Guide for Authors
Environmental
Toxicology and Pharmacology publishes the results of studies concerning toxic and pharmacological effects of (human and veterinary)
drugs and of environmental contaminants in animals and man.
Areas of special interest are: molecular mechanisms of toxicity, biotransformation
and toxicokinetics (including toxicokinetic modelling), molecular, biochemical and physiological mechanisms explaining differences in
sensitivity between species and individuals, the characterisation of pathophysiological models and mechanisms involved in the development
of effects and the identification of biological markers that can be used to study exposure and effects in man and animals.
Types of paper
In addition to full length papers, short communications, full-length reviews and mini-reviews,
Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology will publish in depth assessments of special problem areas. The latter publications
may exceed the length of a full length paper three to fourfold. A basic requirement is that the assessments are made under the auspices
of international groups of leading experts in the fields concerned. The information examined may either consist of data that were already
published, or of new data that were obtained within the framework of collaborative research programmes. Provision is also made for the
acceptance of minireviews on (classes of) compounds, toxicities or mechanisms, debating recent advances in rapidly developing fields
that fall within the scope of the journal.
Page charges
This journal has no page charges.
Ethics in publishing
For information on Ethics in publishing
and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see
http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and
http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.
Conflict of interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including
any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work
that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Environmental
Toxicology and Pharmacology requires full disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest. At the end of the manuscript text (and
in the cover letter of the manuscript), under a subheading "Conflict of Interest Statement", all authors must disclose any financial
and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. If there are no
conflicts of interest, the authors should state, "The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest." Signed copies of the
Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology Conflict of Interest policy form are required upon submission. The Conflict of Interest
policy form can be downloaded
here
.
In order to minimize delays, we strongly advise that the signed copies of these statements are prepared before you submit your manuscript.
Ethics and Procedures
The editor and publisher of this Journal believe that there are fundamental principles underlying
scholarly or professional publishing. While this may not amount to a formal "code of conduct", these fundamental principles with respect
to the authors' paper are that the paper should: be the authors' own original work, which has not been previously published elsewhere
reflect the authors' own research and analysis and do so in a truthful and complete manner, properly credit the meaningful contributions
of co-authors and co-researchers, not be submitted to more than one journal for consideration (ensuring it is not under redundant simultaneous
peer review), and be appropriately placed in the context of prior and existing research. Of equal importance are ethical guidelines dealing
with research methods and research funding, including issues dealing with informed consent, research subject privacy rights, conflicts
of interest, and sources of funding. While it may not be possible to draft a "code" that applies adequately to all instances and circumstances,
we believe it useful to outline our expectations of authors and procedures that the Journal will employ in the event of questions concerning
author conduct. Relevant conflicts of interest should be disclosed (see
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/conflictsofinterest).
Hazards
and Human or Animal Subjects
If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in
their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript. If the work involves the use of animal or human subjects, the author
should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional
guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) have approved them. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript
that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.
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.
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 peer-reviewed author's 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.
Open
access
This journal offers you the option of making your article freely available to all via the ScienceDirect platform.
To prevent any conflict of interest, you can only make this choice after receiving notification that your article has been accepted for
publication. The fee of $3,000 excludes taxes and other potential author fees such as color charges. In some cases, institutions and
funding bodies have entered into agreement with Elsevier to meet these fees on behalf of their authors. Details of these agreements are
available at
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies. Authors of accepted articles, who wish to take advantage of this option,
should complete and submit the order form (available at
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/openaccessform.pdf). Whatever access
option you choose, you retain many rights as an author, including the right to post a revised personal version of your article on your
own website. More information can be found here:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Language
and language services
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture
of these). Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit
http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageservices or our customer support
site at
http://support.elsevier.com
for more information.
Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online and
you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of your files. The system automatically converts source files to a single
PDF file of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted
to PDF files at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence,
including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail removing the need for a paper trail.
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.
Drugs:
generic names should be used. Trade names may be mentioned in parentheses the first time the name of the drug appears in the text. The
form of the drug used should be indicated.
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.
Theory/calculation
A
Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already dealt with in the Introduction and lay the foundation
for further work. In contrast, a Calculation section represents a practical development from a theoretical basis.
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.
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.
Abstract must not exceed 150 words.
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, type 3-6 keywords or short phrases suitable for indexing. If possible.
keywords should be selected from Index Medicus or Excerpta Medica Index. First category key-words (e.g. Hyperphagia; G-Strophantidin;
Fiber shortening) will all be listed and cross-indexed. Second category keywords (e.g. Rat, Cold, Metabolite) will only be listed under
the index entry for the first category keywords. Use American spelling and avoid 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 terms
will be printed at the end of the abstract. If the editors feel that keywords should be adjusted to the standards of the journal this
will be done without consultation of the author(s).
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.).
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)
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 management software
This
journal has standard templates available in key reference management packages EndNote (
http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp)
and Reference Manager (
http://refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp). Using plug-ins to wordprocessing packages, authors only
need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article and the list of references and citations to these will be
formatted according to the journal style which is described below.
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.
Additional information
Short communications
should be prepared as described under 2, except for the following:
(a) The average length of a short communication should not exceed
4 pages in print (approx. 2000-2300 words, including abstract, captions and references). A maximum of 2 illustrations (figures or tables)
is allowed.
(b) An abstract of not more that 100 words should be provided and 3-6 keywords should be listed immediately below the
abstract.
Reviews
The organization and subdivision of review articles can be arranged at the author's discretion.
Tables, figures and references are to be arranged in the same way as research articles in the journal. Please contact the Editor before
submitting an article for this section.
Mini-reviews
(a) The total length of a mini-review should be about 30
double-spaced typewritten pages, including references, tables and figures.
(b) A brief introduction to the subjects, comprising not
more than 500 words, in which reference is made to recent key articles or reviews on the topic should be given.
(c) Conclusions should
be summarized in 500-1000 words at the end of this article. They should be preferentially outlined in a flow diagram or a graph.
(d)
A maximum of 40 references may be used.
Assessments
The format of an assessment will be decided upon in consultation
with the editors.
Letters to the editors
The total length of a letter should not exceed one page. Please name three
potential reviewers making sure to include their name, affiliation and email address.
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
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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
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For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission) please
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will be provided by the publisher. You can track accepted articles at
http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. You can also
check our Author FAQs (
http://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ) and/or contact Customer Support via
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