INTRODUCTION

Maturitas is an international multidisciplinary peer reviewed scientific journal of midlife health and beyond publishing original research, reviews, consensus statements and guidelines. The scope encompasses all aspects of postreproductive health in both genders ranging from basic science to health and social care.
Maturitas will publish in the following areas:
• predictors, effects and management of chronic diseases
• sex steroid deficiency in both genders
• epidemiology, health and social care
• therapeutic advances
• complementary and alternative medicines

We offer Fast Track publication for clinical trials and research articles which present ground-breaking results that justify rapid dissemination. Articles accepted through this route can expect less than 8 weeks editorial time from submission to publication online. Articles submitted for this route will be checked by the Editor-in-Chief to determine if the criterion for fast publication has been met; if not, articles will be redirected to the normal route of category article.

New Investigators may also apply for the New Investigator Prize Paper Award. For more information please click here

TYPES OF PAPERS

Original articles: a full-length report of original basic or clinical investigation (2000-3000 words, up to 30 references). A structured abstract of no more than 250 words with the following sections (objectives, study design, main outcome measures, results, conclusions) is required. The rest of the paper should be structured as follows: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References. Maturitas gives priority to reports of original research that are likely to change clinical practice or thinking about a disease. We offer fast-track peer review and publication of randomized controlled trials that we judge of importance to practice or research (see Fast-track publication). We invite submission of all clinical trials, whether Phase I, II, or III.
Submission of randomized controlled trials requires inclusion of a checklist and flowchart in accordance with the CONSORT guidelines and the registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry. Studies of diagnostic accuracy must be reported according to STARD guidelines. Observational studies (cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional designs) must be reported according to the STROBE statement (see also www.strobe-statement.org)

Short communications: must not exceed 1,000 words with no more than one table or illustration and five references. An unstructured abstract of no more than 100 words is required. The text should be structured in four parts: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion.

Review articles: a comprehensive review of prior publications relating to an important clinical subject (2000-3000 words and 30-50 references). An unstructured abstract of no more than 250 words is required. The Introduction should indicate why the topic is important and should state the specific objective(s) of the review. The Conclusion should include the clinical implications and observations regarding the need for additional research. Systematic reviews should follow the PRISMA guidelines. Meta-analysis of observational studies should follow the MOOSE guidelines.
Further information can be obtained from the EQUATOR web site: http://www.equator-network.org/resource-centre/library-of-health-research-reporting/reporting-guidelines

Minireviews: a focused review of prior publications relating to an important clinical subject (1,500 words and 20 references with an unstructured abstract of no more than 250 words). In more detail the following is recommended:
• Management should be described in practical terms, so that it can be translated to the individual patient. Use appropriate examples to illustrate management problems, so that the reader actually knows what to do, when to do it, how to do it and why.
• Recommendations should be evidence-based. The quality of the information available and what remains unknown should be highlighted. Meta-analysis data and systematic reviews should be used where available. Emphasis should be given to randomized controlled trials, translating data from such trials to clinical practice wherever possible. If recommendations are not evidence-based, this should be clearly stated.
• Make clear what we know, what we think we know and what we do not know. Use Practice Points and Research Agenda to emphasise these.
• As one of the primary functions of this type of article is educational, please ensure that it is well structured and clearly laid out, with level of headings clearly indicated and figures, diagrams, tables and flow-charts used to explain points and reduce explanatory text.
• The abstract should include the key issues which will be addressed in your article, emphasising what we know, what we think we know and what we do not know.
• The summary should focus on the conclusions reached in the article, indicating unanswered and unanswerable questions.
• Practice Points. Where appropriate, present the most important points to note in current clinical practice; these should be brief and set out as a bullet point list at the end of the main text.
• Research Agenda. Please indicate points which you feel would repay further research, again presented as a bullet point list at the end of the text.

Guest editorials must not exceed 1,000 words and five references.

Letters to the Editor: a question or challenge to an article published recently in Maturitas. Letters must be received within 6 weeks of publication of the article to which they refer and should be no longer than 250 words.

CONTACT DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION

Submission of manuscripts proceeds entirely online at http://ees.elsevier.com/mat
Authors may send queries concerning the submission process, manuscript status, or journal procedures to the Maturitas Editorial Office at mat@elsevier.com.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

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

Policy and Ethics
The work described in your article must have been carried out in accordance with
The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans, http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html;
EC Directive 86/609/EEC for animal experiments, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31986L0609:EN:HTML;
Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical journals, http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199701233360422
This must be stated at an appropriate point in the article.

Conflict of Interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.

Plagiarism
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), 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, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

Contributors
Submission of multi-authored manuscripts to this journal requires the consent of each author and all have to sign the covering letter. All authors of, and all contributors (including medical writers and editors) must specify their individual contributions at the end of the text. The following format is suggested: 'I declare that I participated in the (here list contributions made to the study) and that I have seen and approved the final version. I have the following conflicts of interest' (list here all relevant conflicts and source of funding). This should be listed in the 'Comments' field in EES.

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

Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail (or letter) will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions). If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

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

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

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

Open access
This journal offers authors two choices to publish their research:
1. Open Access
• Articles are freely available to both subscribers and the wider public with permitted reuse
• An Open Access publication fee is payable by authors or their research funder
2. Subscription
• Articles are made available to subscribers as well as developing countries and patient groups through our access programs (http://www.elsevier.com/access)
• No Open Access publication fee

All articles published Open Access will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. Permitted reuse is defined by your choice of one of the following Creative Commons user licenses:
Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA): for non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, to create extracts, abstracts and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), to text and data mine the article, as long as they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article, do not modify the article in such a way as to damage the author's honor or reputation, and license their new adaptations or creations under identical terms (CC BY NC SA).
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC-BY-NC-ND): for non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, and to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter or modify the article.
Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY): available only for authors funded by organizations with which we have established an agreement with. For a full list please see http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies

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

To provide Open Access, this journal has a publication fee which needs to be met by the authors or their research funders for each article published Open Access. Your publication choice will have no effect on the peer review process or acceptance of submitted articles.The Open Access publication fee for this journal is $USD 2500, excluding taxes.

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

Language Services
Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit http://www.elsevier.com/languagepolishing or contact authorsupport@elsevier.com for more information. Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our Terms & Conditions: http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions

Patient Details
Unless you have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, the next of kin), personal details of patient included in any part of the article and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission. For further information see http://www.elsevier.com/patientphotographs

Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article. Via the homepage of this journal (http://www.elsevier.com/maturitas) you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail and via the Author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail.

Referees
To expedite the review process Authors are required to provide the editorial office with the names and email addresses of 4 potential referees that are able to competently review the article submitted for possible publication. The referees are not to be associated with or involved with the article in any way or be from the same institution as the author(s) involved with the article.

PREPARATION

Language
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Italics are not to be used for expressions of Latin origin, for example, in vivo, et al., per se. Use decimal points (not commas); use a space for thousands (10 000 and above).

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

If the LaTeX file is suitable, proofs will be produced without rekeying the text. The article should preferably be written using Elsevier's document class 'elsart', or alternatively the standard document class 'article'.
The Elsevier LaTeX package (including detailed instructions for LaTeX preparation) can be obtained from the Quickguide: http://www.elsevier.com/latex. It consists of the files: elsart.cls, guidelines for users of elsart, a template file for quick start, and the instruction booklet 'Preparing articles with LaTeX'.

Subdivision - numbered sections
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

Introduction
The Introduction should describe the question addressed by the report and must state the objective of the research. The literature review should be relevant but not detailed.

Materials and Methods
The Methods section should describe the research methodology in sufficient detail that others could reasonably be expected to be able to duplicate the work. However, if the methodology has been previously published, the appropriate reference should be cited, and a full description is not required. Methods of statistical analysis should be identified and, when appropriate, the basis for their selection stated. Statistical software programs used should be cited in the text. P values should be expressed to no more than three decimal places. Reports in which statistical difference is lacking must provide some indication of the study's power to detect such differences, and this information must be included in the abstract.

Results
The Results section should present the findings in appropriate detail. Tables and figures may be used, but duplication between text and tables or figures is to be avoided.

Discussion
The Discussion section should be used to critically appraise the implications of the findings and to compare them with those of other studies. Repetition of the results section should be avoided.

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

Essential Title Page Information
Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.
Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Abstract
A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separate from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, they must be cited in full, without reference to the reference list. Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

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

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

Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proofreading the article, etc.).Persons who have contributed intellectually to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be named and their function or contribution described, e.g. 'scientific adviser', 'data collections', or 'participation in clinical trial'. Such persons must have given their permission to be named. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from the persons acknowledged by name, because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions.

Nomenclature and Units
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI. You are urged to consult IUB: Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents: http://www.chem.qmw.ac.uk/iubmb/ for further information.

GenBank
DNA sequences and GenBank Accession numbers:
Many Elsevier journals cite 'gene accession numbers' in their running text and footnotes. Gene accession numbers refer to genes or DNA sequences about which further information can be found in the databases at the National Center for Biotechnical Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine. Authors are encouraged to check accession numbers used very carefully. An error in a letter or number can result in a dead link. Note that in the final version of the electronic copy, the accession number text will be linked to the appropriate source in the NCBI databases enabling readers to go directly to that source from the article.

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

Electronic Artwork
General points:
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font.
• Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files, and supply a separate listing of the files and the software used.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats. Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please 'save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats. (Note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below.):
EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as 'graphics'.
TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (colour or greyscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications please supply 'as is'.

Please do not:
• Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation) document;
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
• 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, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for colour in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to 'grey scale' (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the colour illustrations.

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

Tables
Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.

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

AudioSlides
The journal encourages authors to create an AudioSlides presentation with their published article. AudioSlides are brief, webinar-style presentations that are shown next to the online article on ScienceDirect. This gives authors the opportunity to summarize their research in their own words and to help readers understand what the paper is about. More information and examples are available at http://www.elsevier.com/audioslides. Authors of this journal will automatically receive an invitation e-mail to create an AudioSlides presentation after acceptance of their paper.

References
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references. The 'Vancouver' style is used. References appearing for the first time in a table or figure should be cited in the text where the table or figure is mentioned. References cited must have been published in peer-reviewed publications.

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

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

Reference Style
Text: Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given.
List: Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
[1] Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2000;163:51-9.
Reference to a book:
[2] Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan; 1979.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age, New York: E-Publishing Inc; 1999, p. 281-304.

Note shortened form for last page number. e.g., 51-9, and that for more than 6 authors the first 6 should be listed followed by 'et al.' For further details you are referred to 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals' (J Am Med Assoc 1997;277:927-934) (see also http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/terms_cond.html)

Journal Abbreviations
Journal names should be abbreviated according to
Index Medicus journal abbreviations: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of serial title word abbreviations: http://www.issn.org/en/node/344;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service): http://www.cas.org/sent.html

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

Submission Checklist
It is hoped that this list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal's Editor for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are present:

One Author designated as corresponding Author:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded:
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations:
• Manuscript has been "spellchecked" and "grammar-checked"
• References are in the correct format for this journal
• All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)
• Colour figures are clearly marked as being intended for colour reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print or to be reproduced in colour on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print .
• If only colour on the Web is required, black and white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes
For any further information please visit http://support.elsevier.com.

AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Use of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal Physics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

Proofs
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader© version 7 (or higher) available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

Offprints
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