Guide for Authors
A Journal of the International Water Association (IWA)
www.iwapublishing.com
Types of paper
Papers are published either as
a Full Paper or a Review Paper. Comments on these papers are also welcome.
(a) A FULL PAPER is a contribution describing original
research, including theoretical exposition, extensive data and in-depth critical evaluation, and is peer reviewed.
Water Research
does not accept case studies, unless it is a study that has a wide impact on the industry. The total length of a manuscript including
figures, tables and references must not exceed 8000 words (40 pages).
(b) REVIEW PAPERS are encouraged. Only critical review papers
will be considered. The format and length of review papers are more flexible than for a full paper. Review papers are peer reviewed.
(c) COMMENTS on papers already published are welcome, subject to the criteria of interest, originality and the approval of the appropriate
Editor. Comments can include extensions to, or criticisms of, those papers. They must provide arguments that are reasoned, and not presented
in a confrontational fashion. They will be sent to the author of the original paper for reply, the outcome of which may be publication
in a future issue. Comments and Authors' Replies should not exceed 1200 words each and will be received until 4 months after publication.
They will be accepted or rejected without corrections.
Ethics in Publishing
For information on Ethics in Publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication
see
http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and
http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.
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.
Submission declaration
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carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without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.
Note that conference proceedings
are a form of publication.
Contributors
Each author is required to declare
his or her individual contribution to the article: all authors must have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation,
so roles for all authors should be described. The statement that all authors have approved the final article should be true and included
in the disclosure.
Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will
be asked to complete 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 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.
Language Services
Manuscripts should be written in English. Authors who are unsure of correct English usage
should have their manuscript checked by someone proficient in the language. Manuscripts in which the English is difficult to understand
can be rejected.
Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please
visit
http://www.elsevier.com/languagepolishing or our customer support site at
http://epsupport.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.
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/wr/) 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.
Please submit your article via
http://ees.elsevier.com/wr/
Referees
You are required to submit, with the manuscript, the
names and addresses of 4 potential referees that can give an independent review.
Important
notice
Multi-part papers are not to be considered. Papers that are requested by the editors to be revised must be returned
within 4 weeks or they will be regarded as withdrawn.
Water Research has no page charges.
Use of wordprocessing software
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 illustrations.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the "spell-check" and "grammar-check" functions
of your wordprocessor.
Article structure
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.
Use line numbering throughout your paper.
Introduction
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed
literature survey or a summary of the results.
Material and methods
Provide
sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications
should be described.
Results
Results should be clear and concise.
Show only those experimental results that are relevant to your objectives and conclusions and which you want
to discuss.
Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results
of the work, not repeat them. It should integrate your findings in a comprehensive picture and place them in the context of the existing
literature. A combined Results and Discussion section can be appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
For
reviews the organisation of the paper can be different. It is however important that a review is more then a summary of the literature,
an in-depth critical discussion is essential for acceptance of a review paper.
Conclusions
Conclusions contain essentially the 'take-home' message of a paper. Conclusions are not an extension of the discussion or a summary
of the results. Authors are advised to list important implications of their work in form of a bulleted list. Conclusions must not contain
references to the cited literature.
Appendices
If there is more than
one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1),
Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on.
It is also
possible to add supplementary information on-line (see below).
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 will 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 message. An abstract is often presented separately 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, 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, avoid 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. Use keywords that make your paper easy detectable for interested readers
in literature databases. Repeating terms in the title is usually not needed.
Abbreviations
Nomenclature must be listed at the beginning of the paper and must conform to the system of standard SI units. Acronyms and abbreviations
must be spelled out in full at their first occurrence in the text. Authors should consult - "Notation for Use in the Description of Wastewater
Treatment Processes", Water Res.1987;(21)2:135-9. In general, minimise the use of abbreviations so the paper remains easily understood
by the general reader.
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 proof reading the article, etc.).
Artwork
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, Times, Symbol.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
•
Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Ensure that the figures can be understood without reading the text.
Minimise use of abbreviations.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
• Submit each figure
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
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: color or grayscale 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 (color or grayscale): a
minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS, PDF 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 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. 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 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, making it understandable
independent of the text. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used. Prevent
use of symbols in figures and captions.
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.
Minimise the use of symbols and abbreviations
in the tables.
References
Citation
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.
Only cite the original papers and those relevant for the work, no need to give a full literature review in the introduction/discussion.
A large fraction of self-citations is general an indication that the authors didn't place their work well in the literature context.
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.
References in a special issue
Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references
in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.
Reference style
References to published literature must be cited in the text as follows:
Li and Gregory (2006) - the
date of publication in parentheses after the authors' names. References must be listed together at the end of each paper and must not
be given as footnotes. For other than review papers authors should aim to give no more than 20-30 recent, relevant references. They
must be listed alphabetically starting with the surname of the first author, (year) followed by the title of the referenced paper and
the full name of the periodical, as follows:
Li, G. and Gregory, J. (2006) Flocculation and sedimentation of high-turbidity waters.
Water Research 25(9), 1137-1143.
It is particularly requested that (i) authors' initials, (ii) the title of the paper, and (iii)
the volume, part number and first and last page numbers are given for each reference.
References to books, reports and theses must
be cited in the narrative. They must include the author(s), date of publication, title of book, editor(s) name(s) if applicable, page
numbers, name of publisher, and place of publication. The abbreviation et al. may be used in the text. However, the names of all authors
must be given in the list of references. Personal communications and other unpublished works must be included in the reference list,
giving full contact details (name and address of communicator).
Personal communications must be cited in the text as, for example,
Champney (2006).
References in languages other than English must be referred to by an English translation (with the original language
indicated in parentheses).
Citing and listing of web references. As a minimum, the full URL should be given. Any further information,
if known (author names, dates, references 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.
Supplementary material
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 are 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. Video files: please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or make a separate image. These will
be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your supplementary information. 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)
• 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://epsupport.elsevier.com.
Use of the Digital Object Identifier
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 (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://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. 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/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 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. 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
The corresponding author,
at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. 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. Additional paper
offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.
Author's Discount
Contributors to Elsevier journals are entitled to a 30% discount on most Elsevier books,
if ordered directly from Elsevier.
For inquiries relating
to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal's homepage. 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. Also accessible from here is information on copyright, frequently asked questions and more. Contact details for questions arising
after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher.
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