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American Mineralogist: Journal of Earth and Planetary Materials

Note that each pull-down on the menu above contains specific and important information, including nomenclature, tables, references, CIFs, figures, paper types, and more. Please explore the whole site before submitting your paper -- the tab-based design makes it easy to find what you need instead of scrolling on and on.

Online Manuscript Submission and Peer Review Website

Submissions are uploaded via our online submission site (OSS). Here are a few things authors should know about our system. Note there is a checklist for submitting new manuscripts located on the web here.

Abstract Information (required)

Cut and paste your full abstract into the box provided (not longer than 800 words and shorter is encouraged). Abstracts are intended to be a brief synopsis of the paper.

Cover Letters/rebuttal letters (required)

As befitting a journal with international reach, submitted manuscripts should have high import as well as broad appeal. In cover letters, authors should explain the importance of their research, and why their results would be of interest to an international audience. If potential authors have questions of suitability of a manuscript, please contact one of our principal editors directly.

For a revision upload, a rebuttal letter detailing your responses or explanations to reviewers concerns is required and helpful. Use the rebuttal letter file type when you upload it to OSS.

File conversion. When uploading large files, conversion to PDF might take a while. There is no need to contact our office unless conversion has not completed after 12 hours.

Tracking. As an author, you will be able to log in and monitor the progress of your paper. However once you have approved your submission you cannot delete it or substitute a new table or something. If some rare situation like this arises, contact the Editorial office for help.

E-mails. Authors get an e-mail confirming their submission, and then an e-mail when an AE has agreed to handle the paper. If that e-mail does not have the associate editor/AE name, contact the Editorial office. It is important for authors to be able to contact their AE. Authors can also send email via the web-based system to the Editorial office and the AE.

Revisions, if and when requested, will also be uploaded via the online web-submission system by using the Replace tab and replacing old files with revised ones. Note that all revisions have the original manuscript number followed by an "R". All the old files will be available for the editors should any reason arise. Do not keep old files on the revision page. If another revision is requested, that upload will be R1 and so on (a rare situation).
 Note there is a checklist for submitting revised manuscripts located on the web here.

Timeframes for Am Min

In general, an editor is assigned and an associate editor invited to handle the paper within a few days of submission. Within about five days, depending on the time of year, an associate editor has been found. Our goal is for associate editors to find reviewers in a couple weeks for overall review time to be about six weeks. However, as everyone knows, it can be challenging finding reviewers. Our goal is between three and four months revision info should be with authors (unless there are complex circumstances or other considerations, of course). The most important factor to having a speedy submission-to-publication experience is for the AUTHOR to handle the revision instructions very promptly. We remind the author at 60 days and again at 120 days and then, unless there are special circumstances, it is considered withdrawn. Resubmissions are encouraged when the time becomes available. In general, once the revision is in, the AE may request further review, another revision, a discussion or make a recommendation to the editor. If accepted, production of the paper tends to take about three months. Our average submission-to-publication time currently is under 10 months; many papers are faster. These timelines should guide you as to when to contact the associate editor or the editorial office for information on your paper, in a gentle fashion and understanding that all the editors are volunteers.

Please go to our online submission site and submit over the web, which has complete instructions and help files.

Contact us with your questions here.

Nonnative English speakers

Authors for whom English is not a native language must have their manuscript reviewed by a colleague who is fluent in English before submitting it to American Mineralogist. Manuscripts that require extensive editing for grammar and spelling will be summarily rejected.