Materials for Biological Applications


Materials Science and Engineering C: Biomimetic and Supramolecular Systems is an international and interdisciplinary journal which reports on scientific and technical contributions dealing with all aspects of conceiving, designing, constructing and testing man-made materials, structures, devices and systems which replicate or are based on biological entities and processes. These include, but are not limited to:
Materials and Structures
Sensors and Information Processes
Dynamics and Control Systems.

Abstracting services
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Abstracts (online database), Current Biotechnology Abstracts, Engineered Materials Abstracts, Fluidex, FIZ Karlsruhe, Glass Technology Abstracts, INSPEC Information Services, Metals Abstracts, Phys Database, Physics and Chemistry of Glasses, Surface Treatments Technology Abstracts.

Types of contributions

• Original research work not already published

• Plenary lectures and/or individual papers given at conferences

• Reviews of specialized topics within the scope of the journal

• Letters intended for rapid publications

Submission of contributions
Authors should submit their articles using the secure online submission system at http://ees.elsevier.com/msec
Online submission removes the need to submit a hard copy manuscript.

Contributions are accepted on the understanding that the authors have obtained the necessary authority for publication. Submission of a manuscript implies that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. All communications must indicate the name, e-mail, fax, telephone and full postal address of the author to whom proofs should be sent. This author is responsible for informing all co-authors that the manuscript has been submitted to this journal.

In order to achieve rapid publication, it is essential to precisely follow these instructions. Failure to do so can result in a delay in publication.

Preparation of Manuscripts

Language
Papers will be published in English. Authors' manuscripts must be consistent in style, spelling and syntax.
English Language: Manuscripts should be proof-read and have English language errors corrected before submission as we may have to return papers due to poor language usage. Elsevier has negotiated with five different language editing companies to provide their services to our authors at favourable rates. You will find a listing of these companies which provide pre-submission language editing on http://www.elsevier.com/locate/languagepolishing .

Estimation of length
For a rough estimate of the final length of their printed article, authors should count 850 words per full two-column page and four illustrations per page.

Title
Papers should be headed by a concise and informative title. This should be followed by the name(s) of the author(s) and by the name and complete address of the laboratory in which the work was performed. If the address of the author at the time when the paper will appear will be other than that where the work was carried out, this may be stated in a footnote, but footnotes should otherwise be avoided. Recognition for financial support should not be made by a footnote to the title or name of the author but should be included in Acknowledgements at the end of the paper.

Abstract
An abstract of 50-200 words should be included at the beginning of a paper. The abstract should comprise a brief and factual account of the contents and conclusions of the paper as well as an indication of any new information presented and its relevance. Abstracts should be understandable in isolation, and reference to formulae, equations or references that appear in the main text is thus not permissible.

Keywords
A maximum of six keywords should be indicated below the abstract to describe the contents of the manuscript. Keywords should be selected, if appropriate, from the following classes: theoretical methods, experimental methods, phenomena, materials, and applications. A recommended list of current keywords used in the Journal are published regularly. This list may also be obtained from the Editor or publisher.

Introduction
A full-length paper should have a short Introduction. This should state the reasons for the work, with brief reference to previous work on the subject.

References
The references should be brought together at the end of the article, and numbered in the order of their appearance in the text. Footnotes should not include bibliographic material, and reference lists should not include material that could more appropriately appear as a footnote. Authors should check whether every reference in the text appears in the list of references and vice versa. Numerals for references are given in square brackets. In the reference list, journals [1], books [2], and edited multi-author books [3] should be cited in accordance with the following examples:

[1] R.K. Singh, D.-G. Lee, J. Electron. Mater. 25 (1996) 137.
[2] D. Palik, Handbook of Optical Constants of Solids II, Academic Press, New York, 1991.
[3] G. Turrel, P. Dhamelincourt, in: J.J. Laserna (Ed.), Modern Techniques in Raman Spectroscopy, Wiley, Chichester, 1996, p.109.

Each reference should be complete; thus the use of ibid., idem., et al., etc. is not permitted. Abbreviations for the titles of journals should follow the system used by the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index and Supplements.

References to books should include the following information: title, publisher, town of publication, year of publication and page number. This information should also be given for published proceedings or abstracts of conferences, together with the location and date of the meeting, e.g.
[4] M. Frenklach, in: Proc. 2nd Int. Symp. on Diamond Materials, 1991, Electrochemical Society, Pennington, 1991, p. 142.

Articles not yet published should be given as "in press", "submitted for publication" or "in preparation". Details of personal communications or unpublished results should be given as a reference, e.g.
[5] A. Jones, personal communication, 1986.

Tables
Tables should be typed in double spacing on separate sheets and provided with a suitable heading. Tables should be clearly referred to in the text using Arabic numerals. Considerable thought should be given to layout so that the significance of the results can be easily grasped. Each table should have a title which makes the general meaning understandable without reference to the text.

Illustrations
• Figures will generally be reduced in size before printing and any lettering should be sufficiently large (minimum height, 3-5 mm) to remain legible. All illustrations should preferably require the same degree of reduction.
• Legends to illustrations should be typed in sequence on a separate page or pages and be understandable without reference to the text.

Colour Illustrations
Illustrations can be printed in colour when they are judged by the Editor to be essential to the presentation. The publisher and author will each bear part of the extra costs involved.

Preparation of Manuscripts and Illustrations on disc

Main Text
Articles prepared using any of the more popular word-processing packages are acceptable. Please note the following points.
• The article should be saved in the native format of the word processor used, e.g. WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, etc.
• Avoid excessive layout styling as most formatting codes will be removed or replaced during the processing of your article.
• Do not import the illustrations into the text file, save the graphics files separately.

Graphics
For specific enquiries on the preparation of electronic artwork, including preferred formats, consult http://elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
•TIFF or EPS files are the preferred format. The usability of other formats is to a large extent dependent on the information you supply us with concerning the software and platform used.
• Drawings made with Adobe Illustrator, Aldus Freehand and CorelDraw generally give good results. Drawings made in WordPerfect or Word generally have too low a resolution. The minimum acceptable resolution for line art images is 1000 dpi. For halftones and halftone/line art combinations, the minimum resolutions are 300dpi (500dpi if lettering is present).

Proofs
Proofs in PDF format will be sent to the corresponding author via e-mail and should be returned within 48 hours of receipt. Corrections should be restricted to typesetting errors.

Copyright
All authors must sign the "Transfer of Copyright" agreement before the article can be published. This will be sent to the corresponding author after the manuscript is accepted for publication. Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder permission to reproduce any figure for which copyright exists.

Offprints

The corresponding author, at no extra cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use.

Further information
For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission), the status of accepted articles through our online Tracking Feature, author Frequently Asked Questions and any other enquiries relating to Elsevier, please consult http://www.elsevier.com. For specific enquiries on the preparation of electronic artwork, consult the journal homepage via the Author Gateway at http://www.elsevier.com.

Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided when an article is accepted for publication.