Guide for authors
- Introduction
- Before you begin
- Ethics in publishing
- Declaration of competing interest
- Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing
- Submission declaration and verification
- Use of inclusive language
- Reporting sex- and gender-based analyses
- Author contributions
- Changes to authorship
- Copyright
- Role of the funding source
- Open access
- Submit your article
- Referees
- Supplementary material
- Preparation
- Queries
- Peer review
- Manuscript Preparation
- Highlights
- References
- Data visualization
- Research data
- Research Elements
- After acceptance
- Author inquiries
Introduction
The Journal of Structural Geology publishes process-oriented investigations about structural geology using appropriate combinations of analog and digital field data, seismic reflection data, satellite-derived data, geometric analysis, kinematic analysis, laboratory experiments, computer visualizations, and analogue or numerical modelling on all scales. Contributions are encouraged to draw perspectives from rheology, rock mechanics, geophysics,metamorphism, sedimentology, petroleum geology, economic geology, geodynamics, planetary geology, tectonics and neotectonics to provide a more powerful understanding of deformation processes and systems. Given the visual nature of the discipline, supplementary materials that portray the data and analysis in 3-D or quasi 3-D manners, including the use of videos, and/or graphical abstracts can significantly strengthen the impact of contributions. Types of paper
There are five types of contributions: Original Research Paper, Pedagogical Paper, Review Paper, Comment/Reply to Comment. All contributions are subject to peer review except Comment/Replies to Comments.
Original Research Papers are the standard type of contribution which must present original results.
Pedagogical Papers will be considered for occasional publication. They may be authoritative reviews of established concepts, comprehensive explanations of new theory, or descriptions of practical devices. Papers should be clearly illustrated by examples. Authors that wish their papers to be considered on pedagogical merit should emphasize this in their letter of submission.
Review Papers should give a succinct, thorough overview of the current state of research in a particular field but may contain some new, unpublished material that helps to frame the state of our current understanding with respect to the particular field. Submission of Review Papers should be discussed with the Chief Editor before submission through Editorial Manager.
Comments on papers published in the Journal of Structural Geology must be submitted within six months of the publication of the online version of the paper. The authors addressed by the Comment will be allowed one month in which to submit a Reply, after which point the Comment may be published. Both Comment and Reply will be limited to a maximum of three printed pages each. The Comment will be directed only towards the main issue(s) that are being questioned in the original article; similarly the Reply will respond only to the issues in question. Neither is a vehicle for extensive review or for publishing new findings and both parties are limited to one Comment and Reply each. Acceptance of any Comments/Replies will be at the discretion of the handling Editor. Comments and Replies do not need an abstract.
Authors contributing to special issues should ensure that they select the appropriate special issue article type when submitting their manuscript.
Authors must now confirm that their work complies with any applicable legal requirements as well as relevant regulations relating to conservation e.g. A Code of Conduct for Rock Coring from the Geologists' Association.
Before you begin
Ethics in publishingPlease see our information on Ethics in publishing. Declaration of competing interest
Corresponding authors, on behalf of all the authors of a submission, 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. All authors, including those without competing interests to declare, should provide the relevant information to the corresponding author (which, where relevant, may specify they have nothing to declare). Corresponding authors should then use this tool to create a shared statement and upload to the submission system at the Attach Files step. Please do not convert the .docx template to another file type. Author signatures are not required. 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.
Submission declaration and verificationSubmission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis, see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information), 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 in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify compliance, your article may be checked by Crossref Similarity Check and other originality or duplicate checking software. Preprints
Please note that preprints can be shared anywhere at any time, in line with Elsevier's sharing policy. Sharing your preprints e.g. on a preprint server will not count as prior publication (see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information). Use of inclusive language
Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive. 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.
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. 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. Article transfer service
This journal uses the Elsevier Article Transfer Service to find the best home for your manuscript. This means that if an editor feels your manuscript is more suitable for an alternative journal, you might be asked to consider transferring the manuscript to such a journal. The recommendation might be provided by a Journal Editor, a dedicated Scientific Managing Editor, a tool assisted recommendation, or a combination. If you agree, your manuscript will be transferred, though you will have the opportunity to make changes to the manuscript before the submission is complete. Please note that your manuscript will be independently reviewed by the new journal. More information. Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (see more information on this). 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. 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.
For gold open access articles: Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'License Agreement' (more information). Permitted third party reuse of gold open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license.
Author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. More information.
Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals. 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, it is recommended to state this. Open access
Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal. Elsevier Researcher Academy
Researcher Academy is a free e-learning platform designed to support early and mid-career researchers throughout their research journey. The "Learn" environment at Researcher Academy offers several interactive modules, webinars, downloadable guides and resources to guide you through the process of writing for research and going through peer review. Feel free to use these free resources to improve your submission and navigate the publication process with ease. 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 Language Editing service available from Elsevier's Language Services. Submit your article
Please submit your article via https://www.editorialmanager.com/SG/default.aspx Referees
Authors should provide the names, addresses and e-mail addresses of five suggested reviewers with the manuscript. Supplementary material
We accept supplementary material to support and enhance scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of an article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: https://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that the submitted material is directly usable, data should be provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. It should be understood that the supplementary data is also subject to peer review, and should be submitted to the journal together with the original manuscript.
Preparation
QueriesFor questions about the editorial process (including the status of manuscripts under review) or for technical support on submissions, please visit our Support Center. Peer review
This journal operates a single anonymized review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final. Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups. More information on types of peer review. Manuscript Preparation
Manuscript format: Manuscripts must be prepared in single-column, double-spaced format using a font size of 12 pt. Continuous line numbering must be included throughout. In MS Word, the correction mode should be switched off, otherwise comments and corrections may appear in the final PDF.
Paper Length: Papers should be written in the most concise form possible. Papers will typically be limited to a maximum of 18 printed pages or 15000 words equivalent. Estimates should be made, prior to submission, according to the following: text occupies c. 900 words per page, line drawings, photographic figures and tables will be reduced as appropriate. Reference lists represent approximately 1450 words per page. For review purposes, reduce the resolution of the figures and check that the size of the PDF that is produced by Editorial Manager does not exceed 10 Mb.
At least three files should be included: a Cover letter, the Manuscript, and Highlights. In addition, a separate file for any figures needs to be prepared. Multiple figures can be combined in one file as separate pages, or each figure can be uploaded separately.
Cover letter:
In the cover letter a particular handling editor may be indicated. Submissions for a Special Issue must state this in their cover letter. Where revisions are extensive, a revised manuscript should also contain a detailed rebuttal letter explaining how the referees comments have been answered. Information about what makes the paper novel, previous submission history (including to JSG), any previous publication of the paper and confirmation that your work complies with any applicable legal requirements is requested as part of the upload process and does not need to be included within the cover letter.
Manuscript:
Follow this order when composing manuscripts: Front page, Abstract, Main text, Acknowledgements, References, Figure Captions, Tables, Appendices. Do not import Figures or Tables into your text - these should appear at the end.
The front page must include:
- Title. Concise and informative, and no more than 15 words. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible. Geographical information should be put into the ‘highlights’.
- Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please present the correct family name in CAPITALS. 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, the e-mail address of each author.
- Corresponding author. Clearly indicate the corresponding author by an asterisk. This person will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Include, for the corresponding author, telephone numbers (with country and area code) 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.
- Keywords. Authors are requested to supply 4-6 keywords on the front page that can be used for indexing/abstracting purposes.
An Abstract in English should be provided with all papers, including Review Papers. The abstract, not exceeding 200 words, should be informative and independent of the paper. It should not contain references. During submission you must copy/paste your abstract in the box requiring the abstract. Nevertheless, you should also include your abstract in the manuscript.
The Main text should be subdivided as follows. Primary headings should be bold, left justified and numbered consecutively beginning with 1. at the Introduction. Secondary headings should italicized, left justified, and numbered 1.1., and so on. Tertiary headings are numbered 1.1.1., 1.1.2., etc. The Editors reserve the right to request changes in style to certain standards of uniformity. Figures or tables should not be embedded in the text, but please indicate where a figure or table should preferably appear in the text (e.g. 'insert Table 1' or 'Figure 2 here').
References: All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. Non-published material, included papers in preparation cannot be included in the reference list. In the text refer to the author's name (without initials) and year of publication (e.g. "Since Peterson (1993) has shown that..." or "This is in agreement with results obtained later (Alexius and Naso, 1976; Kramer, 1994)." For three or more authors use the first author followed by "et al.", in the text. Sort multiple citations in the text chronologically and then alphabetically, separate them by a semi-colon e.g. (Sprunt and Nur, 1976; Hickman and Evans, 1995; Lehner, 1995). The list of references at the end of the paper should be arranged alphabetically by authors' last names. The manuscript should be carefully checked to ensure that the spelling of authors' names and dates in the text correspond with the reference list. References should be given in the following form:
Albee, H.F., Cullins, H.L., 1975. Geologic map of the Alpine Quadrangle, Bonneville County, Idaho, and Lincoln County Wyoming. United States Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-1259, scale 1:24,000.
Burnham, C.W., 1970. The importance of volatile constituents. In: Yoder, H.S. (Ed.), The Evolution of Igneous Rocks. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 439-474.
Di Toro, G., 2003. Processes on fault surfaces of seismic shear zones. Ph.D. thesis, University of Padova.
Gavinius, M., Agger, G., 2003. Geology of the Monte Artemisio, Italy. Leidsche Geologische Mededelingen 75, 23-45.
Guilbert, J.M., Park, C.F., 1986. The Geology of Ore Deposits. Freeman and Company, New York.
Kanagawa, K., 1996. Simulated pressure fringes, vorticity, and progressive deformation. In: De Paor, D.G. (Ed.), Structural Geology and Personal Computers. Computer Methods in the Geosciences 15, 259-283.
Lesher, C.E., Cashman, K.V., Mayfield, J.D., 1999. Kinetic controls on crystallization of Tertiary North Atlantic basalt and implications for the emplacement and cooling history of lava at Site 989, Southeast Greenland rifted margin. In: Larsen, H.C., Duncan, R.A., Allan, J.F., Brooks, K. (Eds.), Proceeding of the ODP, Scientific Results, 163, College Station, Texas (Ocean Drilling Program), 3-16.
Li, Z.X., Metcalfe, I., Powell, C.M. (Eds.), 1996. Breakup of Rodinia and Gondwanaland and Assembly of Asia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 43.
Sanderson, D.J., 1982. Models of strain variation in nappes and thrust sheets: a review. In: Williams, G.D. (Ed.), Strain within Thrust Belts. Tectonophysics 88, 201-233.
Stipp, M., Stunitz, H., Heilbronner, R., Schmid, S., 2002. The eastern tonalite fault zone: a 'natural laboratory' for crystal plastic deformation of quartz over a temperature range from 250 to 700°C. Journal of Structural Geology 24, 1861-1884.
Rowe CD., Meneghini F., Moore JC., 1999. Fluid-rich damage zone of an ancient out-of sequence thrust, Kodiak Islands, Alaska. Tectonics 28, TC1006, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007TC002126.
Tables: Tables should be numbered consecutively in the order to which they are referred to in the text and given a suitable caption. Footnotes to tables should be typed below the table and should be referred to by superscript lowercase letters. Tables should not duplicate results presented elsewhere in the manuscript (e.g. in graphs).
Illustrations: Photographs, charts and diagrams are all to be referred to as "Fig(s)." or "Figure(s)" in the text. For reviewing purposes, each figure should be uploaded as a separate page at the smallest possible readable resolution and should carry a figure number and, if possible, the figure caption. Figures should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to in the text. In the revised version, please upload your figures at a high resolution that gives optimal figure quality.
Colour: Colour figures can be accepted. Colour figures will appear on the web (e.g., Science Direct and other sites) at no extra cost, but colour figures in the printed version will be charged at Euro 295 per figure. If you do not choose colour in print, please submit, in addition to all the colour illustrations, corresponding usable black and white versions.
Highlights: Highlights are mandatory for this journal and are not a copy of the abstract. They consist of 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters per bullet point including spaces) that convey the core findings of the article. Prepare the highlights as a single-page file, and submit this separately from the main text, as prompted during the electronic submission process. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and see https://www.elsevier.com/highlights for examples.
Mathematics
- Authors should carefully check if equations are correctly presented in the PDF that is produced by Editorial Manager. Letters, used as variables, should be set in italic.
- Equations should be numbered serially on the right-hand side, in parentheses. In the text they should be referred to as Eq. (1); within mathematical expressions they may be referred to by numbers alone. Equations require normal punctuation
- Computer program listings, if appropriate, must be added as an Appendix.
SI times units must follow algebraic rules such as the distributive law: 100 Ma - 90 Ma = (100-90) Ma = 10 Ma, and so on. Similarly, rates and decay constants should be expressed in (ka)-1, (Ma)-1 or (Ga)-1.
Data AvailabilityAuthors are encouraged to include a 'Data Availability' section in their manuscript which is visible in ALL reading formats and may refer to data hosted in ANY repository. It should be placed before the references to provide readers with information about where they can obtain the research data required to reproduce the work reported in the manuscript, and typically consists of a simple sentence giving the URL(s) of and citation(s) to the dataset(s). Full information can be found here. Submission
All manuscripts must be submitted electronically, at https://www.editorialmanager.com/SG/default.aspx. There are 4 steps in the electronic submission process, which can be interrupted and saved to be continued at a later time. The website instructs you what to do at each step. Don't forget to include five potential reviewers, with their Email addresses.
IMPORTANT:As a final check, you MUST download the PDF of your manuscript and check that it is complete and correct. Your submission will be complete and ready for processing only after you have confirmed that the PDF is correct.
Graphical abstract
A Graphical abstract is optional and should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership online. Authors must provide images that clearly represent the work described in the article. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in the online submission system. Image size: Please provide an image with a minimum of 531 (height) × 1328 pixels (width) or proportionally larger. Preferred file types: TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files. files. See https://www.elsevier.com/graphicalabstracts for examples.
Proofs
When your manuscript is accepted it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as 'drafts'. One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. A form with queries from the Copyeditor may accompany your proofs. Please answer all queries and make any corrections or additions required. The Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated. Return corrections within 3 days of receipt of the proofs. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this. Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible. In order to do this we need your help. When you receive the (PDF) proof of your article for correction, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Subsequent corrections will not be possible, so please ensure your first sending is complete. Note that this does not mean you have any less time to make your corrections, just that only one set of corrections will be accepted. LaTeX
You are recommended to use the latest Elsevier article class to prepare your manuscript and BibTeX to generate your bibliography.
Our Guidelines has full details. 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 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).
Formatting of funding sourcesList funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements:
Funding: 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, it is recommended to include the following sentence:
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
References Data referencesThis 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. 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. 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. Reference formatting
There are no strict requirements on reference formatting at 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. Note that missing data will be highlighted at proof stage for the author to correct. If you do wish to format the references yourself they should be arranged according to the following examples: Reference style
Text: All citations in the 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.
Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references can be listed either first alphabetically, then chronologically, or vice versa.
Examples: 'as demonstrated (Allan, 2000a, 2000b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1999)…. Or, as demonstrated (Jones, 1999; Allan, 2000)… Kramer et al. (2010) have recently shown …'
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. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.Sc.2010.00372.
Reference to a journal publication with an article number:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2018. The art of writing a scientific article. Heliyon. 19, e00205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00205.
Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 2000. The Elements of Style, fourth ed. Longman, New York.
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: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281–304.
Reference to a website:
Cancer Research UK, 1975. Cancer statistics reports for the UK. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/aboutcancer/statistics/cancerstatsreport/ (accessed 13 March 2003).
Reference to a dataset:
[dataset] Oguro, M., Imahiro, S., Saito, S., Nakashizuka, T., 2015. Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions. Mendeley Data, v1. https://doi.org/10.17632/xwj98nb39r.1.
Reference to software:
Coon, E., Berndt, M., Jan, A., Svyatsky, D., Atchley, A., Kikinzon, E., Harp, D., Manzini, G., Shelef, E., Lipnikov, K., Garimella, R., Xu, C., Moulton, D., Karra, S., Painter, S., Jafarov, E., & Molins, S., 2020. Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS) v0.88 (Version 0.88). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3727209. Journal abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations. Data visualization
Include interactive data visualizations in your publication and let your readers interact and engage more closely with your research. Follow the instructions here to find out about available data visualization options and how to include them with your article. 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 linkingIf 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).
To maximise the visibility of your data, authors are invited to add a citation to their datasets by including a data reference in their Reference List as per the 'Data References' instructions elsewhere on this page. 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.
Data statementTo foster transparency, we require you to state the availability of your data in your submission if your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post. This may also be a requirement of your funding body or institution. You will have the opportunity to provide a data statement during the submission process. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect. For more information, visit the Data Statement page..
After acceptance
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If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. 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. Offprints
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