Guide for Authors

  • Authors should submit online http://ees.elsevier.com/gaipos. This is the Elsevier web-based submission and review system. You will find full instructions located on this site in the Tutorial for Authors. Please follow the guidelines to prepare and upload your article. Once the uploading is done, the system automatically creates an electronic pdf which is used for reviewing. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revisions, will be managed via this system.

    A manuscript submitted to this journal can only be published if it (or a similar version) has not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. A violation of this condition is considered fraud, and will be addressed by appropriate sanctions. Two manuscripts are considered similar if they concern the same hypothesis, question or goal, using the same methods and/or essentially similar data.

    Open Access

    This journal offers authors two choices to publish their research;
    1. 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 their research funder

    2. Subscription
    • Articles are made available to subscribers as well as developing countries and patient groups through our access programs (http://www.elsevier.com/access)
    • No Open Access publication fee

    All articles published Open Access will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. Permitted reuse is defined by your choice of one of the following Creative Commons user licenses:

    Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA): for non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, to create extracts, abstracts and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), to text and data mine the article, as long as they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article, do not modify the article in such a way as to damage the author's honor or reputation, and license their new adaptations or creations under identical terms (CC BY NC SA).

    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 collective work (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter or modify the article.

    Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY): available only for authors funded by organizations with which Elsevier has established an agreement. For a full list please see http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies

    Elsevier has established agreements with funding bodies. This ensures authors can comply with funding body Open Access requirements, including specific user licenses, such as CC-BY. Some authors may also be reimbursed for associated publication fees. http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies

    To provide Open Access, this journal has a publication fee which needs to be met by the authors or their research funders for each article published Open Access. Your publication choice will have no effect on the peer review process or acceptance of submitted articles. The Open Access publication fee for this journal is $3000 USD, excluding taxes.

    Learn more about Elsevier's pricing policy http://www.elsevier.com/openaccesspricing

    Preparation of the Manuscript

    1. Article types accepted are: Original Article (Full paper or Short Communication), Review Article, Technical Note, Book Review. Word limits are as follows: Full paper 3,000 words plus no more than 5 figures/tables in total; Short Communication or Technical Note 1,200 words plus no more than 3 figures/tables in total. The word limits are non-inclusive of figures, tables, references, and abstracts. If the Editor feels that a paper submitted as a Full Paper would be more appropriate for the Short Communications section, then a shortened version will be requested. References should be limited to 30 for Full Papers and Reviews, 15 for Short Papers and 10 for Technical Notes. An abstract not exceeding one paragraph of 250 words should appear at the beginning of each Article. The recommended word limit for Review Papers is 6,000 words. Authors must state the number of words when submitting.

    2. All publications will be in English. Authors whose 'first' language is not English should arrange for their manuscripts to be written in idiomatic English before submission. A concise style avoiding jargon is preferred.

    3. Authors should supply up to five keywords that may be modified by the Editors.

    4. Authors are required to amend research highlights so that they consist of 3 to 5 brief bullet points which convey the core findings of your work. Ensure EACH bullet point does NOT exceed 85 characters (not words!) including spaces. An example of how highlights should look like is given below:

    1. We model two hospitals which have regulated prices and compete on quality.
    2. We examine changes in the level of information about hospital quality.
    3. Increasing information will increase quality if hospital costs are similar.
    4. Increasing information will decrease quality if hospital costs are very different.
    5. Welfare effects depend on ex-ante or ex-post assumptions about quality information.

    5. Acknowledgements should be included in the title page. Include external sources of support.

    6. The text should be ready for setting in type and should be carefully checked for errors. Scripts should be typed double-spaced on one side of the paper only. Please do not underline anything, leave wide margins and number every sheet.

    7. All illustrations should accompany the typescript, but not be inserted in the text. Refer to photographs, charts, and diagrams as 'figures' and number consecutively in order of appearance in the text. Substantive captions for each figure explaining the major point or points should be typed on a separate sheet.

    8. Tables should be presented on separate sheets of paper and labelled consecutively but the captions should accompany the table.

    9. Authors should also note that files containing text, figures, tables or multimedia data can be placed in a supplementary data file which will be accessible via ScienceDirect (see later section for further details).

    10. When submitting your paper please ensure that you separate any identifying author or institution of origin names and details and place them in the title page (with authors and addresses). Submissions including identifying details in the manuscript text will be returned to the author.

    Summary of Overall Arrangement of Manuscripts
    You should arrange your contribution in the following order:

    1. A cover page with complete details of the title, the source, and the authors full contact details. Acknowledgements should be placed on this page.
    2. An abstract outlining the purpose, scope and conclusions of the paper.
    3. The text suitably divided under headings. (frequently Introduction, Material or Patients, Methods, Results, Discussion will prove satisfactory). All lines in the main body of the text should be numbered.
    4. References.
    5. Tables with captions (each on a separate sheet).
    6. Captions to illustrations (grouped on a separate sheet or sheets).
    7. Illustrations, each on a separate sheet containing no text

    Illustrations
    Authors are required to provide electronic versions of their illustrations. Information relating to the preferred formats for artwork may be found at http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authors.authors/authorartworkinstructions.

    References
    Indicate references to the literature in the text by superior Arabic numerals that run consecutively through the paper in order of their appearance. Where you cite a reference more than once in the text, use the same number each time. References should take the following form:
    1. Amis AA, Dawkins GPC. Functional anatomy of the anterior cruciate ligament. J Bone Joint Surg [Br] 1991; 73B: 260-267
    2. Insall JN. Surgery of the Knee. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1984
    3. Shumway-Cook A, Woollacott M. Motor Control: Theory and Practical Applications. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins; 1995.

    Please ensure that references are complete, i.e. that they include, where relevant, author's name, article or book title, volume and issue number, publisher, year and page reference and comply with the reference style of Gait & Posture. Only salient and significant references should be included.

    What information to include with the manuscript
    Having read the criteria for submissions, authors should specify in their letter of transmittal whether they are submitting their work as an Original Article (Full Paper or Short Communication), Review Article, Technical Note, or Book Review. Emphasis will be placed upon originality of concept and execution. Only papers not previously published will be accepted. Comments regarding articles published in the Journal are solicited and should be sent as "Letter to the Editor". Such Letters are subject to editorial review. They should be brief and succinct. When a published article is subjected to comment or criticism, the authors of that article will be invited to write a letter or reply.

    A letter of transmittal must include the statement, "Each of the authors has read and concurs with the content in the final manuscript. The material within has not been and will not be submitted for publication elsewhere except as an abstract." The letter of transmittal must be from all co-authors. All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

    All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

    Work on human beings that is submitted to Gait & Posture should comply with the principles laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki; Recommendations guiding physicians in biomedical research involving human subjects. Adopted by the 18th World Medical Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964, amended by the 29th World Medical Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 1975, the 35th World Medical Assembly, Venice, Italy, October 1983, and the 41st World Medical Assembly, Hong Kong, September 1989. The manuscript should contain a statement that the work has been approved by the appropriate ethical committees related to the institution(s) in which it was performed and that subjects gave informed consent to the work. Studies involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution guidelines. Patients' and volunteers' names, initials, and hospital numbers should not be used.

    At the end of the text, under a subheading "Conflict of interest statement" all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations 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.

    All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgement. Authors should declare the role of study sponsors, if any, in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should so state.

    Authors are encouraged to suggest referees although the choice is left to the Editors. If you do, please supply their postal address and email address, if known to you.

    Please note that papers are subject to single-blind review whereby authors are blinded to reviewers.

    Randomised controlled trials
    All randomised controlled trials submitted for publication in Gait & Posture should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information. The Journal has adopted the proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which require, as a condition of consideration for publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry. Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrolment. The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end of the abstract of the article. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g. phase I trials) would be exempt. Further information can be found at www.icmje.org.

    Review and Publication Process
    1. You will receive an acknowledgement of receipt of the manuscript by the Editorial Office before the manuscript is sent to referees. Please contact the appropriate Editor-in-Chief if you do not receive an acknowledgement.

    Following assessment one of the following will happen:

    A: The paper will be accepted directly. The corresponding author will be notified of acceptance by e-mail or letter. The Editor-in-Chief will send the accepted paper to Elsevier for publication.

    B: The paper will be accepted subject to minor amendments. The corrections should be made and the paper returned to the Editor-in-Chief for checking. Once the paper is accepted it will be sent to production.

    C: The paper will be rejected but resubmission invited after a major revision. A complete resubmission is required as the paper will be re-evaluated by referees and assessment will start again.

    D: The paper will be rejected outright as being unsuitable for publication in Gait and Posture.

    2. By submitting a manuscript, the authors agree that the copyright for their article is transferred to the publisher if and when the article is accepted for publication. (http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/copyright).

    3. Page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for correction, although at this stage any changes should be restricted to typographical errors. Other than these, any substantial alterations may be charged to the authors. Proofs will be sent preferably by e-mail as a PDF file (although they can be sent by overland post) and must be rapidly checked and returned. Please ensure that all corrections are sent back in one communication. Subsequent corrections will not be possible.

    4. An order form for reprints will accompany the proofs.

    Preparation of supplementary data
    Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your manuscript in Elsevier web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authors.authors/authorartworkinstructions.

    Changes to Authorship
    This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:
    Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, 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. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.
    After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.

    Copyright
    Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a "Journal Publishing Agreement'' (for more information on this and copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail (or letter) will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form.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: contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA: Tel. (+1) 215 238 7869; Fax (+1) 215 238 2239; e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com . Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

    Proofs
    One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/tech-specs.html.If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post.

    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. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your 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. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

    Offprints
    The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.

    Further Information

    Authors in Japan: please note that upon request, and if the author feels that it is necessary, Elsevier Japan will provide authors with a list of specialists who can check and improve the English of their manuscript (before submission). Please contact our Tokyo office: Elsevier K.K., 4F Higashi-Azabu, 1-Chome Bldg, 1-9-15 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0044, Japan. Tel: (+81)(3)5561-5037; Fax: (+81) (3) 5561 5047.

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