Published on behalf of Acta Materialia Inc.

Short Overview
General guidelines for online submission

Manuscript Preparation:
Length of papers
Abstract
Keywords
Title and headings
Units
Figures
Colour
Illustrations
References
Spellchecking
Revision Deadlines

Other:
Copyright
Notification
PDF Proofs
Author Benefits
Online paper tracking
Enquiries
Useful Links

Short Overview:
Timely and cutting-edge reports documenting significant results will be considered for publication in Acta Materialia . Papers should be directed to those aspects of the science of materials defined in the scope presented on the inside front cover. Manuscripts must be written in good English. Poorly written papers will be automatically returned for rewriting before review. Communications are accepted in English only.

Papers should be submitted electronically through http://ees.elsevier.com/am/. Prior to submitting your paper, please follow instructions given below.
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General guidelines for online submission:
Elsevier can accept text files in most standard word-processing formats but Microsoft Word 97 is preferred. Alternatively, the initial submission can be in either PostScript or PDF format. Please note, however, that the text file of a revision must be uploaded in an editable format, either Microsoft Word or LaTex. Graphics should be high-resolution and the preferred formats are either TIFF or JPEG. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork please refer to the following website: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Please follow the instructions below for guidance on the style of the journal. Most formatting codes are removed or replaced when your article is prepared for publication so there is no need for you to use excessive layout styling. However, please do not use options such as automatic word breaking, justified layout, double columns or automatic paragraph numbering (especially for numbered references). Do use bold face, italic, subscripts, superscripts, etc., as appropriate. Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, please use only one grid for each separate table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is being used, use tabs to align columns instead of spaces.

All online submissions must be accompanied by a covering letter detailing what you are submitting. Please indicate the author to whom correspondence should be addressed (in the case of multiple authors) and include a contact address, telephone/fax numbers and e-mail address. Please include details of any previous or concurrent submissions and also any information that will support your submission (e.g. original or confirmatory data, relevance, topicality). Please indicate if this is a resubmission of a paper previously rejected by an Acta Materialia editor and, if so, provide the manuscript number of the rejected paper along with the name of the processing editor. (It is Acta Materialia policy to allow one resubmission of a rejected paper.) Please note that when your manuscript is received at Elsevier it is considered to be in its final form. Therefore you need to check your manuscript carefully before you submit it online.
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Length of papers:
The pressure for publication space in Acta Materialia is extreme. Authors will understand that a long manuscript, if published, displaces two shorter ones, each worthy of publication. This position forces the Editors to impose a limitation on length of papers in Acta Materialia . Papers, to be acceptable, must normally be less than 10 printed pages in length; as a rule of thumb, a paper of 20 double-spaced typescript pages, plus a typical number of figures (8 or so) reduces to 10 printed pages. Use double spacing and wide (3 cm) margins, and 12 pt font size standard fonts. Papers which are longer than 25 double-spaced typescript pages will be returned automatically to the authors with a request that they be shortened before they are considered further. Shortening, almost always, is in the author's best interest: readers read short papers.
Please ensure that your manuscript is paginated, as this will help both editors and reviewers to process it promptly.
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Abstract:
Abstract will be published in Acta Materialia in English for all papers. The abstract should indicate the content of the paper, and should describe the main conclusions. An effective abstract is brief and normally less than 100 words. Abstracts must not exceed 150 words.
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Keywords:
Authors should list a maximum of five keywords which appropriately represent the contents of their manuscripts. The list of keywords should appear on the title page of each paper, following the title, author names and author affiliations, placed in that order. The keywords must be selected from the Keywords list in the most recently published issue of the journal (also available here); however, authors may provide one keyword (out of five) which is not listed in the Keywords list.
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Title and headings:
The title should be carefully chosen to indicate as clearly as possible the subject of the communication. Descriptive headings should be used to divide the paper into its component parts.
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Units:
SI units should be used throughout.
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Error bars:
Error bars are required on all experimental and calculated data points with an explanation in the text as to how the errors were determined.
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Figures:
For electronic submission, all figures must be in digital form (minimum 300 dpi). Scale marks should be printed in all micrographs. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions for more information. A separate list of figure captions must be included in the main body of your paper, following the references.
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Colour:
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, the cost of printing in colour, in 2007, will be US $440 per printed colour page. You will receive information regarding the total costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article.
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 from the conversion of 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 prints corresponding to all the colour illustrations.
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References:
All references to other papers, books, etc. should be given at the end of the paper. They should be numbered in sequence starting at the beginning of the paper. The numbers should appear in the text at the appropriate places.

Samples.
[1] Flores KM, Dauskardt RH. Scripta mater 1999;41:937
[2] Quinones SA, Rivas JM, Murr LE. Metallography of hypervelocity impact crater formation in aluminium and copper. In: Shehata MT, Leduce TR, Lemay I, Louthan MR, editors. Microstructural Science, vol. 22. Materials Park (OH): ASM International, 1995. p.3.

Spellchecking:
Be sure that your manuscripts are free of spelling errors. If you wish to check the technical spelling of your manuscript, please refer to www.sciproof.com. SCIPROOF offers a product called Scientific Dictionary Package (SDP) 2.0 that contains over 1.8 million entries and is the only spellchecking software that specifically includes materials science terms, plus chemical and biomedical terms (for biomaterials), and journal titles and abbreviations. This program is an add-on for Microsoft Office and augments the native Office spell checker.

Revision Deadlines:
It is Acta Materialia policy to allow one month for minor to moderate revisions and two months for major revisions requiring re-review, unless special arrangements for an extension have been made with the processing editor. Revisions not received within these respective timeframes will be considered withdrawn and subsequently removed from the system.

Copyright:
It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this Journal have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, the authors agree that the copyright for their article is transferred to Acta Materialia Inc. if and when the article is accepted for publication. However, assignment of copyright is not required from authors who work for organizations which do not permit such assignment. The copyright covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microform or any other reproductions of similar nature, and translations. Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder permission to reproduce any figures for which copyright exists.
For more information please go to our copyright page http://www.elsevier.com/copyright.
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Notification:
Authors will be notified of the acceptance of their paper by the editor. The Publisher will also send a notification of receipt of the paper in production.
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PDF Proofs:
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. The corrections should be returned within 48 hours. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely the author's responsibility. Any queries should be answered in full. Please correct factual errors only, or errors introduced by typesetting.
For more information on proofreading please go to our proofreading page http://www.elsevier.com/locate/guidepublication. Please note that once your paper has been proofed we publish the identical paper online as in print.
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Author Benefits:
No page charges: Publication in this journal is free of charge.
Free Offprints: Twenty-five offprints will be supplied free of charge. Corresponding authors will be given the choice to buy extra offprints before printing of the article. Authors who pay for colour illustrations will receive an extra fifty offprints free of charge.
Author Discount: Contributors to Elsevier journals are entitled to a 30% discount on all Elsevier books. See http://www.elsevier.com/bookauthors for more information. Back to the contents list

Online Paper Tracking:
Authors can track the status of their accepted paper online at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle using the reference supplied by the Publisher.
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Author enquiries:
All author enquiries should be made to: authorsupport@elsevier.ie

Useful links:
•A submissions checklist can be found at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/guidepublication
•Register for free to receive email updates from the article tracking service at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle
•If you are interested in submitting a book in this area, go to http://www.elsevier.com/bookauthors