Guide for Authors
Progress
in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy publishes review papers describing research related to theory and application of NMR
spectroscopy. This technique is being applied with increasing success in chemistry, physics, biochemistry, materials science, and also
in many areas of biology and medicine. This journal publishes review articles covering applications in all these and related subjects,
as well as in-depth treatments of the fundamental theory and instrumental developments of NMR spectroscopy. The issuing of each volume
in separate parts ensures the rapid appearance of the reviews, and thus gives readers the most up to date coverage of the subject.
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.
Submission declaration
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously
(except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication
elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was
carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any
other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
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.
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.
Submit your article
Authors wishing to publish review articles in
the Journal should send 2 hard copies of their manuscripts to one of the two Executive Editors:
Professor J.W. Emsley,Department
of Chemistry, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK, Fax: 44 2380 596805, Email:
J.W.Emsley@soton.ac.uk
Dr
J. Feeney,National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK, Fax: 44 208 906 4477, Email:
jfeeney@nimr.mrc.ac.uk
Completed
manuscripts will be considered for publication, but intending authors may also submit summaries of proposed articles.
General Points
1.Manuscripts must be written in a clear and concise style
of English.
2. Manuscripts should be typewritten and double-spaced. Leave a margin of at least 3cm on each side of the paper.
3.
The author should retain one copy of the manuscript both on paper and diskette.
4. Only one set of original illustrations need be
supplied.
5. Paginate the entire manuscript consecutively on the top right-hand corner of the pages.
6. Excessive use of italics
for emphasis should be avoided.
7. The use of nomenclature and symbols adopted by IUPAC is recommended (Quantities, Units and Symbols
in Physical Chemistry, Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, 1988).
8. Abbreviations for units should follow the SI system. For abbreviations
of names of techniques and methods, always use capitals and no full stops, e.g. NMR, GLC, IR, DFT.
9. Manuscripts should be organized
in the following order:
•Title •Name of author and affiliation (Give fax, telephone numbers and e-mail address) •Up
to five keywords for indexing •Table of contents •Introduction •General text •Conclusions •Acknowledgements •Appendices •References •Tables •Captions for the illustrations •Illustrations (figures and other artwork) •A
covering information sheet giving the journal name, title of the article, numbers of pages, figures and tables, together with the name
and address of the corresponding author (including telephone, fax and E-mail numbers) should be included.
10. Elsevier reserves the
privilege of returning to the author for revision accepted manuscripts and illustrations that are not in the proper form given in this
guide.
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.
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.
Graphical abstract
A Graphical abstract is mandatory for this journal. It 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.
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.
Non-electronic artwork
Provide all illustrations as high-quality printouts, suitable for reproduction (which
may include reduction) without retouching. Number illustrations consecutively in the order in which they are referred to in the text.
They should accompany the manuscript, but should not be included within the text. Clearly mark all illustrations on the back (or - in
case of line drawings - on the lower front side) with the figure number and the author's name and, in cases of ambiguity, the correct
orientation.
Mark the appropriate position of a figure in the article.
Color artwork
Reproduction
of colour figures will generally be charged to the author. Authors are asked to contact the relevant Editor to discuss whether colour
reproduction charges will be incurred.
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.
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:
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] J. van der Geer, J.A.J. Hanraads, R.A. Lupton, J. Sci. Commun. 163 (2010) 51–59.
Reference to a book:
[2] W. Strunk Jr., E.B. White, The Elements of Style, fourth ed., Longman, New York, 2000.
Reference
to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] G.R. Mettam, L.B. Adams, in: B.S. Jones, R.Z. Smith (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age,
E-Publishing, Inc. New York, 2009, pp. 281–304.
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
• Disk is enclosed
• The electronic version and the hardcopy of the manuscript are identical
• Disk has been labelled with
article details (first author, first words of title)
file name(s)
media
format (e.g., PC, Mac)
file format (e.g., Word, LaTeX)
• All text pages
• Keywords
• Original
artwork (high-quality prints)
• 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 ou customer support site at:
http://support.elsevier.com.
Use
of the Digital Object Identifier
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents.
The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic
publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press'
because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example
taken from a document in the journal
Physics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2010.09.059
When you use the DOI to
create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.
Proofs
One
set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper
proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Elsevier now
provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 (or higher) available
free from
http://get.adobe.com/reader. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online).
The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site:
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/tech-specs.html.
If
you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return them
to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections
and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail,
or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures.
Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor.
We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately – please let us have all your corrections within
48 hours. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying,
as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed
with the publication of your article if no response is received.
Offprints
The corresponding
author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. If the corresponding
author opts for paper offprints, this preference must be indicated via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted
for publication. Additional paper offprints can also be ordered via this form for an extra charge. 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.
For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including
electronic submission) please visit this journal's homepage. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially
those relating to proofs, 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
http://support.elsevier.com.
