Guide for Authors
INTRODUCTION
Process Biochemistry is an application-orientated research journal devoted to reporting advances
with originality, novelty and impact, in the science and technology of the processes involving bioactive molecules or elements, and living
organisms ("Cell factory" concept). These processes concern the production of useful metabolites or materials, or the removal of toxic
compounds. Within the segment "from the raw material(s) to the product(s)", it integrates tools and methods of current biology and engineering.
Its main areas of interest are the healthcare, energy, food and environmental industries and their underlying biological and engineering
principles. Main topics covered include, with most of possible aspects and domains of application: cell culture and fermentation, biochemical
and bioreactor engineering; biotechnology processes and their life science aspects; biocatalysis, enzyme engineering and biotransformation;
and downstream processing.
Types of paper
Process Biochemistry
accepts three types of manuscripts: Full length articles, Short communications and Reviews.
Full length articles (FLA) should not
generally exceed 25 double-spaced pages of text (not including the references) and should not contain more than 15 figures and/or tables.
Short communications (SCO) should not exceed 10 double-spaced pages of text (not including the references) and no more than 5 figures
and/or tables.
Reviews (REV) should not generally exceed 20 double-spaced pages of text (not including the references) and should
not contain more than 10 figures and/or tables.
Accelerated publications can sometimes be taken into consideration. The authors should
clearly explain their request for accelerated handling in the cover letter.
Ethics in Publishing
For information on Ethics in Publishing and Ethical
guidelines for journal publication see
http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and
http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.
Conflict of interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest
including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted
work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Submission declaration
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously
(except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication
elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was
carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without
the written consent of the copyright-holder.
Contributors
Each author is
required to declare his or her individual contribution to the article: all authors must have materially participated in the research
and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should be described. The statement that all authors have approved the final article
should be true and included in the disclosure.
Copyright
Upon acceptance
of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see
http://www.elsevier.com/copyright).
Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding
author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this
agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation
within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other
derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions). If excerpts
from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s)
in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Retained author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details
you are referred to:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Role of the
funding source
You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation
of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation
of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such
involvement then this should be stated. Please see
http://www.elsevier.com/funding.
Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose
articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions
of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
US National Institutes of Health (NIH) voluntary posting (" Public Access") policy: Elsevier facilitates author
posting in connection with the voluntary posting request of the NIH (referred to as the NIH "Public Access Policy", see
http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm)
by posting the peer-reviewed author's manuscript directly to PubMed Central on request from the author, after formal publication. Upon
notification from Elsevier of acceptance, we will ask you to confirm via e-mail (by e-mailing us at
NIHauthorrequest@elsevier.com)
that your work has received NIH funding (with the NIH award number, as well as the name and e-mail address of the Prime Investigator)
and that you intend to respond to the NIH request. Upon such confirmation, Elsevier will submit to PubMed Central on your behalf a version
of your manuscript that will include peer-review comments, for posting 12 months after the formal publication date. This will ensure
that you will have responded fully to the NIH request policy. There will be no need for you to post your manuscript directly to PubMed
Central, and any such posting is prohibited. Individual modifications to this general policy may apply to some Elsevier journals and
its society publishing partners.
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://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 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.
A cover letter should be submitted on-line by the authors together with the manuscript, which includes the following points:
1) all authors agree to submit the work to
Process Biochemistry, 2) the work has not been published/submitted or being submitted
to another journal, 3) the novelty and significant contribution of the submitted work are briefly described.
In their on-line submission,
authors are required to suggest at least three independent referees (and preferably up to five, outside their own institution) with their
position, institution, and email address; and preferably the suggested referees are of international standing and are working on the
same or similar topics. The final choice of referees is up to the Editors. All submissions will be reviewed by at least two referees.
But, manuscripts will be pre-screened for suitability and may be returned to the authors without peer review if they do not meet the
criteria for originality and novelty or cause misunderstanding.
When a manuscript is rejected by an editor, generally it should not
be resubmitted in its original version, but may be resubmitted after substantial modifications and/or addition of significant experimental
data. It is up to the discretion of the editors to reconsider such resubmitted manuscripts as new submissions. Please include a letter
of transmittal explaining why a resubmitted manuscript should be reconsidered by the editors, a detailed response to the issues raised
by the editors/reviewers and the editor for the original version, and a concise outline of the revisions. Any corresponding author or
co-author of one manuscript which has been rejected (without resubmission encouragement) must not resubmit a similar manuscript. If so,
these authors will have a punishment of two years of prohibition to submit.
It is highly recommended to validate the pertinent and
main data of the manuscripts by reproducibility assays, that is to say, to give in the corresponding (parts of the) Tables their mean
values and standard deviations, and in the corresponding (parts of the) Figures their error bars. These data should be then obtained
with a minimum of triplicate assays.
Moreover the authors must give a list of all related manuscripts/papers, whether in submission
or in press.
Use of wordprocessing software
It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used.
The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed
and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words.
However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. Do not embed "graphically designed" equations or tables, but prepare
these using the wordprocessor's facility. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual
table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared
in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier:
http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication).
Do not import the figures into the text file but, instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic text and on
the manuscript. See also the section on Electronic illustrations.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the
"spell-check" and "grammar-check" functions of your wordprocessor.
Article Structure
The texts should be double-spaced with all lines numbered and be as concise as possible. All manuscripts must be submitted in
the following format: Title page; second page contains the Abstract and keywords; subsequent pages include the Introduction, Materials
and methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgement(s), References, Figure legends, Tables, and Figures. Figure legends should be gathered
on a separate page(s), followed by Tables and Figures with a separate page for each one. For experimental design results, as they are
scientifically not usable, 3D figures are generally discouraged. Indicate then only the pertinent data in 2D diagrams. Page numeration
starts from the first page. The Results and Discussion sections may be combined but should be thorough in the discussion about the novelty
and impact of the submitted work. Articles without sufficient discussion will be systematically rejected. Legends for tables and figures
should be complete and concise: one figure or one table should be perfectly understandable with its own legend, and incomplete legends
will not be accepted.
Introduction
Should be concise in the related
background description and lead to the objectives and novelty of the work.
Material
and Methods
Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced, including the information about suppliers and
catalogue numbers when appropriate. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should
be described.
Results and discussion
These two parts can be separated
as "Results" and "Discussion" or combined into one section. The discussion about each major point of the results is very important, and
should not repeat the experimental results; generally citation of related references is necessary.
Conclusions
This section is not obligatory and can exist as a short paragraph at the end of "Results
and Discussion" section.
When it exists as a section, it should be short and concise but should not repeat the Abstract. Generally
the Conclusion does not cite references, and it is different from the discussion.
Essential
title page information
•
Title.
Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval
systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
•
Author names and affiliations.
Where the family name
may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work
was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in
front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and, if available,
the e-mail address of each author.
•
Corresponding author.
Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at
all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication.
Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code)
are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.
•
Present/permanent address.
If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a "Present address" (or "Permanent
address") may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained
as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.
Abstract
Each paper should be provided with an abstract of 100-150
words for Short Communications and 150-200 words for Full Length Articles and Reviews, reporting concisely on the purposes and results
of the paper.
Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum
of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding 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.
Abbreviations
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.
Nomenclature
and 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': 10
9
in America (ten to the power 9), and 10
12 in Europe (ten to the power 12), is ambiguous and should not be used.
Footnotes
Footnotes should be avoided especially if they contain information which could equally well be
included in the text. The use of proprietary names should be avoided. Papers essentially of an advertising nature will not be accepted.
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.
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 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.
References
References should be cited at the appropriate point in the text by a number in square
brackets. A list of references, in numerical order, should appear at the end of the paper. All references in this list should be indicated
at some point in the text and vice versa. Unpublished data or private communications
AND WEBSITE ADDRESSES should not appear in
the list. Examples of layout of references are given below.
[1] Hsieh C, Hsu TH, Yang FC. Production of polysaccharides of Ganoderma
lucidum (CCRC36021) by reusing thin stillage. Process Biochem 2005;40:909-916.
[2] Stephanopoulos GN, Aristidou AA, Nielsen JE. Metabolic
engineering: principles and methodologies. New York: Academic Press; 1998. p. 494
[3] Zhong JJ, Yoshida T. Rheological chracteristics
of suspended cultures of Perilla frutescens and their implications in bioreactor operation for anthocyanin production. In: Ryu DDY, Furusaki
S editors. Advances in Plant Biotechnology. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science; 1994. p. 255-279.
[4] Lima R, Salcedo, RL. An optimized
strategy for equation-oriented global optimization. In: Grievink J, Schijndel JV. editors. 10th European Symposium on Computer Aided
Chemical Engineering. New York: Academic Press; 2002. p. 913-918.
[5] Curtin CD. Towards molecular bioprocessing as a tool to enhance
production of anthocyanins in Vitis vinifera L. cell suspension culture. Australia: Flinders University; Ph.D. thesis; 2004. p.250.
[6] Snow-Brand-Milk-Prod. Lysozyme purification by affinity chromatorgraphy on crosslink chitosan sulfate. Jpn. Patent. JP 05260-966.
92.03.24.
[7] Enfors SO, editor. Physiological stress responses in bioprocesses. Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology.
vol. 89. Berlin: Springer; 2004. p. 244.
[8] Schweder T, Hecker M. Monitoring of stress response, In: Enfors SO, editor. Physiological
stress responses in bioprocesses. Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology vol. 89. Berlin: Springer; 2004. p. 47-71.
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.
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.
Supplementary material
Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research.
Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution
images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version
of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that
your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data are provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should
submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. Video
files: please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or make a separate image. These will be used instead
of standard icons and will personalize the link to your supplementary information. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork
instruction pages at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Supplementary
material captions
Each supplementary material file should have a short caption which will be placed at the bottom of the
article, where it can assist the reader and also be used by search engines.
Submission
checklist
It is hoped that this list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal's
Editor for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are
present:
One Author designated as corresponding Author:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone
and fax numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including
title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been "spellchecked" and "grammar-checked"
•
References are in the correct format for this journal
• All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text,
and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)
•
Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print or to be reproduced
in color on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print
• If only color on the Web is required, black and white
versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes
For any further information please visit our customer support site
at
http://epsupport.elsevier.com.
Use of the Digital Object Identifier
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to
electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon
the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly
'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown
as follows (example taken from a document in the journal
Physics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071
When
you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.
Proofs
One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do
not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download
the files themselves. Elsevier now provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe
Reader version 7 (or higher) available free from
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how
to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online). The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and
return them to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then
mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan
the pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the
text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission
from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure
that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent
corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of
your article if no response is received.
Offprints
The corresponding author,
at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article
and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper
offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.
For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission
where available) please visit this journal's homepage. You can track accepted articles at
http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle
and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed. Also accessible from here is information on copyright,
frequently asked questions and more. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating
to proofs, will be provided by the publisher.
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