The International Journal for the Science and Technology of Polymers

In order to achieve rapid publication, it is essential precisely to follow these instructions. Failure to do so can result in a substantial delay in publication.

Since 1 September 2005, manuscripts can only be submitted online via the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) at http://ees.elsevier.com/jpol. Prior to submission, authors are encouraged to read the instructions available by following this link and clicking on the 'help' icon in the top right hand corner of the page. Online submission considerably shortens the overall publication time.

Submission of Papers

Polymer publishes original research from all areas of polymer science and technology, with emphasis on molecular or mesoscale interpretation of data. Papers from new emerging areas of the field are particularly welcome. The journal publishes regular articles, communications (novel, unexpected experimental results or interpretation presented within 4 printed pages) and feature articles (usually invited by the Editors).

During the online submission, authors are requested to choose the appropriate Editor from a drop down menu, according to the geographical location of the corresponding author and the subject matter of the paper.

Papers on computational and theoretical polymer science from all over the world should be submitted online via EES to:
Professor J.E. Mark,
Department of Chemistry, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0172, USA
Email: markje@email.uc.edu

Papers from the Americas should be submitted online via EES to one of the following editors, according to the subject matter:
Professor S.Z.D. Cheng, Physics and Physical Chemistry
The Maurice Morton Institute of Polymer Science, University of Akron, Goodyear Polymer Centre, Room 936, Akron, OH 44325-3909, USA
E-mail: scheng@uakron.edu
Professor S.R. Turner, Chemistry and Synthesis
Macromolecules and Interfaces Institute, 2 Davidson Hall (0201), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
E-mail: srturner@vt.edu

All papers from China (in all subject areas) should be submitted online via EES toto:
Professor C.C. Han
Joint Laboratory of Polymer Science and Materials, Institute of Chemistry , The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongguancum, Beijing, 100080, China
E-mail: c.c.han@iccas.ac.cn

Papers from the rest of Asia should be submitted online via EES to one of the following Editors, according to the subject matter:
Professor K. Tashiro, Physics
Department of Future Industry-oriented Basic Science and Materials, Graduate School of Engineering, Toyota Technological Institute, Hisakata 2-12-1, Tempaku, Nagoya 468-8511, Japan
E-mail: ktashiro@toyota-ti.ac.jp
Professor S. Ito, Physical Chemistry and functionality
Department of Polymer Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan;
E-mail: ito@photo.polym.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Professor T. Masuda, Chemistry and Synthesis
Department of Polymer Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan;
E-mail: masuda@adv.polym.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Papers from Europe and the rest of the world should be submitted online via EES to one of the following editors:
Professor Dr. M. Ballauff, Physical Chemistry
Soft Matter and Functional Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Glienicker Straße 100, 14109 Berlin, Germany.
Email: matthias.ballauff@helmholtz-berlin.de
Professor G. Krausch, Physics
Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz, Forum universitatis 2, 55099 Mainz, Germany.
Email: krausch@uni-mainz.de
Professor A.H.E. Müller, Chemistry and Synthesis
Makromolekulare Chemie II, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
Email: polymer-chem@uni-bayreuth.de

Submission of a paper implies that it is an original research work which has not been published previously, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, 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 Publisher.

If revision of the original manuscript is required, authors will have a maximum of two months (from receipt of the referees comments) to revise and re-submit. A revised manuscript received by the Editor later than two months after the authors receipt of the referees comments will be treated as a new submission. Authors are allowed to revise the original manuscript only once. If further revisions are requested the manuscript will be treated as a new submission.

Ethics in Publishing Before starting work on their manuscript authors should familiarise themselves with our Ethics in Publishing guidelines. See http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.

Manuscript Preparation
General: Manuscripts must be typewritten, with 1 1/2 line spacing and wide margins on one side, using a 12 pt font size. All pages must be numbered consecutively. The order of the manuscripts should be title, author(s) and affiliation(s), telephone and fax numbers as well as e-mail addresses of the corresponding author, abstract, keywords, text, references. Tables, schemes and figures should be inserted into the main text. Sequences of tables, figures and schemes should be numbered with Arabic numerals.

In addition to the Abstract, which will appear at the beginning of the text, the author should provide a graphical abstract (TOC). The TOC graphic should capture the reader?s attention and, in conjunction with the manuscript title, should give the reader a quick visual impression of the essence of the paper. It should be in the form of a structure, graph, drawing, TEM/SEM/AFM micrograph, or reaction scheme without any added text. Tables or spectra are not acceptable. Color is encouraged. Type size of labels, formulas, or numbers within the graphic must be legible. The graphic should be submitted as a separate file in either TIFF, JPG, Word, or Powerpoint format.

Language and Style: Manuscripts should be written in English in a clear and concise manner and follow the style of a current issue of Polymer. Authors whose native language is not English should have the spelling, grammar, and style checked by someone fully proficient in the English language.

Manuscripts which are not written in fluent English will be rejected automatically without refereeing.

English language help service: Upon request, Elsevier will direct authors to an agent who can check and improve the English of their paper (before submission). Please contact authorsupport@elsevier.com for further information.

Title: The title should be concise, informative and representative of the contents of the manuscript.

Author(s) and Affiliation(s): Full affiliations and postal addresses must be given for all authors. An asterisk should designate the author to whom correspondence is to be addressed and a footnote must provide their full e-mail address, fax and telephone numbers.

Abstract: An abstract of approximately 100 to 150 words identifying the new and significant results of the study must be provided for all manuscripts, including articles, reviews, and communications. The abstract should comprise a brief and factual account of the contents and conclusions of the paper as well as an indication of any new information presented and its relevance. Abstracts should be self-contained. References to formulae, equations or references that appear in the main text are not permissible.

Keywords: A maximum of three keywords are required for indexing purpose.

Text: The main text should include introduction, experimental section, results, discussion and conclusion. All footnotes (except for table footnotes) should be identified with superscript Arabic numbers. Headings and subheadings for different sections of the papers should be used and clearly identified. If each section needs to be numbered, a sequence such as 2., 2.1., 2.1.1., etc should be used. All tables and figures must be mentioned in the text. Trade names should have an initial capital letter.

For full-length manuscripts, a proper introduction is required. The purpose of the introduction is to briefly summarise previous work and recent progress in the field and not to repeat information found in previous publications. The introduction must be kept to a minimum length and only references that pertain to the information in the manuscript should be used. For shorter articles, introductions should be correspondingly brief.

The experimental section should provide sufficient detail of the materials, methods and equipment to allow repetition of the work elsewhere, but should not contain excessive detail of commonly used procedures. Precautions for handling dangerous material or for performing hazardous procedures should be explicitly stated.

References: Author(s) carry the full responsibility for the accuracy of their references. The format of references must be uniform and consistent with those found in a typical issue of Polymer. All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. In the text refer to references by a number in square brackets on the line (e.g. Kim and Michler [1]), and full reference should be given in a numerical list at the end of the paper in the following form:

1. Kim GM, Michler GH. Polymer 1998;39(23):5689-5697.
2. Jenkins AD, Loening KL. Nomenclature. In: Allen G, Bevington JC, Booth C, Price C, editors. Comprehensive polymer science, vol. 1. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1989. pp. 13-54.
3. Van Krevelen DW. Properties of polymers, 3rd ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1990 (chapter 6).

Units: All measurements and data should be given in SI units.

Symbols: It is helpful to identify Greek symbols by name in the margin the first time they appear. Abbreviations and acronyms should only be used for unwieldy terms and names that occur frequently in the manuscript.

Maths: Detailed mathematical discussion should be placed in an appendix. Equations and formulae should be typewritten.

Nomenclature: Nomenclature should conform to current scientific usage. Author(s) should use systematic names similar to those used by Chemical Abstracts Service and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Chemical Abstracts (CA) nomenclature rules can be found in Appendix IV of the Chemical Abstracts Index Guide.

Manuscript Submission
The manuscript, including figures, tables, and schemes must be submitted as one single word processor file. This file will be converted to the PDF format by EES. Details are given in the Tutorial for authors

Guidelines for Text Files and Formats
Most word-processing formats are accepted (ideally Microsoft Word or WordPerfect). Please check the current style of the journal, particularly the reference style, and avoid excessive layout styling as most formatting codes will be removed or replaced during the processing your article. In addition, do not use options such as automatic word breaking, justified layout, double columns or automatic paragraph numbering (especially for numbered references). However do use bold face, italic, subscripts, superscripts etc.

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 not spaces. Footnotes to tables should be typed below the table and should be referred to by superscript lower case letters. No vertical rules should be used. Tables should not duplicate results presented elsewhere in the manuscript (e.g. in graphs).

Guidelines for Artwork/Illustrations

Basic guidelines for submitting artwork/illustrations: (For in-depth information about submitting electronic artwork see http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork)

1. TIFF or EPS files are the preferred format. Suggested packages for line graphics are Adobe Illustrator (version 3.0 or above), Freehand, and Corel Draw. Graphics made in WordPerfect or Word generally have too low a resolution. The minimum acceptable resolution for line art images is 1000 dpi. For halftones and halftone/line art combinations, the minimum resolutions are 300dpi (500dpi if lettering is present).

2. Black and white photos, micrographs etc should not be saved as colour.

3. Colour reproduction is available if the author is prepared to bear the additional reproduction and printing costs. A quotation will be provided on request. At the editors discretion colour may be provided at no cost to the author, if it is deemed essential to the clarity and presentation of the article. Colour illustrations should be scanned at 300 dpi (500 dpi for halftones/line art combinations).

4. For best results, illustrations should be prepared and submitted in the actual size at which they should appear in the journal and fit a single column width. Each illustration should have a maximum width of 8.25 cm (3.25 in.) and a maximum depth of 24 cm (9.5 in.). Only if it is absolutely necessary will a two-column width be allowed; this requires a minimum width of 10.5 cm (4.1 in.), a maximum width of 17.8 cm (7.1 in.) and a maximum depth of 22 cm (8.7 in.). The minimum font size for lettering appearing in a figure should be 6 pt; lines should be no thinner than 0.5 point and of uniform density. When original illustrations do need to be reduced to fit a single or double column, use larger lettering and thicker lines so that, when reduced, the artwork meets the above-mentioned parameters.

5. Chemical Structures should be produced with the use of a commercially available drawing package. No hand-drawn chemical structures will be accepted. Structures must fit a one- or, if absolutely necessary, two-column width on the journal page. Structures using the one-column width are highly preferred. The actual size at which they should appear in the journal will provide the best publication quality.

6. Should the image files require compression then the compression software used must be indicated.

Proofs and Offprints
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 available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs.
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.

Copyright
All authors must sign the "Transfer of Copyright" agreement before the article can be published. This transfer agreement enables Elsevier Ltd. to protect the copyrighted material for the authors, but does not relinquish the author's proprietary rights. Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder permission to reproduce any figure for which copyright exists. Elsevier Ltd. will send the copyright form to corresponding author for signature after the manuscript is accepted for publication.

Author Enquiries
For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal's homepage at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/polymer. You can track accepted articles at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed, as well as copyright information, frequently asked questions and more.

For specific enquires on the preparation of electronic artwork, consult http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork

Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided when an article is accepted for publication.

Keyword List
Polymer, Polymer Science, Polymer Physics, Polymer Chemistry, Polymer Materials, Polymer Synthesis, Polymer Engineering, Polymer Physical Chemistry, Polymer Science and Technology, Polymer Composite Materials.