Research Reviews

Guide for Authors

An International Review Journal in
BIOTECHNOLOGY ADVANCES

NOTES AND INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS:

In this review journal, biotechnology is viewed in a comprehensive context: a multidisciplinary field in which biosystems are developed or used for the provision of goods or services. Biotechnology Advances (Biotech Adv) is devoted to all aspects of biotechnology including its basic underpinnings in science and engineering as well as its applications in medicine, agriculture, industry, environmental issues and regulatory considerations.

Submission of manuscripts:

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and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.

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 pre-printed 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 on-line via the Elsevier homepage http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions.

One electronic copy (as an email attached WORD document, 12-point font, single spacing) should be submitted to one of the editors who normally will arrange for its confidential peer-review. In addition, the corresponding author (only one corresponding author should be identified!) should give the names and e-mail addresses of 3-4 possible reviewers of the manuscript. In general, unsolicited submissions should be sent to the executive editor*. The following types of manuscripts are considered: review articles, both short and longer extensive ones; notes and letters; critiques of patents or groups of related patents; guest editorials on recent developments in a given area; reviews of new books; conference overviews of recent proceedings. Special issues of the journal are usually based on selections from professional meetings (organizers of these meetings are invited to act as guest editors). Articles for the bi-annual special section on Industrial Proteins, should be submitted directly to that section editor*. Supplementary issues can be developed in consultation with the publishing editor*

Preparation of manuscripts

Please provide the following data on the title page (in the order given). 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.
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 email 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.

Language Polishing.
Authors who require information about language editing and copy editing services pre- and post-submission, please visit http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/languagepolish or contact authorsupport@elsevier.com for more information. Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our Terms and Conditions http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/termsconditions.cws_home/termsconditions

All pages should be numbered consecutively. Abstract: A concise and factual abstract is required (maximum length 150 words). An abstract is often presented separate from the article, so it must be able to stand alone.
Keywords: Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 10 keywords, 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.

References:
The journal uses the name and year (Vancouver) system. All citations in the text should refer to:
1. Single Author: the Authors 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 Authors name followed by "et al" and the year of publication.
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: Bunz PV, Schmidt S. The microbial degradation of halogenated diaryl ethers. Biotech. Adv., 1998; 15, 621-32
Reference to a book: Chisti MY. Airlift Bioreactors. Oxford: Elsevier, 1989
Reference to a chapter in an edited book: Millis NF. The organisms of biotechnology. In: Moo-Young M, editor. Comprehensive Biotechnology, Vol. 1. Oxford: Pergamon / Elsevier, 1985. p.7-20
Note the shortened form for the last page number. e.g., 51.9, and that for more than 6 authors the first 6 should be listed followed by "et al".

Tables and figures

These should be numbered 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.
Submitting your artwork in an electronic format helps us to produce your work to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail. Submit colour illustrations as original photographs, high quality computer prints or transparencies, close to the size expected in publication, or as 35 mm slides. Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. Polaroid colour prints are not suitable. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the Web n(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. A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions Equations should be numbered consecutively with the numbers in brackets at the right margin. Symbols and SI units should conform to standard guidelines (e.g., ACS Style Guide, Washington DC) and, if extensive, be listed in a Nomenclature section prior to the References at the end of the manuscript.

DNA sequences and GenBank Accession numbers
Many Elsevier journals cite "gene accession numbers" in their running text and footnotes. Gene accession numbers refer to genes or DNA sequences about which further information can be found in the databases at the National Center for Biotechnical Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine. Elsevier Authors wishing to enable other scientists to use the accession numbers cited in their papers via links to these sources, should type this information in the following manner: For each and every accession number cited in an article, Authors should type the accession number in bold, underlined text. Letters in the accession number should always be capitalised. (See Example below). This combination of letters and format will enable Elsevier's typesetters to recognise the relevant texts as accession numbers and add the required link to GenBanks sequences. Example: GenBank accession nos. AI631510, AI631511, AI632198, and F223228), a B-cell tumor from a chronic lymphatic leukemia (GenBank accession no. BE675048), and a T-cell lymphoma (GenBank accession no. AA361117). Authors are encouraged to check accession numbers used very carefully. An error in a letter or number can result in a dead link. In the final version of the printed article, the accession number text will not appear bold nor underlined. In the final version of the electronic copy, the accession number text will be linked to the appropriate source in the NCBI databases enabling readers to go directly to that source from the article.

Proofs 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. 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 send 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.

There are no page charges.

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. 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.

Questions arising after acceptance of a manuscript should be directed to the journal manager*.

US National Institutes of Health (NIH) voluntary posting/"Public Access Policy."
Elsevier facilitates author posting in connection with the voluntary posting request of the NIH (referred to as the NIH .Public Access Policy., see http://publicaccess.nih.gov/ by submitting the peer-reviewed authors manuscript directly to PubMed Central on request from the author, immediately after final publication. Please e-mail us at NIHauthorrequest@elsevier.com that your work has received NIH funding(with the NIH grant/project number(s), as well as name and e-mail address of the Principal Investigator(s)) and that you intend to respond to the NIH request. Upon such confirmation, Elsevier will submit to PubMed Central on your behalf a version of your manuscript that will include peer-review comments, for public access posting 12 months after the final publication date.
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 to PubMed Central, and any such posting is prohibited (although Elsevier will not request that manuscripts authored and posted by US government employees should be taken down from PubMed Central). Individual modifications to this general policy may apply to some Elsevier journals and its society publishing partners.

Author's rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) may do the following:
- make copies (print or electronic) of the article for your own personal use,including for your own classroom teaching use
- make copies and distribute such copies (including through e-mail) of the article to research colleagues, for the personal use by such colleagues (but not commercially or systematically, e.g., via an e-mail list or list server)
- post a pre-print version of the article on Internet websites including electronic pre-print servers, and to retain indefinitely such version on such servers or sites
- post a revised personal version of the final text of the article (to reflect changes made in the peer review and editing process) on your personal or institutional website or server, with a link to the journal homepage (on elsevier.com)
- present the article at a meeting or conference and to distribute copies of the article to the delegates attending such a meeting
- for your employer, if the article is a .work for hire, made within the scope of your employment, your employer may use all or part of the information in the article for other intra-company use (e.g., training)
- retain patent and trademark rights and rights to any processes or procedure described in the article
- include the article in full or in part in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be published commercially)
- use the article or any part thereof in a printed compilation of your works, such as collected writings or lecture notes (subsequent to publication of your article in the journal)
- prepare other derivative works, to extend the article into book-length form, or to otherwise re-use portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the journal.

*Executive Editor: Prof. M. Moo-Young, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada. Fax: +1 519 746 4979. E-mail: mooyoung@uwaterloo.ca
*Industrial Proteins Section Editor: Prof. A.G.J. Voragen, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands. Fax: +31.317.4.85465. E-mail: fons.voragen@wur.nl
*Publishing Editor: Mr. A. Newman, Biotechnology Advances, Elsevier,Radarweg 29, 1043 NX Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Fax: +31.20.485.3244. E-mail: a.helsloot@elsevier.com
*Journal Manager: Ms. E. Naughton, Biotechnology Advances, Elsevier Ireland Ltd., Elsevier House, Brookvale Plaza, East Park, Shanon, Co. Clare, Ireland. Fax: +353 61 709 111. E-mail: e.naughton@elsevier.com