Guide for Authors
Criteria for Publication in Chemical Physics Letters
Chemical Physics Letters
publishes brief reports of original research on the structures, properties and dynamics of molecules, solid surfaces, interfaces, condensed
phases, polymers, nanostructures and biomolecular systems.
Criteria for publication are quality, urgency and impact. Further, experimental
results reported in the journal have direct relevance for theory, and theoretical developments or non-routine computations relate directly
to experiment.
Manuscripts must satisfy these criteria and should not be minor extensions of previous work or just descriptions
of the synthesis of molecules or materials.
Page charges
This journal has no page charges.
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.
Comments section
The editors welcome Comments on Letters published in the Journal or elsewhere. They will
be placed in a separate section. Comments will be refereed as usual and treated as normal contributions. All Comments should have an
abstract.
Publication speed
The editors and publisher cooperate closely to ensure fast publication.
If the manuscript submitted cannot be processed immediately following refereeing because scientific or stylistic revisions are required,
this will be indicated by the addition of the date of receipt of the manuscript in final form. Proofs are e-mailed as portable document
files (PDF) to the corresponding author to be checked within 48 hours of receipt.
Submission declaration
and verification
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and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically
without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originality detection
software iThenticate. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/editors/plagdetect.
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.
Correspondance
All correspondence with the editors or publisher should mention the first author, the editor's
reference number, and the publisher's reference number if known. Otherwise, full details are needed, i.e. the names of all the authors,
the full title, as well as the date of submission. After acceptance for publication, all further correspondence should be sent directly
to the publisher (Yvonne Philippo, P.O. Box 2759, 1000 CT Amsterdam, The Netherlands; tel. +31 20 485 3426, fax: +31 20 485 2704; e-mail:
y.philippo@elsevier.com).
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.
Submit your article
Please submit your article via
http://ees.elsevier.com/cplett.
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. 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. 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).
Note that source files of figures, tables and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also
the section on Electronic artwork.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check'
functions of your wordprocessor.
LaTeX
If the LaTeX file is suitable, proofs will be produced
without rekeying the text. The article should preferably be written using Elsevier's document class 'elsarticle', or alternatively any
of the other recognized classes and formats supported in Elsevier's electronic submissions system, for further information see
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/latex-ees-supported.
The Elsevier 'elsarticle' LaTeX style file package (including detailed instructions for LaTeX preparation) can be obtained
from the Quickguide:
http://www.elsevier.com/latex. It consists of the file: elsarticle.cls, complete user documentation
for the class file, bibliographic style files in various styles, and template files for a quick start.
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.
Length
The manuscript text should not exceed 4,000 words (excluding tables
and figure captions). In addition, a (combined) maximum of 8 normal-sized figures and/or tables is allowed. For multiple-panel figures
each set of two panels equates to one figure.
Abstract
All manuscripts require an abstract
not exceeding 100 words.
Graphical abstract
A Graphical abstract is mandatory for this journal.
It should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership online.
Authors must provide images that clearly represent the work described in the article. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate
file in the online submission system. Image size: please provide an image with a minimum of 531 × 1328 pixels (h × w) or
proportionally more. The image should be readable at a size of 5 × 13 cm using a regular screen resolution of 96 dpi. Preferred
file types: TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files. See
http://www.elsevier.com/graphicalabstracts for examples.
Authors
can make use of Elsevier's Illustration and Enhancement service to ensure the best presentation of their images also in accordance with
all technical requirements:
Illustration
Service.
Highlights
Highlights are mandatory for this journal. They consist
of a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings of the article and should be submitted in a separate file in the
online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including
spaces, per bullet point). See
http://www.elsevier.com/highlights for examples.
Figures
If,
together with the accepted article, usable colour figures are submitted then Elsevier will ensure, at no extra 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, the Author will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier
after receipt of your article. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Symbols and units
The use of SI units is strongly recommended. A useful guide is: Quantities, Units and Symbols
in Physical Chemistry, 2nd edn. prepared by I. Mills, T. Cvitas, K. Homann, N. Kallay and K. Kuchitsu, Blackwell/IUPAC, Oxford, 1993.
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.
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.
If
your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply 'as is'.
Please
do not:
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (e.g., 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
Chemical Physics Letters publishes colour illustrations in the electronic version of
Chemical Physics Letters without charges to the authors. When an author submits a colour figure, this will now be published online in
colour by default. In the printed version of the published articles, the illustrations will be in black & white, unless the author
has opted to pay for colour print reproduction. In case of black & white printing of online colour figures, authors are asked to
submit a black & white version of the colour figures in question and to make sure the figure captions make sense for both colour
and black & white.
For preparation of the colour figures, please ensure this is in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office
files) and at the correct resolution. Also make sure RGB colourspace is used. Further information on electronic artwork can be found
at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions and is also accessible from our web-submission site.
Equations
Displayed
equations should be formatted with the journal text column width of 7.5 cm in mind. If necessary notation should be adapted by introduction
of suitable abbreviations of component expressions. Special attention should be given to characters that can be confused, such as: l
(ell), 1 (one); o (lower case), O (capital), 0 (zero), degree; etc.
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
A maximum of 50 single
references is permitted; multiple references (referring to more than one article) are not permitted and neither are references to web
sites.
Reference style
In the text, reference to other parts of the paper should be made
by section or equation number, not by page number. References to other papers should be consecutively numbered in the text and listed
numerically at the end of the paper. Commercial products, including computer programs, are to be mentioned in the text of the manuscript
and not normally referenced. If required the reference should list the first author et al. only. Multiple references should be avoided,
i.e. each paper referred to should be given its own reference number. The total number of references should not exceed 50. The references
should be as complete as possible (et al. may be used in the text but not in the list), and presented as in these examples:
For a
book:
[1] N. Watanabe, T. Nakajima, H. Touhara, Graphite Fluorides, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1988.
For a paper in a journal:
[2]
S. Grimme, S.D. Peyerimhoff, Chem. Phys. 204 (1996) 411.
For a paper in a contributed volume:
[3] J.L. Durant, Jr., in: R.G. Compton,
G. Hancock (Eds.), Research in Chemical Kinetics, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1995, p. 69.
For an unpublished paper:
[4] C.E.H. Dessent,
Ph.D. Thesis, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 1997.
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
• 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.
