An International Journal for Functional Aspects of Vision

General


Vision Research is a journal devoted to the functional aspects of human, vertebrate, and invertebrate vision and publishes experimental and observational studies, reviews, and theoretical papers firmly based upon the current facts of visual science.


Electronic submission: Vision Research manuscripts may be submitted using the journal's online submission and review Web site, http://ees.elsevier.com/vr. To use this submission route, please go to the Web site and upload your article and its associated artwork. A PDF is generated and the reviewing process is carried out using that PDF. All correspondence between editor and author is performed on this system, and paper copies are not required.
Upon submission, authors will be asked to suggest a senior editor and appropriate referees for their manuscript. Authors can select from the among the following six senior editors:
Wolfgang Baehr
David Burr
Casper Erkelens
David Foster
Mike Landy
Adam Reeves


Questions regarding submission should be sent to the Vision Research Editorial Office:
525 B Street, Suite 1900
San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA
Tel.: (619) 699-6761
Fax: (619) 699-6801
E-mail: vr@elsevier.com


There are no submission fees or page charges. Each manuscript should be accompanied by a letter outlining the basic findings of the paper and their significance.


Authors are urged to be as concise as their material will allow, both in text and in illustrations. Articles should generally not exceed 6000 words and 8 figures, and authors may be asked to shorten papers where reviewers or editors feel text or figures are redundant. Manuscripts exceeding 10000 words be will require prior approval of the appropriate Senior Editor or Editor in Chief.


All manuscripts should be accompanied by a clear statement that the work has not been published elsewhere and is not under review with another journal, and that if published in Vision Research it will not be reprinted elsewhere in any language in the same form without the consent of the publisher, who holds the copyright. Authors should keep copies of all material submitted. Manuscripts will not be returned, and top copies of the artwork will be returned only if this is specifically indicated.


Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright, see http://www.elsevier.com/authors). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided. If material from other copyrighted works is 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: contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Oxford, UK: phone (+44) 1865 843830, fax (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail permissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

Full papers will be judged by two qualified reviewers. If in response to a published article a letter to the editor is received, this letter will be sent out for review and at the same time be forwarded to the author(s) tackled. If the letter is accepted, the author(s) of the initial paper will be invited to write a reply within a short period of time, and the reviewers of the letter will be asked to review the reply. Authors volunteering to prepare Minireviews are invited to submit proposals to the appropriate senior editor including the following information: (1) title, (2) justification for a Minireview at this time on the topic selected, (3) a rough outline and (4) a firm date for submission of the completed work, should the senior editor accept the proposal. Vision Research has a restrictive Obituary policy. Obituaries should be submitted to the appropriate senior editor and the chairman, and should not exceed a length of one printed page including photograph.


Sponsored Articles:
Vision Research offers authors the option to sponsor non-subscriber access to their articles on Elsevier's electronic publishing platforms. For more information please view our Sponsored Articles page. http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/sponsoredarticles.


Specific
1. Papers should be written in the English language, accompanied by an abstract. The title page should include up to five keywords. Animal classification should also be given to serve as a guideline for abstracting and indexing.
2. The abstract must be no longer than 100 words and should supplement the title informing the reader of the essential points of the paper.
3. Authors are encouraged to use 95% confidence limits. For purely descriptive studies, rather than those which aim to compare means, the standard deviation is an appropriate measure.
4. The manuscript should be double-spaced with generous margins and page numbers.
5. Rejected manuscripts will not be reconsidered for publication, so they cannot be resubmitted as a revision. Submission as a new paper is possible if manuscript and experiments have been extended substantially.
6. Authors should return a revised manuscript within 6 months; otherwise, it will be treated as a new submission. All material will be discarded after 1 year.
7. Please include all figures / tables within the main text of your manuscript; embed each figure in the text where it is referenced for the first time. Figure legends should appear directly beneath the corresponding figure. After editing your submission, please revisit your built pdf to ensure that all appears as it should.
Electronic format requirements for accepted articles


7. General points
We accept most word processing formats, but Word, WordPerfect, or LaTeX is preferred. The final version should be uploaded to the online submission site. Always keep a backup copy of the electronic file for reference and safety. Save your files using the default extension of the program used. No changes to the accepted version are permissible without the explicit approval of the editor.


8. Word processor documents
It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the word processor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the word processor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use boldface, italics, subscripts, superscripts, etc. Do not embed 'graphically designed' equations or tables, but prepare these using the word processor'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: http://www.elsevier.com/authors). Please include all figures / tables within the main text of your manuscript; embed each figure in the text where it is referenced for the first time. Figure legends should appear directly beneath the corresponding figure. After editing your submission, please revisit your built pdf to ensure that all appears as it should. See also the section on preparation of electronic illustrations. To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spellchecker' function of your word processor.


9. LaTeX documents
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: http://www.elsevier.com/authors. It consists of the files: elsart.cls (use this file if you are using LaTeX2e, the current version of LaTeX), elsart.sty and elsart12.sty (use these two files if you are using LaTeX2.09, the previous version of LaTeX), guidelines for users of elsart, a template file for quick start, and the instruction booklet "Preparing articles with LaTeX".

10. Proofs will be sent to the author (first-named author if no corresponding author is identified on multi-authored papers) by PDF wherever possible and should be returned within 48 hours of receipt, preferably by e-mail. Corrections should be restricted to typesetting errors; any other amendments made may be charged to the author. Any queries should be answered in full. Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are returned to us in one all-inclusive e-mail or fax. Subsequent additional corrections will not be possible, so please ensure that your first communication is complete.

11. When human subjects are used, manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement that the experiments were undertaken with the understanding and written consent of each subject. Authors should be aware of the Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki), which has been printed in the British Medical Journal (18 July 1964). When experimental animals are used, the Methods section must clearly indicate that adequate measures were taken to minimize pain or discomfort. Experiments should be carried out in accordance with the European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986 (86/609/EEC) or with the Guidelines laid down by the NIH in the US regarding the care and use of animals for experimental procedures. Editors reserve the right to reject papers if there is doubt whether appropriate procedures have been used.


12. References


(a) These should be cited in the text by giving the last name of the author (or authors) followed by the year of publication in parentheses, e.g., Gray (1998), Gray and Regan (1998) or (Gray & Regan, 1998). If there are three or more authors, citations should read Brandstatter, Koulen and Wassle (1997), first citation; Brandstatter et al. (1997), second citation. If there is more than one work by an author (or authors) in a given year, then they should be labeled alphabetically within each year (e.g., Gray, 1998a,b).


(b) The full reference list should be typed on a separate page and placed at the end of the article. References should include the names of all the authors and their initials, the year of publication, the full title of the article or book, name of the journal, the volume number and the pages. For books, the city of publication and the publisher should be given. The following may serve as illustrations:
Gray, R., & Regan, D. (1998). Spatial frequency discrimination and detection characteristics for gratings defined by orientation texture. Vision Research, 38, 2601-2617.
Brandstatter, J. H., Koulen, P., & Wassle, H. (1997). Kainate receptors in the rat retina. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 38 (Suppl.), 689 (Abstract).
Kamermans, M., & Spekreijse, H. (1995). Spectral behaviour of cone-driven horizontal cells in teleost retina. In: N. N. Osborne, & G. J. Chader (Eds.), Progress in retinal and eye research (pp. 313-360). Oxford: Pergamon Press.


(c) Unpublished work, work in press, or conference proceedings should be cited only exceptionally, and preprints must accompany the paper if they are essential to its argument.


Preparation of illustrations

Submitting your artwork in an electronic format helps us to produce your work to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail.
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, and Symbol.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• 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 Web site at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions


Color illustrations
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 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. 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 files corresponding to all the color illustrations.


Preparation of supplementary data
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. To ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please provide 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 http://www.elsevier.com/authors When supplementary files are supplied, an additional 'supplementary' figure list should also be submitted. Any supplementary material that is not directly referred to from within the text of your manuscript should be referred to via use of a footnote to the article title. In addition, it is also recommended that a short description is provided for each supplementary file supplied. When published online, the descriptive texts will appear as captions alongside links to the relevant supplementary files, an example layout of online supplementary material can be viewed at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Please note that any supplementary material supplied is subject to the normal peer review process.