Guide for Authors

Micro and Nano Fabrication

Submission of your manuscript is welcome, provided that it, or any translation of it has not been copyrighted or published or is not being submitted for publication elsewhere.

Upon acceptance of an article, the author(s) will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Publisher. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. Manuscripts should be prepared for publication in accordance with the instructions given in the "Guide to Authors" (available from the Publisher) details of which are given below.

Types of contributions

- full research papers
- accelerated publications (letters)
- short notes
- Review articles, providing a comprehensive review on a scientific topic

Submission of articles:
All manuscripts and any supplementary material should be submitted via the journal's online submission and peer-review systems at http://www.ees.elsevier.com/mee. Please follow the instructions given on this site. Submissions by other means, such as a postal submission, must receive prior approval from the Editor-in-Chief.

It is essential to give a fax number and e-mail address when submitting a manuscript.

Submission to a special issue:
Instructions for sizing a paper to 4 journal pages
Four (4) page articles submitted should be max 3000 words (i.e. without title, authors and abstract, but including references), if no figures and tables are included. If you include figures you are urged to have them as 8x8 cm long maximum size for one column figures. Authors should substract from the 3000 word count 250 words for each one column figure (8x8cm), and 500 words for each double figure (in one column or spanning two columns). Approximately the same word cost is valid for one and two column tables respectively. Figure and table captions should be included in the total maximum word count remaining after the substraction of figures / tables.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In case you submit a special issue paper that will be handled by a designated Special Issue Guest Editor, please follow the instructions below:

1. Author registers in EES (follow the instructions on the site)
2. Select: Submit Manuscript from Main Menu
3. When choosing Article Type please select the title of the special issue you are submitting to

From then on follow the steps as laid out in EES. The manuscript is submitted to the Editorial Office who then assigns it to the Guest Editor in charge of that specific special issue.

Articles must be written in good English.

Original material:

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 Publisher.

Preparation of the electronic text of manuscripts:
Authors must submit their manuscript online as a LaTeX, Microsoft® (MS) Word®, WordPerfect®, PostScript document via the online submission system on http://www.elsevier.com/mee. Instructions on the use of this system are also available on this website. The system generates an Adobe Acrobat? PDF version of the manuscript, which is used for the reviewing process. It is crucial that all graphical and tabular elements be placed within the text, so that the file is suitable for reviewing. In addition, it is recommended that the file includes all the necessary fonts. Authors, Reviewers and Editors send and receive all correspondence by e-mail and no paper correspondence is necessary. Should you have difficulty in the submission web process, please contact author support at authorsupport@elsevier.com.

N.B.: electronic manuscripts submitted for the review process may need to be edited after acceptance to follow journal standards. For this an "editable" file format is necessary. See the requirements above for electronic file formats for further information. Please note that no deviations from the version accepted by the editor of the journal are permissible without the prior and explicit approval by the editor.
After acceptance
Notification. The corresponding author will be notified by the editor of the acceptance of the manuscript and urged to supply an editable electronic version of the accepted text. Copyright transfer. In the course of the production process you will be asked to transfer copyright of the manuscript to the publisher. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information.
Page proofs. Page proofs are made and sent out to authors, in order to check that no undetected errors have arisen in the typesetting (or file conversion) process. No changes in, or additions to, the edited manuscript will be accepted.

Preparation of electronic illustrations:
Submitting your artwork in a suitable electronic format helps us to produce your work to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail.
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, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files, and supply a separate listing of the files and the software used.
• 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: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions

You are urged to visit this site; only 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 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.

Colour illustrations. If, together with your accepted manuscript, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted manuscript. 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 colour figures to grey scale (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions corresponding to all the colour illustrations.

Preparation of supplementary data:
Elsevier now 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 is 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. For more detailed instructions please visit this journal's website at http://www.elsevier.com.

After acceptance:
When your manuscript is received by the Publisher it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as 'drafts'.

One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

The Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated. Return corrections within 2 days of receipt of the proofs. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this.

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

Author benefits
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.

Further information:
For any further information please contact the Author Support Department at
authorsupport@elsevier.com