Author information pack

(Updated 1 May 2012)

Mycoscience is the official English journal of the Mycological Society of Japan and is issued bimonthly.
Mycoscience publishes original research articles (full papers, short communications, and notes) and reviews on various aspects of fungi including yeasts and other organisms that traditionally have been studied by mycologists. The research aspects covered by Mycoscience extend from such purely scientific interests as systematics (taxonomy by traditional methods and systematics by molecular methods), evolution, phylogeny, morphology, ecology, physiology, biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology, to such agricultural, medical, and industrial applications as pathology (human, animal, and plant), pharmaceuticals, food processing, and other biotechnologies.
Also included are new and improved applications of well-established mycological techniques and methods.

Types of papers published

Manuscripts should fall into one of the following categories: Full papers, Short communications, Reviews, and Notes.

Full papers:
Full papers are full-length, well-documented reports containing original, comprehensive, and complete work. Therefore, the papers in this category should be original and have scientific merit.

Short communications:
Short communications, reporting timely novel findings, are brief accounts of original research results, and should have a similar standard of quality and scientific merit as full papers.

Notes:
Notes are similar to short communications, but include fewer novel findings.

Short Communications and Notes, including illustrations, should be similar to Full Papers, except that no primary headings (Introduction, Materials and methods, Results and Discussion) are used other than to designate References. Secondary headings may be used and are encouraged for clarity of organization.

Reviews:
Reviews are comprehensive descriptions and interpretations for a specific topic with a summarization of the research history and a suggestion of the direction of future research. Reviews should be discussed with the Editor-in-Chief prior to submission.

Page charges

There are no page charges within a limited number of printed pages (see below, "Page limits and page charges" for details), and non-members of the Society are encouraged to submit manuscripts for publication.

Ethics

Ethical standards (please visit http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/intro.cws_home/publishing for further details)
Manuscript should:
• be the authors' own original work, which has not been previously published elsewhere in English or in any other languages (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis),
• reflect the authors' own research and analysis and do so in a truthful and complete manner,
• properly credit the meaningful contributions of co-authors and co-researchers,
• not be submitted to more than one journal for consideration (ensuring it is not under redundant simultaneous peer review), and
• be appropriately placed in the context of prior and existing research.

Permissions

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Legal requirements

Manuscripts submitted for publication must contain a declaration that the experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed. This note should be included in a Disclosure before the reference list.

Conflict of interest

All benefits in any form from a commercial party related directly or indirectly to the subject of a manuscript or to any of its authors must be acknowledged. For each source of funds, both the research funder and the grant number should be given. This note should be included in a Disclosure before the Reference List. If no conflict exists, authors should state that they have no conflict of interest. See also http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a "Journal Publishing Agreement" (for more information on this and on the copyright, see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a "Journal Publishing Agreement" form or a link to the online version of this agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles, including their 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 of these works and credit the source(s) in the article. As for a commissioned article, please contact Editorial Office. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases. Please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

Retained author rights

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

Role of the funding source

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

Funding body agreements and policies

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

Language and language services

Please write your text in good English (consistent American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these languages). Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre and post submission, please visit http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageservices or our customer support site at http://support.elsevier.com for more information.

Patient details

Unless you have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, the next of kin), the personal details of any 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

Authors should submit their manuscripts to the Mycoscience online manuscript submission, review, and tracking system, Elsevier Editorial SystemTM (EES).

Electronic submission substantially reduces the editorial processing and reviewing time and shortens overall publication time. Please follow the hyperlink "Submit online" and upload all your manuscript files following the instructions given on the screen (Do not upload Excel files for tables; see "Text formatting" below). If the manuscript conforms to the guidelines specified in the instructions, the date received will be the date the manuscript was uploaded to the Elsevier Editorial System.

Please view your Reference Checking Results during electronic submission and attempt to resolve any problems with your references prior to submitting your manuscript.

Please submit, with the manuscript, the names and e-mail addresses of three (3) to five (5) potential reviewers. Note that the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used.

Research Highlights

When submitting manuscripts in EES, authors are asked to submit Research Highlights as well. The Highlights are a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings and provide readers with a quick textual overview of the article. These three (3) to five (5) bullet points describe the essence of the research (e.g. results or conclusions) and highlight what is distinctive about it.
Highlights should be submitted as a separate file in EES by selecting 'Highlights' from the drop-down list when uploading files.
Specifications: include three (3) to five (5) bullet points (maximum of 85 characters per bullet point including spaces); only the core results of the paper should be covered.
Highlights will be displayed in online search result lists, the contents List and in the online article, but will not appear in the article PDF file or print.

Editorial procedure

The Editorial Committee reserves the right to accept or reject a manuscript for publication. The Committee may advise the author to revise the manuscript according to suggestions by reviewers. A manuscript written in poor English or in an unsuitable format may not be accepted regardless of its content. When revision of a manuscript has been requested, the revised manuscript should be returned within three months after notification. Otherwise, the manuscript will be processed as one withdrawn from submission. If the authors decide to withdraw their manuscript from consideration for publication, they should inform the editor. The accepted date will be the day when the Editor-in-Chief has judged the manuscript to be publishable after the completion of the reviewing process.

Page limits and page charges

Authors will be allowed EIGHT (8) printed pages for a Full paper or Review, including tables and figures (three typewritten pages of manuscript, each consisting of 24 lines, are approximately equivalent to one printed page). Short communications and Notes should not be longer than FOUR (4) printed pages including illustrations. For additional pages, authors will be charged JPY 12,000 per printed page.

Editorial office

Editor-in-Chief of Mycoscience
Gen Okada
Microbe Division / Japan Collection of Microorganisms
RIKEN BioResource Center
3-1-1 Koyadai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0074, Japan
Tel: +81 29 829 9104
E-mail: okada@jcm.riken.jp

Manuscripts should be written in English. All articles submitted to the journal must comply with the Guide for Authors. Failure to do so will result in the return of the manuscript before peer review and a possible delay in publication. Manuscripts should be formatted with 3-cm margins, 24 lines per page, on either A4 (21.0 × 29.7 cm) or 8.5 × 11-inch pages. Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 12-point Times Roman) for text. Italic and boldface type should be specified using the features of standard word-processing software.

Click → Sample Pages

Arrangement of the manuscript

Pages should be numbered consecutively and Full Papers should be arranged in the order shown below.

Page 1: Title page
The title page should include:

A concise and informative title

The name(s) of the author(s)

The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)

The e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author

Total text pages

The numbers of tables and figures

Page 2: Abstract and keywords

Abstract
Please provide an abstract of no more than 200 words for Reviews and Full-length articles, 100 words for Short communications and Notes. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

Keywords
Please provide a maximum of five (5) keywords ordered alphabetically which can be used for indexing purposes, including the name of organisms (common name or scientific name), method(s), or other words or phrases that represent the subject of the study.

Key words should supplement the title and not duplicate words in the title.

Page 3: Text
The text should be divided into sections with headings (see below), followed by figure legends (see below, Figure captions). Authors should consult recent issues of the journal for details of style and presentation.

Headings
Primary headings should begin at the left margin in boldface. Usual primary headings are Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments and References. Start second-level headings at the left margin in Roman but not boldface. Third-level headings are italicized.

Headings should be hierarchically numbered.

Text formatting
Manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word document format.

• Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 12-point Times Roman) for text.
• Use italics for emphasis.
• Do not use double-byte characters.
• Use the automatic page numbering function.
• Do not use field functions.
• Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.
• Use the table function or spreadsheets to create tables.
• Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.

Note: If you use Microsoft Word 2007, do not create the equations with the default equation editor but use the Microsoft equation editor or MathType instead.

• Save your file in doc format.

Scientific names
For the use of scientific names of organisms, consult the current international codes of nomenclature concerned. For descriptions of new taxa, give names of the new taxa, followed by author(s) and status (e.g., gen. nov., sp. nov.). Following the diagnosis, either in Latin or English, designate the type specimen and place of deposit. When describing a new taxon/taxa in Latin diagnosis, the diagnosis should be checked for accuracy by an expert in Latin prior to submission.

In articles of taxonomy, cite authors of all specific and infraspecific taxa only at the first use in the text. Author names are written in full or abbreviated. In principle, abbreviations follow Authors of Fungal Names (Index of Fungi Supplement, Kirk and Ansell, 1992 or http://www.indexfungorum.org/AuthorsOfFungalNames.htm).

In non-taxonomic articles, citation of authors of fungal names is not mandatory.

A generic name followed by a specific epithet should be written in full at first mention; subsequently it may be abbreviated to its capitalized initial letter where this is not ambiguous. Omit names of authors of taxa in the title and abstract. Italicize only generic, infrageneric (subgenus, section), specific, and infraspecific taxa.

When citing author names of plants, they should be properly abbreviated according to The International Plant Names Index (http://www.ipni.org/ipni/authorsearchpage.do).

Specimens, cultures, molecular sequence data, and information
Authors are urged to deposit voucher specimens and cultures in public herbaria and culture collections, which should be accessible by others and be cited by the newest version or on-line issue of Index Herbariorum (http://www.nybg.org/bsci/ih/ih.html) or World Directory of Collections and Cultures of Microorganisms: Bacteria, Fungi and Yeasts (http://wdcm.nig.ac.jp/hpcc.html). The names of herbaria and/or culture collections should be provided on a separate sheet when the manuscript is submitted. The registered specimen numbers or strain numbers must be cited in the paper. Details of specimens and cultures on which work is based, including molecular sequences, must be given (country, locality, host or substrate, date of isolation or collection, isolator or collector, registered numbers). According to the recommendations in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, authors who are describing new species or new infraspecific taxa are recommended to deposit a living culture (ex-type culture), whenever practicable, in at least two institutional culture or genetic resource collections, and cite these in the paper. Molecular sequence data must be deposited in a molecular sequence repository (DDBJ, http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp; EMBL, http://www.ebi.ac.uk; GenBank, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/) and the accession numbers must be cited in the paper.

Authors are also expected to deposit sequence alignments in TreeBASE (http://www.treebase.org/) or other public databases, and indicate the temporary study accession number and P.I.N. number in the text for checking by reviewers. Otherwise, authors should provide sequence alignments to reviewers upon request.

Authors are requested to deposit information on newly recognized taxa in MycoBank (http://www.mycobank.org/DefaultPage.aspx) and indicate the accession number just below the new taxon name.

Disclosures
All potential Conflicts of interest must be identified in this section. Potential conflicts of interest that should be disclosed include: all 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.

Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the reference list. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

References

Citation
Cite references in the text by surname of the author(s) and year of publication in parentheses. Some examples:

• Negotiation research spans many disciplines (Thompson 1990).
• This result was later contradicted (Becker and Seligman 1996).
• This effect has been widely studied (Abbott 1991; Medvec et al. 1993ab, 1995; Barakat et al. 1995; Kelso and Smith 1998). (citations are arranged in chronological order)

Reference list
The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list.

Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work. If the same author is cited more than once, the entries should be listed in chronological order.See "Sample Pages" and recent issues of Mycoscience for details.

• Journal article (note: journal names are not abbreviated)

Horn WB, 1989. Ultrastructural changes in tricho-spores of Smittium culisetae and S. culicis during in vitro sporangiospore extrusion and holdfast formation. Mycologia 81: 742–753.

Hyde KD, Chalermpongse A, Boonthavikoon T, 1990. Ecology of intertidal fungi at Ranong mangrove, Thailand. Transactions of the Mycological Society of Japan 31: 17–27.

LoBuglio KF, Pfister DH, 2008. A Glomerella species phylogenetically related to Colletotrichum acutatum on Norway maple in Massachusetts. Mycologia 100: 710–715; doi: 10.3852/07-192

Lohsomboon P, Kakishima M, Ono Y, 1990a. The genus Triphragmiopsis (Uredinales). Transactions of the Mycological Society of Japan 31: 335–343.

Lohsomboon P, Kakishima M, Ono Y, 1990b. A revision of genus Nyssopsora (Uredinales). Mycological Research 94: 907–922.

Morimoto Y, 1953. Notes on species of the rust fungi collected in the island of Yakushima, Kiusiu (in Japanese). Journal of Japanese Botany 28: 313–316.

Nandson GA, 1911. The sexual process in yeasts and bacteria (in Russian). Russkij Vratch 51: 2093.

Pota S, Chatasiri S, Ono Y, Yamaoka Y, Kakishima M, 2013. Taxonomy of two host specialized Phakopsora populations on Meliosma in Japan. Mycoscience (in press).

Udagawa S, Kamiya S, Tsubouchi H, 1994a. Aspergillus salviicola, a new species from imported spice. Mycoscience 35: 245–p248.

Udagawa S, Uchiyama S, Kamiya S, 1994b. A new species of Myxotrichum with an Oidiodendron anamorph. Mycotaxon 52: 197–205.

• Article by DOI (Citation by DOI is strongly recommended)

Aoki T, Scandiani MM, O'Donnell K, 2011. Phenotypic, molecular phylogenetic, and pathogenetic characterization of Fusarium crassistipitatum sp. nov., a novel soybean sudden death syndrome pathogen from Argentina and Brazil. Mycoscience; doi: 10.1007/s10267-011-0150-3.

Hughes SJ, Seifert KA, 2011. Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes on sooty mould names based on species mixtures: Hormiscium handelii and Torula lechleriana. Mycoscience; doi:10.1007/s10267-011-0133-4.

Niinomi S, Takamatsu S, Havrylenko M, 2008. Molecular data do not support a southern hemisphere base of Nothofagus powdery mildews. Mycologia 100: 716–26; doi: 10.3852/08-030.

Takamatsu S, Heluta V, Havrylenko M, Divarangkoon R, 2008. Four powdery mildew species with catenate conidia infect Galium: molecular and morphological evidence. Mycological Research 113: 117–129; doi: 10.1016/j.mycres.2008.09.006.

Takeshita N, Fischer R, 2011. On the role of microtubules, cell end markers, and septal microtubule organizing centres on site selection for polar growth in Aspergillus nidulans. Fungal Biology 115: 506–517; doi: 10.1016/j.funbio.2011.02.009.

• Book

Cooke RC, Rayner ADM, 1984. Ecology of saprotrophic fungi. Longman, London.

Domsch KH, Gams W, Anderson T-H, 1980a. Compendium of soil fungi, vol 1. Academic Press, London.

Domsch KH, Gams W, Anderson T-H, 1980b. Compendium of soil fungi, vol 2. Academic Press, London.

Imazeki R, Hongo T, 1965. Coloured illustration of fungi of Japan, II (in Japanese). Hoikusha, Osaka.

South J, Blass B, 2001. The future of modern genomics. Blackwell, London.

• Book chapter

Brown B, Aaron M, 2001. The politics of nature. In: Smith J (ed) The rise of modern genomics, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York.

Gams W, Christensen M, Onions AH, Pitt JI, Samson RA, 1985. Infrageneric taxa of Aspergillus. In: Samson RA, Pitt JI (eds), Advances in Penicillium and Aspergillus systematic. Plenum, New York, pp 55–62.

Sagara N, 1992. Experimental disturbances and epigeous fungi. In: Carroll GC, Wicklow DT (eds), The fungal community, 2nd edn. Marcel Dekker, New York, pp 427–454.

• Abstract and Proceedings

Kirkpatrick B, Smart C, 1994. Identification of MLOspecific PCR primers obtained from 16S/23S rRNA spacer sequences. 10th International Congress of the International Organization for Mycoplasmology (IOM), Bordeaux, France, July 19–26, pp 261–262.

Kreisel H, 1991. Neoteny in the phylogeny of Eumycota. In: Hawksworth DL (ed) Frontiers in mycology (4th International Mycological Congress 1990). CAB International, Wallingford, pp 69–84.

Kudo A, Kaneko S, 1977. Parasiticity of Aecidium meliosmae-myrianthae to grapes (Abstract) (in Japanese). Annals of the Phytopathological Society of Japan 43: 322.

• Ph.D. dissertation

Powell PE, 1974. Taxonomic studies in the genus Hypoderma. PhD thesis, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

• Online document

Doe J, 1999. Title of subordinate document. In: The dictionary of substances and their effects. Royal Society of Chemistry. Available via DIALOG. http://www.rsc.org/dose/title of subordinate document. Accessed 16 Dec 2011.

Quantity and units
All measurements should be expressed in the metric system and abbreviated. Use the recommended SI units (Système International d'Unités). When non-SI units are used, they must be adequately explained to avoid ambiguity.

Use Roman type for units, without periods. Care should be taken to italicize only absorbance, gravitational acceleration, and water activity. The plural should not be formed by adding 's' for abbreviated units.

Units should be abbreviated as follows:

length nm, μm, mm, cm, m

mass pg, ng, μg, mg, g, kg

amount of substance nmol, μmol, mmol, mol

molar concentration μM, mM, M

area mm2, cm2, m2

volume μl, ml, l, cm3, m3

time s, min, h, d, wk, mo, y

names of months by first three letters: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

temperature °C (example: 37°C), K

absorbance A (example: A260)

gravitational acceleration g (example: 10 000g)

light J, lx, lm, W

molecular weight Da, kDa

water activity Aw

Concentrations of solutions are preferably expressed in terms of molarity (M). The symbol "%" must be used in its correct sense, e.g., g/100 g; otherwise it must be defined as "% (v/v)" or "% (w/v)." Use μg/ml or μg/g in place of the ambiguous ppm.

Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter. Use Roman type for abbreviations derived from the Latin or Greek (for example: ca., et al., i.e., e.g., s. str., s. l.). Never use abbreviations or symbols for names of substances unless they are internationally accepted. The Enzyme Commission (EC) number should be given at the first mention of an enzyme in the text.

Measurements
Record measurements as length by width (or diameter). Place exceptional dimensions in parentheses. Indicate mean values, etc. separately.

Example: (10–)13–16(–18.5) × 7–8(–9) &mgr;m, 15.5 × 7.5 &mgr;m on average

Artwork

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

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

Figure Numbering and Labeling
Number figures consecutively in accordance with appearance in the text. For a composite figure composed of multiple sections, each section should be labeled A, B, C and so on.

Figure Placement and Size
• When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.
• The figures should be 84 mm, 131 mm, or 174 mm wide and not higher than 240 mm.
• The publisher reserves the right to reduce or enlarge figures.

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.

Supplementary data

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

Supplementary material captions
Each supplementary material file should have a short caption which will be placed at the bottom of the article, where it can assist the reader and also be used by search engines.

Submission checklist

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

Proofs

One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Elsevier now provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 (or higher) available free from http://get.adobe.com/reader. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online). The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/tech-specs.html.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return them to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately – please let us have all your corrections within 48 hours. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

Open access

This journal offers you the option of making your article freely available to all via the ScienceDirect platform. To prevent any conflict of interest, you can only make this choice after receiving notification that your article has been accepted for publication. In some cases, institutions and funding bodies have entered into agreement with Elsevier to meet these fees on behalf of their authors. Details of these agreements are available at http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies. Authors of accepted articles, who wish to take advantage of this option, should complete and submit the order form (available at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/openaccessform.pdf). Whatever access option you choose, you retain many rights as an author, including the right to post a revised personal version of your article on your own website. More information can be found here: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.

Offprints

The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use.