The International Journal of Pure and Applied Analytical Chemistry
Guide for Authors
TalantaGuide for Authors
Aims & Scope Talanta provides a forum
for the publication of original research papers, preliminary communications, and reviews in all branches of pure and applied analytical
chemistry. Analytical data should be submitted only if they are clearly related to new analytical measurements. Original research papers
on fundamental studies and novel sensor and instrumentation development are especially encouraged. Novel or improved applications in
areas such as clinical chemistry, environmental analysis, geochemistry, and materials science and engineering are welcome. Methods should
be validated by comparison with a standard method or analysis of a certified reference material, and relevant literature should be cited.
Since classical spectrophotometric measurements and applications, solvent extraction, titrimetry, chemometrics, etc. are well established,
studies in such areas should demonstrate a unique and substantial advantage over presently known systems. New reagents or systems should
demonstrate clear advantage, and their presentation should be comprehensive rather than generating a series of similar papers for several
analytes. Modifications of reagents should demonstrate significant improvements. Solvent extraction methods in particular, but
others as well, should focus on the use of non-hazardous material substitutes and the minimization of waste generation. But obvious
application of known chemistries or methods to established techniques are discouraged. Application of classical analytical approaches
to relatively sample matrices having no major interferences, such as pharmaceutical preparations or reconstituted samples, are discouraged
unless considerable improvements over other methods in the literature are demonstrated. Papers dealing with analytical data such as
stability constants, pKa values, etc. should be published in more specific journals, unless novel analytical methodology is
demonstrated, or important analytical data are provided which could be useful in the development of analytical procedures.
General
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously in any language, that it is not
under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English
or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.
Types of Contributions Talanta provides
a forum for the publication of original research papers, preliminary communications and reviews in all branches of
pure and applied analytical chemistry. Letters to the Editors will be considered for publication. Data should be submitted only
if they are clearly related to analytical measurements.
Submission of Contributions
Online Submission of Papers
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article. Via the homepage
of this journal (http://www.elsevier.com/journals) you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the
various files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in
the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF 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 and via the author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail.
Refereeing
of Papers
All papers submitted are refereed by experts who advise the Editors-in-Chief on the matter of acceptance in accordance
with the high standards required and on the understanding that the subject matter has not been previously published and that the authors
accept full responsibility for the factual accuracy of the data presented and have obtained any necessary authority to publish. Referees
will be encouraged to present critical and unbiased reports which are designed to assist the author in presenting material in the clearest
and most unequivocal way possible. At the discretion of the Editors-in-Chief, and if referees agree, the names of referees may be disclosed
if thereby agreement between author and referee is likely to result. Authors should appreciate that the comments of referees are presented
in a constructive spirit, and that agreement between the views of author and referee must result in a higher standard of publication.
When submitting their paper authors are requested to provide names and addresses (including e-mail addresses) of three competent but
independent referees, although the choice of referees used will be made by the Editor.
Preliminary communications
will be refereed urgently and will be accorded priority in publication. Letters to the editors will not be refereed, but will be published
at the discretion of the Editors-in-Chief. If accepted, they will also be given priority. All papers accepted are subject to editorial
amendment if necessary.
Presentation of manuscripts
All papers should be concisely written. Papers must be written in
good English (American or British spelling but with use of only one form in the same paper). Because of the particular importance for
analytical methods to be correctly reproducible great care should be taken to ensure that the style and quality is clear and unambiguous.
Authors for whom English is a foreign language are recommended to have the paper thoroughly checked and corrected before submission.
Manuscripts
should be typed with double spacing and wide margins and start with the title (concise but informative) followed by the name(s)
of the author(s), their affiliation (the name and address of the laboratory in which the work was performed) and an abstract
(briefly summarising the essential contents of the paper in 50 to 300 words) and a list of keywords (4-6 words / phrases). The corresponding
author should be indicated by a * and his/her fax/telephone/email details supplied. Where possible, papers should follow the pattern: Introduction, Experimental, Results and Discussion, References or such of these sections as apply.
*Footnotes: please indicate
by superscript symbols *, †, ‡, ?, [], and keep to a minimum. On the title page indicate the corresponding author with
a *. You may also use a footnote to indicate a present address, if different from that given in the institutional affiliation. To acknowledge
financial support please use an Acknowledgements section.
Tables and Figures
The presentation of tables, graphs and formulae
should be kept to an absolute minimum and where possible the results from a series of investigations should be in a table form or as
a graph. Unless it is essential to the argument, tables should not list the results of individual experiments, but should summarize results
by an accepted method of expression (e.g. standard deviation). The same information should not be produced in both tables and figures
(or given in the Discussion as well as the Experimental section).
Tables should be numbered serially with Arabic numerals and so
constructed as to be intelligible without reference to the text, every table and column being provided with a heading. Units of measure
must always be clearly indicated at the top of each column and should not be repeated on each line of the table. Footnotes to tables
should be indicated by superscript letters. Straight-line calibration graphs are not generally permitted: the necessary information can
be included in the text (e.g. in the form of an equation). More information on the preparation of your illustrations can be found at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
Illustrations
General points • Make sure
you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork. • Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose
the font. • Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol. • Number
the illustrations according to their sequence in the text. • Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files. •
Provide all illustrations as separate files. • Provide captions to illustrations separately. • Produce images near
to the desired size of the printed version.
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: Colour or greyscale 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
(colour or greyscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these
Microsoft Office applications please supply "as is".
Please do not:• Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor
(spreadsheet, presentation) document; • Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like 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.
Colour Illustrations
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 colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at
no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether
or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information
regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for colour 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 colour figures to "grey scale" (for the
printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the colour illustrations.
Supplementary data Talanta accepts 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 is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit
the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed
instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Nomenclature
All nomenclature, abbreviation, and units should conform as closely as possible to the rules established by IUPAC (available
online at http://www.chem.qmw.ac.uk/iupac/).
References
In the text refer to the subject or to the author's
name (without initial), followed by the reference number in square brackets; the full references should be given in a list at the end
of the paper in the following form:
[1] J.B. Austin and R.H.H. Pierce, J. Chem. Soc., 57 (1955) 661.
[2] S.T. Yoffe and A.N.
Nesmeyanov, Handbook of Magnesium-Organic Compounds, 2nd edn., Vol. 3, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1956, p. 214.
[3] A.J. Howard, Electron
spin resonance spectroscopy, in T.P. Salthouse (Ed.), Structure Elucidation through Applied Spectroscopic Methods, Reidel, Dordrecht,
1986, pp. 229-253.
[4] A.B. Smith, The Effect of Radiation on Strength of Metals, A.E.R.E., M/R6329, 1962.
[5] N. Feldstein,
U.S. Patent 3,574,644, 1971.
Journal-name abbreviations should be those adopted by the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI)
style (an electronic version of CASSI which lists most of the abbreviations is available on-line at www.cas.org/sent.html).
If the correct abbreviation is not known, the title should be given in full.
Proofs and Articles in Press
One set of
page proofs in PDF format 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). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available
free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany
the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return
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. Therefore, it is important to ensure that
all of your 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.
Articles in Press take full advantage of the enhanced ScienceDirect functionality,
including the ability to be cited. This is possible due the innovative use of the DOI article identifier, which enables the citation
of a paper before volume, issue and page numbers are allocated. The Article in Press will be removed once the paper has been assigned
to an issue and the issue has been compiled.
Electronic Offprints (E-offprints)
The corresponding author, at no cost,
will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. 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.
Copyright
Upon
acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a "Journal Publishing Agreement" (for more information on this and
copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination
of information. An e-mail (or letter) will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal
Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included,
the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted
forms for use by authors in these cases: contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Oxford, UK: phone (+44) 1865 843830, fax (+44) 1865 853333,
e-mail permissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).
There are no page charges
Author Discount
Contributors to Elsevier journals are entitled to a 30% discount
on most Elsevier books, if ordered directly from Elsevier.
Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided when
an article is accepted for publication.TALANTAA CHECK LIST FOR AUTHORS BEFORE SUBMISSION
1. Does the subject matter
fit with the Aims and Scope of Talanta?
2. Is the work described both new and significant? Does it provide advantage over existing
methods? (Please indicate, or cite in your manuscript, any relevant papers.)
3. Is the Title both short and informative?
4.
Have you remembered to include a list of Key Words?
5. Does the Abstract fully represent your scientific contribution? Is it self-contained?
6. Have you avoided repeating yourself and presenting the same data more than once?
7. Have you clearly identified the corresponding
author and supplied their full contact details, including fax and e-mail?
8. Is your manuscript double spaced throughout with adequate
margins?
