Ccc Author Guide

Cement and Concrete Composites (CCC) Author Guide & Submission Audit Standard

This skill establishes the definitive formatting, technical screening, and automated compliance rules for manuscripts submitted to Cement and Concrete Composites (Elsevier, ISSN: 0958-9465, JCR Q1, Impact Factor 6.6).

1. Quick Technical Audit Script (一键自动化排查脚本)

A production-grade Python audit script is bundled with this skill at scripts/audit_ccc_manuscript.py. Whenever the user asks to "审核 CCC 论文格式" or "修改为 CCC 投稿要求", run this script first to generate an instant diagnostic report:

python ".\scripts\audit_ccc_manuscript.py" <path_to_paper.tex> [path_to_Highlights.txt]

Checks Performed by the Script:

1. Line Numbers: Verifies \usepackage{lineno} and \linenumbers.
2. Highlights Count & Length: Verifies 3–5 bullets and $\le 85$ characters per bullet.
3. Table Coverage & Order: Ensures 100% table citation and monotonic numbering.
4. Figure Coverage & Order: Ensures 100% figure citation and strictly monotonic appearance.
5. Bijective Reference Mapping: Every \cite{...} exists in \bibitem{...}, and every \bibitem{...} is cited in text.
6. GB/T 7714 Cleanliness: Detects illegal Chinese reference markers ([R], [M], etc.).
7. Mandatory End-Matter: Verifies CRediT, Competing Interests, Funding, and Data statements.

2. Manuscript Layout & Submission Format (排版版式与行号标准)

A. Word vs. LaTeX Submission Policy (Elsevier CCC 官方明文规则)

• Word Submissions: Must be formatted in single-column layout ONLY.
• LaTeX Submissions: Double-column formatting is explicitly permitted and standard!

  "Format Word files in a single-column layout. Double-column formatting is only permitted for LaTeX submissions." (CCC Guide for Authors)

• Standard Class Definition:

  \documentclass[5p,times,twocolumn]{elsarticle}  % Standard 2-column final layout
  % OR: \documentclass[3p,times]{elsarticle}      % Conservative 1-column layout
  

B. Mandatory Line Numbers for Peer Review

All review copies must include continuous line numbers:

\usepackage{lineno}
% In preamble:
\begin{document}
\linenumbers  % Right after \begin{document}

C. Non-Breaking Space Citation Rule (防断行视觉错觉)

Never place a naked space before \cite{...}. Always bind the author name or preceding noun with a non-breaking tilde ~:

% WRONG (Citation can wrap to the start of the next line, appearing as an isolated number):
published by Hlobil and Kumpov'{a} \cite{hlobil2023}.

% CORRECT:
published by Hlobil and Kumpov'{a}~\cite{hlobil2023}.

3. Highlights Requirements (投稿亮点强制规范)

• File Format: A separate editable file named with "highlights" (e.g., Highlights.txt or Highlights.docx).
• Bullet Count: Strictly 3 to 5 bullet points.
• Character Limit: Maximum 85 characters per bullet point, including spaces!
• Formula / Rule: $$\text{Length}(\text{Bullet}_i) \le 85 \quad (i = 1, \dots, N; ; 3 \le N \le 5)$$
• Content Focus: Convey novel empirical/computational findings, quantitative improvements (e.g. error percentages, compression factors), and new physical insights.

4. Figures & Subfigures Rules (图件排版与对称网格规范)

A. Resolution & Vectors

• Color / Grayscale Photographs & XCT: Minimum 300 DPI (TIFF or PNG).
• Line Art, Charts & Flowcharts: Preferred vector formats (PDF, EPS) or minimum 1000 DPI.

B. 100% Sequential Monotonic Citation

• Every figure (\label{fig:...}) must be cited in the text before the next numbered figure is mentioned.
• Never cite Figure 9 before Figure 8. If cross-referencing a later figure, refer to the section instead (e.g., "detailed in Section 3.5").

C. Multi-Subfigure Rigid Symmetric Grid Standard

When constructing multi-row, multi-column subfigure matrices (e.g., 3D cube grids):

1. Pad all raw subfigure canvases to identical dimensions $(W \times H)$ with white margins to ensure equal aspect ratios and cube centers.
2. Never rely on elastic \hfill across rows with dividers, which causes vertical divider misalignment. Use rigid symmetric \hspace:

\begin{figure*}[htbp]
  \centering
  % Row 1
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.226\textwidth}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/panel_a.png}
    \caption{Description A}
  \end{subfigure}\hspace{0.024\textwidth}%
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.226\textwidth}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/panel_b.png}
    \caption{Description B}
  \end{subfigure}\hspace{0.020\textwidth}%
  {\color{gray!60}\vrule width 0.8pt}\hspace{0.020\textwidth}%
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.226\textwidth}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/panel_c.png}
    \caption{Description C}
  \end{subfigure}\hspace{0.024\textwidth}%
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{0.226\textwidth}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/panel_d.png}
    \caption{Description D}
  \end{subfigure}
  \caption{Overall caption...}
  \label{fig:composite_matrix}
\end{figure*}

3. Use [t] (top alignment) instead of [b] (bottom alignment) to prevent vertical jumping caused by differing caption heights.

5. Tables Standards (表格规范)

1. Booktabs Three-Line Tables: Always use \toprule, \midrule, and \bottomrule. No vertical lines (|).
2. Citation Completeness: Every table (\label{tab:...}) must be explicitly cited in the text in monotonic order (Table 1 $\rightarrow$ Table 2 $\rightarrow$ Table 3).
3. Column Padding: Use \setlength{\tabcolsep}{...} or \begin{tabular*}{\textwidth}{@{\extracolsep{\fill}}...} to ensure wide tables span the exact text width cleanly.

6. References & Bibliography (Elsevier Numbered Style)

CCC enforces the Elsevier Numbered Reference Style:

A. Key Format Rules

1. Author Names: Initials. Surname (e.g., Z. Xu, G. Ye, E.J. Garboczi). Never invert to Chinese GB/T style (Xu Z, Ye G).
2. Article Title: Sentence case or title case in roman font.
3. Journal Names: Must be abbreviated according to ISO 4 / List of Title Word Abbreviations (LTWA).
   • Cement and Concrete Research $\rightarrow$ Cem. Concr. Res.
   • Cement and Concrete Composites $\rightarrow$ Cem. Concr. Compos.
   • Construction and Building Materials $\rightarrow$ Constr. Build. Mater.
   • Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering $\rightarrow$ Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng.
   • Journal of the American Ceramic Society $\rightarrow$ J. Am. Ceram. Soc.
   • Materials and Structures $\rightarrow$ Mater. Struct.
   • Advanced Functional Materials $\rightarrow$ Adv. Funct. Mater.
4. Volume & Pages: Vol (Year) PageStart–PageEnd or Vol (Year) ArticleNumber.
5. DOI: Full HTTPS URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2024.105...
6. Zero GB/T 7714 Pollution: Absolutely NO [R], [M], [C], [D], [J], [S] document type markers.

B. Reference Template Examples

% Journal article with pages:
\bibitem{ref1}
J. van der Geer, J.A.J. Hanraads, R.A. Lupton, The art of writing a scientific article, J. Sci. Commun. 163 (2020) 51--59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sc.2020.00372.

% Journal article with article number:
\bibitem{ref2}
M. Hlobil, I. Kumpov'{a}, A collection of three-dimensional datasets of hydrating cement paste, Data Brief 46 (2023) 108903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2023.108903.

% Book:
\bibitem{ref3}
W. Strunk Jr., E.B. White, The Elements of Style, 4th ed., Longman, New York, 2000.

% Dataset:
\bibitem{ref4}
M. Oguro, S. Imahiro, S. Saito, T. Nakashizuka, Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions [dataset], Mendeley Data, v1, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1234/abc12nb39r.1.

7. Mandatory End-Matter Declarations (必备声明与资助格式)

Before \begin{thebibliography}, the following 4 sections must appear in order:

\section*{CRediT authorship contribution statement}
\textbf{First Author}: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. \textbf{Second Author}: Investigation, Data curation, Visualization. \textbf{Corresponding Author}: Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition, Writing - review \& editing.

\section*{Declaration of competing interests}
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

\section*{Acknowledgements}
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from ...

\section*{Data availability}
The public datasets analyzed during this study are available in [Repository Name] (\url{https://doi.org/...}). Source code and evaluation scripts are accessible at \url{https://github.com/...}.

Funding Sources Crossref Syntax:

Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 52108123, 52378245]; and the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Project [grant number 2023A1515010987].

8. Engineering Narrative Standards & Anti-Jargon Rules (土木与工程顶刊写作三大铁律)

When authoring, revising, or refining manuscripts for Cement and Concrete Composites, the following three rules are mandatory:

1. 概念能用普通话讲清就不造术语 (Plain Language over Pretentious Jargon)：

   • 严禁硬造浮夸的 AI/ML 复合新词（如 gradient stiffness diagnosis, conflict-aware bounded allocation, spatiotemporal manifold harmonization 等）。
   • 正文主线与摘要必须用质朴、精准的工程语言直接讲透本质。
   • 主线基准范例：“训练前先判断各损失项对参数更新的影响，再在限定范围内确定固定权重。” (Prior to training, the impact of individual loss terms on parameter updates is evaluated to determine fixed weights within a bounded range.)
   • 算法生造词仅可降级保留在具体实现细节或局部变量括号内，绝不能作为文章主线、摘要与标题的主语。

2. 公式只服务于问题，不为了“显得高级”堆符号 (Formulas Serve Problems, Not Pretentious Symbol-Stacking)：

   • 每个数学公式必须严格对应具体的材料本构、力学约束、损伤定律或可执行算法。
   • 坚决杜绝无推导增量、纯粹堆砌冗余下标、花体符号与多层套娃式的伪数学表达。
   • 每一个变量第一次出现时必须紧跟明确的物理单位与工程定义。

3. 章节标题、图题与摘要尽量让土木和工程审稿人一眼看懂 (Civil & Engineering Reviewer-Friendly Navigation)：

   • 论文是写给土木、结构与建材领域审稿人看的。
   • 主标题：直奔“工程对象 + 解决什么物理问题 + 核心技术”，不堆砌黑话。
   • 摘要：直球交代“工程痛点 $\rightarrow$ 直观方法 $\rightarrow$ 物理机制 $\rightarrow$ 量化结论”。
   • 章节名：采用具象直白的工程与方法分类（如“2.3 损失权重边界确定方法”而非“2.3 基于梯度刚度诊断的时空约束优化架构”）。
   • 图题/表题：第一句话必须给出结论性或清晰直观的描述，让审稿人扫一眼即明了物理含义。

9. AI-Assisted Manuscript Reformatter Workflow (智能排版执行工作流)

When invoked to format or audit a manuscript for CCC, execute the following steps in sequence:

1. Step 1: Narrative & Jargon Audit:
   • Verify the Three Core Narrative Principles: replace pretentious AI terms with plain engineering prose; ensure formulas serve concrete physics; verify civil-engineer-friendly titles and figure captions.
2. Step 2: Technical Audit: Run audit_ccc_manuscript.py <paper.tex> <Highlights.txt>.
3. Step 3: Line Numbers: Inject \usepackage{lineno} and \linenumbers if missing.
4. Step 4: Citation Integrity:
   • Check and cite any unreferenced tables (\Cref{tab:...}).
   • Check and cite any unreferenced figures (\Cref{fig:...}).
   • Sort citations to ensure strictly monotonic ordering.
5. Step 5: Reference Clean-Up:
   • Convert all \bibitem entries to Initials. Surname format.
   • Replace full journal names with ISO 4 / LTWA abbreviations.
   • Strip [R], [M], [J] document markers.
   • Convert bare DOIs to https://doi.org/....
   • Ensure a 100% bijective mapping between \cite and \bibitem.
6. Step 6: Highlights Audit:
   • Verify 3–5 bullets.
   • Count characters for each bullet. If $> 85$, condense text without losing core numerical claims.
7. Step 7: End-Matter Audit:
   • Verify CRediT, Competing Interests, Funding, and Data availability sections.
8. Step 8: Verification:
   • Compile twice with pdflatex to guarantee zero undefined citations (?) and zero undefined references.
   • Run audit_ccc_manuscript.py to confirm PASSED [OK].