Guide for Authors
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.
Note that
conference proceedings are a form of publication.
Submission declaration and verification
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and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published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, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originality detection software iThenticate. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/editors/plagdetect.
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.
Changes
to authorship
This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted
manuscripts:
Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange
the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a)
the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from
all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes
confirmation from the author being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the
Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform
the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship
has been agreed.
After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange
author names in an article published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.
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 article 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.
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. The fee
of $3,000 excludes taxes and other potential author fees such as color charges. 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.
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://ees.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. 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). Note that source
files of figures, tables and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also the section on
Electronic artwork.
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. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.
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. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.
•
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.
Graphical abstract
A
Graphical abstract is optional and should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the
attention of a wide readership online. Authors must provide images that clearly represent the work described in the article. Graphical
abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in the online submission system. Image size: Please provide an image with a minimum
of 531 × 1328 pixels (h × w) or proportionally more. The image should be readable at a size of 5 × 13 cm using a regular
screen resolution of 96 dpi. Preferred file types: TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files. See
http://www.elsevier.com/graphicalabstracts
for examples.
Authors can make use of Elsevier's Illustration and Enhancement service to ensure the best presentation of their images
also in accordance with all technical requirements:
Illustration
Service.
Highlights
Highlights are mandatory for this journal. They consist
of a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings of the article and should be submitted in a separate file in the
online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including
spaces, per bullet point). See
http://www.elsevier.com/highlights for examples.
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 and the date when the reference was last accessed. 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 management software
This
journal has standard templates available in key reference management packages EndNote (
http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp)
and Reference Manager (
http://refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp). Using plug-ins to wordprocessing packages, authors only
need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article and the list of references and citations to these will be
formatted according to the journal style which is described below.
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., 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.
Video data
Elsevier accepts video material and
animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit
with their article are strongly encouraged to include these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure
or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should
be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material
is directly usable, please provide the files in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 50 MB. Video and
animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or animation
or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your video data. For more detailed
instructions please visit our video instruction pages at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Note: since video
and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and the print version
for the portions of the article that refer to this content.
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.
Data at PANGAEA
Electronic archiving of supplementary data enables readers to replicate, verify and build
upon the conclusions published in your paper. We recommend that data should be deposited in the data library PANGAEA (
http://www.pangaea.de).
Data are quality controlled and archived by an editor in standard machine-readable formats and are available via Open Access. After processing,
the author receives an identifier (DOI) linking to the supplements for checking. As your data sets will be citable you might want to
refer to them in your article. In any case, data supplements and the article will be automatically linked as in the following example:
doi:10.1016/0016-7037(95)00105-9. Please use PANGAEA's
web interface to submit your data (
http://www.pangaea.de/submit/).
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
• Telephone and fax
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.
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.2010.09.059
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, the DOIs 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://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.
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.
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) please visit this journal's homepage. Contact details for questions
arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher. You can track accepted
articles at
http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. You can also check our Author FAQs (
http://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ)
and/or contact Customer Support via
http://support.elsevier.com.
