All manuscripts must be written in English. In construction, grammar and spelling the language style should be close enough to accepted norms that readers and reviewers will be able to focus on the scientific content rather than the language. Authors who are not fluent in English are strongly urged to seek the aid or collaboration of colleagues who are fluent and who may provide assistance in composition. In cases of authors who have difficulty writing in English, reviewers, editors and copyeditors may provide help and constructive suggestions, but it is ultimately the authors' responsibility to provide manuscripts written in passable English.

Authors are expected not only to adhere to the specific requirements set forth below but also to exercise reasonable care in manuscript preparation. It is not expected that submitted manuscripts will be completely free of errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc., but if these errors, or others such as missing references, incorrect figure or table citations, etc., are excessive to the point of demonstrating carelessness or discourtesy to editors and reviewers, in the opinion of the editorial staff, such manuscripts will not be further considered. Manuscripts submitted with missing tables or figures will automatically receive no further consideration. Reasonable allowance will be made for authors whose native language is not English.

This "Information for Contributors" explicitly considers or illustrates several aspects of the style in which contributions to Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta should be prepared. For other issues not specifically considered here, the applicable guidelines will be those recommended in The ACS Style Guide, 2nd Edition, J. S. Dodd (ed.), ACS, Washington, DC, 1997.

Hardcopy submissions must be printed on standard size paper, either A4 or 8½ × 11 inches, printed on one side only. All margins, in both hardcopy and electronic submissions, must be at least 1 inch (2.5 cm). Both hardcopy and electronic manuscripts should use standard 12-point or 11-point fonts.

There is no pre-defined limit to the length of a manuscript which may be submitted or published. Authors are advised, however, that AEs and reviewers will be encouraged to be critical of unnecessary length and that excessive length will discourage potential readers.

Both the hardcopy and electronic versions of an accepted manuscript must be transmitted to the Production Manager in a fixed format, which is the traditional format for use by copyeditors. The standard order for assembly of various manuscript segments is title page, abstract, main text, acknowledgements, references, appendices, tables, figure captions, figures. Each segment must start a new page. Pages must be numbered; the title page is page 1, but the numbering need not start until page 2. All text segments, including references and figure captions, must be double-spaced.

Review copies of manuscripts, i.e., original submissions and resubmissions revised in response to review and AE advice, may follow the format described in the prior paragraph, but they are also permitted greater flexibility. At their discretion authors may assemble segments in a more natural order, e.g., inserting pages bearing tables and/or figures at appropriate locations within the main text, or combining text, tables and/or figures (with captions) on the same page.

Some editors and reviewers insist on double-spaced manuscripts, and even for original submission double-spacing is mandatory. Other editors and reviewers, however, tolerate or prefer single-spaced manuscripts, and authors are encouraged (not required) to provide a single-spaced version in addition to the mandatory double-spaced version. If authors submit a single-spaced version they are further encouraged to use full justification, two-column layouts, embedded tables and figures (with captions), etc., and in general to make their manuscripts look as attractive, or as much like the printed version, as they wish. If a manuscript is submitted in dual editions (i.e. single-spaced as well as double-spaced), both versions will be posted on the website and editors and reviewers will examine and/or download the version of their choice.

The editorial office will not attempt to convert or reassemble manuscripts, e.g. to make a single-spaced version from a double-spaced version, or vice versa. Different versions must be supplied by the authors, who remain responsible for overall appearance.

Authors are encouraged (and in some cases may be required) to mark some portions of the main text which may, if and when published, be set in smaller type than the main body of the paper. There is little point in doing this for only a few paragraphs, but this should be considered for longer sections, e.g., extensive descriptions of analytical methods or procedures, mathematical derivations, detailed expositions of sample observations, etc. Small-type sections need not be thought of as less important than the rest of the paper: While they are indeed useful in reducing space requirements, the greater purpose of small-type sections is to alert readers that they contain detail (necessary but perhaps tedious detail) which may be skipped over without losing the overall flow of exposition and argument toward generalizations and conclusions. Authors should construct their overall flow of logic and exposition with this prospect in mind.

Every manuscript should have an abstract, a concise and self-contained statement of what was done, what results ensued, and what the authors think it means in the grand scheme of things. Depending on the particular study it may also be critical to describe motivation and method. Abstracts should be no longer than 500 words; 200-300 words would be better. While an abstract serves as an invitation to read the whole paper, it should also be written so that the reader can appreciate the nature of the work, and the principal results and implications, and even cite the paper correctly, even if he/she reads only the abstract.

Authors are strongly discouraged from including literature citations within their abstracts. This is because many electronic information services report only abstracts, and in most cases a literature citation within an abstract is both useless and irritating without the reference list. Authors are thus requested to rephrase as needed to avoid literature citation within the abstract. Copyeditors are instructed to remove citations from abstracts; authors who wish to dispute this policy are directed to make a case to the Executive Editor. If permission for citation within an abstract is given, the citation must be accompanied by a reference in abbreviated format, e.g. ".... Phat & Skinney (GCA 66 (2002), 76) maintained that .... despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary (Handsome et al., MAPS 36 (2001), 67)."

Four levels of headings in the main text may be used. The highest level heading should be in UPPER CASE BOLD font, centered. The second highest should be in Upper and Lower Case Bold font, left justified. The third highest should be Upper and Lower Case Italic (not bold) font, left justified. These three levels of heading should constitute a line by themselves, with one blank line above and below. The fourth level should be in Upper and lower case italic (not bold) font, indented and run on with the single paragraph it heads. One blank line should precede a paragraph with a fourth-level heading.

Each heading should be numbered in a hierarchical system; these numbers may be used for cross-referencing. For example:

Note that a top level heading may be followed by normal text, as shown here, or by a second-level heading such as:

3.5. This is a Second-Level Heading

3.5.1. Third-Level Heading

After a third-level heading, skip a line and start a new paragraph, in normal font, carrying on until it's time to change the subject or go to a still more detailed heading. Note that in this case the second-level heading was followed immediately by a third-level heading, without any intervening normal text, but we certainly could have put some in there if we had wanted to.

3.5.1.1. Fourth-level heading. Note that this heading is run on with the paragraph it heads, making it harder to spot in a hurry because it's not on a line of its own. It should be used only to designate a single paragraph, and it should be used sparingly, perhaps only when necessary to cross-reference to that specific paragraph.

Literature citations within the text must be by name of author(s), in normal font, and year, either in grammatical sequence ("... and Blue et al. (1970) maintained that p is 3.14, whereas Greene and Brown (1971) argued that it is 22/7") or as a parenthetical expression ("... the issue is not subject to legislation (White, 1937) even though ...").

For two authors, name both; for more than two authors use the "et al." notation.

For multiple citations otherwise indistinguishable (a single author, the same two authors, or multiple instances of the same first author with more than one co-author, thus cited as "et al.", published in the same year), follow the year by a, b, c... to make the distinction ("Black (1998a) observed blueschist and Black (1998b) observed greenschist, even though the predominant rock type is redbeds (Black, 1998b; Black and Magenta, 1998; Greene and Blue, 1999a,b)"). The letters a, b, c, ... should be used in sequence and be consistent throughout the manuscript, e,g, the first 1905 citation for author Einstein should be Einstein (1905a), and all citations elsewhere in the manuscript but citing the same reference should use the same designation.

Multiple citations in a parenthetical list should be separated by semicolons and ordered by date, oldest first; citations referring to the same date should be ordered alphabetically by first author; for the same (first) author and same date, list single-author references first, then (alphabetically) two-author papers, then multiple-author papers. For example "It is generally recognized that when dirt gets wet it turns to mud (Zeppelin et al., 1922; Aardvark et al., 1961; Applegate, 1973; Applegate and Orchard, 1973; Applegate and Peachpit, 1973; Applegate et al., 1973a,b; Beaverdam and Spillway, 1978; Applegate, 1982)."

Each citation in text, tables or figure captions must be entered in the References section, showing all authors, year, title and source (journal, book, thesis, etc., with inclusive page numbers. Each reference must be a hanging-indent paragraph. Author names should be given surname first, followed by initials (without intervening commas). Names of journals and of books should be in italics; names of journals should be abbreviated following standard conventions. Journal and serial volume numbers, if applicable, should be in bold font. The following examples show formats for various types of sources.

For multiple references by the same (first) author, first list chronologically all single-author works (e.g., Black (1988), Black (1989a), Black (1989b)), then two-author papers alphabetically (Black and Brown (1991), Black and Brown (1992), Black and Greene (1987)), then three or more authors chronologically (Black, Brown and Blue (1989), Black, Blue and Brown (1991)).

Authors should take care that all literature citations, in figure captions and tables as well as main text, have accompanying entries in the References, and also that there are no superfluous entries.

In general, the use of an internet location, in place of a published literature reference, is not allowed in GCA. There are a number of reasons for this policy, chief among which is the fact that websites tend to be very evanescent, so that future readers may not be able to access the material referenced.

Authors often wish to allow readers the possibility of extended materials related to an article, such as additional data or figures, detailed descriptions of samples, facilities, or experimental procedures, computer programs, animations, etc., and offer to provide them through a privately maintained website. Since all materials accessible through a website are in the form of electronic files, all such materials (including html files, if appropriate) can and should be provided as electronic annexes (as long as they are not copyrighted).

There are two exceptions to the rule disallowing internet references:

One exception is announcement that a regular literature reference is also available for download, essentially as a free electronic reprint, at some internet location. In such a case the appropriate format is to add the internet reference parenthetically at the end of the regular entry in the references section, e.g.

Lobochevsky A. W. and Samizdat D. R. (2003) Cumulative effects of the last sixteen hundred-year floods on the the valley of the lower River Slobovia. Proc. Slob. Acad. Sci. 401, 333-444. (Also available at lobo.slobsci.ac.sb.)

Use of such references should be sparing and restricted to cases of publications that might otherwise be difficult to find, e.g. local journals with very restricted circulations, old out-of-print books, theses, etc.

The second exception is reference to material available only on an internet site maintained by an institution or government agency committed to long-term maintenance of the site, e.g. national sample collection agencies, museums, etc. In most such cases there should be no entry in the references section, only citation in the main text, e.g. "... This rock was partially shielded from cosmic rays by a fault scarp 2 m to the east (see cia.gov/spysat/nimby/images/203185.13346) ...". Even in such cases authors should attempt to provide the referenced material as an electronic annex.

Authors may sometimes use data retrieved from an internet database service. In such case, the appropriate reference is the original publication in which the data were reported, not the database. If the data are not published, in general they may not be used or referenced except by explicit arrangement with the Editor.

Authors may cite private communication (equivalently, personal communication) to attribute unpublished statements or ideas to someone other than one of the authors. Examples of text citations are "..... but I. M. Greene (private communication) reports that ...." and ".....when it was first noted that the Moon is not composed of green cheese (N. Armstrong, private communication), we inferred that.....". Note the use of initials. There should be no entry in the References section corresponding to a private communication citation in the text.

Private communication citations should be used very sparingly. In general, their use should be restricted to a self-contained or self-explanatory statement or attribution of credit where credit is due, e.g. ".... at the suggestion of T. Jefferson (private communication) we explored ...". The use of private communication to cite authority or conclusion, in a context that would normally call for a literature reference, e.g. " ... the free energy change for that reaction is actually negative (J. W. Gibbs, private communication) ...", is a form of forward reference and is not permitted. If there is doubt about whether a given instance of citation of private communication is permissible, decision will be in the hands of the Executive Editor. Copyeditors are instructed to challenge the use of private communication citations and, if questionable, to suspend production and refer the issue to the editorial office.

Authors should exercise care in the design of table layouts. Tables should be designed as compactly as is consistent with legibility. The default row spacing should be single-space, except for possible row groupings. Columns should be separated by only a few spaces. Use horizontal lines to delimit the top and bottom of the table and to separate column headers from tabulated data. Footnotes should be grouped below the bottom delimiter; footnote references in the body of the table should be superscript lower case letters, in alphabetical order, or standard typographical symbols (*, #, ¶, §, etc.). An example follows:

Authors should note that tables, and/or their titles and/or footnotes, will normally be typeset, i.e. production staff will re-create tables and key in text and numbers from the tables supplied by authors. At the discretion of the Production Manager, however, tables may be reproduced photographically from author-supplied hardcopy. Authors should thus take care for not only the accuracy of the tables they supply but also their overall appearance and layout. In the printed journal, tables will be sized (and characteristically reduced) to fit in one column, to fit in two-column page width, or set broadside to occupy a full page, at the discretion of the Production Manager.

Tables must be numbered sequentially in the order that they are cited in the text. Tables in an appendix or an electronic supplement should bear a "number" which so indicates (e.g., Table A2, or Table EA3). Besides the number, tables should bear a short, descriptive title.

In the final version of an accepted manuscript transmitted to the Production Manager, tables must be printed on separate pages assembled in standard order. In review copy (original submission, or revised versions for editorial examination), however, authors may use standard order but they may also, at their discretion, use other arrangements which may be more convenient for reading (see Order and Layout).

Authors should consider whether a visual inspection of tabulated data is an appropriate and necessary adjunct to reading, understanding and appreciating the scientific exposition presented in their papers. If it is not, but it is nevertheless important that the data be archived and accessible to potentially interested readers and users, it may be more appropriate to present a data table as an electronic annex than in print. If the table is excessively long, authors may be specifically requested to present a table only as an electronic annex.

Authors should also note that they are requested to provide basic analytical data on natural samples as an electronic annex, in comma-delimited ASCII format, even for tables which also appear in print (see Primary Data Tables).

Figures should be designed to be as clear as possible, without unnecessary detail. In the printed journal, figures will be sized (and characteristically reduced) to fit in one column, to fit in the two-column page width, or set broadside to occupy a full page, at the discretion of the Production Manager. Lettering, numbers, identifying symbols and lines on the original figure should be big/thick enough to be easily legible when the figure is reasonably reduced in size.

Figures must be numbered sequentially in the order that they are cited in the text. Figures in an appendix should bear a "number" which so designates (e.g., Fig. A2). Each figure should also have a brief explanatory caption. Figures with multiple parts are permitted within reason; each part should be designated with a lower case letter on the figure itself, the various parts in alphabetical order. The caption should identify each part separately. Text references to figures should use the abbreviation "Fig.". For a multi-part figure, use a notation like "Fig. 2" to designate the figure as a whole and like "Fig. 2b" to designate one of the parts.

Authors should use black-and-white line drawings whenever possible, but half-tones are permitted. Color figures are also possible, but will require a charge payable by the authors (see Production).

In the final version of an accepted manuscript transmitted to the Production Manager, figures must be printed on separate sheets, and figure captions collected into a separate section, assembled in standard order. In review copy (original submission, or revised versions for editorial examination), however, authors may use standard order but they may also, at their discretion, use other arrangements which may be more convenient for reading (see Order and Layout). This might include printing a caption on the same page as the corresponding figure, insertion of figure-bearing pages (with captions) at appropriate locations in the main text, or embedding figures and their captions in the text stream.

In the final version of an accepted manuscript, hardcopy figures are required (prior paragraph) but at the author's option the final published figures may be based on electronic figures rather than the hardcopies (see Production). At present, figures produced in the popular programs Powerpoint and Excel are NOT acceptable for publication. Powerpoint and Excel figures are acceptable for initial submission, however.

Authors using figures requiring very high resolution, or subtle gray scales, e.g. microphotographs or SEM-TEM-AFM images, are encouraged to use electronic figures in initial submission; these generally reproduce well in electronic manuscript posting. If such figures are received as hardcopy they will be scanned to produce an electronic file for posting. This often produces images which are inferior to the originals and which authors may consider unsatisfactory for editorial or reviewer evaluation. Authors concerned about this possibility, but still wishing to submit hardcopy images, should submit five complete sets and also mention this circumstance in their cover letters. In general, it will not be possible to return these to the authors, whether or not the manuscript is accepted.

Authors may wish to acknowledge some form of assistance from individuals, institutions or funding agencies. This may be done in a separate paragraph which should be the last paragraph in the main text, with a fourth-level (but unnumbered) heading (italics, not bold, run-on in paragraph) titled Acknowledgements. An example is:

Acknowledgements. We would like to express our eternal gratitude to our mothers for making this work possible. We would also like to acknowledge Henry Ford not only for facilitating the field work but also assisting us in getting to work in the morning, plus Wilbur and Orville Wright for ....

In some circumstances it may be appropriate to remove text, tables or figures from the main narrative entirely, and move it to a separate section, an appendix. In the traditional usage in the printed journal an appendix will appear at the end of the paper and be set in small type. An appendix may be appropriate for extensive tables, mathematical derivations, computer programs, brief descriptions of many items such as sampling locations, etc. An appendix should have a first-level heading (upper case, bold font, centered) titled APPENDIX, and should be referred to in the main text as "the Appendix". If more than one appendix is required for distinct topics, they should be numbered: Appendix 1, Appendix 2, etc.

Material in an appendix is not unimportant. An appendix may be used when presentation of extensive material in the main text would be disruptive to narrative flow and when the value of the appended material can be easily summarized in the main text. As an example, "....... As is rigorously derived in Appendix 2, the area of a circle is pr². We therefore conclude that ...".

Use of the traditional printed appendix is discouraged in GCA, however, and requires specific permission of the Executive Editor. In most cases, the function of an appendix is as well or better satisfied by an electronic annex.

An electronic annex is an electronic file which is associated with a specific paper published in GCA. It is posted on Elsevier's (Science Direct) website, the same website on which the the paper itself is posted. An electronic annex can be opened or downloaded through a link which is provided within the html version of the paper itself (the version which is called Full Text + Links in the Science Direct table of contents for a given issue). An electronic annex file is considered to be published as part of the paper to which it is annexed, and can be cited in the normal fashion (i.e. material in an annex can be referenced to Jones et al. (2003) in the same way as material appearing in the printed version).

An electronic annex can serve the function traditionally provided by an Appendix in printed papers, i.e. as a vehicle for material which it is important to present and archive, but which need not be part of the main sequence of exposition. An electronic annex is especially useful for presenting such ancillary material which is important to archive and to provide access for, but which will be of interest to only a small fraction of the paper's readers and/or which is so extensive that it would be difficult to justify committing the necessary space in the printed journal. This may include (but is certainly not restricted to) large data tables, sample descriptions, multiple figures, photo/micrographs, etc. An electronic annex is also a convenient way to publish color figures without incurring the extra charge for printing color figures.

Besides this function, an electronic annex is a useful vehicle for material which is not suited to the printed page. This may include computer programs used in the paper, audio clips, animation files, interactive programs, and so on.

In addition, a critical function of electronic annexes is to provide information in computer-friendly format, e.g. a file which can be loaded into a computer is a more useful way to present a computer program than a hardcopy listing of source code. This is especially true for providing data tables in computer-accessible format (see Primary Data Tables).

Files submitted as electronic annexes should have filenames that adhere to the following guidelines: When a manuscript is initially submitted, annex files provided to the editorial office should have filenames in the format Jonesetal-EA-1.txt, Jonesetal-EA-2.csv, etc., i.e. author identifier, the key characters EA, a sequence number, and an extension which indicates file type. (Note that a given manuscript may have more than one electronic annex.) For submission of a revised manuscript, the author-name identifier should be replaced by the editorial office's manuscript number, e.g. Jonesetal-EA-2.csv should be renamed W3456-EA-2.csv. In addition, if the file is of a type that can accommodate textual information, the file itself should indicate its identity as an electronic annex, e.g. in a word processor or tabular file the first line in the file could be "Jones et al. (2004), Why is Europa different from Europe? - Electronic annex EA-3".

Electronic annex files may be provided in a wide variety of formats, as appropriate for the type of information conveyed, but to be most useful they should employ only the standard formats supported by common office programs. Examples include files of MIME type .txt, .doc, .wpd, .rtf., .csv, .pdf, .ppt, .xls. For a more thorough listing and discussion of file types authors may consult instructions provided by Elsevier. Authors should note in particular that there are many different programs for generating figures, and they use many different formats that most interested users will bot be able to open. Figures in particular should thus be provided only in standard formats such as .jpg, .gif. or .pdf.

A single annex file need not be restricted to a given type of content. It is possible, for example, that an annex file provided in pdf format contains tables, figures and text.

Each annex file should have a callout in the text, e.g. "... Individual EMPA spot analyses are presented in electronic annex EA-2. These data show that ...". It is important that the callout include the words electronic annex, since this phrase will be a flag for creation of the link to the annex file. After the first instance, the reference may be abbreviated, e.g. " ... closer inspection of the Ca abundances in EA-2 reveals that ...". If there is only one annex file it may be referred to as the/an electronic annex, without a sequence number.

It is possible to refer to an individual component within a composite annex file. If, for example, annex file EA-2 contains multiple figures and tables, the third figure in that file can be denoted Figure EA-2-3, and so on. A component which is not a figure or table can be referred to as an appendix, e.g. "... and a detailed petrographic description of each thin section is provided in Appendix EA-2-1". Distinct components within an annex file should be marked for easy identification, and there should be a callout to the annex file as a whole (previous paragraph) before reference to any component within it.

Each electronic annex file should have a brief (typically just one sentence) descriptive caption that indicates the content of the file. These captions will not appear in the printed version of the paper, but in the html version the link to the annex file will be accompanied by its caption, just as the thumbnail link to a figure is accompanied by its figure caption. In the submitted manuscript, electronic annex captions should be listed in a separate section, analogous to figure captions.

The standard range of mathematical symbols, along with the permil symbol (‰), subscripts and superscripts are OK, as are Greek letters. If you want to use a special character that you can reasonably expect is in the copyeditor's arsenal, but that you can't make yourself, use angle brackets, e.g., <delta>. If there's no way around it, you may use (carefully) hand-drawn symbols on hardcopy (e.g., big integral or summation signs). In the latter two cases, when your paper is accepted and you transmit material to the Production Manager, please be sure to call explicit attention to these circumstances in a cover letter. When in doubt, ask.

Use standard SI symbols, units and abbreviations, e.g., "20 kg of CO₂". Isotopes should be identified by left-superscript mass number, e.g., ²³⁸U (not U²³⁸).

Use standard 11-point or 12-point fonts. Italics may be used (sparingly) for emphasis. Italics should also be used for words from other languages, but note that commonly-used words, phrases and abbreviations such as "ab initio", "in situ", "e.g.", "et al." and "etc." are not italicized. Bold fonts should be used for section headings, special symbols such as vectors, and for journal volume numbers in the references.

Authors who submit manuscripts electronically, as pdf files, are requested and encouraged to insert bookmarks into the files. As a guideline, the highest order bookmark could be used for the principal sections of the manuscript, such as Abstract, References, Tables, Figure Captions, Figures, etc., and numbered sections of the main text (e.g. 1 Introduction, 2 Samples, etc.), and second-order bookmarks for lower-order text sections, and individual tables and figures, etc. Insertion of bookmarks will significantly facilitate moving between sections for readers who use computer monitors and will thus constitute a courtesy to reviewers and editors, as well as enhance the professional "look" of a submitted manuscript.

Authors should follow the rules of the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) in all matters concerning mineral names and nomenclature. "An author wishing to introduce a new mineral name into the literature, or to redefine, discredit or rename an existing mineral, must obtain prior approval of the IMA Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names" (Nickel E.H. and Mandarino J. A. (1987) Procedures involving the IMA Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names, and guidelines on mineral nomenclature. Mineralogy and Petrology 37, 157-179, or American Mineralogist 72, 1031-1042).

Further information, along with listings of the status of various mineral names, can be found at website www.geo.vu.nl/users/ima-cnmmn.

New meteorite names must be approved by the Meteorite Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society (contact Dr. Sara S. Russell, Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK, meteorite@nhm.ac.uk). Existing meteorite names should conform to those in the Catalogue of Meteorites (2000) by M. M. Grady (5th Edition, Cambridge University Press), or in subsequent issues of The Meteoritical Bulletin (published in Meteoritics and Planetary Science, formerly titled Meteoritics).

The full (unabbreviated) names of meteorites should be used in titles, headings and at first mention in the text. Abbreviations, including those published in the Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter and the Meteoritical Bulletin, may be used in tables and elsewhere. Note that the abbreviated form of numbered meteorites, including Antarctic and many Saharan specimens, should have a blank space between the abbreviated place name and the number (e.g., MacAlpine Hills 88105 is abbreviated MAC 88105), except that some Antarctic meteorites recovered prior to 1981 may have an "A" instead of the blank space (e.g., Elephant Moraine A79001 is abbreviated EETA79001). A list of standard abbreviations and examples of their proper usage can be found at the Meteoritical Society website page maintained for this purpose.

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta will normally not consider publication of manuscripts purporting to describe the discovery of new meteorites. All meteorite discoveries should in the first instance be submitted for consideration by the Meteorite Nomenclature Committee (at the Bulletin's website, or contact Dr. Sara S. Russell, as above). Discovery papers may subsequently be submitted to Meteoritics and Planetary Science.