Guide for Authors
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 and verification
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authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or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, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify originality, your article
may be checked by the originality detection software iThenticate. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/editors/plagdetect.
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.
Submission
General Submissions.
ECRA
uses electronic submissions only as a means for reviewing new and revised papers. All manuscripts and any supplementary material should
be submitted via the journal's online submission and peer-review system, called the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) at the following
external link
http://www.ees.elsevier.com/ecra. Thereafter, please follow the instructions given on this website to submit
your paper.
Special Issues and Special Section Submissions.
If you are submitting a paper to a Special Section or Special
Issue of ECRA, then follow these instructions:
1. Author registers in EES, and follows the submission instructions given on the
site.
2. Select 'Submit Manuscript' from the 'Main Menu.'
3. When choosing 'Article Type' please select the title of
the Special Section or Special Issue to which you wish to submit.
Then follow the steps as laid out in EES. Your manuscript will
be submitted to the Editorial Office, which then assigns it to the Guest Editor in charge of that specific Special Section or Special
Issue.
Referees
Please submit, with the manuscript, the names, addresses
and e-mail addresses of three potential referees. Note that the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested
reviewers are used.
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. If possible, do not embed "graphically designed" equations or tables,
but prepare these using the wordprocessor'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.
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 wordprocessor.
LaTeX
If the LaTeX file is suitable,
proofs will be produced without rekeying the text. The article should preferably be written using Elsevier's document class 'elsarticle',
or alternatively any of the other recognized classes and formats supported in Elsevier's electronic submissions system, for further information
see
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/latex-ees-supported.
The Elsevier 'elsarticle' LaTeX style
file package (including detailed instructions for LaTeX preparation) can be obtained from the Quickguide:
http://www.elsevier.com/latex.
It consists of the file: elsarticle.cls, complete user documentation for the class file, bibliographic style files in various styles,
and template files for a quick start.
Article Structure
General.
Manuscripts submitted to ECRA should be prepared for electronic submission to the EES website using single-column, double-spaced 11
or 12 point fonts, with 1 inch or 2.5 centimeter margins. Authors should avoid double justification. Please do not use a constant right-hand
margin, since it diminishes readability for the reviewers. Also, ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated by indenting the
first line. Also to enhance readability, authors should embed tables and figures in the manuscript in places that are near to the text
that refers to them. Number all pages consecutively. Consult a recent issue of the journal to become familiar with layout and other formatting
conventions. If you require a sample issue, please click on the 'Free Sample Issue' link under the 'For Readers' menu on the right hand
side of this page. Here are some additional requirements related to formatting:
Title Page. Authors should include a Title
Page as the first page of their submission, containing the article title, author(s) names and affiliations, an abstract not exceeding
150 words, and a list of 5 to 10 keywords that best describe the overall contents of the article for indexing and retrieval purposes.
The title page should also contain related footnotes and acknowledgments that pertain to the paper and the authors.
Corresponding
Author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, including post-publication
correspondence. 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.
Graphical abstract
A Graphical abstract
is optional and 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.
Artwork
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, Helvetica, Times, •Number the
illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
•Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files, if you include
separate ones.
•Provide captions to illustrations.
•Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
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 after your paper has been accepted, 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.
DOC, DOCX, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these
Microsoft Office applications please supply 'as is'.
Please do not:
•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.
Figures, Tables and Illustrations
Provide all figures, tables and illustrations
in high-quality format suitable for reproduction, which may include reduction. These should be numbered consecutively in the order in
which they are referred to in the main body of the text. Mark all of these with a table or figure number and an explanatory caption
or title. For detailed guidelines on electronic figures, please refer to the 'Artwork Instructions' at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
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.
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: All citations in the text should refer to:
1.
Single author:
the author's 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 author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication.
Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.
Examples: 'as demonstrated (Allan, 2000a, 2000b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1999). Kramer et al. (2010) have recently shown ....'
List:
References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. 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:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2010. The art of writing a scientific article.
J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51–59.
Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 2000. The Elements of Style, fourth ed. Longman,
New York.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 2009. How to prepare an electronic version of
your article, in: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281–304.
Published Materials on the Internet and Foreign Language Sources.
Provide as complete information
as possible, although pages may not be available. Indicate the URL where the materials can be found, and indicate the last data the materials
were accessed.
Please click
here for examples.
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.
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.
Uncorrected Proofs are not to be regarded as 'drafts,' and authors should not view them as providing an opportunity to make
major content changes. Only minor copy-editing corrections are permitted. . No changes in, or additions to the accepted and subsequently
edited manuscript will be allowed at the end of this stage. So it is important to ensure that all changes to the Uncorrected Proof are
indicated in one communication with the Elsevier Production staff. Subsequent corrections will not be possible. Prior to the Uncorrected
Proof stage, an ECRA Co-Editor may request that a paper should be edited for English. Elsevier's Language Editing Service will handle
this.
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.
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.
