Guide for Authors
The Journal of Membrane Science provides a focal point for “membranologists” and a vehicle for
publication of significant contributions that advance the science and technology of membrane processes and phenomena. The primary emphasis
is on the structure, function and performance of non-biological membranes, but papers bridging the gap between non-biological and biological
membranes are also sought. A broad spectrum of papers is encouraged:
–theoretical analyses of membrane transport phenomena
–experimental
results on membrane permeation and selectivity
– membrane formation and structure and their relation to transport properties
– membrane fouling and it effect on membrane performance
–membrane modules and their impact on device performance
–
membrane processes/applications with a focus on the role of the membrane
Areas of interest include polymeric, inorganic, mixed-matrix,
and supported-liquid membranes; liquid , gas and vapor separations;membrane reactors and bioreactors; barrier membranes; and drug delivery
systems. The journal aims to be the premier venue for publication of new developments in the membrane field.
Types of Papers:
The
Journal of Membrane Science publishes Full Text Papers, State-of-the-Art Reviews, Letters to the Editor, and Perspectives.
Reviews
should not only summarize the key research contributions in a field, they should also provide critical evaluation of the scientific literature.
Review papers are intended to provide archival guidance and direction for the broad membrane community and are thus held to
the highest standard for publication.
Perspective articles should provide a focused discussion of an important area of membrane
science and technology, emphasizing recent developments, future challenges, and/ or new opportunities.
Perspective articles
will be by invitation only, and they will be reviewed by at least one Editor of the Journal and one member of our Advisory or Editorial
Board. Authors interested in submitting a
Review Article or
Perspective paper should contact one of the Editors prior
to submission to discuss the scope and appropriate of the proposed contribution.
Types
of paper
The Journal publishes Full Text Papers, Rapid Communications, State-of-the-Art Reviews and Letters to Editors.
Prospective Review authors are requested to contact one of the Editors prior to submission.
Rapid Communications must be cutting-edge
reports on novel material that warrant speedy communication to the readership. Rapid Communications will be handled with priority. Rapid
Communications should not exceed 4-6 printed pages and should be concise and complete descriptions of an investigation.
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 including electronically in the same form, in English or in any
other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
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.
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/languageediting or our customer support site at
http://epsupport.elsevier.com
for more information.
Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds
totally online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article. Via the homepage of this journal (
http://ees.elsevier.com/memsci/)
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.
Referees
Authors
are required to provide the names and e-mail addresses of at least 3 international reviewers in their cover letter.
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
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.
Introduction
State the objectives of the
work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.
Experimental
Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published
should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.
Results
Results should be clear and concise.
Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often
appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of
a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.
Appendices
If there
is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering:
Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on.
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
A concise and factual abstract (100-200 words) 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, they must be cited in full, without reference to
the reference list. Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first
mention in the abstract itself.
Keywords
Immediately after the abstract,
provide a maximum of 5 relevant 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
Define abbreviations
that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable
in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout
the article.
Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements in a separate section
at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or
otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof
reading the article, etc.).
Nomenclature and Units
In general, the recommendations
of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) should be followed. SI units and units directly related to the SI system
(°C, bar, h, min, etc.) can be used, but other units should be avoided (e.g. atm, cal, Ci, °F, psi, tonne, Torr). Only widely
accepted symbols and forms of abbreviation should be used, but always give the full expression followed by the abbreviation the first
time it appears in the text. Abbreviations and symbols used in tables and figures should be explained in the legends. The use of chemical
symbols in the text should be avoided as much as possible, as they disrupt the flow of the sentence as well as the appearance of the
typeset page. Complicated chemical compounds can, for the sake of simplicity, be indicated by their chemical formulae, but at least elements
and 'every-day' compounds such as water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, ethane, ethene, ammonia, formaldehyde, acids, alcohols,
etc. should be indicated by their full name (except in long lists). In no case should a combination of symbols and words (e.g. Li-oxide)
be used. Hydrogen isotopes should preferably be indicated as
2H or
3H, rather than as D and T. Use of the trivial
names 'paraffins' and 'olefins' should be avoided, 'alkanes' and 'alkenes' should be used instead.
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 files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG);
the resolution is too low;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately
large for the content.
Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork
files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article,
you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web
(e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version.
For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article.
Please indicate your preference for color in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork,
please see
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise
by converting color figures to "gray scale" (for the printed version should you not opt for color in print) please submit in addition
usable black and white versions of all the color illustrations.
Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a
brief title (
not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. 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.
Reference management software
This journal has standard templates available in key reference management
packages EndNote (
http://www.endnote.com) and Reference Manager (
http://www.refman.com). Using plug-ins to
wordprocessing packages, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article and the list of references
and citations to these will be formatted according to the journal style which is described below.
Reference style
Text: Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual
authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given.
Example: "..... as demonstrated [3,6]. Barnaby and
Jones [8] obtained a different result ...."
List: Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the
order in which they appear in the text.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
[1] J. van der Geer, J.A.J.
Hanraads, R.A. Lupton, The art of writing a scientific article, J. Sci. Commun. 163 (2000) 51–59.
Reference to a book:
[2]
W. Strunk Jr., E.B. White, The Elements of Style, third ed., Macmillan, New York, 1979.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] G.R. Mettam, L.B. Adams, How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: B.S. Jones, R.Z. Smith (Eds.), Introduction
to the Electronic Age, E-Publishing Inc., New York, 1999, pp. 281–304.
Note: titles of all referenced articles should be included. Avoid the use of non-retrievable reports. We strongly recommend references
to archival literature (and not personal communications or Web sites) only.
Journal
abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to
Index Medicus journal abbreviations:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of serial title word abbreviations:
http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service):
http://www.cas.org/sent.html.
Video data
Elsevier accepts
video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that
they wish to submit with their article are strongly encouraged to include these within the body of the article. This can be done in the
same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All
submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video
or animation material is directly usable, please provide the files in one of our recommended file formats with a maximum size of 30 MB
and running time of 5 minutes. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article
in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. Please supply 'stills' with your files:
you can choose any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will
personalize the link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and
the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.
Supplementary
data
Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files
offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips
and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products,
including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable,
please provide the data in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with
the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction
pages at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
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
or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. If the corresponding author opts for paper offprints, this preference must be indicated via
the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Additional paper offprints can also be ordered via
this form for an extra charge. 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 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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