Guide for Authors
Now Includes
Clinics in Communications Disorders
See also Elsevier Linguistics programme home
The
Journal of Communication Disorders
publishes original articles on topics related to disorders of speech, language and hearing. Authors are encouraged to submit reports
of experimental or descriptive investigations, theoretical or tutorial papers, case reports, or brief communications to the editor. Special
topic issues titled Clinics in Communication Disorders provide clinicians with essential information on the assessment, diagnosis, and
treatment of communication disorders. Persons interested in developing a special issue should contact the Editor at the address below.
Types of paper
Special Issues
Persons interested in developing a special issue should contact
the Editor at the above email address.
Contact details for submission
Authors
are requested to submit their papers electronically by using the
Journal of Communication Disorders online submission and review
web site (
http://ees.elsevier.com/jcd). This site will guide authors stepwise through the submission process. Authors are
requested to submit the text, tables, and artwork in electronic form to this address. Authors who are unable to provide an electronic
version or have other circumstances that prevent online submission must contact the Editor prior to submission to discuss alternative
options; email:
luc.denil@utoronto.ca. The Publisher and Editors regret that they are not able to consider submissions
that do not follow these procedures.
Ethics in Publishing
For information on Ethics in Publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication
see
http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and
http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.
Conflict of interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest
including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted
work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Submission declaration
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously
(except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication
elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was
carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without
the written consent of the copyright-holder.
Contributors
Each author is
required to declare his or her individual contribution to the article: all authors must have materially participated in the research
and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should be described. The statement that all authors have approved the final article
should be true and included in the disclosure.
Copyright
Upon acceptance
of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see
http://www.elsevier.com/copyright).
Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding
author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this
agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation
within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other
derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions). If excerpts
from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s)
in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Retained author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details
you are referred to:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Role of the
funding source
You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation
of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation
of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such
involvement then this should be stated. Please see
http://www.elsevier.com/funding.
Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose
articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions
of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Language and language services
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted,
but not a mixture of these). Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission
please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/languagepolishing or our customer support site at
http://epsupport.elsevier.com
for more information. Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside
vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our Terms & Conditions:
http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions.
Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online and you will be guided stepwise through
the creation and uploading of your files. The system automatically converts source files to a single PDF file of the article, which is
used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF files at submission for the
review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of
the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail removing the need for a paper trail.
Referees
As this journal has adopted a double blind reviewing policy, please remove all identifying features
from the paper itself by ensuring that no author's name appears in the main text, in-text citations or any running header.
Authors
are requested to list at least 4 potential reviewers (with their names, affiliation details and email addresses) with the following restrictions:
no current or previous mentors/supervisors, no current or previous clinical or research collaborators, no current or previous students
or post-docs, no reviewers from the same institution. The editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not suggested reviewers
are contacted. Please note that not more than 1 of the reviewers for a particular manuscript will be sourced from the list of suggested
names.
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.
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.
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.
CEU Questions
Authors should also include 5 continuing education questions. These questions should be written in such a way that they test
the reader's understanding of the key issues addressed in the article. The questions are preferably written as multiple choice (with
minimum 4 and maximum 5 answer options), but some questions can be formulated as True/False. Authors should include the answer key to
the questions. This key will be removed from the submission prior to publication.
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 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.
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.).
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
Electronic artwork
General points
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Save text in illustrations as "graphics"
or enclose the font.
• Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times, Symbol.
• Number
the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
•
Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
• Submit
each figure as a separate file.
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
Regardless
of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats
(note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS: Vector drawings.
Embed the font or save the text as "graphics".
TIFF: color or grayscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale): a
minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications
please supply "as is".
Please do not:
• Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation)
document;
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
•
Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.
Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office
files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure,
at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether
or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version.
For color reproduction in print, you will receive information
regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for color in print or on
the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting color figures to "gray scale" (for the printed version
should you not opt for color in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the color illustrations.
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.
Text graphics
Present incidental graphics not suitable for mention as figures, plates or schemes at the end of the
article and number them "Graphic 1", etc. Their precise position in the text can then be indicated. See further under Electronic artwork.
If you are working with LaTeX and have such features embedded in the text, these can be left, but such embedding should not be done specifically
for publishing purposes. Further, high-resolution graphics files must be provided separately.
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.
Web references
As a minimum,
the full URL should be given. 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: Citations
in the text should follow the referencing style used by the American Psychological Association. You are referred to the Publication Manual
of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition, ISBN 1-4388-0559-6, copies of which may be ordered from
http://books.apa.org/books.cfm?id=4200067
or APA Order Dept., P.O.B. 2710, Hyattsville, MD 20784, USA or APA, 3 Henrietta Street, London, WC3E 8LU, UK. Details concerning this
referencing style can also be found at
http://humanities.byu.edu/linguistics/Henrichsen/APA/APA01.html.
List:
references should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from
the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J. A. J., & Lupton R. A. (2000). The art of writing a scientific
article.
Journal of Scientific Communications, 163, 51-59.
Reference to a book:
Strunk, W., Jr., & White,
E. B. (1979).
The elements of style. (3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan, (Chapter 4).
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G. R., & Adams, L. B. (1994). How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In B. S. Jones, & R. Z. Smith
(Eds.),
Introduction to the electronic age (pp. 281-304). New York: E-Publishing Inc.
Supplementary material
Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research.
Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution
images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version
of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that
your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data are provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should
submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. Video
files: please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or make a separate image. These will be used instead
of standard icons and will personalize the link to your supplementary information. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork
instruction pages at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
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)
• CEU questions
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.
Additional
information
Manuscripts should be prepared in the manner described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association (5th edition); for more information, see:
http://apastyle.apa.org/.
Authors are advised to consult a recent
issue of the journal (a free sample copy is available online at:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00219924)
to become familiar with layout and conventions. Articles should be double-spaced throughout and should be no longer than 40 pages, including
references and figures. Longer manuscripts may be accepted but need to be clearly justified and will be at the discretion of the editor.
Discount
Authors are entitled to a 30[] discount on Elsevier books (excluding major reference works).
Fast
Electronic Publication
Once the article has been proofed by the author, it will be published immediately on the journal's 'Articles
in Press' section online, thus making it available to subscribers to read and cite. For more information, visit:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00219924.
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. 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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