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Applied Clay Science

Types of Paper

1. Research Papers
The submitted text of Research Papers should cover no more than 20 pages (without Tables, Legends, and References, style: font size 12, double line spacing, corresponding approximately to 469 double-spaced lines, 5800 words or 36000 characters including spaces). The maximum number of illustrations should not exceed 10. Results may be shown in tables or figures but not in both of them.

2. Review Articles
Before submitting Review Articles, the authors should consult the Editors-in-Chief. Review articles generally summarize the existing literature, explaining the current state of understanding on the topic. Reviews over 40 pages and 20 illustrations are not recommended and should be justified.

3. Short Communications
Communications are concise reports or short articles with novelty whose immediate availability to the clay scientific community is deemed important. They may consist of a single, but well-described piece of information, such as the description of a new method/protocol or instrumentation. They should cover no more than 3 printed pages (including Tables, Legends, and References, style: font size 12, double line spacing). The maximum number of illustrations should not exceed 3. This submission should be reviewed by at least two editors and a final decision (acceptance or not) will be taken not more than 2 months after the date of submission.

4. Technical Notes
Technical Notes Technical notes refer to resources, technologies, and applications of clays and clay minerals of limited/local interest. They may add good-quality incremental knowledge about material properties or applications, even if they are of local interest. Reports on the characterizations of samples of clay minerals from newly found or unreported clay mines can also be considered as TN; in this case, please bear in mind that there must be something new in the reported work, such as some special characteristics of the ore samples or of the deposit itself (e.g., large reserve that might be of general interest to readers from industry). New methods or protocols in the characterization of clays and clay minerals can also be published as TN.
They must satisfy the same high scientific standard as the Research Papers and will be peer-reviewed like the other categories of manuscripts. The submitted text should not exceed 10 pages (without Tables, Legends, and References, style: font size 12, double line spacing, corresponding approximately to 234 double-spaced lines, 2900 words). No more than 5 illustrations should be presented. This note will appear only by DOI and will not be published in hard copy. However, a summary can be accepted in hard copy.

For comments on published papers, please select Discussion. For replies to such comments, select Reply.

Peer review

Peer review This journal operates a single anonymized review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers 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. 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. More information on types of peer review.

Article transfer service This journal is part of our Article Transfer Service. This means that if the Editor feels your article is more suitable in one of our other participating journals, then you may be asked to consider transferring the article to one of those. If you agree, your article will be transferred automatically on your behalf with no need to reformat. Please note that your article will be reviewed again by the new journal. More information.

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. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

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
Graphical Abstract (where applicable)

Highlights file

Supplemental files (where applicable)

Further considerations:

o Check that the text length and number of figures conform to the limitations of the journal for each type of paper as specified above and in the Artwork section. Some of the results in the form of figures or tables and supporting, less essential information (details about protocols, information about other author's data used, etc.) can be presented in Supplementary files which have no size limit.

o Insert continuous line numbering

o Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'

o All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa (numbered references are not accepted)

o Check that citation format is correct

o Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)

o A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare
o Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed

o Referee suggestions and contact details provided, based on journal requirements

For further information, visit our Support Center.

Before you begin

Ethics in publishing

Please see our information pages on Ethics in publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication.

Declaration of competing 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 should complete the declaration of competing interest statement using this template and upload it to the submission system at the Attach/Upload Files step. Note: Please do not convert the .docx template to another file type. Author signatures are not required. If there are no interests to declare, please choose the first option in the template. This statement will be published within the article if accepted. More information.

Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process.

Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans, as outlined in Elsevier’s AI policy for authors.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Disclosure instructions
Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled ‘Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process’.

Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

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, a published lecture or academic thesis, see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information), 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 compliance, your article may be checked by Crossref Similarity Check and other originality or duplicate checking software.

Preprints
Please note that preprints can be shared anywhere at any time, in line with Elsevier's sharing policy. Sharing your preprints e.g. on a preprint server will not count as prior publication (see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information).

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Reporting sex- and gender-based analyses

Reporting guidance
For research involving or pertaining to humans, animals or eukaryotic cells, investigators should integrate sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA) into their research design according to funder/sponsor requirements and best practices within a field. Authors should address the sex and/or gender dimensions of their research in their article. In cases where they cannot, they should discuss this as a limitation to their research's generalizability. Importantly, authors should explicitly state what definitions of sex and/or gender they are applying to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of their research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer (see Definitions section below). Authors can refer to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist. These offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting and research interpretation - however, please note there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender.

Definitions
Sex generally refers to a set of biological attributes that are associated with physical and physiological features (e.g., chromosomal genotype, hormonal levels, internal and external anatomy). A binary sex categorization (male/female) is usually designated at birth (""sex assigned at birth""), most often based solely on the visible external anatomy of a newborn. Gender generally refers to socially constructed roles, behaviors, and identities of women, men and gender-diverse people that occur in a historical and cultural context and may vary across societies and over time. Gender influences how people view themselves and each other, how they behave and interact and how power is distributed in society. Sex and gender are often incorrectly portrayed as binary (female/male or woman/man) and unchanging whereas these constructs actually exist along a spectrum and include additional sex categorizations and gender identities such as people who are intersex/have differences of sex development (DSD) or identify as non-binary. Moreover, the terms ""sex"" and ""gender"" can be ambiguous—thus it is important for authors to define the manner in which they are used. In addition to this definition guidance and the SAGER guidelines, the resources on this page offer further insight around sex and gender in research studies.

Author contributions

For transparency, we require corresponding authors to provide co-author contributions to the manuscript using the relevant CRediT roles. The CRediT taxonomy includes 14 different roles describing each contributor’s specific contribution to the scholarly output. The roles are: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; and Writing - review & editing. Note that not all roles may apply to every manuscript, and authors may have contributed through multiple roles. More details and an example.

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 journal Editor. 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.
Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

Article transfer service
This journal uses the Elsevier Article Transfer Service to find the best home for your manuscript. This means that if an editor feels your manuscript is more suitable for an alternative journal, you might be asked to consider transferring the manuscript to such a journal. The recommendation might be provided by a Journal Editor, a dedicated Scientific Managing Editor, a tool assisted recommendation, or a combination. If you agree, your manuscript will be transferred, though you will have the opportunity to make changes to the manuscript before the submission is complete. Please note that your manuscript will be independently reviewed by the new journal. More information.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (see more information on this). 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. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations. If excerpts 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. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases.

For gold open access articles: Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'License Agreement' (more information). Permitted third party reuse of gold open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license.

Author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. More information.

Elsevier supports responsible sharing

Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals.

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, it is recommended to state this.

Open access

Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal.

Elsevier Researcher Academy

Researcher Academy is a free e-learning platform designed to support early and mid-career researchers throughout their research journey. The "Learn" environment at Researcher Academy offers several interactive modules, webinars, downloadable guides and resources to guide you through the process of writing for research and going through peer review. Feel free to use these free resources to improve your submission and navigate the publication process with ease

Language (usage and editing sevices)

Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to use the English Language Editing service available from Elsevier's Author Services. Editors may request professional language proofreading and correction (covered by authors) before publishing the final version of a manuscript.

Preparation

Submission

Our online submission system guides 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, LaTeX) 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.

Please submit your article via https://www.editorialmanager.com/ACLAYS/default.aspx

Referees
Please submit, with the manuscript, the names, addresses and e-mail addresses of 4 potential referees (not all from the same country of the authors and never from the same institution). Note that the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used.

Your Paper Your Way
We now differentiate between the requirements for new and revised submissions. You may choose to submit your manuscript as a single Word or PDF file to be used in the refereeing process, in any format or lay-out that can be used by referees to evaluate your manuscript, but with lines numbered and with no numerical references. It should contain high enough quality figures for refereeing. If you prefer to do so, you may still provide all or some of the source files at the initial submission. Please note that individual figure files larger than 10 MB must be uploaded separately. When your paper is at the revision stage, you will be requested to put your paper into a 'correct format' for acceptance and provide the items required for the publication of your article.

To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor.

LaTeX
You are recommended to use the Elsevier article class elsarticle.cls to prepare your manuscript and BibTeX to generate your bibliography. Our LaTeX site has detailed submission instructions, templates and other information.


All manuscripts must contain the essential elements needed to convey your research, for example Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusions, Artwork and Tables with Captions. If your article includes any Videos and/or other Supplementary material, this should be included in your initial submission for peer review purposes.

* Use double line spacing
* Insert continuous line numbering
* No numbered referencing is allowed in this journal

Introduction can be reported in both present and past tense, however when reference is made to existing literature only past tense can be used, e.g. Clark et al (1999) reported...
Abstract results, Experiments and results have to be reported in past tense (neither present nor perfect tense) Repetitions must be deleted. Expressions like "it is observed (noted, seen), Fig. (Table) shows, it is clear that" should be deleted. Personal expressions like "we, our" should be avoided.

Article structure

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.

Units and symbols
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other units are mentioned, please give their equivalent in SI.
- all dimensions in IUPAC units, e.g. viscosity in Pa;
- avoid the use of meq, the CEC should be given in cmol(+)/kg or in eq/g
- If other units are mentioned, please give their equivalent in SI units the first time they are used.
- Units are generally reported with a space between the number and the units except for X°C and X%, then remove the space before °C and before %

Use italics for one-letter symbols of physical quantities and mathematical variables. Use normal font (not italics) for the symbols of units and functions, and abbreviations. The rule applies also to the symbols in subscript and superscript. For example ct, c0, d001, lnK, Tg, P, V, mclay, x, y, z, etc. For details see: https://iupac.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IUPAC-GB3-2012-2ndPrinting-PDFsearchable.pdf

The scientific (Latin) names of species should be in italics. For example, Homo sapiens or H. sapiens, Escherichia coli (E. coli).

Use proper symbols of ionic charge and oxidation number. An ionic charge symbol (Latin number) should be used for the charge of real ions existing in ionic solids, their solutions, ions of coordination compounds, exchangeable cations, etc. For example, Ca2+, [FeIII(CN)6]3-, SO42-, etc. The oxidation number is a more general term used for atoms that are not in the state of ions, such as atoms forming non-ionic bonds (covalent, metal), or being a part of molecules. The symbol of oxidation number is expressed by Roman numerals after the name of element or as a superscript after the element symbol. For example FeIII, S-II, SiIV, iron(III) oxide, copper(II) chloride. Proper use of these symbols helps distinguish between different forms of atoms. For example, Fe2+ in the form of exchangeable cations, or FeII in the form of atoms forming covalent bonds in solid.


Correct terminology


Follow the terminology as indicated in Bergaya, F., Lagaly, G. (Eds.), 2013. Handbook of Clay Science, Developments in Clay Science, Volume 5, Elsevier, Amsterdam. Second Edition.

Most used abbreviations: kaolinite (Kaol), kaolin (K), metakaolin (MK), montmorillonite (Mt), bentonite (Bent), smectite (Sm), beidellite (Bd), hectorite (Ht), Laponite (Lap), sepiolite (Sep), illite (I), illite-smectite (I-Sm), palygorskite (Pal) (avoid attapulgite). Abbreviations should not contain final 's' even for plural.

• When naming the mineral, all the names of natural clay minerals are with low case but Laponite is with capitalized initial because it is the name of a synthetic clay mineral
• Phyllosilicates cannot be used instead of clay minerals: all the phyllosilicates are not clay minerals. Clay minerals are a group of phyllosilicates
• Distinguish clearly between clay and clay mineral
• Clay layer (surface, charge, etc.) should be clay mineral layer (surface, charge etc.)
• Clay should be specified such as bentonite, kaolin
• Clay mineral should be specified such as montmorillonite, kaolinite
• Bentonite clay, montmorillonite clay, smectite clay should be bentonite, montmorillonite, smectite
• Natural clay should be raw clay
• Polymer clay (mineral) (nano)composite should be clay (mineral) polymer (nano)composite, abbreviated CPN
• Tetrahedral (octahedral) layer should be tetrahedral (octahedral) sheet. One layer contains one or two tetrahedral sheets and one octahedral sheet
• Anionic clay = layered double hydroxide (LDH)
• Nanosized zero valent iron and similar expressions should be iron nanoparticles or Fe0 nanoparticles
• Oxides also containing hydroxyl groups (oxyhydroxides) should be (hydr)oxides
•Use adsorption, adsorbed, adsorbent instead of sorption, sorbed, sorbent
• Use reflection instead of peak (or diffraction peak) when describing XRD diagrams
d001 reflection is incorrect: use 001 reflection (basal reflection) or d001-value
d-spacing must be d-value
• Use dispersion instead of suspension (in most cases)
• Interlayer spacing should be interlayer space
• Gallery should be avoided, gallery (height) or spacing should be interlayer space
• Ionic (cationic, anionic) exchange should be ion (cation, anion) exchange
• Weight, molecular weight should be mass, molar mass
• Weight loss should be Mass loss
• Mole ratio should be molar ratio
• Percentage must indicate what type - volume, mass, etc.
• Surface area should be specific surface area
• Use correct nomenclature for surfactants, e. g. dimethyl dialkylammonium ions or trimethyl alkylammonium ions must be dialkyl dimethylammonium ions, alkyl trimethylammonium ions etc.

Experimental section

All relevant details have to be given, including all materials used (plus where obtained), all experimental procedures and all significant details regarding analytical techniques used. Include the minimum information about the clay minerals used, such as their chemical composition in mass% or the structural formula and the cation exchange capacity. Experimental data should not be given with too many digits. Please consider the limits of error. Relevant information with regards to replicate samples and replicate analyses plus the relevant corresponding statistical information (errors, error bars in figures, repeatability, reproducibility, etc.) Results may be shown in tables or figures but not in both of them.

a. X-ray diffraction.

Details should include name/model of instrument, radiation source (Cu, Mo, etc) and wavelength, whether monochromator is used, slit width (detector and/or Soller), step scan size, counting time (atmosphere and temperature if applicable). Describe in detail the sample preparation.

b. Thermal analytical techniques.

• For methods like TGA, DTA and DSC details should include the name/model of the instrument, heating (cooling, constant temperature time) rate in °C/min, atmosphere (air, nitrogen, vacuum, etc.).
• Make sure that mass loss in TGA is reported in percentages.
• Make sure that there is no confusion between DTA and DSC (both measure exo/endothermic reactions but DTA is reported in temperature, whereas DSC is reported either as heat flow (mW) or energy rate per time unit).
• In the case of evolved gas analysis details of the instruments used and their settings should be reported similar to when these techniques are used as stand-alone techniques (GC-MS, Mid-IR spectroscopy, etc.)

c. Spectroscopic methods.

• Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy or Mid-Infrared should be properly named when Far-Infrared and Near-Infrared are involved throughout the manuscript.
• Make sure that the term frequency is only used when reporting in Hz, while cm-1 refers to wavenumber or spectral regions and not frequency.
• Peaks and vibrations should be bands (vibrations refer to the motions between the atoms in the structure). For band fitting program used, setting used (and in the main text rationale for the number of bands) must be given.
• For all techniques the instrument name/model should be included plus type of technique (FT-IR, DRIFT, ATR, microscopy, emission), spectral range (in cm-1), resolution (in cm-1), number of scans, detector type, (if possible mirror velocity) and sample preparation (KBr tablet with sample concentration, for other techniques like DRIFT, ATR, single crystal microscopy, etc.).
• When appropriate the atmosphere in which measurements were made.
• For Raman spectroscopy the instrument name/model must be included plus the type of technique (FT-Raman, Raman microscopy), type of laser and its wavelength, spectral range (in cm-1), resolution (in cm-1), number of scans and type of microscope.

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).

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article. Many word processors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article.

Essential title page information

Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
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. 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 and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
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 that 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 Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Highlights

Highlights are mandatory for this journal as they help increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that capture the novel results of your research as well as new methods that were used during the study (if any). Please have a look at the examples here: example Highlights. Highlights 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 100 characters, including spaces, per bullet point).

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is 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, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). 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

Although a graphical abstract is optional, its use is encouraged as it draws more attention to the online article. The graphical abstract should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in the online submission system. Image size: Please provide an image with a minimum of 531x1328 pixels (hxw) or proportionally more. The image should be readable at a size of 5x13 cm using a regular screen resolution of 96 dpi. Preferred file types: TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files. You can view Example Graphical Abstracts on our information site.

Keywords

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

The keywords should be taken from the most recent edition of the AGI GeoRef Thesaurus.

Acknowledgements

Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, 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.).

Data Availability

Authors are encouraged to include a 'Data Availability' section in their manuscript which is visible in ALL reading formats and may refer to data hosted in ANY repository. It should be placed before the references to provide readers with information about where they can obtain the research data required to reproduce the work reported in the manuscript, and typically consists of a simple sentence giving the URL(s) of and citation(s) to the dataset(s). Full information can be found here

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 BillMelinda 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.

If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence:

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors

Artwork

Electronic artwork
General points
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Preferred fonts: Arial (or Helvetica), Times New Roman (or Times), Symbol, Courier.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Indicate per figure if it is a single, 1.5 or 2-column fitting image.
• For Word submissions only, you may still provide figures and their captions, and tables within a single file at the revision stage.
• Please note that individual figure files larger than 10 MB must be provided in separate source files.

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available.
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please 'save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS (or PDF): Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as 'graphics'.
TIFF (or JPG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF (or JPG): Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF (or JPG): Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required.
Please do not:
• Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low.
• Supply files that are too low in resolution.
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF (or JPEG), EPS (or PDF) or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color online (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) in addition to color reproduction in print. Further information on the preparation of electronic artwork.

Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Tables

Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables can be placed either next to the relevant text in the article, or on separate page(s) at the end. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells.

References

References should be in English language.Only historical papers or theses are accepted in foreign language.
At no stage during the submission will numbered referencing be accepted

Citation in the Text
Citations in the text should be given in chronological order. Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa).
Any reference exceptionally cited in the abstract must be given in full.
Unpublished results and personal communications are not acceptable.
References cited as 'in press' in the text implies that the item was accepted for publication; in this case DOI is compulsory.

All citations in the text should refer to:

•Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
•Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;
•Three or more authors: first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication.

Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first chronologically, then alphabetically for the same year.
Examples: 'as demonstrated by Bergaya et al., 1998; Allan and Jones, 1999; Allan, 2000a, 2000b. Kramer et al. (2010) have recently shown '

Reference Formatting in the List
References should be provided with a consistent style. In the reference list, author(s) name(s), journal title/book title, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume number/book chapter and the article number or pagination must be present. Additional use of DOI is highly encouraged. References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc., placed after the year of publication.

Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2010. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51-59.

Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 2000. The Elements of Style, fourth ed. Longman, New York.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 2009. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281-304.

Reference to a website:
Cancer Research UK, 1975. Cancer statistics reports for the UK. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/ aboutcancer/statistics/cancerstatsreport/ (accessed 13 March 2003).

Reference to a dataset:
[dataset] Oguro, M., Imahiro, S., Saito, S., Nakashizuka, T., 2015. Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions. Mendeley Data, v1. https://doi.org/10.17632/ xwj98nb39r.1.

The reference style used by the journal will be applied to the accepted article by Elsevier at the proof stage. Note that missing data will be highlighted at proof stage for the author to correct.

Reference links
Increased discoverability of research and high quality peer review are ensured by online links to the sources cited. In order to allow us to create links to abstracting and indexing services, such as Scopus, Crossref and PubMed, please ensure that data provided in the references are correct. Please note that incorrect surnames, journal/book titles, publication year and pagination may prevent link creation. When copying references, please be careful as they may already contain errors. Use of the DOI is highly encouraged.

A DOI is guaranteed never to change, so you can use it as a permanent link to any electronic article. An example of a citation using DOI for an article not yet in an issue is: VanDecar J.C., Russo R.M., James D.E., Ambeh W.B., Franke M. (2003). Aseismic continuation of the Lesser Antilles slab beneath northeastern Venezuela. Journal of Geophysical Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JB000884. Please note the format of such citations should be in the same style as all other references in the paper.

Web References
Web references http should be avoided as much as possible. If a web reference is used, 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.

Data references
This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

References in a special issue
Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.

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.

Reference management software
Most Elsevier journals have their reference template available in many of the most popular reference management software products. These include all products that support Citation Style Language styles, such as Mendeley. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal's style. If no template is yet available for this journal, please follow the format of the sample references and citations as shown in this Guide. If you use reference management software, please ensure that you remove all field codes before submitting the electronic manuscript. More information on how to remove field codes from different reference management software.

Users of Mendeley Desktop can easily install the reference style for this journal by clicking the following link:

http://open.mendeley.com/use-citation-style/applied-clay-science When preparing your manuscript, you will then be able to select this style using the Mendeley plug-ins for Microsoft Word or LibreOffice.

Video

Elsevier accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit with their article are strongly encouraged to include links to these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the file in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 150 MB per file, 1 GB in total. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages. Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.

Data visualization

Include interactive data visualizations in your publication and let your readers interact and engage more closely with your research. Follow the instructions here to find out about available data visualization options and how to include them with your article.

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 data

This journal requires and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings, which may also include software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.

Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. When sharing data in one of these ways, you are expected to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.

Data linking
If you have made your research data available in a data repository, you can link your article directly to the dataset. Elsevier collaborates with a number of repositories to link articles on ScienceDirect with relevant repositories, giving readers access to underlying data that gives them a better understanding of the research described.

There are different ways to link your datasets to your article. When available, you can directly link your dataset to your article by providing the relevant information in the submission system. For more information, visit the database linking page.

For supported data repositories a repository banner will automatically appear next to your published article on ScienceDirect.

In addition, you can link to relevant data or entities through identifiers within the text of your manuscript, using the following format: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).


To maximise the visibility of your data, authors are invited to add a citation to their datasets by including a data reference in their Reference List as per the 'Data References' instructions elsewhere on this page.

Research Elements

This journal enables you to publish research objects related to your original research – such as data, methods, protocols, software and hardware – as an additional paper in a Research Elements journal.

Research Elements is a suite of peer-reviewed, open access journals which make your research objects findable, accessible and reusable. Articles place research objects into context by providing detailed descriptions of objects and their application, and linking to the associated original research articles. Research Elements articles can be prepared by you, or by one of your collaborators.

During submission, you will be alerted to the opportunity to prepare and submit a manuscript to one of the Research Elements journals.

More information can be found on the Research Elements page.

Data statement
To foster transparency, we require you to state the availability of your data in your submission if your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post. This may also be a requirement of your funding body or institution. You will have the opportunity to provide a data statement during the submission process. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect. For more information, visit the Data Statement page..

REVISED SUBMISSIONS

Regardless of the file format of the original submission, at revision you must provide us with an editable file of the entire article. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/submit-your-paper Guide to Publishing with Elsevier). See also the section on Electronic artwork

Additional Requirements for Manuscripts
• Use double line-spacing
• Insert continuous line numbering

After acceptance

Online proof correction

To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. 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 MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors.
If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF.
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 Editor. 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.

Offprints

The corresponding author will, at no cost, receive a customized Share Link providing 50 days free access to the final published version of the article on ScienceDirect. The Share Link can be used for sharing the article via any communication channel, including email and social media. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Corresponding authors who have published their article gold open access do not receive a Share Link as their final published version of the article is available open access on ScienceDirect and can be shared through the article DOI link.

Author inquiries



Visit the Elsevier Support Center to find the answers you need. Here you will find everything from Frequently Asked Questions to ways to get in touch.
You can also check the status of your submitted article or find out when your accepted article will be published.