the same institution; being a current or recent thesis advisor, student, or post-doctoral scholar; beinga current or recent co-author or collaborator; or having business or financial relationships. Any suchrelationship that ended more than 3 years ago will not be considered a potential source of conflict.To download a PDF file outlining Elsevier general policy see Conflicts of Interest
(http://www.elsevier.com/framework_editors/PERK/PDFs/General/Documents/Conflicts_of_Interest.pdf)If you have any questions about whether you have a conflict of interest with a particular editor orreviewer you are suggesting, please bring this to the attention of the editor at the initial submissionstage.
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial,personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning thesubmitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. Seealso http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Stratigraphic Names
Stratigraphic names should conform to the following chart produced by the Internal Commission onStratigraphy: http://www.stratigraphy.org/column.php?id=Chart/Time Scale. Regarding generalusage, early/late should be used for time and lower/upper should be used for rock units.
Submission declaration and verification
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (exceptin the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronicpreprint, see http://www.elsevier.com/sharingpolicy), that it is not under consideration for publicationelsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsibleauthorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewherein the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the writtenconsent of the copyright-holder. To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originalitydetection service CrossCheck http://www.elsevier.com/editors/plagdetect.
Data policy
Data Access
All data discussed in the text and presented in figures must either be presented in tabulated form inthe paper or its supplemental files; be contained in cited, readily available, persistent sources; or beavailable in an accessible, persistent depository such as a public database or data archive, if it existsfor the specific data type. For appropriate types of data, making the data available in a format thatcan be downloaded into a spreadsheet from the supplemental files is recommended even if a similartable is presented in text form in the main text.
For chemical abundance data, elemental or oxide abundance data must be given unless a compellingreason exists why this is not possible. Derivative chemical parameters such as elemental abundanceratios or abundances normalized to some other parameter may be listed only in addition to the primaryabundance data.
Data Quality Information
Authors must provide sufficient information (metadata) about the analytical process andreproducibility of measurements in order that the data quality can be evaluated. Correction proceduresmust be clearly presented.
For each measured chemical parameter, the analytical technique (e.g. ICPMS, XRF, EMP) and thelaboratory where the measurement was performed should be provided, if possible in tabular format.If a parameter has been analyzed by more than one method or in more than one lab, each methodmust be documented separately. Analytical accuracy and reproducibility should be reported byproviding name(s) and measured value(s) of internationally recognized reference samples measuredas unknown samples with the estimated uncertainty of the reference standard measurement and thenumber of measurements.
Sample Information
Essential metadata about natural samples must be provided in order to allow for identification of theirorigin and type, and to trace their analytical history.
All natural samples for which data are reported require, if applicable, information about the samplelocation, including latitude and longitude (if these are unknown, coordinates obtained by using GoogleEarth would suffice); depth below sea level (for marine samples); position within a stratigraphicAUTHOR INFORMATION PACK1 Dec 2015
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section or within a core (if applicable). Samples from scientific ocean drilling programs should includecomplete sample identifiers (e.g. leg, site/hole, core, section, interval) in the data tables. Samplesshould be classified (e.g. lithology for rocks and sediments, species for minerals and fossils, age).Samples for which previously published data exist should be referred to by the previously usedidentifiers or, if new sample identifiers are given, cross-referenced to the original identifiers.
Citing Published Data
When citing published data, or showing compilations of published data in figures, sources mustbe explicitly provided. On-line geochemical databases such as PetDB or GEOROC give full sourcereferences as part of their routine output. Because journal formats commonly limit the numberreferences that can be listed in the main body of a publication, additional data sources should beexplicitly listed in on-line electronic supplementary form. It is not sufficient to say: \taken from PetDB or GEOROC.\
Contributors
Each author is required to declare his or her individual contribution to the article: all authors must havematerially participated in the research and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should bedescribed. The statement that all authors have approved the final article should be true and includedin the disclosure.
Authorship
All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception anddesign of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting thearticle or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version tobe submitted.
Changes to authorship
Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting theirmanuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Anyaddition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made onlybefore the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request sucha change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reasonfor the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that theyagree 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 ofauthors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publicationof 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.
Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (formore information on this and copyright, see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). An e-mail will besent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'JournalPublishing 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 internalcirculation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distributionoutside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations(please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions). If excerpts from other copyrighted works areincluded, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit thesource(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please consulthttp://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
For open access articles: Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete an 'ExclusiveLicense Agreement' (for more information see http://www.elsevier.com/OAauthoragreement).Permitted third party reuse of open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license(see http://www.elsevier.com/openaccesslicenses).
Author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. For moreinformation see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright.AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK1 Dec 2015
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Role of the funding source
You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/orpreparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; inthe collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision tosubmit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this shouldbe stated.
Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established a number of agreements with funding bodies which allow authorsto comply with their funder's open access policies. Some authors may also be reimbursedfor associated publication fees. To learn more about existing agreements please visithttp://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Open access
This journal offers authors a choice in publishing their research:
Open access
? Articles are freely available to both subscribers and the wider public with permitted reuse
? An open access publication fee is payable by authors or on their behalf e.g. by their research funderor institutionSubscription
? Articles are made available to subscribers as well as developing countries and patient groups throughour universal access programs (http://www.elsevier.com/access).? No open access publication fee payable by authors.
Regardless of how you choose to publish your article, the journal will apply the same peer reviewcriteria and acceptance standards.
For open access articles, permitted third party (re)use is defined by the following Creative Commonsuser licenses:
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
Lets others distribute and copy the article, create extracts, abstracts, and other revised versions,adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), include in a collectivework (such as an anthology), text or data mine the article, even for commercial purposes, as longas they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article,and do not modify the article in such a way as to damage the author's honor or reputation.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
For non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, and to include in a collectivework (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter ormodify the article.
The open access publication fee for this journal is USD 2600, excluding taxes. Learn more aboutElsevier's pricing policy: http://www.elsevier.com/openaccesspricing.
Green open access
Authors can share their research in a variety of different ways and Elsevier has a number of greenopen access options available. We recommend authors see our green open access page for furtherinformation (http://elsevier.com/greenopenaccess). Authors can also self-archive their manuscriptsimmediately and enable public access from their institution's repository after an embargo period. Thisis the version that has been accepted for publication and which typically includes author-incorporatedchanges suggested during submission, peer review and in editor-author communications. Embargoperiod: For subscription articles, an appropriate amount of time is needed for journals to delivervalue to subscribing customers before an article becomes freely available to the public. This is theembargo period and it begins from the date the article is formally published online in its final andfully citable form.
This journal has an embargo period of 24 months.
Language (usage and editing services)
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not amixture of these). Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editingto eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientificAUTHOR INFORMATION PACK1 Dec 2015
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English may wish to use the English Language Editing service available from Elsevier'sWebShop (http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageediting/) or visit our customer support site(http://support.elsevier.com) for more information.
Submission
Our online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your articledetails and uploading your files. The system converts your article files to a single PDF file used inthe peer-review process. Editable files (e.g., Word, LaTeX) are required to typeset your article forfinal publication. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests forrevision, is sent by e-mail.
Figures over 10MB
Large files can be difficult for editors and reviewers to download. If the size of all of your figure addsup to over 10MB, please save a low resolution copy of your figures and: Upload your low-resolutionfigure files as type \as type \if your article is accepted.If you have any problems reducing the filesize, please seehttp://www.elsevier.com/author-schemas/artwork-and-media-instructions or contact our SupportTeam at support@elsevier.com.
Reviewers
You are requested to provide 5 suggestions for reviewers. The editors request that you not onlysuggest well-established senior scientists working in your field, but also consider appropriate post-docs. Final decision on reviewers to be invited to assess a given paper is at the discretion of thehandling editor.
PREPARATION
NEW SUBMISSIONS
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online and you will be guided stepwise through the creationand uploading of your files. The system automatically converts your files to a single PDF file, whichis used in the peer-review process.
As part of the Your Paper Your Way service, you may choose to submit your manuscript as a single fileto be used in the refereeing process. This can be a PDF file or a Word document, in any format or lay-out that can be used by referees to evaluate your manuscript. It should contain high enough qualityfigures for refereeing. If you prefer to do so, you may still provide all or some of the source files atthe initial submission. Please note that individual figure files larger than 10 MB must be uploadedseparately.
References
There are no strict requirements on reference formatting at submission. References can be in any styleor format as long as the style is consistent. Where applicable, author(s) name(s), journal title/booktitle, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume number/book chapter and the paginationmust be present. Use of DOI is highly encouraged. The reference style used by the journal will beapplied to the accepted article by Elsevier at the proof stage. Note that missing data will be highlightedat proof stage for the author to correct.
Formatting requirements
There are no strict formatting requirements but all manuscripts must contain the essential elementsneeded to convey your manuscript, for example Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials andMethods, Results, Conclusions, Artwork and Tables with Captions.
If your article includes any Videos and/or other Supplementary material, this should be included inyour initial submission for peer review purposes.Divide the article into clearly defined sections.
Figures and tables embedded in text
Please ensure the figures and the tables included in the single file are placed next to the relevant textin the manuscript, rather than at the bottom or the top of the file.
Each table may only take up one page. If the table is larger than one page, please upload assupplementary material for online publication only.
REVISED SUBMISSIONS
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Use of word processing software
Regardless of the file format of the original submission, at revision you must provide us with aneditable file of the entire article. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formattingcodes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. The electronic text should be prepared ina way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier:http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication). See also the section on Electronic artwork.
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(http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/elsarticle) to prepare your manuscript andBibTeX (http://www.bibtex.org) to generate your bibliography.
For detailed submission instructions, templates and other information on LaTeX, seehttp://www.elsevier.com/latex.
Article structure
Subdivision - numbered sections
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use thisnumbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may begiven 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 literaturesurvey or a summary of the results.
Material and methods
Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should beindicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.
Experimental
Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should beindicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.
Theory/calculation
A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already dealt with in theIntroduction and lay the foundation for further work. In contrast, a Calculation section represents apractical development from a theoretical basis.Results
Results should be clear and concise.
Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Resultsand Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of publishedliterature.
Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may standalone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.
Appendices
If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations inappendices 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.
Essential title page information
? Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoidabbreviations 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. Present the authors' affiliationaddresses (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, thee-mail address of each author.
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