Author information pack

The Journal of Consumer Psychology publishes articles that contribute both theoretically and empirically to an understanding of consumer judgment and behavior and the processes that underlie them. It is focused on consumer phenomena at both the intrapersonal and the interpersonal level. Areas of emphasis include, but are not restricted to, consumer judgment and decision processes, attitude formation and change, reactions to advertising, consumer information processing, affective cognitive and motivational determinants of consumer behavior, family and group decision processes, and cultural and individual differences in consumer behavior. Most articles to be published are likely to report new empirical findings, obtained either in the laboratory or in field experiments, that contribute to existing theory in both consumer research and psychology. However, the results of survey research, correlational studies, and other methodological paradigms are welcomed to the extent that the findings obtained extend our current knowledge of judgment and behavior. Theoretical and/or review articles that integrate existing bodies of research that provide new insights into the underpinnings of consumer behavior and decision processes are also encouraged.
Further details regarding journal content, along with copies of past editorials, accepted manuscripts, and other information, can be obtained from the society website, http://www.journalofconsumerpsychology.com

Manuscripts previously rejected by the editor from further consideration for publication in The Journal of Consumer Psychology are not accepted for regular review.

Ethics in publishing

For information on Ethics in publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.

Conflict of interest

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 the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest. Further information and an example of a Conflict of Interest form can be found at: http://elsevier6.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/286/p/7923/.

Submission declaration

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint, see http://www.elsevier.com/postingpolicy), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

Rejected Manuscript Resubmission Policy
JCPS's policy regarding the resubmission of previously rejected manuscripts is as follows. it is not permissible to submit a manuscript to JCP that is similar to one that was previously rejected at JCP. However, it is permissible to submit a completely new manuscript to JCPS that may have stemmed in part from a rejected manuscript, as long as there are new studies, a new conceptualization and a new write-up. This new manuscript will be assigned a completely new review team. The submitting author should state in the cover letter that the manuscript is a resubmission.

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 complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing 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 internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside 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 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: please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

Retained author rights

As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/funding.

Funding body agreements and policies

Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.

Language (usage and editing services)

Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to use the English Language Editing service available from Elsevier's WebShop http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageediting/ or visit our customer support site http://support.elsevier.com for more information.

Submission

Submission to this journal proceeds totally online and you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of your files. The system automatically converts source files to a single PDF file of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF files at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail removing the need for a paper trail.

Submission Address
Please submit your article via http://ees.elsevier.com/jcps.

The four main paper types will henceforth be called Research Articles (full length), Research Reports, Research Reviews and Research Dialogues:
a. Research Reports: less than 4,000 words, excluding abstract, references, tables and figures.
b. Research Articles: 50 pages maximum (double-spaced), including abstract, references, tables and figures.
c. Research Reviews: 50 pages maximum (double-spaced), including abstract, references, tables and figures. This includes both invited research reviews, and regular research reviews that are submitted through the normal submission process.
d. Research Dialogues: 50 pages maximum (double-spaced), including abstract, references, tables and figures. This paper type includes the lead article(s) and the associated commentaries.

Use of wordprocessing software

It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used. The text should be in single-column, double-spaced format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. Do not embed "graphically designed" equations or tables, but prepare these using the wordprocessor's facility. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier: http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication). Do not import the figures into the text file but, instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic text and on the manuscript. See also the section on Electronic illustrations.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the "spell-check" and "grammar-check" functions of your wordprocessor.

Information on APA style: Required for JCP
For information on APA style, click on the following link to use the APA tutorial. You can turn off the sound and advance at your own pace. The link is: http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/ To turn off the sound, click on the sound icon on the bottom right, and click Mute. To advance at your own pace, click the forward arrow on the bottom left.
Hint: If you open a link to a new window, minimize it afterwards because closing it will close the tutorial.

Article structure

Introduction, theory and hypotheses
State the objectives of the work and the theory and hypotheses. Provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Material and methods
Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.

Results
Results should be clear and concise.

Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.

Tables, figure captions and figures
The main results and theoretical model may be shown in one or more tables and/or figures.

Appendices
Upload any appendices with the manuscript as one file. Appendices do not count in the word or page count. If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices 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.

Author Identifiers
Please ensure that you do not state the specific location that the data in your article was collected as this reveals the location of the researcher(s).

Essential title page information

• Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (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, the e-mail address of each author.
• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that phone numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.
• Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Abstract
A concise and factual abstract limited to 175 words is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Highlights
Highlights are optional for this journal. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings of the article and can be submitted in a separate file in the online submission system. Should you wish to include Highlights with your submission, please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters per bullet point including spaces). See http://www.elsevier.com/researchhighlights for examples.

Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations

Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Acknowledgements

Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.
Table footnotes
Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.

Electronic artwork
General points
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Embed the used fonts if the application provides that option.
• Aim to use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, Symbol, or use fonts that look similar.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the printed version.
• Submit each illustration as a separate file.
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply 'as is' in the native document format.
Regardless of the application used other than Microsoft Office, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please 'Save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS (or PDF): Vector drawings, embed all used fonts.
TIFF (or JPEG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones), keep to a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF (or JPEG): Bitmapped (pure black & white pixels) line drawings, keep to a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF (or JPEG): Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale), keep to a minimum of 500 dpi.
Please do not:
• Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colors;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF (or JPEG), EPS (or PDF), or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for color: in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting color figures to 'gray scale' (for the printed version should you not opt for color in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the color illustrations.

Tables and Figures
Tables should appear after references, then figure captions and finally figures. The tables and figures will later be embedded in the text, so indicate where to insert them (e.g., INSERT TABLE 1 HERE). If there is only one table or figure, do not number; otherwise number consecutively. Each table should have a title and caption on top, left justified, formatted as follows: Table # (line 1); Caption (line 2). Each figure should have a title and caption formatted as follows: Fig. #. Caption (on the same line). Put figure titles and captions on one sheet followed by the figures; one figure per page. Each table and figure caption should end with a period. The first letter of the first word in the title and caption, and each column and row head, should be capitalized. In the tables, horizontal lines should appear below the caption and each column head and at the bottom. Numbers in tables should be aligned based on decimal points. See examples here

Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

References

Authors should check their reference lists before submitting their manuscripts to JCP. Reference lists should include recent papers in consumer psychology, consumer behavior and/or marketing that are relevant to the topic. This is important to show contributions to these current literatures, and to facilitate the editor's choice of suitable JCP reviewers. For classic concepts, authors should also cite the studies that developed the concepts.

Text: Citations in the text should follow the referencing style used by the American Psychological Association. For information on APA style, click on the following link to use the APA tutorial. You can turn off the sound and advance at your own pace. The link is: http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/ To turn off the sound, click on the sound icon on the bottom right, and click Mute. To advance at your own pace, click the forward arrow on the bottom left. Hint: If you open a link to a new window, minimize it afterwards because closing it will close the tutorial. You are also referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition, ISBN 978-1-4338-0561-5, copies of which may be ordered from http://books.apa.org/books.cfm?id=4200067 or APA Order Dept., P.O.B. 2710, Hyattsville, MD 20784, USA or APA, 3 Henrietta Street, London, WC3E 8LU, UK. Details concerning this referencing style can also be found at http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/apa/apa01.html.

List: references should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc., placed after the year of publication.

Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J. A. J., & Lupton, R. A. (2010). The art of writing a scientific article. Journal of Scientific Communications, 163, 51-59. Reference to a book:
Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of style. (4th ed.). New York: Longman, (Chapter 4).
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G. R., & Adams, L. B. (2009). How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In B. S. Jones, & R. Z. Smith (Eds.), Introduction to the electronic age (pp. 281-304). New York: E-Publishing Inc.

Journal abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to:
Index Medicus journal abbreviations: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html; List of serial title word abbreviations: http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php; CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service): http://www.cas.org/sent.html.

Citation in text
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Web references
As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

References in a special issue
Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.

Reference management software
This journal has standard templates available in key reference management packages EndNote (http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp) and Reference Manager (http://refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp). Using plug-ins to wordprocessing packages, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article and the list of references and citations to these will be formatted according to the journal style which is described below.

Guidelines to Authors of Research Reports
What is the Journal of Consumer Psychology (JCP) looking for in Research Reports?

Research Reports are manuscripts that are less than 4000 words in length excluding the abstract, title page, references, tables and figures. Research Reports, formerly referred to as Short Articles, should contain novel and interesting research just like longer length Research Articles. Note that for an idea to be novel and interesting does not imply that it has to be counterintuitive. However, unlike Research Articles, for novel and interesting theoretical ideas, authors of a Research Report may provide less empirical evidence; and for novel and interesting empirical findings, they may give less theoretical support. Thus, when presenting empirical findings, authors are not expected to pinpoint the specific underlying process for their findings or rule out all alternative explanations (except when developing or testing an alternative process explanation that represents the actual research goal). However, authors do need to propose a plausible theoretical process and to state this right at the outset of the paper. Also, note that despite these differences from Research Articles, we will maintain the same standards of rigor (in terms of literature review, conceptualization, methodology, empirical analysis, and stated insights derived from analysis). Thus, Authors need to acknowledge past related research and show how their paper relates to this earlier work. Shortage of space should not result in a lack of care in the literature review. Since Research Reports are meant to be widely disseminated to spark new research, they should also be easy to read.

Research Reports may focus on novel and interesting empirical findings (based on data from experiments, surveys, or secondary sources). This includes manuscripts whose findings: (1) are novel and interesting by themselves, (2) refute commonly held beliefs, (3) refute prior theory, or (4) refute prior explanatory processes. Some preliminary theoretical explanation must be offered for this category, but it is not necessary for authors to rule out all possible alternative explanations. Thus, inconclusive process evidence is not a reason to reject a Research Report (unless an alternative explanation is obvious and more compelling). However, note that authors need to provide substantial evidence for their proposed empirical findings - either through large sample sizes or multiple studies or both. Thus, authors may be asked to collect additional data for further support of the phenomenon (additional study) or for a more rigorous testing of the phenomenon (new study to replace an original study). Also, as stated earlier, even if not conclusively establishing the process, authors should speculate about the process right at the outset of the paper (not just at the end). However, the strengths of the claims about the process should be proportional to the evidence being provided (i.e., if the authors only provide preliminary evidence of the process, they need to acknowledge upfront that other accounts are possible).

Research Reports may also focus on novel and interesting theoretical ideas. This includes manuscripts that develop: (1) an alternate process explanation for an existing theory, (2) an alternate theory for existing findings, (3) a theory that accounts for commonly held beliefs (with data to support these beliefs), or (4) a new theory. Some preliminary empirical support (one or two studies) is required for this category.

Authors must also consider the following when they submit a Research Report:

1. The importance of the General Discussion section:
Since one of the primary objectives for Research Reports is to stimulate follow-up research, a manuscript that is being considered for publication needs to have a General Discussion section that provides specific and compelling implications for future follow-up research.

The General Discussion section also serves a secondary purpose. While Research Reports are not expected to pinpoint the specific underlying process for their findings or rule out all alternative explanations (except when this is the stated goal), they are expected to recognize limitations and alternate explanations, and suggest possible process explanations that could be tested in follow-up research. An appropriate place to do this is in the General Discussion.

2. Novelty Criterion:
As stated at the outset, all manuscripts submitted to JCP (whether Research Articles or Research Reports) should be novel and interesting. Thus, although Research Reports are shorter in length, they should not be a mere modification or a simple extension of previous research. This is not novel. Novelty implies innovativeness.

Reviewers of Research Reports are sent these guidelines along with the manuscript and are encouraged to limit themselves to 3 or 4 major concerns.

JCP Policy on Invited Research Reviews
The JCP policy on Invited Research Reviews is that, because they are invited, they will be quite rare and they will take on "big" topics that currently interest a very wide audience of researchers, including researchers in both consumer behavior and psychology. Invited JCP Research Reviews are not designed to be self-motivated and idiosyncratic.

However, non-invited Research Reviews can also be submitted to JCP and they will go through the normal JCP review process. Therefore, authors should submit non-invited JCP Research Reviews through the normal submission process.

Journal abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to
Index Medicus journal abbreviations: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of serial title word abbreviations: http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service): http://www.cas.org/sent.html.

Video data

Elsevier accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit with their article are strongly encouraged to include links to these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the files in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 50 MB. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.

Supplementary data

Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please provide the data 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 our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Submission checklist

The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are present:
One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Phone numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded, and contain:
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been 'spell-checked' and 'grammar-checked'
• References are in the correct format for this journal
• All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)
• Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print, or to be reproduced in color on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print
• If only color on the Web is required, black-and-white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes
For any further information please visit our customer support site at http://support.elsevier.com.

Use of the Digital Object Identifier

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. Example of a correctly given DOI (in URL format; here an article in the journal Physics Letters B):
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2010.09.059
When you use a DOI to create links to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.

Proofs

One set of page proofs (as PDF files) 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) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Elsevier now provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 (or higher) available free from http://get.adobe.com/reader. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online). 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 them 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 – please let us have all your corrections within 48 hours. It is important to ensure that all 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 (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). For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Both corresponding and co-authors may order offprints at any time via Elsevier's WebShop (http://webshop.elsevier.com/myarticleservices/offprints). Authors requiring printed copies of multiple articles may use Elsevier WebShop's 'Create Your Own Book' service to collate multiple articles within a single cover (http://webshop.elsevier.com/myarticleservices/offprints/myarticlesservices/booklets).

For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission) please visit this journal's homepage. For detailed instructions on the preparation of electronic artwork, please visit http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher. You can track accepted articles at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. You can also check our Author FAQs at http://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ and/or contact Customer Support via http://support.elsevier.com.