Guide for Authors
Types of paper
Original research articles (Regular
Articles)
Book Reviews
Original research articles should report the results of original research. The material should
not have been previously published elsewhere, except in a preliminary form.
Book Reviews will be included in the journal
on a range of relevant books which are not more than 2 years old.
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.
Ethics in Publishing
The work described in your article must have been carried out in accordance with
The
Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association(Declaration of Helsinki) for animal experiments
http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/s23000.htm;
Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical journals http://www.nejm.org/general/text/requirements/1.htm.
This must be stated at an appropriate point in the article.
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carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without
the written consent of the copyright-holder.
Contributors
Each author is
required to declare his or her individual contribution to the article: all authors must have materially participated in the research
and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should be described. The statement that all authors have approved the final article
should be true and included in the disclosure.
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.
Language Services
Manuscripts should be written in English. Authors who are unsure of correct English usage
should have their manuscript checked by someone proficient in the language. Manuscripts in which the English is difficult to understand
may be returned to the author for revision before scientific review.
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.
Please submit your article via
http://ees.elsevier.com/haralg/
Referees
Please submit, with the manuscript, the names, addresses and e-mail addresses of 3 potential referees. Note that
the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used.
Page charges
Harmful Algae has no page charges.
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. 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). Do not import the figures into the text file but, instead, indicate
their approximate locations directly in the electronic text and on the manuscript. 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 the standard document class "article".
The Elsevier
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
Manuscripts should
be typewritten with numbered lines, with wide margins and double spacing throughout, i.e. also for abstracts, footnotes and references.
Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered in the upper right-hand corner.
However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary, one may refer to sections. Underline words that should
be in italics, and do not underline any other words. Avoid excessive usage of italics to emphasize part of the text.
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.
Theory/calculation
A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already dealt with in
the Introduction and lay the foundation for further work. In contrast, a Calculation section represents a practical development from
a theoretical basis.
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.
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.
Abbreviations
Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations
that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of
abbreviations throughout the article.
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
1.
Authors and editors are, by general agreement, obliged to accept the rules governing biological nomenclature, as laid down in the
International
Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
2. All biota (crops, plants, insects, birds, mammals, etc.) should be identified by their scientific names when the English term is
used, with the exception of common domestic animals.
3. The first mention of the scientific names of the species used in the work
- in title or text - should be accompanied by the taxonomic authority unless they can all be referred to a general work in which the
authorities are given. Scientific names of species referred to in other studies need no authority. Generic names should only be abbreviated
when immediately preceded in the text by the mention of the same species or another of the same genus.
4. All biocides and other
organic compounds must be identified by their Geneva names when first used in text. Active ingredients of all formulations should be
likewise identified.
5. For chemical nomenclature, the conventions of the
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
and the official recommendations of the
IUPAC-IUB Combined Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature should be followed.
Accession numbers
Accession numbers are unique identifiers in bioinformatics allocated to nucleotide and
protein sequences to allow tracking of different versions of that sequence record and the associated sequence in a data repository [e.g.,
databases at the National Center for Biotechnical Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine ('GenBank') and the Worldwide
Protein Data Bank]. There are different types of accession numbers in use based on the type of sequence cited, each of which uses a different
coding. Authors should explicitly mention the
type of accession number together with the actual number, bearing in mind that
an error in a letter or number can result in a dead link in the online version of the article. Please use the following format: accession
number type ID: xxxx (e.g., MMDB ID: 12345; PDB ID: 1TUP). Note that in the final version of the
electronic copy, accession
numbers will be linked to the appropriate database, enabling readers to go directly to that source from the article.
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
1. Authors should take notice of the limitations set by the size and lay-out of the journal. Large tables should
be avoided. Reversing columns and rows will often reduce the dimensions of a table.
2. If many data are to be presented, an attempt
should be made to divide them over two or more tables.
3.Tables should be numbered according to their sequence in the text. The text
should include references to all tables.
4. Each table should be typewritten on a separate page of the manuscript. Tables should
never be included in the text.
5. Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title.
6. Column headings should be brief,
but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurements should be added between parentheses.
7. Vertical lines
should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.
8. Any explanation essential to the understanding
of the table should be given as a footnote at the bottom of the table.
9. 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.
References
1. All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the
text of the manuscript. The manuscript should be carefully checked to ensure that the spelling of author's names and dates are exactly
the same in the text as in the reference list.
2. In the text refer to the author's name (without initial) and year of publication,
followed - if necessary - by a short reference to appropriate pages. Examples: "Since Peterson (1993) has shown that. . ." "This is in
agreement with results obtained later (Kramer, 1993, pp. 12-16)".
3. When reference is made to a work by two authors, both names
should be given using "and". If reference is made in the text to a publication written by more than two authors, the name of the first
author should be used followed by "et al.". This indication, however, should never be used in the list of references. In this list names
of first author and co-authors should be mentioned.
4. References cited together in the text should be arranged chronologically.
The list of references should be arranged alphabetically on author's names, and chronologically per author. If an author's name in the
list is also mentioned with co-authors the following order should be used: publications of the single author, arranged according to publication
dates - publications of the same author with one co-author - publications of the author with more than one co-author. Publications by
the same author(s) in the same year should be listed as 1993a, 1993b, etc. For Volume (Vol.) Bulletin (Bull.), and No., Arabic numerals
should be used (not underlined); the full number of pages should be given in the form of pp. 123-128.
5. Use the following system
for arranging your references:
a.
For periodicals
Jones, H.D., Richards, O.G., Southern, T.A., 1992. Gill dimensions,
water pumping and body size in the mussel
Mytilus edulis I. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 155(2), 213-237. b.
For books
Clark, R.B., 1992. Marine pollution, 3rd ed. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
c.
For multi-author books
Hawkins, A.J.S., Baynes,
B.L., 1992. Physiological processes, and the regulation of production. In: Gosling, E. (Ed.), The mussel
Mytilus: ecology, physiology,
genetics and culture. Elsevier Publishers B.V., Amsterdam, pp. 171-222.
6. The name of the journal should be abbreviated according
to the International
List of Periodical Title Word Abbreviations, published by the International Serials Data Systems; Paris,
France.
7. In the case of publications in any language other than English, the original title is to be retained. However, the titles
of publications in non-Latin alphabets should be transliterated, and a notation such as "(in Russian)" or "(in Greek, with English abstract)"
should be added.
8. Work accepted for publication but not yet published should be referred to as "in press".
9. References concerning
unpublished data and "personal communications" should not be cited in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text.
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 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. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding
author.
Author's Discount
Contributors to Elsevier journals are entitled
to a 30% discount on most Elsevier books, if ordered directly from Elsevier.
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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