Domestic Animal Endocrinology

DOMESTIC ANIMAL ENDOCRINOLOGY - GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

INTRODUCTION

Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details on the requirements for submitting your paper to Domestic Animal Endocrinology. The guidelines described in this document should be adhered to carefully, to ensure high-quality and rapid publication of your manuscript.

Aims and scope

Domestic Animal Endocrinology publishes scientific papers dealing with fundamental, translational, and clinical aspects of the endocrinology of domestic animal species at all levels of organization (organismal, cellular, and molecular). Those manuscripts utilizing other species as models for clinical or production problems associated with domestic animals will also be considered. Clinical Case Reports will generally not be accepted unless the research report provides significant new information regarding mechanisms responsible for a phenomenon. Topics covered include the regulation of hormone secretion, hormone action, and biochemical endocrinology.

Types of article

1. Original Research Papers (Regular Papers)
2. Review Articles
3. Short Communications

Original Research Papers should report the results of original research. The material should not have been previously published elsewhere, except in a preliminary form.

Review Articles should cover subjects falling within the scope of the journal that are of active current interest. They may be submitted or invited.

Short Communications are concise but complete descriptions of a limited investigation, which will not be included in a later paper. Short Communications should be as completely documented, both by reference to the literature and description of experimental procedures employed, as an Original Research Paper. They should not occupy more than six printed pages (about 12 manuscript pages, including figures, tables and references).

Page charges

This journal has no page charges.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

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.

Policy and ethics

The work described in your article must have been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html; EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm; Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical journals http://www.icmje.org. This must be stated at an appropriate point in the article.

Unnecessary cruelty in animal experimentation is not acceptable to the Editors of Domestic Animal Endocrinology.

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 in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

Contributors

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.

Authorship

All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

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 paper 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

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.

Submit your article
Please submit your article via http://ees.elsevier.com/dae.

Referees

Please submit, as part of the covering letter with the manuscript, the names, full affiliation (department, institution, city and country) and email addresses of 3 potential Referees. Appropriate Referees should be knowledgeable about the subject but have no close connection with any of the authors. You may also suggest reviewers you do not want to review your manuscript, but please state your reasons for doing so.

PREPARATION

Use of word-processing software

It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the word processor 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 word processor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. Do not embed "graphically designed" equations or tables, but prepare these using the word processor's facility. 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). Do not import the figures into the text file but, instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic text and on the manuscript. See also the section on Electronic illustrations. To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the "spell-check" and "grammar-check" functions of your word processor.

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. Introduction should not exceed 1.5 manuscript pages.

Materials 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 excessive citations and discussion of published literature. Although there are always exceptions, a good rule of thumb is for the Discussion section to not exceed 5 double-spaced manuscript pages and to limit the number of references to no more than 35.

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.

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 is willing to 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.

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, they must be cited in full, without reference to the reference list. Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself. Abstracts must be limited to a single paragraph with no more than 2,500 keystrokes (characters plus spaces).

Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, "and", "of"). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

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 IUB: Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents: http://www.chem.qmw.ac.uk/iubmb/ for further information.

Math formulae

Present simple formulae in the line of normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text). Please see Additional Style Notes below.

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many word processors 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

Image manipulation
While it is accepted that authors sometimes need to manipulate images for clarity, manipulation for purposes of deception or fraud will be seen as scientific ethical abuse and will be dealt with accordingly. For graphical images, this journal is applying the following policy: no specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original. Nonlinear adjustments (e.g. changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend.

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 finalized, 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 optimized 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.

Text graphics
Present incidental graphics not suitable for mention as figures, plates or schemes at the end of the article and number them "Graphic 1", etc. Their precise position in the text can then be indicated. See further under Electronic artwork. If you are working with LaTeX and have such features embedded in the text, these can be left, but such embedding should not be done specifically for publishing purposes. Further, high-resolution graphics files must be provided separately.

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. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

References in a special issue
Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.

Reference style
Text: Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given.
Example: "...as demonstrated [3,6]. Barnaby and Jones [8] obtained a different result..."

List: Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:
[1] Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2010;163:51-9.

Reference to a book:
[2] Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 4th ed. New York: Longman; 2000.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age, New York: E-Publishing Inc; 2009, p. 281-304.

Note shortened form for last page number. e.g., 51-9, and that for more than 6 authors the first 6 should be listed followed by 'et al.' For further details you are referred to 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals' (J Am Med Assoc 1997;277:927-34) (see also http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html) 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 serial title word abbreviations: http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service): http://www.cas.org/sent.html.

Supplementary material

Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, 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 ensure that data are 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. Video files: please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your supplementary information. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Additional style notes

Please use the following words, phrases, abbreviations, and stylistic conventions
• Do not use the term 'significant' redundantly throughout the text. Cite a P value (recommended for Abstract and for Results) associated with each statistical inference.
• Terms with a specific statistical meaning (i.e. significant, tended and correlated), should only be used in a strict statistical context.
• Numbers less than 10 are written as a word, unless followed by an abbreviation for unit of measure, e.g. five embryos, 5 min
• Abbreviate units of measure when they follow a quantity: days, d; hours, h; weeks, wk; years, yr; minutes, min; For example, 4 d, 5 h, 6 yr.
• When using a time-descriptive noun as a name (e.g., hour of the experiment or day of the experiment), spell out the noun.

Use the following expressions

• Estrus is a noun; estrous is an adjective.
• 120 to 125, not 120-125
• treatment by period, not treatment X period
• gravity: 100 X g (in lieu of speed for centrifugation)

Abbreviations
Never use an abbreviation to start a sentence (e.g., mRNA should be Messenger ribonucleic acid); otherwise, rephrase the sentence so that it doesn't begin with the word in question. Commonly-accepted, journal-defined abbreviations can be used without definition (see DAE-defined abbreviations below). All others should be defined in the abstract (if used) and again the first time the term appears in the text. Thereafter, use the abbreviation.

Physical units Item - Unit
Bq - becquerel
°C - degree Celsius
Cal - calorie
Ci - curie
cM - centimorgan (spell out morgan if used without a prefix)
Da - dalton
Eq - equivalent
g - gram
ha - hectare
Hz - hertz
IU - international unit
J - joule
L - liter
milliliter - mL
lx - lux
m - meter
M - molar (concentration; preferred over mol/L)
mol - mole
N - normal (concentration)
Pa - pascal
t - metric ton (1,000 kg)
V - volt
W - watt

Units of time
s - second(s)
min - minute(s)
h - hour(s)
d - day(s)
wk - week(s)
mo - month(s)
yr - year(s)

Statistical symbols and abbreviations
ANOVA - analysis of variance
CV - coefficient of variation
df - degree(s) of freedom
F - F-distribution (variance ratio)
LSD - least significant difference
n - sample size (used parenthetically or in footnotes)
P - probability
r - simple correlation coefficient
r² - simple coefficient of determination
R - multiple correlation coefficient
R² - multiple coefficient of determination
s² - variance (sample)
SD - standard deviation (sample)
SE - standard error
SED - standard error of the differences of means
SEM - standard error of the mean
t - t- (or Student) distribution
α - probability of Type I error
β - probability of Type II error
μ - mean (population)
Σ - standard deviation (population)
Σ² - variance (population)
Χ² - chi-squared distribution

Others
ACTH - adrenocorticotropic hormone
ADG - average daily gain
ADP - adenosine diphosphate
AI - artificial insemination
ATP - adenosine triphosphate avg - average (use only in tables, not in the text)
BCS - body condition score
bp - base pair
BSA - bovine serum albumin
BW - body weight
cDNA - complementary deoxyribonucleic acid
C/EBP - CAAT-enhancer binding protein
cfu - colony-forming unit
CoA - coenzyme A
Co-EDTA - cobalt ethylenediaminetetraacetate
CP - crude protein (N x 6.25)
d - dextrodiam. diameter
DE - digestible energy
DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid
EBV - estimated breeding value
eCG - equine chorionic gonadotropin
EDTA - ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid
EIA - enzyme immunoassay
ELISA - enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
Exp. - experiment (always followed by a numeral)
FFA - free fatty acid(s)
FSH - follicle-stimulating hormone
g - gravity
GE - gross energy
GLC - gas-liquid chromatography
GLM - general linear model
GnRH - gonadotropin-releasing hormone
GH - growth hormone
GHRH - growth hormone-releasing hormone
hCG - human chorionic gonadotropin
HEPES - N-(2-hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N'-2-ethanesulfonic acid
HPLC - high-performance (pressure) liquid chromatography
i.d. - inside diameter
Ig - immunoglobulin (when used to identify a specific immunoglobulin)
IGF - insulin-like growth factor
IGFBP - insulin-like growth factor-binding protein(s)
IL - interleukin
kb - kilobase(s)
LD50 - lethal dose 50%
LH - luteinizing hormone
LHRH - luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone
ME - metabolizable energy
Misc. - miscellaneous
NAD - nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
NADH - reduced form of NAD
NDF - neutral detergent fiber
NDIN - neutral detergent insoluble nitrogen
NE - net energy
NE_g - net energy for gain
NE_l - net energy for lactation
NE_m - net energy for maintenance
NEFA - nonesterified fatty acid
No. - number (use only in tables, not in the text)
NRC - National Research Council
o.d. - outside diameter
PAGE - polyacryl amide gel electrophoresis
PBS - phosphate-buffered saline
PCR - polymerase chain reaction
PG - prostaglandin
PMSG - pregnant mare's serum gonadotropin
PPAR - peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor
PUFA - polyunsaturated fatty acid(s)
QTL - quantitative trait locus (loci)
REML - restricted maximal likelihood
RFLP - restriction fragment length polymorphism
RIA - radioimmunoassay
RNA - ribonucleic acid
rpm - revolutions/minute (not to be used to indicate centrifugal force)
RQ - respiratory quotient
SDS - sodium dodecyl sulfate
SFA - saturated fatty acid
SNP - single nucleotide polymorphism
ssp. - subspecies
ST - somatotropin
spp. - species
SSC - Sus scrofa chromosome
TDN - total digestible nutrients
TLC - thin layer chromatography
Tris - tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane
TSAA - total sulfur amino acids
USDA - US Department of Agriculture
UV - ultraviolet
VFA - volatile fatty acid(s)
vol - volume
vol/vol - volume/volume (used only in parentheses)
vs. - versus
wt - weight (use only in tables, not in the text)
wt/vol - weight/volume (used only in parentheses)
wt/wt - weight/weight (used only in parentheses)

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.

AFTER ACCEPTANCE

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.2003.10.071

When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they 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 INQUIRIES

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Updated January 2012