Neuroscience Research

INTRODUCTION
Neuroscience Research publishes experimental studies of nerve cells or nervous systems, including a broad range of approaches from the molecular to the behavioral. Theoretical studies are acceptable if they are relevant for interpretation of experimental data or elucidate principles of general interest. Papers dealing with studies on humans with relevance to neurological and psychiatric disorders are welcome, but case reports are not included in the scope of this journal. Papers should present new, important observations or interpretations that can be of general interest to various areas of neuroscientists.

Types of paper
(a) Research Reports reporting original results of research within the field of neuroscience, usually 3000-5000 words.

(b) Rapid Communications reporting on research which has progressed to the stage when it is considered necessary that the results be rapidly made known to other workers in the field. Priority for rapid publication will be given to this category of paper at all stages. The maximum length is 2000 words, with a summary of maximum 100 words. Rapid Communications should contain no section headings, a maximum of 4 figures and a maximum of 30 references.

(c) Review Articles should give a survey, evaluation and critical interpretation of recent research, data and concepts in the fields covered by the journal.

(d) Update Articles are brief personal commentaries, hypotheses, viewpoints and spotlight reviews. Their aim is to give an update on rapid progress in the field of neuroscience.

(e) Technical notes are technical reports of, as a guideline, a maximum of 2000 words.

(f) Letters to the Editors should be comments and clarifications on articles that have been published in Neuroscience Research, and should be limited to a maximum of 1000 words.

Page charges

This journal has no page charges.



Ethics in Publishing
All submissions are assumed to follow the ethical guidelines of the Japan Neuroscience Society: For information on Ethics in Publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see http://www.jnss.org/english/society/110712.html

http://www.jnss.org/english/society/rinri-01.html

and those of Elsevier:http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines

All submissions to Neuroscience must contain experiments that conform to the ethical standards printed below. To confirm their agreement with this, authors are required to include the following statement in their cover letter indicating their agreement with these standards: "I have read and have abided by the statement of ethical standards for manuscripts submitted to Neuroscience." A list of ethical standards is not required in the cover letter.

Policy and ethics
The authors declare that all experiments on human subjects were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html and that all procedures were carried out with the adequate understanding and written consent of the subjects.

The authors also certify that formal approval to conduct the experiments described has been obtained from the human subjects review board of their institution and could be provided upon request.

If the studies deal with animal experiments, the authors certify that they were carried out in accordance with the National Institute of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NIH Publications No. 80-23) revised 1996 or the UK Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and associated guidelines, or the European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986 (86/609/EEC).

The authors also certify that formal approval to conduct the experiments described has been obtained from the animal subjects review board of their institution and could be provided upon request.

The authors further attest that all efforts were made to minimize the number of animals used and their suffering.

If the ethical standard governing the reported research is different from those guidelines indicated above, the authors must provide information in the submission cover letter about which guidelines and oversight procedures were followed.

The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts in which there is any question as to the appropriate and ethical use of human or animal subjects.

Conflict of interest

All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.

Submission declaration

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

All manuscripts should be accompanied by a clear statement that the work has not been published elsewhere and is not under review with another journal.

Contributors
When there is more than one author, a clear statement should be made in the cover letter that all co-authors have agreed to the submission of the final manuscript. 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.

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:

• The reason the name should be added or removed or the author names rearranged.
• Written confirmation (email, 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:

• Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests.
• 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.

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
It is a condition of publication in the Journal that authors assign copyright to the Japanese Neuroscience Society and the Publisher. Requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled by the Publisher on behalf of itself and the Japan Neuroscience Society to make the procedures simpler. In assigning copyright, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Elsevier is notified in writing and in advance.

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. The original source must be indicated in the legend of the illustration in these cases.

Retained author rights

As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/funding.

Funding body agreements and policies

Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.

Open access

This journal offers you the option of making your article freely available to all via the ScienceDirect platform. To prevent any conflict of interest, you can only make this choice after receiving notification that your article has been accepted for publication. The fee of $3,000 excludes taxes and other potential author fees such as color charges. In some cases, institutions and funding bodies have entered into agreement with Elsevier to meet these fees on behalf of their authors. Details of these agreements are available at http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies. Authors of accepted articles, who wish to take advantage of this option, should complete and submit the order form (available at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/openaccessform.pdf). Whatever access option you choose, you retain many rights as an author, including the right to post a revised personal version of your article on your own website. More information can be found here: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.

Language and language services

Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageservices or our customer support site at http://support.elsevier.com for more information.

Submission
Since submission and peer-review can now be handled entirely over the web. 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 a PDF file 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.

Before submitting, it is essential for authors to refer to the Elsevier Artwork guidelines: http://www.elsevier.com/authors/ (Click on the link " Guide to Publishing with Elsevier" .)
Once electronic manuscripts are ready to submit, go to: http://ees.elsevier.com/nsr/
Then,

1. Select the 'log in' link at the top of the page.
2. Enter your user name and password to log in. (If you have not registered yet, click 'Not yet registered?'. Enter your first name, last name and e-mail address, then click 'Submit'. You will receive your user name and password by e-mail.)
3. After entering your user name and password, click 'Author Login'
4. Select 'Submit New Manuscript' in 'Author Main Menu'.
5. Follow prompts online. Please note that the figures and tables should be submitted as separate items, not being included in manuscripts. At each stage of the submission process, it is possible to go back a step, save the submission to continue later or remove/change any information already entered.
6. After all items are attached, click 'Build PDF for my approval'. The submission tool will generate a PDF file to be used for the reviewing process.
7. You will receive an e-mail which notes that your PDF has been built. You have to approve the PDF to complete your submission. Then you will receive confirmation of your submission, and further progress of your paper at every stage of its review period thereafter, via e-mail.

For more details on the electronic submission system, please refer to the 'Tutorial for Authors' which is available for download from http://ees.elsevier.com/nsr/

Referees
To help ensure that papers are reviewed by the most suitable referees, authors must provide a list of five candidate referees (including names, addresses, fax and e-mail) who do not have conflict of interest in the research being submitted. The Editors reserve the right to choose different referees from the ones suggested.

Additional information
Receiving Editors will pre-review manuscripts and, in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief, reserve the right to return a manuscript to the author(s) without further review.



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
Manuscripts, in English, must be in double-spaced typing on pages of uniform size (preferably A4 or 8.5 x 11" ).

Subdivision
As a rule, papers should be divided into sections headed by a caption, e.g., Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, References.

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.

Glossary
Please supply, as a separate list, the definitions of field-specific terms used in your article.

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.

The total number of pages, figures and tables being submitted should also be indicated on this page.

Abstract
A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state in less than 200 words (100 words in the case of Rapid Communications and Technical Notes) 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 6-8 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, "and", "of"). They may be words or phrases that do not appear in the title. Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations

Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Acknowledgements

Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

Units

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other units are mentioned, please give their equivalent in SI.

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. You are urged to consult IUPAC: Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry: http://www.iupac.org/ for further information.

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)

Artwork
There is no limit set on the number of illustrations, but authors should use them sparingly, making sure that each figure is relevant to the text and that the figures are presented in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. Legends for figures must be typed, also with double spacing, on separate pages.

Cover illustration: The authors may suggest the Editor-in-Chief to use a color figure for the cover of the journal, although there is no guarantee that it will be selected. The figure should have a short legend to the Editor-in-Chief, indicating to which paper the photograph belongs. It need not necessarily appear in the paper but can be related to it.

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
Tables must be typed (with double spacing) on separate pages, and should be provided with a short descriptive heading and, if applicable, a legend.

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
The reference list should be included at the end of the main text. A paper which has been accepted for publication but which has not appeared may be cited in the reference list with the abbreviated name of the journal followed by the words " in press" . See Reference Style below.

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.

Reference style
Citations in the text should be by author(s) and year in chronological not alphabetical order. When papers written by three or more authors are cited in the text, the abbreviation 'et al.' should be used following the name of the leading author. Citations of two or more articles by the same author(s) in the same year should be distinguished by 'a,b,c' etc. after the year.

Examples: (Starr et al., 1991) (Kowler, 1990; Kolb, 1990)

All references cited in the text must be listed at the end of the paper in double spaced typing and arranged in alphabetical order of first author's name (Harvard system). References must be complete, including initial(s) of author(s) cited, year of publication, title of paper referred to, journal, volume, and page numbers. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to Index Medicus, List of Journals Indexed, Latest edition. For citations of books the following uniform sequence should be maintained: author(s), year of publication, editor(s), complete title of book, publisher, place of publication, and page numbers (see examples given below). All references cited in the text must be in the reference list and vice versa. Manuscripts in preparation and submitted but not accepted as well as 'personal communications' should not appear in the reference list, but can be cited at the appropriate place in the text. T! his journal should be abbreviated as Neurosci. Res.

Examples:

Kolb, B., 1990. Animal models for human PFC-related disorders. In: Uylings, H.B.M., van Eden, C.G., de Bruin, J.P.C., Corner, M.A., Feenstra. M.G.P. (Eds.), The Prefrontal Cortex: Its Structure, Function and Pathology, Progress in Brain Research, vol. 85. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, pp. 501-519.

Kowler, E., 1990. Reviews in Oculomotor Research, vol. 4, Eye Movements and Their Role in Visual and Cognitive Processes. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, pp. 486.

Starr, A., Kristeva. R., Cheyne, D., Lindinger, G., Deecke, L., 1991. Localization of brain activity during auditory verbal short-term memory derived from magnetic recordings. Brain Res. 558, 181-190.

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.



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.

AUTHOR ENQUIRIES
Questions arising before acceptance of the manuscript should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief.

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.

Author Information Pack