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ENGINEERING FRACTURE MECHANICS
An International Journal
Published in Affiliation with the European Structural Integrity Society
ESIS logo

Guide for Authors

Guide for Authors - Content list:


Short Overview

Manuscript Preparation:
General
Structure
Text Layout
Abstract
Keywords
Symbols
Units
Maths
References
Use of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Illustrations
Colour Costs and Queries
Free online colour
Tables
Electronic Annexes

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

Short Overview


Before preparing their manuscript, authors are asked to consult the page How to write a scientific article for EFM for information about the standards of style and content that their manuscript is expected to reach. Authors whose manuscripts do not reach these minimum standards are more likely to have their manuscript rejected without review.

Submission of papers:

It is a condition of publication that all manuscripts must be written in clear and grammatically correct English and be submitted to the Engineering Fracture Mechanics electronic submission site at
External link http://ees.elsevier.com/efm
Authors are requested to transmit the text and art of the manuscript in electronic form to this address. Each manuscript must also be accompanied by a cover letter outlining the basic findings of the paper and their significance.

Prior to submitting your paper, please follow the instructions given below. Please note that you must have an e-mail address to use the online submission system. Authors submit their article online by simply registering, logging-in, and submitting.

Authors submitting revised manuscripts are asked to ensure that one version of their uploaded manuscript has the 'track changes' feature enabled. This will allow the editors and reviewers to easily identify where changes have been made and what the original version of the manuscript said.

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, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail.

Detailed instructions on the use of the online submission system are available at External link http://ees.elsevier.com/efm Please read the "Hints" for information on how to register, and review the "Tutorial for Authors" for a run-through of the submission process. If you need any further help, please do not hesitate to contact our Author Support Department: authorsupport@elsevier.com

Submission Language: English.
Language Polishing. Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit External link http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/languagepolishing or contact authorsupport@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: External link http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/termsconditions.cws_home/termsconditions

Types of contributions: Original research papers, technical notes, letters to the editor.

NOTE: Authors contributing to special issues should ensure that they make the appropriate selections from the Article Type menu and from the Request Editor menu. Authors at Chinese research institutes submitting regular papers are kindly asked to select 'Chinese Editor' from the Request Editor menu.

Corresponding author: Clearly indicate who is willing to 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. Full postal addresses must be given for all co-authors. Please consult a recent journal paper for style if possible.

Original material: 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 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. The covering letter should state that 'this is an original paper which has neither previously, nor simultaneously, in whole or in part been submitted anywhere else'.

Detailed instructions on manuscript preparation and artwork instructions can be found below. The editor reserves the right to return manuscripts that do not conform to the instructions for manuscript preparation and artwork instruction, as well as paper that do not fit the scope of the journal, prior to refereeing.
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see External link http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail (or letter) 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 External link 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 External link http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

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 External link http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies

Authors' rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to: External link http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.

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Manuscript Preparation:

General:


Before preparing their manuscript, authors are asked to consult the page How to write a scientific article for EFM for information about the standards of style and content that their manuscript is expected to reach. Authors whose manuscripts do not reach these minimum standards are more likely to have their manuscript rejected without review.

Authors submitting revised manuscripts are asked to ensure that one version of their uploaded manuscript has the 'track changes' feature enabled. This will allow the editors and reviewers to easily identify where changes have been made and what the original version of the manuscript said.

Editors reserve the right to adjust style to certain standards of uniformity. Please use Word, Word Perfect or LaTeX files for the text of your manuscript that you upload onto the submission site. (For further information about LaTex submission, please go to External link http://www.Elsevier.com/locate/latex.)
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Structure:
Follow this order when typing manuscripts: Title, Authors, Affiliations, Abstract, Keywords, Nomenclature, Main text, Acknowledgements, Appendix, References, Figure Captions and then Tables. Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article and do not include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise.
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Text Layout:
Use a single column format, double spacing and wide margins, and avoid full justification. Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. Table and figures may be presented with captions within the main body of the manuscript, and additionally figures should be uploaded as high resolution files if possible. Consult a recent issue of the journal to become familiar with layout and conventions. Number all pages consecutively, use 12 or 10 pt font size and standard fonts.
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Abstract:
A self-contained abstract of no more than 100 words outlining in a single paragraph the aims, scope and conclusions of the paper must be supplied.
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Keywords:
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of five keywords (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. Authors should attempt to select their keywords from the list appearing at the back of the journal.
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Symbols:
Letter characters should be limited to the Latin and Greek alphabets. Authors wishing to present a table of nomenclature should do so on the second page of their manuscript. The following order should be used within this table: Latin characters should appear first, arranged a, A, b, B etc.; then Greek characters, similarly arranged; sub/superscripts, abbreviations, special functions etc. usually come as a separate final group.
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Units:
Each paper should be self-consistent as to symbols and units which should all be properly defined in a Nomenclature which will appear immediately prior to the main body of the text.
Because of the international character of the journal, no rigid rules concerning notation or abbreviation need be observed by authors. However, the international system of units (SI) should be used as far as possible, and any other unit symbols clearly defined on first appearance, with quantities given an equivalent in SI. Internationally accepted rules and conventions in relation to SI units can be found at External link http://www.aip.org/pt/guide/metric.html
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Maths:
Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text). Particular care should be exercised in identifying all symbols and in avoiding ambiguities. Distinction should be made between the number one (1) and letter l, and between the number zero (0) and the letter O. A vector will be printed in boldface. Authors are reminded that to assist the review and typesetting process follow accepted conventions, including the use of italics, boldface, subscripts and superscripts etc. The Editors may request corrections of this nature before the manuscript can be accepted.
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References:
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. Since Peterson[1]), and the full reference should be given in a numerical list at the end of the paper. References should be given in the following form, in the order in which they appear within the text:

[1] Sundararaman V. Davidson DB. An unsymmetric end-notched flexure test for interfacial fracture toughness determination. Engng Fracture Mech. 1998;60(3):361-377.

[2] Suresh S. Fatigue of Materials. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

[3] Riemelmoser FO, Pippan R. Plasticity induced crack closure under plane strain conditions in terms of dislocation arrangement. In: Lutjering G, Nowack H, editors. Fatigue '96. Pergamon, 1996. p. 363-368.
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Use of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

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.
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Colour Costs and Queries:
For colour illustrations, a colour printing fee is charged to the author per colour page. Further information concerning colour illustrations and costs is available from Author Support at authorsupport@Elsevier.com, and at External link http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions .
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FREE ONLINE COLOUR
If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour and black/white 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. ' Usable' means the formats comply with our instructions. See the information about Illustrations at External link http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions . For colour illustrations in the print journal see colour costs above.
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Tables:
Tables should be numbered consecutively and given suitable caption and each table is laid out on a new page. No vertical rules should be used. Tables should not duplicate results presented elsewhere in the manuscript (for example, in graphs). Footnotes to tables should be typed below the table and should be referred to by superscript lowercase letters.
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Electronic Annexes
Authors may submit electronic annexes, such as short videos, computer-enhanced images, audio clips and large databases. Please refer to the Artwork Instructions (Multimedia files) at External link http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions for details on file types to be used. In the text of your article you may wish to refer to the annex. This is not mandatory, however, if you do wish to refer to the annex in the text then please do so using this example: "?see Electronic Annex 1 in the online version of this article." Production will insert the relevant URL at the typesetting stage after this statement.
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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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Copyright:

All authors must sign the Transfer of Copyright agreement before the article can be published. This transfer agreement enables Elsevier to protect the copyrighted material for the authors, but does not relinquish the authors' proprietory rights. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microfilm or any other reproductions of similar nature and translations. Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright from the holder permission to reproduce any figures for which copyright exists.
For more information please go to our copyright page External link http://www.elsevier.com/authorrights.
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PDF Proofs:

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 External link 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.
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Author Benefits:

No page charges: Publications in this journal is free of charge.

Free Offprints: The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. 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. 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 100 offprints free of charge.

Author Discount: Contributors to Elsevier journals are entitled to a 30% discount on all Elsevier books. See External link http://www.elsevier.com/homepage/booksbutler"target="_blank for more information.

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Online Paper Tracking:

Authors can track the status of their accepted paper online at External link 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.com

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