.) Abstract The abstract should state concisely in no more than 250 words what was done and what was concluded. The abstract should include important numbers (e.g., temperature range, compressibility, thermodynamic data). Literature citations should not appear in the abstract. NEW: Immediately following the abstract should be a line of keywords, e.g.: Keyword: rock, mineral, whatever, whatever! Pick words that will aid a computer-google-type search of and for your paper. Text Boldface, Italic, Super- and Subscripts. Please use these appropriately, for example variables are italic and vectors are bold. Please be sure to use super- and subscripts, not raised or lowered type. We prefer use of the font "Times" and we do not need titles larger than body copy or the references smaller; in fact, everything should be 12 type. Special Characters. Special characters include en- and em-dashes, Greek letters, and mathematical symbols. You must use the "Symbol" font for greek letters and symbols as much as possible--not the special characters from the "insert special character" box unless there is no other option. Do not use homemade characters such as lower-case, superscript "o" for the degree sign. You can use Word equation editor or Mathtype to create display equations. For small expressions with stacked characters DO NOT USE AN EQUATION PROGRAM. If X0i is your expression, and the zero and i should be stacked, merely say so at the top of your file and on your hardcopy. Likewise you can say {note to typesetting} at any point, for example {note to typesetting, these minus signs are overbars on top of the 1}. Note that words and mineral names and numbers are never italic, for example "Ca" would never be italic, nor would the "o" for "observations" or the "c" for "calculations." Headings. Use headings to break the text into sections. The first word and any proper names are capitalized. Only three orders of headings may be used: main or first-order headings (centered), second-order headings (on a line by itself, flush left), and third-order headings (after a paragraph indention, bold, and followed by a period). The heading style used in these guidelines is consistent with that in the journal. If subheadings are used, there must be at least two subheadings under a heading. Usage and style. American spelling and usage according to Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language are standard in the journal. To promote clarity, American Mineralogist usually follows the recommendations of the Chicago Manual of Style regarding capitalization, hyphenation, and use of commas. Please note that we do not hyphenate numbers and units even when used as a modifier (e.g., 5 mm diameter holes). Many items formerly typeset in italics are now typeset in roman (e.g., et al.), and a check of a recent issue may prevent unnecessary work that must be fixed by the Editorial Office. Presentation of mathematical equations is patterned after Mathematics into Type (Swanson 1979). In general, variables are italicized; numbers, functions, and constants are roman. Greek letters are already slanted and should not be further italicized. Examples of symbols that should be italicized are listed in Table 1 . Bold face type is reserved exclusively for vectors. Polytypes are italicized, but site labels are roman (e.g., muscovite-2M1, but M1 site). Complex notation, for example subscripts to subscripts or overbars, could be explained to the Editorial Office in a letter or marginal note so that the manuscript can typeset correctly, if you have any concern. If simple reactions, equilibria, and mathematical equations do not need to be referred to later by a number, they should be incorporated into the text, as, for example, y = mx + b. If mineral names must be centered under reactants and products or if a space-consuming fraction is involved, however, the item should be set off as a display (i.e., placed on a separate line by itself). Reactions, equilibria, and mathematical equations that are referred to subsequently are displayed and numbered sequentially by using a number in parentheses at the right margin. They should be referred to in the text as Equation 3, reaction 4, or Equilibrium 5 (In parentheses they should be referred to as Eq. 3, reaction 4, or Equilibrium 5). Reactions and equations are punctuated as part of the sentence; for example, the FMQ buffer reaction is 3Fe2SiO4 + O2 = 2Fe3 O4 +3SiO2. fayalite magnetite quartz (where these should be neatly under the corresponding formula) Besides the units and symbols listed in Table 1, a few of the style points adopted by to promote consistency and clarity are mentioned here for easy reference. A sentence should not begin with an arabic number or a symbol (e.g., "The values for a quartz" rather than beginning with " a-quartz values"). A zero should precede the decimal point for values less than one, e.g., 0.25 rather than .25. The chemical-element symbol is used in reference to atoms, in chemical formulas, and in modifiers (e.g., Fe-rich). The element name is spelled out for substances (e.g., iron bar, crucible of platinum) and in written formulas (e.g., carbon dioxide, iron titanium oxide). Ionic charge is indicated by a superscript plus sign or minus sign following the symbol of the element; for multiple charges, an arabic superscript numeral precedes the plus sign or minus sign, e.g., Na+, Cl-, Ca2+, S2-. For designation of coordination numbers, the element symbol is preceded by a superscript roman number: VIAl. Precision of measurement may be indicated as 1.781 ± 0.002, if 0.002 represents a subjective estimate of the measurement error. Where sufficient data permit calculation of the estimated standard deviation (esd), indicate it as 1.781 e.s.d. 0.002. To save space, the shortened forms 1.781 (2) and 1.781 (11) indicate an esd of 0.002 and 0.011, respectively. Use a consistent set of mineral abbreviations throughout text, tables, and figures. Abbreviations are recommended for subscripts, superscripts, reactions, assemblages (connected with plus signs), and normative mineral symbols with subscript weight percentages; however, abbreviations should not be used for mineral names that stand alone in the text. Kretz (1983) has suggested a set of abbreviations that may be used, although you may choose another consistent set. See List of Abbreviations Mineral nomenclature. New mineral names and redefinitions of existing names must be approved by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names (CNMMN) of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) (Fleischer 1970) before publication. For this purpose, a copy of the manuscript should also be sent to Dr. J.A. Mandarino, Chairman, Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queens Park, Toronto, M5S 2C6, Canada. Authors must provide the Editorial Office with evidence of IMA approval of any new mineral names. The MSA website hosts many of the IMA Reports. Writers naming new minerals must conform to the rules and principles set forth in Nickel and Mandarino (1987) (excerpt, pdf, 180 K) or Nickel and Grice (1998) (pdf, 332 K). The paper by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names (1982) should be consulted for a suggested outline for new-mineral descriptions. The abstract of a new-mineral description should completely list the properties of the mineral in a manner consistent with the "New Mineral Names" section of the journal. The paper by Nickel and Grice (1998) (pdf, 332 K) gives more information on procedures. Additional information is given by Dunn (1977). Naming of regular interstratifications of clay minerals is discussed by Bailey (1982). In general, manuscripts proposing new names for imperfectly or incompletely described minerals cannot be accepted. Obsolete, discredited, or superfluous mineral names may not be used. A helpful guide is Glossary of Mineral Species (Fleischer and Mandarino 1995). This glossary is taken as the standard for the spelling of mineral names. However, the editors now allow use of element symbols as prefixes to the approved name of a mineral (e.g., Mg-chlorite, K-feldspar). A list of discredited mineral names and examples of acceptable and unacceptable usages of mineral names appear in Nickel and Mandarino (1987) (excerpt, pdf, 180 K) and Nickel and Grice (1998) (pdf, 332 K). Crystallographic data. The recommendations of the Commission on Crystallographic Data of the International Union of Crystallography (Kennard et al. 1967) are standard in this journal. X-ray powder-diffraction data may be tabulated if necessary to characterize the mineral. If such data are similar to data already published or listed in the Powder Diffraction File (PDF), then a statement to that effect is sufficient. Improvements to previously available powder data can be contributed directly to the PDF without publication. Powder patterns should be indexed whenever possible, and unit-cell parameters should be listed; if these procedures cannot be followed, the reasons should be stated. If the space group is known or determined, a powder pattern whose extinctions are inconsistent with the space group should not be published without explanation of the inconsistent extinctions. Crystallographic data tables should include site occupancy data when the site occupancy is not 1. More Crystallographic data table info: Authors should use a combination of microprobe results, structure refinement results, and crystal chemical principles to make their best of estimate of what their crystals are really like. Crystallographic data tables must include site occupancy data when the site occupancy is not 1 because without this information, one cannot even calculate a chemical formula from the structure. The heart of any structure refinement paper is the data. These data should be as well-organized and clear as possible so that end-users of the data have to do as little work as possible to prepare the data for whatever crystallographic application they desire to use. What is the relevant data? It is the most physically realistic description of the crystals possible. We understand that determining a crystal's chemistry is generally the most uncertain and difficult part of characterizing the crystal, and often numbers cannot even be put on the uncertainty. However, this is not a reason to not to give it a best shot. Please note that our preferred definition of site occupancy is "the fraction of element A in site B". By this definition, no site is ever reported as having more than one atom total in it, an obvious physical impossibility. Therefore, a tourmaline T site would not be reported as containing 5 Si's and one Al, it would be 5/6 Si, 1/6 Al. Meteorite nomenclature. New
meteorite names must be approved by the Nomenclature Committee of the
Meteoritical Society [Dr. A.L. Graham, Secretary, British Museum (Natural
History), Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, U.K.]. Other meteorite names must
conform to the spelling given in the Catalogue of Meteorites (4th edition) by
Graham et al. (1985) or in subsequent numbers of the Meteoritical Bulletin
(published in Meteoritics). Conclusions SectionsGenerally, the section of a paper entitled Conclusions is really a summary of the paper which the editors do not like. The abstract already serves as the summary, and so the editors will delete a Conclusion section. If in fact final remarks cannot be worked into the “Discussion” section of the paper, the editors will consider a brief section entitled “Concluding Remarks” or “Summary Remarks” providing it is not repeating earlier statements and does serve a useful purpose. Acknowledgments. The acknowledgments section should be brief. Please double check grant numbers and spelling of personal and company names. References cited Scope. All citations in the text, figures, tables, and other supporting parts of the manuscript must be in the reference list and vice versa; please make sure that the references are accurate. Unpublished information, including papers in preparation or submitted but not yet accepted, should be omitted from the reference list. These can be cited in the text as J. Doe (unpublished manuscript) or B. Jones (personal communication). Style. All authors in the references must be listed as last name, comma, initials. For successive references with identical authors, the author list is replaced by a dash. The first author's first name may be spelled out if there is a chance of confusion. Journal names must be spelled out in full. No parts of the reference are italicized, boldface, or underlined. It is now recommended that book references include an ISBN (or similar) identifying number. Examples of the common types of references are listed in Appendix 1. Consult a recent issue of the journal for other examples. The reference list is arranged alphabetically by the surname of the first author. If several references have the same first author, list the singly authored papers first in chronological order, then list the papers with two authors in alphabetical order, then in chronological order, and then list the papers with three or more authors in chronological order. Citations. The style of reference citation in the text is illustrated by the following examples: Bailey (1982), Nickel and Mandarino (1987), and Graham et al. (1985). Parenthetical citations are may also be used (Swanson 1979). Use lower-case letters to distinguish references that would have identical citations: for example, Smith (1993a), or Smith (1993a, 1993b), or (Smith 1993a, 1993b). Appendixes Supplementary material may be made into one or more appendixes. Each must be titled and numbered, even if there is only one, e.g., "Appendix 1. Sample descriptions." Generally, appendixes are set in a smaller type size to save space. Lengthy appendixes will be placed in MSA's depository, which now is online as well as paper-based. Thus, an electronic copy of deposit information, figures, and tables is required. See Deposit Information section for details. Tables may form part or all of the appendix material. Figure captions Figure captions should be brief; they should not duplicate information in the figure. Each caption begins with a paragraph indentation and the whole word "Figure" followed by the figure number and a period. Multiple parts of figures should be indicated by lower case letters (a) and (b), (left) and (right), or (upper) and (lower). If letter designations are used for the parts, the figures should actually be labeled with those letters. Items within the figure should use capital letters A, B, C, and so on to key them to the meaning in the caption or in a box within the figure. Labels and text in the figures must be consistent with the text and follow our style. Please note our abbreviation style in box; especially wt% for weight percent, T for temperature, and P for pressure. Close up % symbols to the number: 10%. Footnotes Footnotes, except those in tables, are strongly discouraged; usually the material can be skillfully incorporated in the text (or included in a parenthetical statement offset by parentheses or brackets as appropriate). Nevertheless, certain material does require a footnote; examples include present addresses, directions for obtaining depository tables (or figures) and computer programs, disclaimers regarding commercial product use by governmental agencies, etc. All footnotes should be indicated by a superscript number except those for present addresses, which carry an asterisk. All footnotes should be double spaced. The content for directions for obtaining depository tables is as follows: "1For a copy of Tables 1, 2, and 3, Document item AM-YR-XXX, contact the Business Office of the Mineralogical Society of America (see inside front cover of recent issue) for price information. Deposit items may also be available on the American Mineralogist web site at http://www.minsocam.org." The author would supply the correct table numbers; the Editorial Office will supply the YR (year) and XXX values. Tables WE MUST HAVE YOUR TABLES IN AN ELECTRONIC FORMAT. Ideally that format is Microsoft Word (or Excel), but we'll even take ascii in order to keep re-typing to a minimum. Be sure the file reads from left to right in order to help us out. What we mean is that tables that have long vertical cell block that contains a whole column of data as a group seems to not work in the layout process. The cells should read left to right; or separate data with tabs and lines by hard returns. The paper copy should be double spaced, but not if it is very long. No particular typescript width or style of type is required, because we do that here. The table titles should be brief. The column headings have any appropriate units in parentheses. Any headings that occur within the body and apply to a block of data should be centered. Footnotes end with periods. You do not need to actually insert the rules because we do that here, although your hard copy would probably be clearer if you do use the basic top and bottom rules. See a recent issue of the journal for examples of tables. No vertical or diagonal rules may be used in tables. Column headings must be upright, not turned sideways. Brackets to delineate groups of data may be used if necessary; the groups should be clearly marked on the manuscript copy. There are no horizontal rules in the body of the table to separate sections, use white space instead. Symbols (*, †, ‡, §, ||, #) are used for table footnotes, double and tripling as necessary, instead of numbers, and may be neatly handwritten, if necessary. Put any general explanatory material before the first footnote (preceded by the word "Note:"). The current issue of the journal will provide examples of approaches to complex tables. Appendix tables Appendix tables for typesetting should be prepared as detailed in the
section on tables. Very long appendix tables will be placed in MSA's data
depository. Figures If the artwork was uploaded as a part of the text, in Word for example, then tiff or eps files will be requested if available. It might be possible for us to print out the upload and scan it to create a printable tiff file. Or the author might need to be prepared to mail us sharp, dark, neat, clean hardcopies. Suggestions about Figure appearance Lettering: After reduction, the shortest letter or number on a figure should 8 points high, and, for the best appearance, none of the letters and numbers should be less than a 16th of an inch (about for 4 points) high. Hairlines may break up or disappear when reduced. Please use line widths great enough to survive reduction. When in doubt use bigger lettering vs. smaller lettering to ensure readability; but not so big you appear to be "shouting." Please use a plain " helvetica " type font like this sentence. The key is to be consistent in your font choice for all figures. Only italicize variables! The text on the figures should conform to American Mineralogist style for variables, numbers, and units. For example, T for temperature should be italicized; as well as P for pressure. The text on the figure must be consistent with the text in the article. Place extensive descriptive text in the caption, not in the figure. Again: If your original is oversized, it will most likely be reduced to 1
column (about 3 inches wide). Make sure your lettering and characters in line
such as triangles, diamonds, etc., are large enough to still be readable
after the size reduction. As much as possible, figures should be prepared for reduction to
one-column width, which is 19 picas or about 3 inches. This means make your
lines and lettering visiable at this size (see above). Some images need to be
two columns because of the detail involve; 2 columns would be 39 picas, or
about 6-1/2 inches. At times we run art in an imbetween size--this is our
decision either for layout or appearance reasons. Please plan your artwork
to be 1 column. Neither the printer nor the American Mineralogist is responsible for the quality of the artwork you supply; a poor file is exactly the same as sending us a blurry photograph: The image in the journal will likewise be blurry. The quality of the outcome will be determined by your equipment, the resolution scanned, and your ability to produce a quality file. We try to help authors as much as possible. Note that there are 3 types of Figures: plain line art, photographs, and
combination art (a mixture of photographic and line art elements). Ideal Resolutions for Raster (.tif) art1200 ppi/dpi for line art; 600 ppi/dpi for grayscale (shaded) art; 300 ppi/dpi for grayscale-photographic artwork. While PDFs and .eps artwork are vector (meaning they expand/contract and keep their set resolution), they will still have too low a resolution if low-resolution raster images are embedded inside. For accepted papers, to prepare for print/web, we prefer .tif and .pdf files, although .eps files are fine too. The key is preparation: Art Testing. Authors can use our printer’s free art checker system: To access Allen VeriFig, go to http://verifig.allenpress.com. You will be asked to enter a password. The password is allenpresscmyk. This is a very basic art checker; we may still find problems when we test it here. But it is simple, free, and a good start.
When no electronic file is available:
Send us the best hardcopy you can, with dark, sharp lines -- but not your
only copy! Color Art: Color art is dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Authors are responsible
for the charge to run color in the journal, which is about $600 to $700 for
one page, however extra pages are often available at no additional charge,
depending on layout flexibility. Again, this is often worked out one-by-one.
A Color Fund is available for financial assistance. When submitting a paper
or a revision, just add a note to the editor requesting consideration for the
color fund and add how much you could contribute. Contact the Managing editor
for more information. We make no profit on color and charge the author only the cost to us, and
this isn't billed until after the issue is printed and we get the invoice
from the printer. We try to publish papers with color together so that
authors can split the costs, a process that has significantly reduced costs
at times to as low as $300 or less. It just depends on the number of papers
sharing the costs of color. Again, discussion can occur with interest authors
on a case-by-case basis after the paper has been accepted. A Note About Tex/LaTex after acceptance Tex or LaTex files are not acceptable for final versions. The author should have the manuscript converted,
scanned, or retyped into Word. If displayed equations are complex, then the
words "Display equation X" (where X stands for the number of the
equation) can be substituted. In this case, the hardcopy should either be a
"Tex" hardcopy with the equations embedded or a hardcopy list of
equations should be enclosed. As with all papers, make sure equations are
clear. If these instructions are totally impossible for you, we will OCR scan
your hardcopy to get a Word file at a cost to the author of $80 to $150. In
this case, you must read the proofs extra carefully. It is also possible that
a .rtf version could be obtained from a PDF version. This, too, would need
extra careful proofing for any possible conversion problems. Excess time would
have to be charged. DEPOSITORY ITEMS Deposit Items. Please put these items in a separate file, one for each
deposit item. This material will be added to the web site. Word, PDF, or html
documents are strongly preferred; ASCII, Excel, and other files are
acceptable. The material can be ftp-ed to the server; contact the managing
editor for more information. Tables, figures, and supplementary data may be deposited at the Society's
headquarters and do not have to comply with the above guidelines. The material
is made available on the journal web site and may consist of color images or
Quicktime movies in addition to tables, figures, and text. Please provide the
material on a 3.5 inch disk, if possible. Contact the managing editor for
instructions regarding special format files or for transmitting the files by
ftp. Paper copies of tables and text should also accompany the disk. Please
limit the size of the paper to less than 28 cm x 43.2 cm (11 in. x 17 in.).
Please note that even tables hundreds of pages long need hard copy because
ultimately only paper survives. We will not print out more than 10 pages
here; the author is responsible for supplying hard copy for permanent
storage. PAGE PROOFS Proofs are sent to authors via e-mail as PDF files and authors will need
the latest Abode Acrobat Reader (free) to view them. Authors can e-mail
changes and corrections or print them out and write on them then fax or mail
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purchase-order forms required by the author's institution may be sent at a
later time to the MSA Business Office, 3635 Concorde Parkway, Suite 500, Chantilly, VA 20151-1125. REFERENCES CITED Bailey, S.W. (1982) Nomenclature for regular interstratifications.
American Mineralogist, 67, 394-398.
Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names of the International Mineralogical
Association. (1982) Suggested outline for new mineral descriptions. American
Mineralogist, 67, 190-191. Dunn, P.J. (1977) From unknown to known: The characterization of new
mineral species. Mineralogical Record, 8, 341-349. Fleischer, M. (1970) Procedure of the International Mineralogical
Association Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names. American
Mineralogist, 55, 1016-1017. Fleischer, M., and Mandarino, J.A. (1995) Glossary of mineral species
(Seventh edition). 280 p. Mineralogical Record, Tucson, Arizona. Graham, A.L., Bevan, A.W.R., and Hutchison, R. (1985) Catalogue of
meteorites (4th edition). British Museum (Natural History), 460 p. London,
U.K., and University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A. Hansen, Wallace R., Ed. (1991) Suggestions to Authors of the Reports of
the United States Geological Survery. U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C. Kennard, Olga, Speakman, J.C., and Donnay, J.D.H. (1967) Primary
crystallographic data. Acta Crystallographica, 22, 445-449. Kretz, Ralph. (1983) Symbols for rock-forming minerals. American
Mineralogist, 68, 277-279. Nickel, E.H. and Mandarino, J.A. (1987) Procedures involving the IMA
Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names and guidelines on mineral
nomenclature. American Mineralogist, 72, 1031-1042; 73, 200. Swanson, E. (1979) Mathematics into type (revised edition), 90 p. American
Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island. |
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