Guide for Authors

Preparation

Peer review

This journal operates a single blind review process. All contributions are sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewer to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final. For more information on the types of peer review, please visit: https://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/peer-review.

All manuscripts would be first reviewed by editorial office. Any papers fail to meet the basic standard of the journal would be desk rejected for reasons like out of scope, ethical conflicts, high similarities, lack of originality, flaws in research design or methods, etc. Then, editorial office would reassign selected papers to editor-in-chief.
Editor-in-Chief would invite multiple reviewers to review this paper or assign an editorial board member to invite reviewers to review this paper. Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups.
After at least two reviewers give their reviews and comments, Editor-in-Chief (or the assigned editor) would provide feedbacks based on review comments to the authors including his own review comments.
When author submits the revised manuscript, the assigned editor and Editor-in-Chief would collaborate to make final decision.
For submissions from Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, Guest Editors and other journal Board members, we ensure that the paper is handled confidentially by a different team member.
For submissions to Special Issues, if there are conflicts of interest between the GE(s) and authors, the submissions will be handled by another Editor from Editorial Board who will manage the peer review process and make the decision whether to accept or reject the paper after peer review.

Article structure

This section describes the article structure for this journal.

Original/Review Articles

The structure for Origin al and Review articles is as follows:

Sections

Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Material and methods

Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be summarized, and indicated by a reference. If quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and also cite the source. Any modifications to existing methods should also be described.

Results

Results should be clear and concise.

Discussion

This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Future prospect

This section is only required for review articles. The author should propose prospecting theories or ideas for future work based on previous studies.

Conclusions

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which needs to stand alone.

Appendices

If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

Title Information

Author names and affiliations. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. If you are Chinese with more than one word for given name, please put a dash line between them. You can add your name between parentheses in your own script behind the English transliteration. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name.
Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Ensure the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript alphabetic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract less than 250 words is required. A long abstract in Chinese (around 1000 characters) is also required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided. Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Graphical Abstract

A graphical abstract is mandatory for this journal. It should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership online. Authors must provide images that clearly represent the work described in the article. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in the online submission system. Image size: please provide an image with a minimum of 531 × 1328 pixels (h × w) or proportionally more. The image should be readable at a size of 5 × 13 cm using a regular screen resolution of 96 dpi. Preferred file types: TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files.

Highlights

They consist of a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings of the article and should be submitted in a separate editable file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point).

Keywords

Authors need to provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of') immediately after the abstract. Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations

Define abbreviations that are not standard in this journal. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Acknowledgements

Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

Formatting of funding sources

List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements:

Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers xxxx, yyyy); the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA (grant number zzzz); and the United States Institutes of Peace (grant number aaaa).

It is not necessary to include detailed descriptions on the program or type of grants and awards. When funding is from a block grant or other resources available to a university, college, or other research institution, submit the name of the institute or organization that provided the funding.

Units

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). All figures and tables should be used dash line (/) to separate the numbers or subjects from the unit. For example: mg/(m2/h), kg/ km2, ?13CDIC/‰ , Length/mm, etc.

Italic formatting

Greek letters should be used italic format in the text, figure and table.

Math formulae

Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images. Present simple formulae in line with normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).

a. The manuscript must show a clear distinction between similar symbols, (e.g., between zero (0) and the letter O, between one (1) and the letter l, and between multiplication (x) and the letter x).

b. Important formulae (e.g. definitions) must be displayed. All formulae which are to be referred to later on must be displayed and numbered consecutively throughout the paper; the number should appear on the right-hand side of the page.

c. In chemical formulae the valence of ions must be given as, for example, Ca2+ and CO3 -2.

d. Isotope numbers should precede the symbols (e.g., 18O).

Artwork

This section describes the artwork for this journal.

Electronic Figures

Make sure use Times New Roman font type and less than 9 pt font size of your original artwork.
Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
Provide captions to illustrations separately.
Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the published version.
Submit CorelDraw (or EPS) files separately, TIFF (or JPEG) keep to a minimum of 600 dpi.
Bar scales must be used rather than magnification factors to allow for possible reduction. All maps must have north indicated.

Geological Maps

Lithologies should be indicated within the figure only by shading or use of color and named in the figure caption. No separate legend should be used to denote lithologies. Maps with national boundaries of China and other countries should have permission number for publication.

Figure captions

Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. Explanations must be given in the typewritten caption. Text in the figures should be kept to a minimum.

Tables

a. Authors should use three-line table format.

b. Large tables should be avoided. If many data are to be presented, an attempt should be made to divide these over two or more tables.

c. Each table must have a brief and self-explanatory title. Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory.

d. Explanations that are necessary to the understanding of the table should be given as footnotes at the bottom of the table. A footnote should be indicated by a lower-case letter.

References

This section describes the references for this journal.

Citation in text

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the reference list must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication. All citations in the text should refer to following format.

a. Single author: the author's name (last name with initials of given name) and the year of publication. For example: Xu JH, 2010; Kundrat MJ, 2017

b. Two authors: both authors' names (last name with initials of given name) and the year of publication. For example: Ma ZH and Liu DC, 2007; Karhu AA and Rau AS, 1996

c. Three or more authors: first author's name (last name with initials of given name) followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication. For example: Pan YD et al., 2011; Agnolin FL et al., 2012

Citation in the list

In the reference list names of authors and all co-authors must be given in full. Use of DOI in the end is highly encouraged. References in the text should be arranged chronologically. The list of references should be arranged alphabetically by authors' names, and chronologically per author. If an author's name in the list is also mentioned with co-authors, the following order should be used: Publications of the single author, arranged according to publication year; publications of the same author with one co-author, arranged according to publication year; publications of the author with more than one co-author, arranged according to publication year.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

Wang CY, Wang CY, Wang CY, Wang CY. 2018. Title. Journal, 1(1), 1-11.

Reference to a book:

Thompson JB, Norton SA. 1968. Studies of Appalachian Geology, northern and maritime. New York, Cambridge Press, 319-337.

To cite articles published in China Geology, you can follow the format below:

[Author(s)].[Year].[ Title]. China Geology, [volume], [page(s)]; doi: [DOI].

[Author(s)]. [Title]. China Geology accepted article preview, [publication date]; doi: [DOI].

Web references

As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

Preprint references

Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, the formal publication should be used as the reference. If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but are not yet formally published, these may be referenced. Preprints should be clearly marked as such, for example by including the word preprint, or the name of the preprint server, as part of the reference. The preprint DOI should also be provided.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material such as applications, images and sound clips, can be published with your article to enhance it. Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received (Excel or PowerPoint files will appear as such online). Please submit your material together with the article and supply a concise, descriptive caption for each supplementary file. If you wish to make changes to supplementary material during any stage of the process, please make sure to provide an updated file. Do not annotate any corrections on a previous version. Please switch off the 'Track Changes' option in Microsoft Office files as these will appear in the published version.

Research Advances

The structure forResearch Advances is as follows:

Article structure

Subdivision - numbered sections

Objectives

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Methods

Provide concise details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Any modifications of existing methods should also be described.

Results

Results should be clear and concise.

Conclusions

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which needs to stand alone.

Title information

Author names and affiliations. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. If you are Chinese with more than one word for given name, please put a dash line between them. You can add your name between parentheses in your own script behind the English transliteration. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name.
Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Ensure the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript alphabetic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Acknowledgements

Formatting of funding sources

List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements: Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers xxxx, yyyy); the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA (grant number zzzz); and the United States Institutes of Peace (grant number aaaa).

Units

Italic formattingGreek letters should be used italic format in the text, figure and table.

Math formulae

e. The manuscript must show a clear distinction between similar symbols, (e.g., between zero (0) and the letter O, between one (1) and the letter l, and between multiplication (x) and the letter x).

f. Important formulae (e.g. definitions) must be displayed. All formulae which are to be referred to later on must be displayed and numbered consecutively throughout the paper; the number should appear on the right-hand side of the page.

g. In chemical formulae the valence of ions must be given as, for example, Ca2+ and CO3 -2.

h. Isotope numbers should precede the symbols (e.g., 18O).

Figures and Tables

Only one figure and one table allowed in Research Advances.

Electronic figures

Make sure use Times New Roman font type and less than 9 pt font size of your original artwork.
Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
Provide captions to illustrations separately.
Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the published version.
Submit CorelDraw (or EPS) files separately, TIFF (or JPEG) keep to a minimum of 600 dpi.
Bar scales must be used rather than magnification factors to allow for possible reduction. All maps must have north indicated.

Geological Maps

Figure captions

Tables

a. Authors should use three-line table format.

b. Large tables should be avoided. If many data are to be presented, an attempt should be made to divide these over two or more tables.

c. Each table must have a brief and self-explanatory title. Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory.

d. Explanations that are necessary to the understanding of the table should be given as footnotes at the bottom of the table. A footnote should be indicated by a lower-case letter.

References

References are limited to three papers or less in Research Advances.

Citation in text

a. Single author: the author's name (last name with initials of given name) and the year of publication. For example: Xu JH, 2010; Kundrat MJ, 2017

b. Two authors: both authors' names (last name with initials of given name) and the year of publication. For example: Ma ZH and Liu DC, 2007; Karhu AA and Rau AS, 1996

c. Three or more authors: first author's name (last name with initials of given name) followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication. For example: Pan YD et al., 2011; Agnolin FL et al., 2012

Citation in the list

In the reference list names of authors and all co-authors must be given in full. Use of DOI in the end is highly encouraged. References in the text should be arranged chronologically. The list of references should be arranged alphabetically by authors' names, and chronologically per author. If an author's name in the list is also mentioned with co-authors, the following order should be used: Publications of the single author, arranged according to publication year; publications of the same author with one co-author, arranged according to publication year; publications of the author with more than one co-author, arranged according to publication year.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

Wang CY, Wang CY, Wang CY, Wang CY. 2018. Title. Journal, 1(1), 1-11.

Reference to a book:

Thompson JB, Norton SA. 1968. Studies of Appalachian Geology, northern and maritime. New York, Cambridge Press, 319-337.

To cite articles published in China Geology, you can follow the format below:

[Author(s)].[Year].[ Title]. China Geology, [volume], [page(s)]; doi: [DOI].

[Author(s)]. [Title]. China Geology accepted article preview, [publication date]; doi: [DOI].

Web references

Supplementary material

Submission

THE MANUSCRIPT FILE SHOULD HAVE DOUBLE SPACING, PAGE AND LINE NUMBERING. THIS IS ESSENTIAL DURING THE REFEREEING PROCESS.

Do not embed figures, graphics or photos in the manuscript text file. Please remove figures and tables from your manuscript text file and upload them separately AFTER THE MANUSCRIPT. Lines must be numbered consecutively not page by page.

Submission checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review.

Ensure that the following items are present:

One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details.

E-mail address
Full postal address

All necessary files have been uploaded:

Manuscript:

Include keywords
All figures (include relevant captions)
All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided
Indicate clearly if color should be used for any figures in print

Graphical Abstracts / Highlights files (where applicable)

Supplemental files (where applicable)

Further considerations

Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare
Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed
Referee suggestions and contact details provided, based on journal requirements

ORCiD ID: Our journal supports the use of ORCiD ID. Authors are encouraged to provide ORCiD ID at submission.

Ethics in publishing

Please refer to Elsevier website on Ethics in publishing and Ethical guidelines for further detials (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/publishing-ethics

Submissions to KeAi journals are automatically screened using iThenticate's CrossCheck within the editorial system to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Details can be found here.

Declaration of interest

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Authors must disclose any interests in two places: 1. A summary declaration of interest statement in the title page file (if double-blind) or the manuscript file (if single-blind). If there are no interests to declare then please state this: 'Declarations of interest: none'. This summary statement will be ultimately published if the article is accepted. 2. Detailed disclosures as part of a separate Declaration of Interest form, which forms part of the journal's official records. It is important for potential interests to be declared in both places and that the information matches. See also https://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.

Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originality detection service CrossCheck. The editors take ethics seriously and check the CrossCheck reports for ALL incoming submissions. Any evidence of excessive overlap with previously published papers could lead to instant rejection for offending authors and the possibility of additional, more severe sanctions in the worst cases.

Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the China Geology Editorial office. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.

Reviewing

Authors are asked to submit the names and contact details for 6 possible reviewers. These reviewers must NOT be colleagues with whom you have done research or published papers with during the last 5 years nor can they be working at your own institute. China Geology relies on the honesty of our authors in the nomination of potential reviewers; any violation of the guidelines above could lead to instant rejection of your manuscript. Please note that the journal may not use your suggestions, but your help is appreciated and may speed up the reviewing process.

The editors may ask you to suggest more potential reviewers in cases where it has not been possible to secure sufficient reviewers from the initial round of invitations; at this point authors have the option to withdraw their paper if they prefer. In exceptional circumstances the editors regret that it may be necessary to reject papers where there have been continued problems in finding reviewers.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' about copyright transfer agreement . An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement. Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. If accepts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article.

Open Access

This journal is a peer reviewed, subsidized open access journal where China Geological Survey pays the OA fee. Authors do not have to pay any open access publication fee. Peer review is under the responsibility of China Geology.

Access Rights All articles published open access will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read, download, copy and distribute.

User Rights Permitted third party reuse is defined by the following user license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND): Allows users to copy and distribute the Article, provided this is not done for commercial purposes and further does not permit distribution of the Article if it is changed or edited in any way, and provided the user gives appropriate credit (with a link to the formal publication through the relevant DOI), provides a link to the license, and that the licensor is not represented as endorsing the use made of the work. The full details of the license are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .

Author Rights For open access publishing, this journal uses a copyright transfer agreement. Authors will transfer copyright to China Geology Editorial Office, China Geological Survey, but will have the right to share their article in the same ways permitted to third parties under the relevant user license, as well as certain scholarly usage rights.

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.

In the end, our online submission system will guide you stepwise through the process of entering your article details and uploading your files. The system converts your article files to a single PDF file used in the peer-review process. Editable files (e.g., Word) are required to typeset your article for final publication. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, is sent by e-mail.

After acceptance

Online proof correction

Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to PDF: you can make annotations or comments on figures/tables. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly annotate your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors.

We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the China Geology Editorial Office. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

Author Inquiries

All correspondence relating to manuscript submission and other queries should be addressed to the China Geology Editorial Office at chinageology_2018@163.com.

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