Guide for Authors
The
Journal of Virological Methods publishes original papers and invited reviews covering techniques on all aspects of virology. These
include methods for studying the morphology, assembly, replication, composition, function and physiochemical properties of viruses and
their components; the purification of viruses and their components; cultivation; properties of viral antigens, production of antibody,
and techniques for studying the immune response to virions, viral subunits, and components; the detection and identification of viruses
and viral infections; assay of viruses and viral infectivity and the investigation of transmission and pathogenicity; and methods for
investigating the suppression or inhibition of viral growth.
Types of paper
Research
articles should generally not exceed 25 typewritten pages and should be divided into Summary (on a separate sheet and not exceeding
200 words, followed by 3-6 keywords). Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements and References.
Short
communications, approx. 12 typewritten pages, with a Summary and keywords but without section headings.
Book reviews or meeting
reports will be published following invitation from, or by authors first contacting, the Editor-in-Chief, Arie J. Zuckerman:
Arie
J. Zuckerman
Email:
j.v.meth@medsch.ucl.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7830 2579
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7830 2070
Please
note there are different Instructions to Authors for VIROLOGY PROTOCOLS. These are included at the end of the "Preparation" section.
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.
Ethical Policy: human subjects and animals
The research described in papers submitted to the
Journal of
Virological Methods that involve the use of human beings, including healthy volunteers, must adhere to the principles of the Declaration
of Helsinki as well as to Title 45, U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Part 46, Protection of Human Subjects, Revised November 13, 2001,
effective December 13, 2001. Research involving animals must adhere to the American Physiological Society's Guiding Principles in the
Care and Use of Animals. All investigations involving humans or animals that are reported in the journal must be conducted in conformity
with these principles, and that a statement of protocol approval from an * IRB or * * IACUC or equivalent is included in
the methods section of the paper. Manuscripts reporting the results of experiments on human subjects, including healthy volunteers, must
include a statement that informed consent was obtained.
* IRB = Institutional Review Board
* * IACUC = Institutional
Animal Care and Use Committee
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 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.
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) avoid the use of split infinitives, and do not use the first person pronoun. Authors who require information
about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/languageediting
or our customer support site at
http://epsupport.elsevier.com for more information.
Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online 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
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.
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. The Results and Discussion section must be written separately.
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.
Graphical abstract
A Graphical abstract is optional and 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.
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. Avoid the excessive use of abbreviations in the text and do not use unconventional acronyms.
Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references
and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided
help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).
Nomenclature
and units.
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities
are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI.
Virus nomenclature.
Each virus should be identified at least once,
preferably in the 'Introduction' or 'Materials and Methods' section, using formal family, genus, and species terms and where possible
by using a precise strain designation term as developed by an internationally recognized specialty group or culture collection. Please
note that the word type is not used before species designations that include a number. Formal terms used for virus families, genera,
and species should be those approved by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV):Fauquet, C.M., Mayo, M.A.,Maniloff,
J., Desselberger, U., and Ball, L.A.(2005) Virus Taxonomy, Classification and Nomenclature of Viruses. Eighth ICTV Report, Academic Press,
an imprint of Elsevier. This volume also includes standard abbreviations for species. Once formal taxonomic names have been given in
a paper, vernacular terms may be used.
Formal taxonomic nomenclature
In formal taxonomic usage, the first letters
of virus order, family, subfamily, genus and species names are capitalized and the terms are printed in italics. Other words in the species
names are not capitalized unless they are proper nouns or parts of nouns, for example
West Nile virus. In formal usage, the
name of the taxon should precede the term for the taxonomic unit; for example; "the family
Paramyxoviridae," "the genus
Morbillivirus."
The following represent examples of full formal taxonomic terminology:
- Order Mononegavirales, family Rhabdoviridae,
genus Lyssavirus, species Rabies virus.
- Family Poxviridae, subfamily Chordopoxvirinae, genus Orthopoxvirus, species Vaccinia
virus.
- Family Picornaviridae, genus Enterovirus, species Poliovirus.
- Family Bunyaviridae, genus Tospovirus, species
Tomato spotted wilt virus.
Vernacular Taxonmic Nomenclature
In formal vernacular usage, virus order,
family, subfamily, genus and species names are written in lower case Roman script: they are not capitalized, nor are they printed in
italics or underlined. In informal usage, the name of the taxon should not include the formal suffix, and the name of the taxon should
follow the term for the taxonomic unit; for example "the picornavirus family, the enterovirus genus." One particular source of ambiguity
in vernacular nomenclature lies in the common use of the same root terms in formal family, genus or species names. Imprecision stems
from not being able to easily identify in vernacular usage which hierarchical level is being cited. For example, the vernacular name
"
paramyxovirus" might refer to the family
Paramyxoviridae, or one species in the genus
Respirovirus, such
as
Human parainfluenza virus 1. The solution in vernacular usage is to avoid "jumping" hierarchical levels and to add taxon
identification wherever needed. For example, when citing the taxonomic placement of
Human parainfluenza virus 1, taxon identification
should always be added:
Human Parainfluenza virus 1 is a species in the genus
Respirovirus, family
Paramyxoviridae.
In this example, as is usually the case, adding the information that this virus is also a member of the subfamily
Paramyxovirinae
and the order
Mononegavirales is unnecessary.
It should be stressed that italics and capital initial letters need be
used only if the species name refers to the taxonomic category. When the name refers to viral objects such as virions present in a preparation
or seen in an electron micro
Database linking
Elsevier aims at connecting online articles
with external databases which are useful in their respective research communities. If your article contains relevant unique identifiers
or accession numbers (bioinformatics) linking to information on entities (genes, proteins, diseases, etc.) or structures deposited in
public databases, then please indicate those entities according to the standard explained below.
Authors should explicitly mention
the
database abbreviation (as mentioned below) together with the actual database number, bearing in mind that an error in a
letter or number can result in a dead link in the online version of the article.
Please use the following format:
Database ID:
xxxx
Links can be provided in your online article to the following databases (examples of citations are given in parentheses):
•
ASTM: ASTM Standards Database (ASTM ID: G63)
•
CCDC:
Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC ID: AI631510)
•
GenBank:
Genetic sequence database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) (GenBank ID: BA123456)
•
GEO:
Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO ID: GSE27196; GEO ID: GPL5366; GEO ID: GSM9853)
•
MI:
EMBL-EBI OLS Molecular Interaction Ontology (MI ID: 0218)
•
MINT:
Molecular INTeractions database (MINT ID: 6166710)
•
NCBI Taxonomy:
NCBI Taxonomy Browser (NCBI Taxonomy ID: 48184)
•
NCT: ClinicalTrials.gov
(NCT ID: NCT00222573)
•
OMIM: Online Mendelian Inheritance
in Man (OMIM ID: 601240)
•
PDB: Worldwide Protein Data
Bank (PDB ID: 1TUP)
•
TAIR: The Arabidopsis Information Resource
database (TAIR ID: AT1G01020)
•
UniProt: Universal Protein Resource
Knowledgebase (UniProt ID: Q9H0H5)
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.
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.
Color
artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct
resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge,
that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations
are reproduced in color in the printed version.
For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs
from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for color: in print or on the Web only. For
further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please
note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting color figures to 'gray scale' (for the printed version should
you not opt for color in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the color illustrations.
Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the
figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (
not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in
the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
Tables
Number
tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them
with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables
do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
References
Citation
in text
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any
references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference
list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference
style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'.
Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.
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:
All citations in the text should refer to:
1.
Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity)
and the year of publication;
2.
Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;
3.
Three or more authors:
first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication.
Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups
of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.
Examples: 'as demonstrated (Allan, 2000a, 2000b, 1999;
Allan and Jones, 1999). Kramer et al. (2010) have recently shown ....'
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., 2010. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51–59.
Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 2000. The Elements of Style, fourth ed. Longman, New York.
Reference to
a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 2009. How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: Jones, B.S.,
Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281–304.
Journal
abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to
Index Medicus journal abbreviations:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of title word abbreviations:
http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service):
http://www.cas.org/sent.html.
Video data
Elsevier accepts video material and
animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit
with their article are strongly encouraged to include these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure
or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should
be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material
is directly usable, please provide the files in one of our recommended file formats with a 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.
Submission checklist
The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending
it to the journal for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following
items are present:
One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded, and contain:
•
Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
•
Manuscript has been 'spell-checked' 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://support.elsevier.com.
Virology Protocols
Protocols are to be submitted
in the same way as regular articles
Organization of a Protocol
Title page:
The title page should
contain the following items: (i) complete title (preferably no chemical formulas or arbitrary abbreviations); (ii) full names of all
authors; (iii) complete affiliations of all authors; (iv) the number of text pages of the whole manuscript (including figures and tables)
and the number of figures and tables; (v) the name and complete address of the corresponding author (including telephone number, facsimile
number and electronic mail address); (vi) acknowledgements.
Abstract:
This should provide
a concise description of the purpose of the Protocol and should not exceed 200 words.
Keywords:
Please provide
3 - 6 keywords.
Type of research:
In this section, relevant published studies should be described concisely in
list form preceded by Roman lower case numeral characters. The published studies should be appropriately cited.
Time required.
An estimation of the time required to run the protocol should be given per separate step and for the whole protocol.
M
aterials
The materials used should be described in sufficient detail for the protocol to be replicated. Animals used should include information
on breed, breeder, sex, age, weight and the maintenance conditions. Furthermore, this section should be divided into two subsections:
(i) Special equipment and (ii) Chemicals and reagents. Any special equipment required should be mentioned, including details of model
type/number and (international) supplier. The source or supplier of any special equipment should also be stated, in parentheses, after
mentioning the equipment for the first time. A listing (preceded by dashes) of chemicals and reagents used in the protocol, should be
provided, if applicable. Special chemicals and drugs with their sources or suppliers should be grouped under a separate subheading ("Chemicals"
or "Drugs"). For drugs, generic names should be used; trade names may be given in brackets where the drug is first mentioned. In case
of new drugs or chemicals, a full chemical description (formula) should be given. The form of the drug used should be indicated.
Detailed procedure.
This section should include an extensive, detailed and stepwise description of the procedures used.
The individual steps should be described in list form preceded by Roman lower case numeral characters and correspond with the steps described
under Quick procedure. All companies from which chemicals or materials were obtained should be listed with their full address.
Results.
In this section the expected results should be described clearly and concisely, and in logical
order without extended discussion of their significance. Results should usually be presented descriptively and be supplemented by photographs
or diagrams.
Discussion.
This section should present an assessment of the protocol, problems which may be encountered,
and alternative or support protocols.This section should be divided into two parts: (i) Trouble-shooting and (ii) Alternative and Support
Protocols. Troubleshooting: Problems that may have been encountered during any of the procedures should be discussed clearly and concisely,
and suitable solutions suggested. Alternative methods for replacing certain steps in the protocol should be mentioned in sufficient detail,
and clearly indicating at which point in the protocol they should be applied.Alternative and Support Protocols: If applicable, alternative
or support protocols should be mentioned, clearly stating the advantages and disadvantages of such protocols and be accompanied by appropriate
citation of the literature.
Essential literature references.
This should mention certain essential reading divided
into original papers, book chapters and review papers. Do not cite the full reference, but just list the reference number. All references
cited in the text should be listed at the end of the manuscript, arranged in alphabetical order of the author's surname.
Quick
procedure.
This section should describe the protocol in a concise, stepwise manner. The individual steps should be described
in list form preceded by roman lower case numeral characters and correspond with the steps described under Detailed procedure. This section
should contain basic, essential information for the protocol to be replicated successfully.
Illustrations.
Follow
the standard article guidelines for instructions on illustrations.
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.
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