Access to non-subscribers 12 months after publication Elsevier is pleased to announce that all articles published in Mechansims
of Development are accessible to non-subscribers 12 months after publication via ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal//09254773).
Guide for Authors
Types of papers
The journal will publish full-length articles describing original, high quality research and occasional invited
Reviews. (please note that Gene Expression Patterns are published in a separate sister journal, Gene Expression Patterns: a section
of MOD. http://www.elsevier.com/locate/modgep)
Flow
charts to help authors decide whether papers are suitable for Mechanisms of Development or Gene Expression Patterns
are available at http://www.elsevier.com/framework_products/promis_misc/flowchart.doc.
Submission of papers
Submission to this journal must be made on-line, which greatly speeds up the review and publication processes. Use the following guidelines
to prepare your article. Via the homepage of this journal (http://www.elsevier.com/journals) you will be guided stepwise
through the creation and uploading of the various files. Once the uploading is done, our system automatically generates an electronic
(PDF) proof, which is then used for reviewing. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revisions,
will be by e-mail.
Prior to submitting your manuscript on-line you should have prepared: • a Word document of the full text
(including a title page containing authors' addresses, email and FAX number of the corresponding author, a second page with the abstract
and the full text of the manuscript including references and figure legends).
Checklist for colour Figures: • The figures
should be 1000 dpi (min. 300dpi) • The figures may be in either RGB or CMYK format. If supplying in RGB format please check
the typeset proof carefully to ensure the conversion is accurate. • The figures must be in TIFF format • The figures
should be the correct size so that no reduction or enlargement has to be carried out. If this is not possible it is better if the figures
are sent 'too large' so that in the reduction process the colour detail will not be lost.
The sections below explain how manuscripts
should be organised and other details.
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 Editors 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)
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been "spellchecked". If you are not a fluent English speaker it is advisable to consult a native speaker for polishing
the manuscript • 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 (including material
from the Web), both from the authors (if available) and from the copyright owner.
Language Editing:
International
Science Editing and Asia Science Editing can provide English language and copyediting services to authors who want to publish in scientific,
technical and medical journals and need assistance before they submit their article or, before it is accepted for publication.
Authors can contact these services directly: International Science Editing (http://www.internationalscienceediting.com)
and Asia Science Editing (http://www.asiascienceediting.com) or, for more information about language editing services,
please contact authorsupport@elsevier.com who will be happy to deal with any questions.
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 and conditions (http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions).
The general organisation of the sections, nomenclature, reference system, etc., are the same as those adopted
by the major cell/developmental biology journals (e.g., Cell, Developmental Cell, The EMBO Journal). An abstract of up to 250
words and a list of up to 10 keywords should be provided. The main text should be ordered under the following headings: Introduction,
Results, Discussion (which may be combined with Results), Experimental Procedures, Acknowledgements (when appropriate), References, Figure
Legends.
References
Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the Authors.
Citations
in the text: Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). The abstract
should not contain references unless absolutely essential; any such references must be given in full within the text of the abstract
and will be included in the 250 word limit. Unpublished results and personal communications should not be in the reference list, but
may be mentioned in the text (personal communications only with the express consent of the communicator) if they are essential. Citing and listing of Web references. As a minimum, the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (Author
names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. 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;
3. 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 cited
together (within one set of parentheses) should be listed first chronologically (ie. the oldest reference first), then alphabetically.
Examples: "... as previously demonstrated (Jones, 1995; Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999). Kramer et al. (2000) 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 combination 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. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51-59.
Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W.,
White, E.B., 1979. The Elements of Style, third ed. Macmillan, New York.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G.R.,
Adams, L.B., 1999. 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.
Preparation of electronic illustrations
Submitting your artwork in
an electronic format helps us to produce your work to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail.
Checklist for colour Figures: • The figures should be 1000 dpi (min. 300dpi) • The figures may be in either RGB or
CMYK format. If supplying in RGB format please check the typeset proof carefully to ensure the conversion is accurate. • The
figures must be in TIFF format • The figures should be the correct size so that no reduction or enlargement has to be carried
out. If this is not possible it is better if the figures are sent 'too large' so that in the reduction process the colour detail will
not be lost.
General points • Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork. • Save
text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font. • Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier,
Helvetica, Times, Symbol. • Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text. • Use a logical naming
convention for your artwork files (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.), and supply a separate listing of the files and the software used. •
Provide captions to illustrations separately, at the end of the text. • Produce images near to the desired size of the printed
version.
The cost of colour reproduction will not be charged to the author. However, the decision to publish figures
in colour will be left to the Editors' discretion.
Materials
Publication of a research article in Mechanisms of Development
is taken to imply that the authors are prepared to distribute all non-commercially obtained materials used in the experiments (e.g. cells,
DNA, antibodies, primary data), to other academic researchers for their own use or for verification. All nucleic acid and protein sequences
must have been deposited in the appropriate databases and the Accession Numbers cited in the paper.
For each and every accession
number cited in an article, Authors should type the accession number in bold, underlined text. Letters in the accession
number should always be capitalised. This combination of letters and format will enable Elsevier's typesetters to recognise the relevant
texts as accession numbers and add the required link to GenBank's sequences.
Data from microarray and other similar screens
Please see the MGED open letter specifying microarray standards at http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAME/miame_checklist.html. Authors submitting manuscripts relying on microarray or similar screens must supply the data as Supplementary data
(see below) at the time of submission, along with the completed MIAME checklist. The data must be MIAME-compliant and supplied in a form
that is widely accessible. The microarray data must also be submitted to either the GEO (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/)
or ArrayExpress (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/) databases,
with accession numbers at or before acceptance of the paper for publication.
The editors understand that on occasion authors may
not feel it appropriate to deposit the entire data set at the time of publication of this paper. We are therefore willing to consider
exceptions to this requirement in response to a request from the authors, which must be made at the time of initial submission or as
part of an informal pre-submission enquiry.
Supplementary data
Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material (e-components)
to support and enhance the published paper. These allow the Author to publish movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, data
sets (including microarray data; see above) 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.
To ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats.
Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each
file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Other important conditions
It is essential to give a fax number and e-mail address for the corresponding author when submitting
a manuscript. Articles must be written in good English. Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published
previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration
for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all Authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where
the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language,
without the written consent of the Publisher.
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign 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 (or letter) 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.
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: contact Elsevier's Rights Department,
Oxford, UK: phone (+44) 1865 843830, fax (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail permissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed
on-line via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions]).
Ethics of experimentation
Authors describing investigations in animals or on human tissue must specify that the research conformed
to the stipulations of the appropriate institutional review body and ethics committee.
Proofs
When your manuscript is received
by the Publisher it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as "drafts". One set of page proofs in PDF format
will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding Author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted
(and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.
Page charges
Mechanisms of Development has NO page charges. 25 free reprints are supplied per contribution: an additional number
may be ordered at the prices quoted on the order form sent to the corresponding author.
US National Institutes of Health (NIH)
voluntary posting ("Public Access") policy.
Elsevier facilitates author response to the NIH voluntary posting request (referred
to as the NIH "Public Access Policy"; see http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm ) by posting the author's peer-reviewed
manuscript directly to PubMed Central on request from the author, 12 months after formal publication. Upon notification from Elsevier
of acceptance, we will ask you to confirm via e-mail (by e-mailing us at NIHauthorrequest@elsevier.com that your work
has received NIH funding and that you intend to respond to the NIH policy request, along with your NIH award number to facilitate processing.
Upon such confirmation, Elsevier will submit to PubMed Central on your behalf a version of your manuscript that will include peer-review
comments, for posting 12 months after formal publication. This will ensure that you will have responded fully to the NIH request policy.
There will be no need for you to post your manuscript directly with PubMed Central, and any such posting is prohibited.
As an author you (or your employer or institution) may do the following: • make copies (print or
electronic) of the article for your own personal use, including for your own classroom teaching use • make copies and distribute
such copies (including through e-mail) of the article to research colleagues, for the personal use by such colleagues (but not commercially
or systematically, e.g., via an e-mail list or list server) • post a pre-print version of the article on Internet websites including
electronic pre-print servers, and to retain indefinitely such version on such servers of sites • post a revised personal version
of the final text of the article (to reflect changes made in the peer review and editing process) on your personal or institutional website
or server, with a link to the journal homepage (on Elsevier.com) • present the article at a meeting or conference and to distribute
copies of the article to the delegates attending such a meeting • for your employer, if the articles is a 'work for hire', made
within the scope of your employment, your employer may use all or part of the information in the article for other intra-company use
(e.g., training) • retain patent and trademark rights and rights to any processes or procedure described in the article
• include the article in full or in part in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be published commercially)
• use the article or any part thereof in a printed compilation of your works, such as collected writings or lecture notes (subsequent
to publication of your article in the journal) • prepare other derivative works, to extend the article into book-length form,
or to otherwise re-use portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the journal.
