Thank you for your interest in Acta Geological Sinica - English Edition. Please read the complete Author Guidelines carefully prior to submission, including the section on copyright.

Note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.

New submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal. You may check the status of your submission at any time by logging on to submission.wiley.com and clicking the “My Submissions” button. For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected]

PREPARING YOUR MANUSCRIPT

1. Manuscripts devoted to various aspects of geosciences and related disciplines are all welcome, including those of broad interest to the international geoscience community or of particular interest to the Chinese geoscience community.

2. Two types of manuscript are published in the Journal, including original papers and reviews. Original papers present the latest scientific studies, normally 5,000 to 10,000 words long and within 6-12 journal pages. Review papers are based on literature review and summarize the current status of study of a specific topic or field, identify remaining scientific problems, and point out future directions, normally 5,000 to 10,000 words and within 6-12 journal pages.

3. Components of a manuscript

    Components of an original paper

(1) Title page

• Title of paper
• Authors’ names
• Authors’ affiliation(s) and address(es)
• E-mail addresses of the first author and (if appropriate) the corresponding author
• A running title

(2) Abstract and key words

The abstract should be no more than 200 words long and should not contain citation of references. Up to six key words should be provided.

(3) Main text

• Introduction
• Geological Setting
• Methods and Materials
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments

(4) References

List of references: References should be listed in alphabetic order and cited in the text with the author’s name followed by the year of publication. References other than English, French, Spanish and Russian should be translated into English, with the specific original language duly indicated. Some examples of journal articles, books and theses are shown below.

Journal: Symons, D.T.A., and Sangster, D.F., 1991. Palaeomagnetic age of …. Economic Geology, 86(1): 1-12.

Book: Lee, J.S., 1939. The Geology of China. London: Thomas Murby and Co., 1-528.

Proceeding: Bowden, P., Wang, P., and Turner, D.C., 1974. Peralkaline and associated ring-complexes …. In: Sorensen, H. (ed.), The Alkaline Rocks. New York: Wiley and Sons, 330-351.

Minor, H.E., 2000. Spillways for high velocities. In: Zurich, V.E., Minor, H.E., Hager, W.H. (eds.), Proceedings of International Workshop on Hydraulics of Stepped Spillways. Rotterdam: Balkema Publishers, 3–10.

Academic thesis: Li, M., 2006. Formation Mechanism of Bayan Obo REE-Nb-Fe deposit in Inner Mongolia, China (M.Sc. thesis). Beijing: China University of Geosciences (Beijing), 1-147.

Prepublication: Guo, C., Qin, Y., Ma, D.M., and Xia, Y.C., 2019. Pore Structure and permeability characterization of high-rank coal reservoirs: A case of the Bide-Santang Basin, Western Guizhou, South China. Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition), doi: 10.1111/1755-6724.14295.

Online material: Hua, X., 2021. China's natural gas consumption rises in first four months (June 7, 2021).   http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-06/06/c_139992295.htm.

Citation in the text: When citing literature in the text, use the following format:

One author: (Lee, 1939); Two authors: (Symons and Sangster, 1991); Three or more authors: (Bowden et al., 1974).

Multiple citations in the text should be placed in chronological order, not in alphabetical order.

(5) Brief biography (maximum of 100 words) and head photo of the first author and the corresponding author.

     Components of a review paper

Same as an original paper, but the arrangement of text may vary depending on the topics.    

4. Artwork

General requirements to all the figures:  

• All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals, such as Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc. Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (Fig. 1a, Fig. 1b, etc.). The size of figures should be no larger than the size of A4 paper and fit in one-column (8-5 cm) or two-column (16-16.5 cm) width. Labeling in figures should be in font of Times New Roman and 6 pt at least (7-8 pt are commonly recommended). Initial of the first word including legend should be capitalized, except proper nouns (e.g. Changcheng System, Yanshannian-Himalayan). Boldface type or italics are not recommended usually.
• Lines in figures should be 0.18-3 pt, frame 0.3-0.5 pt, and emphatic lines can be 0.5-1.0 pt.
• Digital line-drawing figures should be prepared using CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop and in .CDR, .WMF, .PSD or .Ai format. If these programs are not available, digital figures in JPG or TIFF formats with a resolution of 600 dpi are acceptable as long as they meet the journal’s requirements.
• Digital photographs should have a resolution of 600 dpi.
• The journal publishes both color and black-and-white figures.

5. Table: Tables should be generally less than one page; tables more than one page should be submitted as supplemental material, not as part of the main manuscript. The text in tables should be Times New Roman, 7.5 pt, and single-spaced. The first letter of the first word in each cell should be in upper case, except proper nouns.

6. Graphical abstract

Acta Geologica Sinica - English Edition publishes graphical abstracts for research articles and review articles, displayed online in graphical form with a brief abstract, in addition to the up to 250 word abstract above. The online table of contents will display a schematic figure to convey the core message of your paper, alongside a short abstract highlighting the major findings of the paper. Authors should submit a new and stand-alone image, or designate an image already included in the paper. Your short abstract should consist of 2-3 sentences summarizing the essence of the paper. Graphical abstract entries should be submitted to Scholar One in one of the generic file formats and uploaded as ‘Graphical Abstract’ during the initial manuscript submission process. The image should fit within the dimensions of 50mm x 60mm, and be fully legible at this size.

7. Manuscript preparation: Microsoft Word files are preferred. Times New Roman font, 12 pt font size, and double line spacing are recommended.

8. The author alone is responsible for the correctness of his/her paper. When major changes are deemed necessary, the Editor will consult with the author, and the corrected manuscript may be returned to the author for approval or further clarification.

9. Ethical responsibility of authors: Only unpublished original papers, which have not been submitted or published elsewhere, will be considered.

10. Online Submission: Please submit your manuscript at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ags. For initial submission, it is recommended that figures and tables be inserted in appropriate positions in the text for convenience of peer review. Once a manuscript is recommended for acceptance, please submit the revised text, each revised figure and each revised table as separate files.

Data Sharing and Data Accessibility

The journal encourages authors to share the data and other artefacts supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. Authors should include a data accessibility statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published alongside their paper.

Refer and Transfer Program 

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant.

COPYRIGHT, LICENSING AND ONLINE OPEN

Authors may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA), or under open access terms made available via Wiley’s OnlineOpen option. Note that all authors must read and agree to the conditions outlined in the specific agreement chosen, and the corresponding author must sign on their behalf.

Standard Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA)

The journal's standard CTA can be downloaded here. Note that the CTA allows for self-archiving of specific versions of the article under specific conditions. Please click here for more detailed information about self-archiving definitions and policies.

Online Open - Wiley's Open Access Option

OnlineOpen is available to authors of articles who wish to make their article freely available to all on Wiley Online Library under a Creative Commons license. With OnlineOpen, the author, the author's funding agency, or the author's institution pays a fee to ensure that the article is made open access. Authors of OnlineOpen articles are permitted to post the final, published PDF of their article on their personal website, and in an institutional repository or other free public server immediately after publication. OnlineOpen fulfills funding agency mandates that require grantees to archive the final version of their article. Wiley will also deposit your OnlineOpen article in PubMed Central and PMC mirror sites.

All OnlineOpen articles are treated in the same way as any other article. They go through the journal's standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit.

Open access licenses. Authors choosing to publish using OnlineOpen will retain copyright in their article and have a choice of publishing under the following Creative Commons License terms:

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC-BY-NC)
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs License (CC-BY-NC-ND)
Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY)

Note that certain funders [e.g. The Wellcome Trust and members of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) or the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)] require publication under the Creative Commons Attribution licence, this licence is available to all authors publishing in the journal.

For more information about open access license terms and conditions click here.

Funder Open Access: Please click here for more information on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access Policies.

Nominating which publication agreement to sign

After acceptance the journal’s editorial office will ask you which terms you would like to publish under, either the terms of the copyright transfer agreement or OnlineOpen terms. If you select OnlineOpen you will need to nominate which Creative Commons license you would like to use so that they Editorial office can provide you with the correct license agreement to sign. For more information on this journal’s APCs, please see the Open Access page.

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence.

Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.

Article Promotion Support

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.

Author Guidelines Updated 20 May 2022