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INTERNATIONAL BIODETERIORATION AND BIODEGRADATION
The Official Journal of the International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation Society

Guide for Authors

Submission of papers
Submission of a manuscript implies that the author(s) have the authority to publish the work and that it is not being considered contemporaneously for publication elsewhere. Submission of a multi-authored manuscript implies the consent of all the participating authors. All papers will be independently refereed.

All manuscripts for International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation should be submitted electronically through Elsevier Editorial System (EES), which can be accessed at External link http://ees.elsevier.com/ibb. 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. The above represents a very brief outline of this form of submission. It may be advantageous to print this "Guide for Authors" section for reference in the subsequent stages of article preparation.

Types of contribution
Contributions may be original papers, review articles, case studies, short communications, reports of conferences or meetings, book reviews, or news of forthcoming meetings. The subject and content of review articles should be discussed with the Editors prior to submission to the journal. All papers should be written in English.

Format of manuscripts
Wherever possible, authors should consult a recent issue of the journal for style and layout. Manuscripts that do not conform to the style of the journal or in which the English is poor may be returned to authors before they are accepted for reviewing. It is in the interests of authors who are not familiar with the correct use of English to have someone proficient in the English language check their manuscript before it is submitted. The Editors reserve the right to adjust style to certain standards of uniformity.

Information on author-paid and pre-acceptance language editing services available to authors can be found at External link http://www.elsevier.com/locate/languagepolishing.


The manuscript should be prepared on a word-processor, in single-spaced typing on pages of uniform size with a 2.5cm margin all round. Artificial (hyphenated) word breaks should not be used at the end of lines. Footnotes to the text should be avoided. All pages should be numbered consecutively. To facilitate the review process continuous line numbers should be inserted in the text of the manuscript.
The first page of the manuscript should give:- title of the paper; name(s) of author(s); address(es); and name, full post address, e-mail address, and telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author, to whom page proofs will be sent. On the first page the author also needs to state what the scientific relevance of the paper is. Please note that papers with a routine nature and lacking originality, novelty, and uniqueness will not be accepted for publication.
In general, the manuscript should not exceed 10 000 words, or about 20 printed pages. It should comprise the following sections:

Abstract. This summary, consisting of about 150-200 words, should report concisely on the purpose and results of the work described. It should be followed by up to five keywords.

Introduction. This should give (a) a salient background to enable the reader to understand and assess the study presented and (b) a statement of the aims of the study.

Materials and Methods. Enough technical information should be given in this section for the experimental work to be repeated. New methods should be described fully, but for established methods reference to published papers or readily available manuals is adequate.

Results. Results should be presented as concisely as possible. Use should be made here of well-constructed tables and figures. The text here should not be used to reiterate or discuss the results presented in tables and figures, but should direct the attention of the reader to the important findings in them. Data should not be presented in tables and figures where they can be more concisely set down in the text.

Discussion. This section should interpret and discuss the results in the light of previous work; it should not repeat at length material presented in the Introduction or Results. In Short Communications, the Results and Discussion sections may be combined.

Acknowledgements. Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise.

References. Following the Harvard system, there should be a list of references in alphabetical order at the end of the paper, following the Harvard system. All references in this list must be cited in the text, and vice versa. The references should be indicated at the appropriate place in the text using surnames and year of publication, as in Canale-Parola (1992), Eaton and Hale (1993), and for three or more authors Bjordal et al. (2000). Where in a series, references should be in ascending order of year, as in (Daniel and Nilsson 1986; Canale-Parola 1992; Eaton and Hale 1993; Björdal et al. 2000). Where two or more papers by the same author(s) are published in the same year they should be cited as Smith (1995a), Smith (1995b), etc. When together in parentheses they should appear as (Smith 1992a,b). Each reference in the list should give names and initials of ALL authors, and the year and the exact title of the paper or book. For journals there should follow the full title, volume number (but not part number), and initial and final page numbers of the article; for books there should follow the name of the publisher and place of publication. The styles for contributions to edited books and proceedings, reports and online articles are shown below.

Björdal, C.G., Daniel, G., Nilsson, T., 2000. Depth of burial, an important factor in controlling bacterial decay of waterlogged archaeological poles. International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation 45, 15-26.

Eaton, R.A., Hale, M.D.C., 1993. Wood - decay, pests and protection. Chapman and Hall, London.

Dillon, H.K., Heinsohn, Miller, J.D., (Eds.), 1996. Field guide for the determination of biological contaminants in environmental samples. American Industrial Hygiene Association, Fairfax, VA.

Adan, O.C.G., 1994. On the fungal defacement of interior finishes, PhD thesis, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Canale-Parola, E., 1992. Free-living saccharolytic spirochetes: The genus Spirochaeta. In: Balows, A., Truper, M., Dworkin, M., Harder, W., Schleifer, K.H., (Eds.), The Prokaryotes (2nd ed.), Vol. 4, Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 3524-3536.

Huang, S.J., Bell, J.P., Knox, J.R., Atwood, H., Bansleben, D., Bitritto, W. Broghard, W., Chapin, T., Leong, K.W., Natarjan, K., Nepumuceno, J., Roby, M., Soboslai, J., Shoemaker, N., 1976. Design, synthesis and degradation of polymers susceptible to hydrolysis by proteolytic enzymes. In: Sharpley, J.M., Kaplan, A.M., (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third International Biodegradation Symposium, Applied Science, London, pp. 731-741.

Daniel, G., Nilsson, T., 1986. Ultrastructural observations on wood-degrading erosion bacteria. IRG/WP/1283. The International Research Group on Wood Preservation, Stockholm.

Carey, J., Grant, C., 2002. The treatment of dry rot in historic buildings. Cathedral Communications Ltd, online at External link http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/rot/rot.htm.

Unpublished data or private communications should not appear in the reference list. References to unpublished data will only be accepted at the discretion of the Editors.

Units
The SI system should be used for all scientific and laboratory data; if, in certain instances, it is necessary to quote other units, these should be added in parentheses. Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius. The unit 'billion' (109 in America, 1012 in Europe) is ambiguous and should not be used. Abbreviations for units should follow the suggestions of the British Standards publication BS 1991. The full stop should not be included in scientific abbreviations such as h (not h.), m (not m.), and ppm (not p.p.m.); '%' should be used in preference to 'per cent'; 'per', as in mg per liter, should be written in exponential notation as mg l-1 (not mg/l). Where abbreviations are likely to cause ambiguity or cannot be readily understood by an international readership, units should be given in full. Greek symbols and unusual symbols used for the first time should be defined by name in the left-hand margin.

Abbreviations
Abbreviations of chemical or other names should be defined when first mentioned, unless the abbreviation is commonly used and internationally known and accepted, e.g. ATP, DNA, EDTA, GC-MS, GLC, HPLC, IU (International Unit). For approximately, use approx. or c. (not ca.); for versus, use vs (not v.); for the statistical terms standard deviation, standard error and standard error of the mean, use SD, SE, and SEM without definition.

Nomenclature
Authors should check all chemical, biochemical, and microbiological names before submission of the manuscript. Chemical Abstracts should be consulted for names of chemical compounds; The Merck Index, 13th ed., 2001, is a useful alternative source. For biochemicals, the Compendium of Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents, published for The Biochemical Society, London, by Portland Press (1992), should be consulted. Enzymes should be given the (trivial) names in Enzyme Nomenclature (Academic Press, 1992) as recommended by the International Union of Biochemistry and the assigned EC number appended.
Latin binomials should be used for all organisms other than man and farm stock. At first mention in both the Abstract and the main body of the text the full names should be given, as in Mangifera indica, and thereafter abbreviated by using only the initial letter of the generic name, as in M. indica. Where several genera have the same initial letter (and abbreviation of the generic names might cause confusion), the full generic name should be retained. For common generic names in bacteria, the abbreviations standardly used, e.g. Staph., Ser., and Strep. for Staphylococcus, Serratia, and Streptococcus, should be employed. For the correct spelling of bacterial names, authors should consult Bacterial Nomenclature Up to Date External link http://www.dsmz.de/bactnom/bactname.htm or List of Bacterial Names with Standing in Nomenclature External link http://www.bacterio.cict.fr. For fungal names, the Index Fungorum External link http://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/Names.asp or Ainsworth and Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi, 8th edition (Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International, Egham, Surrey, 1995) should be consulted.

Preparation of electronic illustrations

General points

  • Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
  • Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font.
  • Use only the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
  • Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
  • Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
  • Provide all illustrations as separate files and as hardcopy printouts on separate sheets.
  • Provide captions to illustrations separately.
  • Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.


A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: External link 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: Colour or greyscale 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 (colour or greyscale): A minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS 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 word-processor (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.


Language editing
Information on author-paid and pre-acceptance language editing services available to authors can be found at External link http://www.elsevier.com/locate/languagepolishing

Proofs
PDF proofs will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author. To avoid delay in publication, only necessary changes should be made, and corrections should be returned promptly.

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.

Online Publication
Your article will appear on Elsevier's online journal database ScienceDirect as an "Article in Press" within approximately 4-6 weeks of acceptance. Articles in Press for this journal can be viewed at External link http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09648305. An Article in Press may be cited prior to its publication by means of its unique digital object identifier (DOI) number, which does not change throughout the publication process.

Services
Authors can keep a track on the progress of their accepted article, and set up e-mail alerts informing them of changes to their manuscript's status, by using the 'Track a Paper' feature found at External link http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle.

Submission checklist

Before submission, authors should ensure that the following has been done:


One Author designated as corresponding Author, and the article includes his or her:
• 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) are complete
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been "spellchecked"
• All text, including References and Legend for Tables and Figures, is single-spaced
• 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)
• Colour figures are clearly marked as being intended for colour reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print or to be reproduced in colour on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print
• If only colour on the Web is required, black and white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes
• Enclose papers that are important for the understanding or judgement of the submitted manuscript, but which have either been submitted or are in press and are not yet published
• Enclose, if desired, the names of up to three potential referees
For any further information please contact the Author Support Department at authorsupport@elsevier.com
For Authors
Submit your article
Artwork instructions
Track your accepted article
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