Guide for Authors
Vibrational Spectroscopy provides a vehicle for the publication of original research
in vibrational spectroscopy. It covers infrared, near-infrared and Raman spectroscopies and publishes papers dealing with developments
in applications, theory, techniques and instrumentation. The topics covered by the journal include: Sampling techniques - including diffuse
reflectance spectroscopy, reflection-absorption spectroscopy, and photoacoustic spectroscopy; Vibrational spectroscopy coupled with separation
techniques; Instrumentation (Fourier transform, conventional and laser based); Data manipulation; Expert systems for identification and
structure elucidation; Spectra-structure correlation and group frequencies.
The application areas covered include: Analytical chemistry;
Bio-organic and bio-inorganic chemistry; Organic chemistry; Inorganic chemistry; Catalysis; Environmental science; Industrial chemistry;
Materials science; Physical chemistry; Polymer science; Process control; Specialized problem solving.
The journal provides its readership
with a concise picture of the "state of the art" of vibrational spectroscopy on a regular basis. In order to achieve this goal
the journal publishes review articles, news, and book reviews, as well as original research papers and short communications.
Types of contributions
The Journal welcomes the following
types of contributions: original research
papers, short communications, review articles and news dealing with applications of infrared and Raman spectroscopy. Reviews are normally
written by invitation of the editors who welcome suggestions for subjects.
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.
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.
Please submit your article via
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/vibspec
Referees
Please
submit, with the manuscript, the names, addresses and e-mail addresses of three potential referees. Note that the editor retains the
sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used.
Use
of wordprocessing software
It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used (
do
not upload PDF files). 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. 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.
LaTex
While manuscripts can
be submitted in LaTeX as well, the Editors of Vibrational Spectroscopy prefer to deal with MS Word document files, since they allow reference
checking with validation of citations and the use of CrossRefs, too, which is not available for LaTeX files. For authors interested in
LaTeX, the Elsevier LaTeX style file package (including detailed instructions for LaTeX preparation) can be obtained from the Quickguide:
http://www.elsevier.com/latex.
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.
Material and methods
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.
Theory/calculation
A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already dealt
with in the Introduction and lay the foundation for further work. In contrast, a Calculation section represents a practical development
from a theoretical basis.
Results
Results should be clear and concise.
These may be treated together or separately and may contain subsections.
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. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.
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.
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
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.).
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international
system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI. In general, the recommendations of the International
Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) should be followed, and attention should be given to the recommendations of the Analytical
Chemistry Division in the journal Pure and Applied Chemistry. See also: IUPAC Compendium of Analytical Nomenclature, Definitive Rules,
1987; and the "Green Book" of the Physical Chemistry Division: Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, Blackwell
Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1993. For further information, see:
http://www.iupac.org.
Math
formulae
Present simple formulae in the line of normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal
line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently
denoted by exp. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the
text).
Footnotes
Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout
the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should
this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the
article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.
Table footnotes
Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript
lowercase letter.
Artwork
Graphs. Attention should be given to line thickness, lettering
(which should be kept to a minimum) and spacing on axes of graphs, to ensure suitability for reduction in size on printing. Axes of a
graph should be clearly labelled, along the axes, outside the graph itself. Simple straight line graphs are not acceptable, because they
can readily be described in the text by means of an equation or a sentence. Claims of linearity should be supported by regression data
that include slope, intercept, standard deviations of the slope and intercept, standard error and the number of data points; correlation
coefficients are optional.
Illustrations: Figures and Schemes
Each illustration should be
submitted in electronic form, in a separate file (not embedded in the manuscript text). When uploading the files for figures, please
indicate the corresponding figure number in each Filename and enter the same figure numbers in the provided "Description" field as well
for each file.
Spectra
The spectra must be:
(1) of good quality and with a good contrast
(black lines on a white background; spectra drawn in different colours cannot be accepted for print publication, but can be published
online);
(2) of a size that requires minimum reduction/enlargement by the publisher;
(3) with clearly labelled axes. Letters
and figures should also be large and contrast-rich;
(4) labelled with axes that start with the highest wavenumber (cm-1) on the left
side;
(5) with wavenumbers of all relevant and important peaks labelled on the spectrum or given in the figure legend.
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 (indicate figure number in the filename).
• Provide captions to illustrations
separately, not attached to the figure.
• 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.
File 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".
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
All tables should be numbered consecutively with
Arabic numerals in accordance with their appearance in the text. Each table should be typed on a separate page and have a brief descriptive
title above the table. The layout should be given serious thought. Column headings should be brief, but should include the units in parentheses,
where relevant.
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.
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.
Reference style
Text: Indicate
references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to by last names, but the reference
number(s) must always be given.
Example: "..... as demonstrated [3,6]. Barnaby and Jones [8] obtained a different result ...."
List: The references should be collected at the end of the paper, numbered in the order of their appearance in the text (numbers
in square brackets) and typed on a separate page. Titles of papers should not be given, but all authors should be named.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
[1] U. Damm, V.R. Kondepati, H.M. Heise, Vib. Spectrosc. 43 (2007) 184-192.
Reference
to a book:
[2] G. Socrates, Infrared and Raman Characteristic Group Frequencies - Tables and Charts, 3rd edn., J. Wiley & Sons,
Chichester, 2001.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] G. Fogarasi, P. Pulay, in: J.R. Durig (Ed.), Vibrational Spectra
and Structure, Vol. 14, Chap. 3, Elesevier, Amsterdam, 1985, pp. 125-219.
Journal abbreviation source
Journal
names should be abbreviated according to
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service):
http://www.cas.org/sent.html
ISI (Institute
of Scientific Information):
http://www.efm.leeds.ac.uk/~mark/ISIabbr/R_abrvjt.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 preferred maximum size of 50 MB. 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.
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.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.
