Guide for Authors
INTRODUCTION
NeuroToxicology specializes in publishing the best peer-reviewed original research
papers dealing with the effects of toxic substances on the nervous system of humans and experimental animals of all ages. The Journal
emphasizes papers dealing with the neurotoxic effects of environmentally significant chemical hazards, manufactured drugs and naturally
occurring compounds. Papers dealing with the effects of neurotoxicants on other systems (e.g. reproductive, endocrine, immune) or processes
(e.g. metabolic) are also welcome.
NeuroToxicology recognizes the diverse backgrounds and interests of scientists who work in
these areas and encourages the participation of all. Areas of special emphasis and interest -- both basic and applied -- have been identified;
they include: neuropathology, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, neuropharmacology, neurology, behavioral toxicology, development neurotoxicology,
psychiatry, toxicology, epidemiology, psychology, neuroteratology, behavioral teratology, risk assessment and regulatory issues. Papers
reporting interdisciplinary studies are especially welcome. Papers reporting any effects of known neurotoxicants are welcome.
Types of paper
NeuroToxicology will publish papers containing Original Research, Brief Communications,
Reviews, Letters to the Editor, Teaching Monographs, Forum "Position Papers," Commentaries, Book Reviews, and Features. Periodically,
the Journal will also publish Announcements, Abstracts and Proceedings of Meetings.
Original Research.
Articles will
contain laboratory or clinical scientific research pertaining to neurotoxicology. Economy of style is encouraged, although papers may
be as long as short as the findings justify. Illustrations should make significant points. Excessive or repetitive illustrations will
not be published.
Brief Communications. NeuroToxicology will publish brief reports of work that has progressed to
the stage at which it is considered that the science of neurotoxicology would be advanced if the results were made available as soon
as possible. These reports should be no longer than six pages in the present format of
NeuroToxicology. Authors should submit
reports of this category of publication only when they believe that the rapid world-wide communication of the results is of the utmost
importance to other investigators.
Reviews.
Review papers will summarize and critically analyze topics of current
interest in neurotoxicology. Authors should keep in mind the diverse backgrounds of the readers of this interdisciplinary Journal.
Letters
to the Editor.
Letters to the Editor may be up to 500 words in length, responding to material in
NeuroToxicology, introducing
a new point of view, or discussing a topic of current concern. Letters will be subject to the same review process as Original Research
articles and Reviews. Any letter responding to a previous publication may be submitted to the author of the original paper in order that
any reply may be published simultaneously with the letter. Letters should be received within two months of mailing of the Journal.
Teaching
Monographs.
The format and length of monographs will be the prerogative of the author. The subject matter should be of broad
interest due to the diverse backgrounds of the readership. The contents should be aimed at the level of a senior graduate student in
neurosciences or toxicology. Teaching illustrations are encouraged.
Forum.
The Forum section "Position Papers" of
the Journal will address, discuss, and present position papers on current issues in neurotoxicology. Replies will be invited from all
sectors of society; they include: chemical industries, pharmaceutical industries, governmental regulatory agencies, other governmental
groups, academic institutions, as well as consumers and special interest groups. The format will be flexible. Letters responding to a
position paper in the Forum section will be submitted to the author of the position paper in order that any reply may be published simultaneously
with the Letter. Letters should be received within two months of mailing of the Journal.
Announcements, Abstracts, Proceedings.
NeuroToxicology will accept for publication announcements, abstracts, or capsulized proceedings of meetings, symposia or other matters
of interest to the subscriber of
NeuroToxicology.
Page charges
This
journal has no page charges.
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.
NeuroToxicology requires full disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest. At the end of the manuscript text (and in
the cover letter of the manuscript), under a subheading "Conflict of Interest statement", all authors must disclose any financial and
personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. If there are no conflicts
of interest, the authors should state, "The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest." Signed copies of the
NeuroToxicology
Conflict of Interest policy form are required upon submission. The Conflict of Interest policy form can be downloaded
here. In order to minimize delays, we strongly advise that the signed copies of these statements are prepared
before you submit your manuscript. The corresponding author is responsible for sharing this document with all co-authors. Each and every
co-author must sign an individual disclosure form. The corresponding author is responsible for uploading their form and those of their
co-authors.
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.
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.
US National Institutes of Health (NIH) voluntary posting (" Public Access") policy.
Elsevier facilitates author
response to the NIH voluntary posting request (referred to as the NIH "Public Access Policy"; see
http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm)
by posting the peer-reviewed author's manuscript directly to PubMed Central on request from the author, 12 months after formal publication.
Upon notification from Elsevier of acceptance, we will ask you to confirm via e-mail (by e-mailing us at
NIHauthorrequest@elsevier.com)
that your work has received NIH funding and that you intend to respond to the NIH policy request, along with your NIH award number to
facilitate processing. Upon such confirmation, Elsevier will submit to PubMed Central on your behalf a version of your manuscript that
will include peer-review comments, for posting 12 months after formal publication. 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 with PubMed Central, and any such posting is
prohibited.
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://www.elsevier.com/languagepolishing or our customer support
site at
http://epsupport.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 & Conditions:
http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions.
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.
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.
Material 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 extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
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 will 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, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon
abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
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
Nomenclature.
For styling of isotope, enzyme, and biochemical nomenclature,
consult the Information for Authors of the Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics.
Units and Abbreviations.
Units
will be in general accordance with the International System (SI) as adopted by the 11th General Conference on Weights and Measures. Note
that the abbreviations for a unit is never followed by a full stop, e.g. 10glL, 5 pmpl, 2mM. Do not use full stops in abbreviations with
capital letters, e.g. DNA. For case abbreviations use full stops, e.g. i.v.,s.c. All other words to be abbreviated should be written
in full when they appear in the text and be followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.
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).
Footnotes
Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively
throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors 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
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.
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.
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.
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] J. van der Geer, J.A.J. Hanraads, R.A. Lupton, The art of writing a scientific article,
J. Sci. Commun. 163 (2000) 51-59.
Reference to a book:
[2] W. Strunk Jr., E.B. White, The Elements of Style, third ed., Macmillan,
New York, 1979.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] G.R. Mettam, L.B. Adams, How to prepare an electronic version of
your article, in: B.S. Jones, R.Z. Smith (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age, E-Publishing Inc., New York, 1999, pp. 281-304.
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.
Submission
checklist
It is hoped that this list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal's
Editor for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are
present:
One Author designated as corresponding Author:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone
and fax numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including
title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been "spellchecked" 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://epsupport.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.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://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. 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/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 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. 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.
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. Additional paper
offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.
For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission
where available) please visit this journal's homepage. You can track accepted articles at
http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle
and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed. Also accessible from here is information on copyright,
frequently asked questions and more. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating
to proofs, will be provided by the publisher.
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