Guide for Authors
Types of paper
Original research papers; review articles; rapid
communications; short communications; viewpoints; letters to the Editor; book reviews.
1.Research papers - original full-length research
papers which have not been published previously, except in a preliminary form, and should not exceed 7,500 words (including allowance
for no more than 6 tables and illustrations).
2.Review articles - will be accepted in areas of topical interest, will normally focus
on literature published over the previous five years, and should not exceed 10,000 words (including allowance for no more than 6 tables
and illustrations).
3.Rapid communications - an original research paper reporting a major scientific result or finding with significant
implications for the research community, designated by the Editor.
4.Short communications - Short communications of up to 3000 words,
describing work that may be of a preliminary nature but which merits immediate publication.
5.Viewpoints - Authors may submit viewpoints
of about 1200 words on any subject covered by the Aims and Scope.
6.Letters to the Editor - Letters are published from time to time
on matters of topical interest.
7.Book reviews
Page charges
This journal has no
page charges.
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.
The work described in your article must have
been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving
humans
http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html ; EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm.
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 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.
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 and language services
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted,
but not a mixture of these). Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission
please visit
http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageservices
or our customer support site at
http://support.elsevier.com
for more information.
Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online and
you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of your files. The system automatically converts source files to a single
PDF file of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted
to PDF files 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 paper trail.
Authors must provide and use an email address unique to themselves and not shared with another author registered in EES,
or a department.
Referees
Authors are required to submit, with the manuscript, the names,
addresses and e-mail addresses of 3 potential referees. Note that the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested
reviewers are used.
Review Policy
A peer review system involving two or three reviewers
is used to ensure high quality of manuscripts accepted for publication. The Managing Editor and Editors have the right to decline formal
review of a manuscript when it is deemed that the manuscript is
1) on a topic outside the scope of the Journal;
2) lacking technical
merit;
3) focused on foods or processes that are of narrow regional scope and significance;
4) fragmentary and providing marginally
incremental results; or
5) is poorly written.
Use of wordprocessing
software
General: Manuscripts must be typewritten, double-spaced with wide margins on one side of white paper. Each
page must be numbered, and lines must be consecutively numbered from the start to the end of the manuscript. Good quality printouts with
a font size of 12 or 10 pt are required. The corresponding author should be identified (include a Fax number and E-mail address). Full
postal addresses must be given for all co-authors. Authors should consult a recent issue of the journal for style if possible. An electronic
copy of the paper should accompany the final version. The Editors reserve the right to adjust style to certain standards of uniformity.
Authors should retain a copy of their manuscript since we cannot accept responsibility for damage or loss of papers. Original manuscripts
are discarded one month after publication unless the Publisher is asked to return original material after use.
Article
structure
Follow this order when typing manuscripts: Title, Authors, Affiliations, Abstract, Keywords, Main text, Acknowledgements,
Appendix, References, Vitae, Figure Captions and then Tables. Do not import the Figures or Tables into your text. The corresponding author
should be identified with an asterisk and footnote. All other footnotes (except for table footnotes) should be identified with superscript
Arabic numbers. The title of the paper should unambiguously reflect its contents. Where the title exceeds 70 characters a suggestion
for an abbreviated running title should be given.
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.
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 conclusions. 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, then cite the author(s)
and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention
in the abstract itself.
The abstract should not exceed 150 words.
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.
Units
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If
other units are mentioned, please give their equivalent in SI.
Temperatures should be given in degrees
Celsius. The unit 'billion' is ambiguous and should not be used.
Database linking
Elsevier
aims at connecting online articles with external databases which are useful in their respective research communities. If your article
contains relevant unique identifiers or accession numbers (bioinformatics) linking to information on entities (genes, proteins, diseases,
etc.) or structures deposited in public databases, then please indicate those entities according to the standard explained below.
Authors
should explicitly mention the
database abbreviation (as mentioned below) together with the actual database number, bearing in
mind that an error in a letter or number can result in a dead link in the online version of the article.
Please use the following
format:
Database ID: xxxx
Links can be provided in your online article to the following databases (examples of citations are
given in parentheses):
•
ASTM: ASTM Standards Database (ASTM ID: G63)
•
CCDC: Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC ID: AI631510)
•
GenBank: Genetic sequence database at the National Center for
Biotechnology Information (NCBI) (GenBank ID: BA123456)
•
GEO:
Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO ID: GSE27196; GEO ID: GPL5366; GEO ID: GSM9853)
•
MI:
EMBL-EBI OLS Molecular Interaction Ontology (MI ID: 0218)
•
MINT:
Molecular INTeractions database (MINT ID: 6166710)
•
NCBI Taxonomy:
NCBI Taxonomy Browser (NCBI Taxonomy ID: 48184)
•
NCT: ClinicalTrials.gov
(NCT ID: NCT00222573)
•
OMIM: Online Mendelian Inheritance
in Man (OMIM ID: 601240)
•
PDB: Worldwide Protein Data
Bank (PDB ID: 1TUP)
•
TAIR: The Arabidopsis Information Resource
database (TAIR ID: AT1G01020)
•
UniProt: Universal Protein Resource
Knowledgebase (UniProt ID: Q9H0H5)
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.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• 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.
If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
then please supply 'as is'.
Please do not:
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (e.g., 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.
Please insert the following text before the standard text - Photographs, charts
and diagrams are all to be referred to as "Figure(s)" and should be numbered consecutively in the order to which they are referred. They
should accompany the manuscript, but should not be included within the text. All illustrations should be clearly marked with the figure
number and the author's name. All figures are to have a caption. Captions should be supplied on a separate sheet.
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. Keep text in
the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
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.
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.
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.
Example:
CTAHR (College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii). Tea (Camellia sinensis) a New Crop for Hawaii, 2007.
URL
http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/tea_04_07.pdf. Accessed 14.02.11.
All publications
cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. No more than 30 references should
be cited in your manuscript. In the text refer to the author's name (without initials) and year of publication (e.g. "Steventon, Donald
and Gladden (1994) studied the effects..." or "...similar to values reported by others (Anderson, Douglas, Morrison & Weiping, 1990)...").
For 2-6 authors all authors are to be listed at first citation. At subsequent citations use first author et al.. When there are more
than 6 authors, first author et al. should be used throughout the text. The list of references should be arranged alphabetically by authors'
names and should be as full as possible, listing all authors, the full title of articles and journals, publisher and year. The manuscript
should be carefully checked to ensure that the spelling of authors' names and dates are exactly the same in the text as in the reference
list.
Reference style
Text: Citations in the text should follow the referencing
style used by the American Psychological Association. You are referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association,
Sixth Edition, ISBN 978-1-4338-0561-5, copies of which may be ordered from
http://books.apa.org/books.cfm?id=4200067 or
APA Order Dept., P.O.B. 2710, Hyattsville, MD 20784, USA or APA, 3 Henrietta Street, London, WC3E 8LU, UK. Details concerning this referencing
style can also be found at
http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/apa/apa01.html.
List: references should
be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s)
in the same year must be identified by the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc., placed after the year of publication.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J. A. J., & Lupton, R. A. (2010). The art of writing a scientific
article.
Journal of Scientific Communications, 163, 51–59.
Reference to a book:
Strunk, W., Jr., &
White, E. B. (2000).
The elements of style. (4th ed.). New York: Longman, (Chapter 4).
Reference to a chapter in an edited
book:
Mettam, G. R., & Adams, L. B. (2009). How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In B. S. Jones, & R. Z.
Smith (Eds.),
Introduction to the electronic age (pp. 281–304). New York: E-Publishing Inc.
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.
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.
Additional information
Abbreviations for units should follow the suggestions of the British Standards publication
BS 1991. The full stop should not be included in abbreviations, e.g. m (not m.), ppm (not p.p.m.), % and '/' should be used in preference
to 'per cent' and 'per'. Where abbreviations are likely to cause ambiguity or may not be readily understood by an international readership,
units should be put in full.
Current recognised (IUPAC) chemical nomenclature should be used, although commonly accepted trivial
names may be used where there is no risk of ambiguity.
The use of proprietary names should be avoided. Papers essentially of an advertising
nature will not be accepted.
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.
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.
