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Journal of Human Evolution



YPYW (Your Paper Your Way)

We now differentiate between the requirements for new and revised submissions. Only when your paper is at the revision stage, will you be requested to put your paper in to a 'correct format' for acceptance and provide the items required for the publication of your article (you can view templates demonstrating the final layout of the title page, main text, tables and supplementary online material). However, please note that submissions should not include any information in the main text, tables and figures that could lead to the author(s) being identified by reviewers, given the double-anonymized peer review process adopted by the journal.
To find out more, please visit the Preparation section below.

Description

The Journal of Human Evolution concentrates on publishing the highest quality papers covering all aspects of human evolution. The central focus is aimed jointly at paleoanthropological work, covering human and primate fossils, and at comparative studies of living species, including both morphological and molecular evidence. These include descriptions of new discoveries, interpretative analyses of new and previously described material, and assessments of the phylogeny and paleobiology of primate species. All submissions should clearly address issues and questions of broad interest in paleoanthropology. In addition to original, full length research papers, space is allocated for the rapid publication of short communications on new discoveries, such as exciting new fossils, as well as to commentaries, lead book reviews and obituaries. All manuscripts are subjected to review by three referees (more details are provided below).

Research Areas Include:

  • Paleoanthropological work, covering human and primate fossils
  • Comparative studies of living species, including morphological and molecular evidence
  • Primate systematics, phylogeny and behavior
  • Functional studies, particularly relating to diet and locomotion
  • Body size and allometric studies
  • Studies in Paleolithic archaeology
  • Taphonomic and stratigraphical studies supporting fossil evidence for primate and human evolution
  • Paleoecological and paleogeographical models for primate and human evolution

Introduction



The Journal of Human Evolution (JHE) is the premier forum in physical anthropology and paleontology for publishing high quality, peer-reviewed research papers on all aspects relating to human and primate evolution. The central focus is aimed jointly at paleoanthropological work, covering human and nonhuman primate fossils, and at comparative studies of living species, including both morphological and molecular evidence. These include descriptions of new discoveries, interpretative analyses of new and previously described material, and assessments of the phylogeny and paleobiology of primate species. Submissions should address issues and questions of broad interest in paleoanthropology.

Types of articles
Except for Editorials, all articles regardless of type are subject to peer review.

Research articles. Research articles can be any length up to 150 pages/45,000 words (including tables and references), subject to limitations on space. Monographs on a particular site or fossil assemblage may be longer than 150 pages, pending approval of the Editors and publisher prior to submission. Original research articles, regardless of length, should be submitted as regular research submissions under the category Full Length Article. Research articles can include Supplementary Online Material of any length.

Synthetic reviews. Synthetic review papers can be any length (up to 150 pages/45,000 words, including tables and references). A presubmission inquiry to the Editors-in-Chief is mandatory for review submissions and should include the author names and affiliations and proposed title, and address the aim and scope of the review and why the review is of timely relevance to the journal and the field. JHE will publish a maximum of one review paper per issue. Thus, reviews are highly competitive and acceptance of a review proposal is at the discretion of the Editors-in-Chief. Please note that acceptance of a review submission is not a guarantee of acceptance for publication. Synthetic reviews can include Supplementary Online Material of any length.

Short Communications. Short Communications are normally less than 3000 words (excluding title page, acknowledgments, references and captions) and include up to 4 figures or tables and no abstract. Short Communications can include Supplementary Online Material.

Commentaries. Commentaries may be on recently published papers, whether in JHE or elsewhere. These are normally less than 3000 words (excluding title page, acknowledgments, references and captions) and can include up to 4 figures or tables but do not include an abstract. A Commentary can include Supplementary Online Material. Authors should be aware that upon provisional acceptance of a Commentary by the Editors, the author of the previously published paper will be asked to fact check the Commentary and will be invited to submit a Commentary in the form of a counter-reply. All commentaries, including counter-replies, are subject to peer review.

Lead book reviews and obituaries. Normally less than 4000 words (excluding title page, acknowledgments, references and captions). Presubmission inquiries to the Editors-in-Chief are mandatory for these types of submission and all submissions are subject to peer review.

Special issues

Special issues (SIs). SIs are devoted to particular topics or themes that fall within the purview of the journal. For SIs, presubmission inquiries to the Editors, including detailed special issue proposals, are mandatory. JHE publishes a maximum of one SI per year. The proposal should include the following: names and affiliations of all proposed Guest Editors (GE) and their CVs, SI title, aim and scope of the SI and its current relevance to JHE readership, and number of anticipated submissions including title and author(s) of each submission, and abstracts (please keep in mind the 300-word limit for abstracts). The proposal should indicate the papers that will be handled by each GE. Each SI should have an Editorial that places the papers in collective context and may have a closing article though this is not mandatory. Please note that acceptance of a SI is not a guarantee that all submissions for that SI will be accepted for publication. The manuscripts should be submitted under the category with the title of the SI. All submissions are subject to the normal peer-review process with the exception of the Editorial, which should be submitted directly to the Editor-in-Chief handling the SI.

Peer review
JHE uses double-anonymized review, which means that both the author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. While reviewers are allowed to disclose their identity to authors if they so choose, it is mandatory that authors remain anonymous unless explicitly allowed by the editors under specific circumstances. Thus, authors need to ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in a way that does not reveal their identity. To help with this preparation please ensure the following when submitting to Journal of Human Evolution:

Submit the Title Page containing the author details (including the title, authors' names and affiliations, and e-mail address of the corresponding author) and Acknowledgments (including funding sources), and the Anonymized Manuscript with no author details, as two separate editable files. You can view templates demonstrating the final layout of the title page, main text, tables and supplementary online material.

In the Anonymized Manuscript, make sure that no author names and/or affiliations are provided. Use the third person to refer to work the authors have previously undertaken, e.g., replace phrases such as "we have shown before (citation)" with "it has been shown before [citation]" or "we have shown before (author 1, author 2, etc.)" until such time as the publication has been provisionally accepted. Upon provisional acceptance, these expressions must be replaced by either the full in-text citation (e.g., author, date) or, if referencing unpublished work, with the authors' initials with periods, e.g., C.Z., A.B.T, etc. Ensure that figures do not contain any affiliation related identifier(s). Remove any identifying information, including author names, from file names and ensure document properties are also anonymized. Do not eliminate essential self-citations or other citations, but limit self-citations only to papers that are relevant for academic reasons.


Submission checklist
You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

Ensure that the following items are present:

Title page with all author names, affiliations, and full postal addresses; one author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details, including e-mail address and author's first initial and last name. Up to two authors may designated as corresponding author, in which case contact details should be provided for both corresponding authors.

All necessary files have been uploaded:

Abstract (if required)

Manuscript:

  • The manuscript should be in editable Word format and should include headings in proper format for 1. Introduction, 2. Materials and methods, 3. Results, 4. Discussion, and 5. Conclusions; Discussion and conclusions may be combined into a single section.
  • Include a maximum of six (6) keywords.
  • All figures should be numbered and uploaded consecutively as separate files; relevant figure legends should be placed at the end of the manuscript after References.
  • All tables should be uploaded as a single, editable Word file and include table title with description and footnotes (using superscript lowercase letters).
  • Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided.
  • Graphical Abstracts / Highlights files (where applicable)

Supplemental Online Material (SOM), where applicable, should be uploaded as e-component(s). For SOM text, figures and tables, these should be uploaded into a single SOM file with text first, followed by figures and then tables. Each SOM table should include table title with description and footnotes using superscript lowercase letters. Each figure should be accompanied by a figure legend, place below the figure. Each SOM figure should be indicated as SOM Figure S# and each table as SOM Table S#.

For further information, visit our Support Center.

Please note the Cover letter for the Editor is not sent to reviewers.

Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process.

Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans, as outlined in Elsevier’s AI policy for authors.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Disclosure instructions
Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled ‘Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process’.

Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

Reporting sex- and gender-based analyses

Reporting guidance
For research involving or pertaining to humans, animals or eukaryotic cells, investigators should integrate sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA) into their research design according to funder/sponsor requirements and best practices within a field. Authors should address the sex and/or gender dimensions of their research in their article. In cases where they cannot, they should discuss this as a limitation to their research's generalizability. Importantly, authors should explicitly state what definitions of sex and/or gender they are applying to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of their research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer (see Definitions section below). Authors can refer to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist. These offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting and research interpretation - however, please note there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender.

Definitions
Sex generally refers to a set of biological attributes that are associated with physical and physiological features (e.g., chromosomal genotype, hormonal levels, internal and external anatomy). A binary sex categorization (male/female) is usually designated at birth (""sex assigned at birth""), most often based solely on the visible external anatomy of a newborn. Gender generally refers to socially constructed roles, behaviors, and identities of women, men and gender-diverse people that occur in a historical and cultural context and may vary across societies and over time. Gender influences how people view themselves and each other, how they behave and interact and how power is distributed in society. Sex and gender are often incorrectly portrayed as binary (female/male or woman/man) and unchanging whereas these constructs actually exist along a spectrum and include additional sex categorizations and gender identities such as people who are intersex/have differences of sex development (DSD) or identify as non-binary. Moreover, the terms ""sex"" and ""gender"" can be ambiguous—thus it is important for authors to define the manner in which they are used. In addition to this definition guidance and the SAGER guidelines, the resources on this page offer further insight around sex and gender in research studies.

Author contributions

For transparency, we require corresponding authors to provide co-author contributions to the manuscript using the relevant CRediT roles. The CRediT taxonomy includes 14 different roles describing each contributor’s specific contribution to the scholarly output. The roles are: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; and Writing - review & editing. Note that not all roles may apply to every manuscript, and authors may have contributed through multiple roles. More details and an example.

Preparation



General information for all article types
  • Including a cover letter to the Editors-in-Chief is mandatory and should include the manuscript title and a brief overview of the topic, main findings and significance to the journal. Please note the Cover letter for the Editor is not sent to reviewers.
  • Manuscripts in the revision stage must be submitted in a complete and finished form. The Title page (including the Acknowledgments section), Highlights, Main text (including title, abstract, keywords, main text, references and figure captions), Tables and Supplementary Online Material (SOM) files should be submitted as separate, editable Word documents.
  • Include page numbers and continuous line numbers throughout the manuscript.
  • American spelling is mandatory (except for actual titles of articles/books or names of journals or organizations).
  • The institution where the primary material studied is curated (when applicable) is stated in the Materials and methods section. In cases where large extant comparative samples are involved, this information should be provided in Supplementary Online Material.
  • All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa.
  • Permission has been granted by CC-BY user license or allowed by the copyright owner for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet; see https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/copyright/permissions).
  • A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare. Please be sure that the competing interest statement does not contain information that can identify the authors.

Use of word processing software
It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the word processor used. The text should be in single-column 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 word processor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. 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). Note that source files of figures, tables and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also the section on Electronic artwork.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor.

Title page
This section should include an informative title that clearly and concisely summarizes the specific findings. The title of the manuscript should avoid the use of non-standard abbreviations, formulae and literature citations.
Include author names (first followed by last) in the first paragraph, with a lowercase superscript letter immediately following the author's name to indicate author affiliation; include a star (*) following the corresponding author's name as well. The JHE allows for more than one corresponding author. Please use a single asterisk after the last name and affiliations of each corresponding author (e.g., First Name Last Name1a,(*) First Name Last Name2b,(*) Following the author names, present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names of the authors. Indicate each author affiliation with a lowercase superscript letter immediately in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and affiliations of all authors, including current addresses for authors who have moved. 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. Below the list of author affiliations, indicate the corresponding author(s), who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing, publication, and post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Materials and methods. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author. If there are two corresponding authors (e.g., first author and senior author) be sure to provide the emails for both.

Example:
First Name Last Name1a,*, First Name Last Name2b

a Author 1 affiliation address
b Author 2 affiliation address

*Corresponding author.
E-mail address: author@xxx (First and middle initials followed by last name).
If multiple corresponding authors are included, please replace the above expression by:
E-mail addresses: author1@xxx (First and middle initials followed by last name); author2@xxx (First and middle initials followed by last name).


Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments should be placed in the title page upon submission to avoid revealing identifying information about the authors. Upon acceptance, the Acknowledgments section should be shifted to the article just prior to References. List here those individuals who provided help during the research but who do not qualify for authorship (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc; please note that titles e.g., Prof., Dr., etc., are not allowed), access to materials, and funding sources.
List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements:
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers xxxx, yyyy); the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA (grant number zzzz); and the United States Institutes of Peace (grant number aaaa).
It is not necessary to include detailed descriptions on the program or type of grants and awards. When funding is from a block grant or other resources available to a university, college, or other research institution, submit the name of the institute or organization that provided the funding.
If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence:
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Please list funding sources within the Acknowledgments.

Author contributions
Specifying author contributions is not mandatory, but if such statement is used, then it must be placed immediately after the Acknowledgments, using authors' initials with periods e.g., C.Z. and A.B.T.

Highlights
Highlights are optional yet highly encouraged for this journal, as they increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that capture the novel results of your research as well as new methods that were used during the study (if any). Please have a look at the examples here: example Highlights.

Highlights should be submitted in a separate editable file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point). Each bullet point should be a complete sentence and end in a period.

Main Text

Abstract
Provide an abstract of no more than 300 words (Short Communications, Commentaries, Lead book reviews, Editorials and Obituaries do not include abstracts) that includes a clear and concise introduction of the topic of the manuscript, briefly addresses the materials and methods, and summarizes the main findings, significance of the result and main conclusions. The abstract should be intelligible to the general reader without reference to the main text. Non-standard abbreviations, formulae and literature citations should be avoided in the abstract.

Keywords

Immediately below the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general 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.

Body of the manuscript

The body of the manuscript of a Research Article should be submitted in editable Word format. JHE allows for primary, secondary and tertiary headers. The format of these headers is as follows:

JHE allows for primary, secondary and tertiary headers. The format of these headers is as follows:

1. Primary section header (capitalize only the first word of the primary header and use bold)
Text begins here.

1.1. Secondary section header (italics, no bold or underline, but please do not italicize genera/species names)
Text begins here.
Tertiary section header Text begins here.

The manuscript should thus adhere to the following formatting:

  1. Introduction
  2. Materials and methods
Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference, but sufficient detail must be provided so that readers can understand the methods without referring to separate papers. Authors must supply complete and accurate information about the location and accession of material, both at the time it was studied and, if different, at the time of publication (for example, if the material was on loan or not fully accessioned in a single institution at the time of study). In line with the journals commitment to open access and transparency, specimen numbers of material (both fossil and modern comparative) analyzed as part of the submitted work should be included either in the main manuscript or, in cases where a large sample is used, as supplementary online material. The institution where the studied specimens are curated should be indicated in the Materials section.

Data statement
To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect. For more information, visit the Data Statement page.

3. Systematics/Systematic paleontology
In taxonomic papers, a section of Systematics (for extant taxa) or Systematic paleontology (for extinct taxa) is required, either before or in substitution for the Results section (see specific guidelines for taxonomic papers below).

4. Results
Results should be clear and concise. For papers without Systematics/Systematic Paleontology, it should be the section number 3.

5. Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion or Discussion and Conclusions section is sometimes appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature. For papers without Systematics/Systematic Paleontology, it should be the section number 4.

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

References
All references cited in the text, tables and figure legends should be included in a single reference list after Acknowledgments (or after Author contributions if provided). All literature codes for both in text citations and references listed must be removed before submission. References can be in any style or format as long as the style is consistent. Where applicable, author(s) name(s), journal title/book title, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume number/book chapter and the article number or pagination must be present. Use of DOI is highly encouraged. The reference style used by the journal will be applied to the accepted article by Elsevier at the proof stage. Please see examples of the journal's reference style here. Note that missing data will be highlighted at proof stage for the author to correct.

Citation in text
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). References are not allowed in the abstract. Unpublished results, manuscripts in preparation, and personal communications should not be included in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text using 'author's unpublished results', 'in prep.', 'pers. comm.', or similar expressions within parentheses. If citing a personal communication, please ensure that you supply verification from the person providing the communication that they agree to it being included in your submission. If gray literature documents (unpublished reports, submitted manuscripts, etc.) are cited, they must be included as such in the reference list. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication. Submitted manuscripts should not be included in the reference list.

For journal articles pre-published online, the volume number and page range should be substituted by the full URL of the DOI. For online only articles, page range should be substituted by article number (DOI is not required).

Issue number within volume should only be included (within parentheses, between volume number and page range) when page numbering is not consecutive throughout successive issues of the same volume.

In taxonomic papers, taxonomic authorities (i.e., authorships) should be provided after taxon names, and the corresponding references included in the reference list (see specific guidelines for taxonomic papers below).

Reference Links
Increased discoverability of research and high quality peer review are ensured by online links to the sources cited. In order to allow us to create links to abstracting and indexing services, such as Scopus, CrossRef and PubMed, please ensure that data provided in the references are correct. Please note that incorrect surnames, journal/book titles, publication year and pagination may prevent link creation. When copying references, please be careful as they may already contain errors. Use of the DOI is highly encouraged.

A DOI is guaranteed never to change, so you can use it as a permanent link to any electronic article. An example of a citation using DOI for an article not yet in an issue is: VanDecar J.C., Russo R.M., James D.E., Ambeh W.B., Franke M. (2003). Aseismic continuation of the Lesser Antilles slab beneath northeastern Venezuela. Journal of Geophysical Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JB000884. Please note the format of such citations should be in the same style as all other references in the paper. Full URLs for DOIs may be provided at the end of references with full publication details provided this is consistently done for all references with available DOIs.

Citations in text: All citations in text should refer to:

  1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
  2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;
  3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by'et al.,' and the year of publication.

When citing the use of software, the version should be specified (e.g., R v.3.2.1). For software, please provide a literature citation. If no literature citation is available, then cite the company name and the city where the head office is located between parentheses. For example: MATLAB v. 2019b (Mathworks, Natick). For freeware, please cite the authors' website or the publication where the software was announced.

Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first chronologically, then alphabetically.

List: References should be arranged first alphabetically, based on the last name of the first author, 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.

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 must be included in the reference list.

Data references
This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

References in a special issue
Do not cite a paper as in "this issue", even if it is part of a "Special Issue"; always provide the year in the text and the full citation in the reference list.

Reference management software
Most Elsevier journals have their reference template available in many of the most popular reference management software products. These include all products that support Citation Style Language styles, such as Mendeley. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal's style. If no template is yet available for this journal, please follow the format of the sample references and citations as shown in this Guide. If you use reference management software, please ensure that you remove all field codes before submitting the electronic manuscript. More information on how to remove field codes from different reference management software.

Users of Mendeley Desktop can easily install the reference style for this journal by clicking the following link: http://open.mendeley.com/use-citation-style/journal-of-human-evolution When preparing your manuscript, you will then be able to select this style using the Mendeley plug-ins for Microsoft Word or LibreOffice.

Reference style
Citation in the text should read thus: Kimura and Yaguramaki (2009), or (Kimura and Yaguramaki, 2009). When a citation has more than two authors, the citation style McGrew et al. (2009) or (McGrew et al., 2009) should be used. The convention (McGrew, 2010a; McGrew, 2010b) or (McGrew, 2010 a,b) should be used where more than one paper by the same author(s) has appeared in one year. Citations listed in the text should be arranged in chronological order, not in alphabetical order (e.g., Schoening et al., 2008; Boesch et al., 2009; Ungar and Sponheimer, 2011; Kamilar and Marshack, 2012).

Computer programs

Swofford, D.L., 2002. PAUP*: Phylogenetic analysis using parsimony (*and other methods). Version 4.0b5. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland.

R Core Team, 2017. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna.

Figure Captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Figure captions should be provided at the end of the manuscript, after References. Each caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and begin with Figure # (in bold) followed by a period. Each figure legend should contain sufficient information for readers to understand the figure and its significance without reference to the main text . If multiple panels are included in a figure, each panel should be clearly labeled using upper case letters and each panel should be described in the figure legend. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used. Abbreviations, even if given in the main text or in an earlier figure caption, must be defined at first use in each figure caption.

Artwork

Electronic Artwork
General points
• Please 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 published version.
• Submit each illustration as a separate file.
• Ensure that color images are accessible to all, including those with impaired color vision.
• Place figure captions at the end of the manuscript, after the References. Please do not provide figure captions with the figures.

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available.
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.

Formats
Electronic artwork should be converted and saved 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, JPEG, EPS or PDF) 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 online (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 online only. Further information on the preparation of electronic artwork.

Tables
Tables should be submitted in a single consolidated editable file in Word. Place each table on a separate page. Please indicate the upper and lower line for the headings row and the line below the table. There are no vertical lines in JHE tables. Each table should be accompanied by a table caption at the top and by footnotes to the table (if any), below the table, denoted by lowercase superscript letters. Please do not supply table captions separately in the main text. Abbreviations, if any, must be provided below the table body, prior to the footnotes.

Supplementary material

Supplementary Online Material (SOM) can include supplementary methods, figures and/or tables, as well as files containing surface images (e.g., .PLY files) or programming code. All SOM files should be submitted by selecting the 'e-component' from the drop-down menu of submission files. Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received (Excel or PowerPoint files will appear as such online). Please submit your material together with the article and supply a concise, descriptive caption for each supplementary file. If you wish to make changes to supplementary material during any stage of the process, please make sure to provide an updated file. Do not annotate any corrections on a previous version, but make sure to use the last version (normally provided by the Editor-in-Chief with the decision letter). Please switch off the 'Track Changes'option in Microsoft Office files as these will appear in the published version.

Please note Supplementary Online Material (SOM) is not typeset. SOM texts, figures and tables should be consolidated into a single editable file for submission, which should be converted to PDF only on submission of the very final version of the manuscript. For large tables, figures, or other files such as program codes, 3D models, etc, they must be submitted separately but the caption of each of these items should be included in the main SOM file. The first page should be the title page with the header 'Supplementary Online Material (SOM):' followed by the manuscript title on the next line (please do not include author names and affiliations until the manuscript has been accepted for publication). The title page should be followed by text, then figures, then tables, and lastly by a SOM Reference list of all references cited in the SOM file (using the same Reference formatting as the main test). SOM text should be numbered consecutively beginning with SOM S1. Figure legends should be placed directly under the appropriate figure and numbered consecutively beginning with SOM Figure S1 (in bold). Each table should have a table header and should be numbered consecutively beginning with SOM Table S1 (in bold). Do not bold the figure legends or table headers; bold only the SOM Figure S# and SOM Table S#.

For other types of files (e.g., audio, video, 3D models, code), these should each be uploaded as separate e-components. Captions for these files must be provided in the main SOM file.

SPECIFIC GUIDELINES FOR TAXONOMIC PAPERS

Taxonomic papers

All manuscripts should adhere to the last edition and subsequent amendments of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (hereafter, the Code), which can be accessed online (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted-sites/iczn/code/). However, taxonomic papers should follow particular rules that are outlined below (manuscripts will be considered 'taxonomic papers' when new taxa are erected, when amended diagnoses of taxa are provided, or when the main aim of the paper is taxonomic at the Editor's discretion).

Structure of the paper

A separate primary section, numbered and entitled Systematics (for extant taxa) or Systematic paleontology (for extinct taxa) is mandatory. This section may substitute the standard Results section; if not, then the latter must be placed immediately after the systematic section. This section primary heading should be followed by successive taxonomic subheadings in round type that do not adhere to the style of secondary or tertiary headings of the journal, and which must include rank (but see below), taxon name, and taxonomic authorships and/or specifications about the novelty of taxa (see abbreviations below), without dot at the end. For example:

Systematic paleontology

Order Primates Linnaeus, 1758

Infraorder Catarrhini E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812

Superfamily Cercopithecoidea Gray, 1821

Family Cercopithecidae Gray, 1821

Subfamily Colobinae Blyth, 1863

Genus Mesopithecus Wagner, 1839

Mesopithecus pentelicus Wagner, 1839

Studied specimens Text follows here in the same line, with the heading underlined and not followed by a dot. When necessary, such as when describing new taxa, tertiary headings of Holotype, Type locality, Diagnosis, Distribution, Etymology, etc., can be provided here.

Description

Text begins here, indented, and with the heading in italics on the previous line. Tertiary headings can be added below to separate the description of different anatomical parts. Additional secondary headings (in italics) may be added below, as required (Comparisons, Remarks, etc.).

The use of taxon ranks is mandatory when ruled by the Code (i.e., family-, genus- or species-group taxa), and optional for higher-level ranks not ruled by the Code (e.g., class, order?). New taxa must be explicitly denoted as such after taxon name (e.g., sp. nov.), whereas new rank must be explicitly specified after taxonomic authorship. A taxonomic subheading can be followed, on next line, by another taxonomic subheading (of lower rank), a synonyms list, or one or more secondary or tertiary headings (in accordance to the journal style), depending on the case. Tertiary headings will be used except for longer sub-sections of 'Description', 'Comparisons' or 'Remarks', which must be under secondary headings and may be alternatively placed within a separate Results section (if any). The erection of new family- and genus-group taxa must be accompanied at least by a designation of the type genus or species, respectively, whereas the erection of new species-group taxa must obligatorily include a succinct diagnosis (without references, and preceded by a tertiary heading), which must be differential unless a separate differential diagnosis is provided.


Synonyms

If applicable, systematic headings of species-group taxa may be followed by a synonyms list with references. References cited within the synonyms list(s) must be included in the references list of the paper, but their citation does not adhere to the standard citation style of the journal. Only relevant synonyms must be included (e.g., original description, new rank, genus transfer, etc.). Each synonym must be placed on a text line of its own, flushed to the left, beginning with year, followed by colon, taxon name, authorship without year, semicolon plus citation (if different from authorship), colon, plates and/or figures and comma (if applicable), and page range, ending with a dot.

Taxonomic authorities

Taxononic authorities (or authorships) should be provided following a taxon name (especially for ranks of the genus-and species-groups) when it is first mentioned in the text, as well as within systematic headings within a formal Systematics or Systematic paleontology section. References for taxonomic authorships used in the text must be included in the references list following the same style as other references. Within the text, taxonomic authorships should follow the recommendations of the Code if they go against the journal's citation style. Therefore, the name of author(s) must be separated from year of original description with a comma, but parentheses can only be used for species-group names when they were originally erected within a different genus from that currently used. For authors, only surnames will be used, unless initials are required to distinguish different authors. For two authors, Australopithecus must be separated by 'and' (instead of ampersand); for three or more authors, the name of first author followed by 'et al.' should be used as long as the full list of authors can be unambiguously identified in the references list.

Taxon names

Genus- and species-group names must be italicized (including tables and figures), whereas taxon names from higher ranks must be in round type and with the first word capitalized. Using the English version of formal family-group (or higher-level rank) taxon names is allowed except in systematic headings, but they must be clearly denoted as such by not being capitalized and by transforming the formal Latin ending of each rank into its standard English version (e.g., -ids instead of -idae for families, -oids instead of -oidea for superfamilies, etc.). Authors should be aware that species names are binomina composed by a genus name and a species epithet, so that the use of isolated species epithets is not warranted; the same applies to subspecies trinomina. Genus names within species binomina must not be abbreviated when they are first mentioned in the text (even if implicit), at the beginning of a sentence, or within a heading (systematic or otherwise). The same applies to species epithets in subspecies trinomina when first mentioned in the text. Genus names must be abbreviated (when necessary) preferentially by using the first (uppercase) letter of the genus name (in italics) followed by a dot. However, different abbreviations must be used for different genera within a paper, so that additional (lowercase) letters must be employed to distinguish abbreviations of genus names beginning with the same letter. For example, genus Australopithecus will be only abbreviated as 'Au.' if Ardipithecus is abbreviated in the same paper as 'A.', although they might be alternatively abbreviated as 'A.' and 'Ar.', respectively. The use of subgenus names (with uppercase first letter) and names of superspecies or groups of species (with lowercase first letter) is optional, but when used, they must be obligatorily within parentheses before the species epithets.


Standard abbreviations and open nomenclature

When new taxa are erected, their name must be followed by an expression that unambiguously denotes that they are new (e.g., 'sp. nov.', 'gen. nov.', 'gen. et sp. nov.', 'fam. nov.', etc.) in the title, the abstract, the systematics section, and the first time they are mentioned in the text. Expressions 'sp. nov.' and 'gen. nov.' will be used instead of other equivalents, such as 'n. sp.' and 'n. g.', respectively. Authors are encouraged to use open nomenclature modifiers to express 'Sivapithecus' in taxonomic assignments. Indeterminate species must be denoted by 'sp.' after genus name, indeterminate subspecies by 'subsp.' after species name, and 'indet.' for after the family-group taxon name in the remaining instances. When a taxon may be assigned to two different species, separate the two binomina by 'vel' (meaning 'or') or slash, not the species epithets by a slash or an hyphen (e.g., Homo erectus vel Homo ergaster or Homo erectus/H. ergaster, instead of Homo erectus/ergaster or Homo erectus-ergaster). Other standard abbreviations are 's.l.' (sensu lato, in broad sense), 's.s.' (sensu stricto, in strict sense), 'cf.' (confer, compare with), 'aff.' (affinis, closely related to) and '?' (question mark). The latter three conventions should must not be mistaken with one another: 'cf.' means that a particular specimen is likely to belong to the taxon, but the assignment cannot be confidently confirmed due to the lack of enough data; 'aff.' means that a particular specimen appears most closely related to that taxon but probably represents a different one (likely to be new); the question mark indicates that the taxonomic (not nomenclatural) validity of a particular taxon is doubtful. These conventions must precede the relevant taxonomic rank, separated by space in the case of 'cf.' and 'aff.', and without space in the case of question marks. Therefore, uncertainly at the species rank should be denoted by putting these modifiers before the species epithet without repeating the genus name (e.g., Australopithecus cf. afarensis, not Australopithecus cf. A. afarensis); if taxonomic uncertainty applies to the genus rank as well, then the modifier must be written only once (e.g., cf. Australopithecus afarensis). When the inclusion of a particular species within a genus is questioned but there is no better alternative, then the genus name must be written within simple (not double) quotation marks, which should not be italicized (e.g., 'Sivapithecus' occidentalis). All the taxonomic abbreviations and symbols mentioned above are standard in taxonomy; hence, they should not be italicized, and their meaning should not be further specified anywhere in the manuscript. The same applies to other taxonomic terms, such as 'nomen nudum', 'nomen dubium', 'nomen oblitum', etc.

Citing the Code

When articles of the Code must be cited to discuss a particular nomenclatural decision, the Code must be cited by mentioning the relevant articles: ICZN (1999:Art. 9.3) or (ICZN, 1999:Art. 9.3). In such cases, the Code must be included in the references list as follows:
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), 1999. International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. The International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted-sites/iczn/code/


Registration in ZooBank

Although registration in ZooBank is only mandatory for online-only taxonomic publications, and Journal of Human Evolution is still printed, taxonomic papers published in the journal should be registered in ZooBank, and evidence of such registration included within the published version of the paper. Registration in ZooBank is the responsibility of authors, once the paper has been provisionally accepted for publication, so that the details to be included in the published version of the paper must be provided by authors before its final formal acceptance. These details must include the date of registration and the life science identifier (LSID) of the publication. Authors must register their papers as in press, and subsequently update the citation details one their paper is published. Authors are also encouraged to register new taxa in ZooBank, and provide their LSID below the corresponding systematic headings in their papers, but this is not mandatory. The digital repositories (e.g., CLOCKSS) that partner with Elsevier (to be selected by authors of Journal of Human Evolution during ZooBank registration) can be consulted here: https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/

Additional information
Abbreviations
When first used in the abstract and again in the main text, define abbreviations that are non-standard in the field. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article. Common, standard abbreviations such as Ma, kyr, Myr, ca., etc., need not be defined at first use

Units
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: with some exceptions (e.g., geological time), use the international system of units (SI). If other units are mentioned, please give their equivalent in SI.

Time units (Ma, ka, cal BP, etc.), mammalian dental nomenclature (upper and lower teeth should be denoted by an upper case letter corresponding to the tooth type and a number for the tooth position in superscripts and subscripts, while for deciduous teeth, a lower case 'd' should be added as a prefix, e.g., the deciduous maxillary canine is abbreviated as dC1)and taxonomic abbreviations (see specific guidelines for taxonomic papers below) are considered standard abbreviatons and need not be defined. Other common standard abbreviations that are accepted and should not be written in italics are the following: 'et al.' (et alii: and others), 'e.g.' (exempli gratia: for example; always followed by comma), and 'i.e.' (id est: that is to say; always followed by comma). Similarly, other words of Latin origin that are not abbreviated should not be italicized either (e.g.,'a priori', 'a posteriori', 'per se', 'contra').

Footnotes
Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article. Many word processors can build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Otherwise, please indicate the position of footnotes in the text and list the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

Video

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 file in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 150 MB per file, 1 GB in total. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect. 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. 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.

Research data

This journal requires and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings, which may also include software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.

Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. When sharing data in one of these ways, you are expected to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.

Data linking
If you have made your research data available in a data repository, you can link your article directly to the dataset. Elsevier collaborates with a number of repositories to link articles on ScienceDirect with relevant repositories, giving readers access to underlying data that gives them a better understanding of the research described.

There are different ways to link your datasets to your article. When available, you can directly link your dataset to your article by providing the relevant information in the submission system. For more information, visit the database linking page.

For supported data repositories a repository banner will automatically appear next to your published article on ScienceDirect.

In addition, you can link to relevant data or entities through identifiers within the text of your manuscript, using the following format: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).

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.

References

Preprint references
Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, the formal publication should be used as the reference. If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but are not yet formally published, these may be referenced. Preprints should be clearly marked as such, for example by including the word preprint, or the name of the preprint server, as part of the reference. The preprint DOI should also be provided.

Research Elements

This journal enables you to publish research objects related to your original research – such as data, methods, protocols, software and hardware – as an additional paper in a Research Elements journal.

Research Elements is a suite of peer-reviewed, open access journals which make your research objects findable, accessible and reusable. Articles place research objects into context by providing detailed descriptions of objects and their application, and linking to the associated original research articles. Research Elements articles can be prepared by you, or by one of your collaborators.

During submission, you will be alerted to the opportunity to prepare and submit a manuscript to one of the Research Elements journals.

More information can be found on the Research Elements page.

Before you begin



Submission process
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Please note that individual figure files larger than 10 MB must be uploaded separately. Papers should be submitted in English. Manuscripts should use double-spacing throughout (including references, tables, legends and footnotes). The position of tables and illustrations should be indicated in the text; footnotes, tables and legends for illustrations should be typed separately at the end of the manuscript. Please ensure the manuscript is line numbered throughout. Figures and tables should be comprehensible without reference to the text. All pages should be numbered serially. Manuscripts must be submitted in a complete and finished form, as a Word document. The Editors reserve the right to return unacceptable material to authors for revision.

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Ethics in publishing

Please see our information on Ethics in publishing.

Studies in humans and animals

If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. The manuscript should be in line with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations (sex, age and ethnicity) as per those recommendations. The terms sex and gender should be used correctly.

The author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and have been approved by the appropriate institutional committee(s). This statement should contain the date and reference number of the ethical approval(s) obtained. Authors should also include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

The journal will not accept manuscripts that contain data derived from unethically sourced organs or tissue, including from executed prisoners or prisoners of conscience, consistent with recommendations by Global Rights Compliance on Mitigating Human Rights Risks in Transplantation Medicine. For all studies that use human organs or tissues authors must provide sufficient evidence that they were procured in line with WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation. The source of the organs or tissues used in clinical research must be transparent and traceable. Authors of manuscripts describing organ transplantation must additionally declare within the manuscript:

  1. that autonomous consent free from coercion was obtained from the donor(s) or their next of kin; and
  2. that organs/tissues were not sourced from executed prisoners or prisoners of conscience.

All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and the authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. The sex of animals must be indicated, and where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the results of the study.


Authors of manuscripts submitted to Journal of Human Evolution that report research concerning living subjects, whether in the field or in the laboratory, are expected to comply with all relevant institutional and governmental policies, regulations, and guidelines regarding the ethical treatment of their subjects. Authors should record their compliance with such policies, regulations, and guidelines, as implemented under protocols developed by the relevant institution(s) with which authors are affiliated, in the Methods section of their manuscripts. The editors reserve the right to request documentation of such compliance. Ensure that if living subjects are identifiable in figures, you have their permission to include their image in your submission. Please supply confirmation of this to the Editor at the time of submission: it is good practice to include such a declaration in your consent forms.

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Authors should complete the declaration of competing interest statement using this template and upload to the submission system at the Attach/Upload Files step. Please do not sign the declaration. All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations 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

Note: Please do not convert the .docx template to another file type. Author signatures are not required.If there are no interests to declare, please choose the first option in the template. More information.


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Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, 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.
Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

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Copyright

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Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals.

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Language (usage and editing services)
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After acceptance

After Acceptance
This journal makes articles available online as soon as possible after acceptance. A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is allocated, thereby making it fully citable and searchable by title, author name(s) and the full text. The article's PDF also carries a disclaimer stating that it is an unedited article. Subsequent production stages will simply replace this version.

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All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF.

We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. 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. 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. The Editor in Chief will review the corrected proofs and must approve any changes.

Offprints

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