Guide for Authors
INTRODUCTION
Brain
Research publishes papers reporting interdisciplinary investigations of nervous system structure and function that are of general
interest to the international community of neuroscientists. As is evident from the journals name, its scope is broad, ranging from cellular
and molecular studies through systems neuroscience, cognition and disease. Invited reviews are also published; suggestions for and inquiries
about potential reviews are welcomed.
Note: With the appearance of the final issue of the 2011 subscription, Vol. 67/1-2 (24 June
2011),
Brain Research Reviews has ceased publication as a distinct journal separate from
Brain Research. Review articles
accepted for
Brain Research are now published in that journal.
In the journals Table of Contents, published papers will be
shown under one of the Section titles listed (in bold type) below. Authors will be given the opportunity to choose the most appropriate
section upon manuscript submission.
SECTIONS
Cell Biology, Signaling and Synaptic Transmission
Senior
Editors: Jonathan F. Ashmore (London, UK), Philip G. Haydon (Boston, MA, USA), Leonard K. Kaczmarek (New Haven, CT, USA), Diane
Lipscombe (Providence, RI, USA)
Studies investigating the cellular, molecular and genetic bases of structure, function and signaling
(both intracellular and intercellular) in nervous systems.
Cognition and Computation
Senior Editors: Francesco
P. Battaglia (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Erich Schröger (Leipzig, Germany), Christina L. Williams (Durham, NC, USA)
Studies of the neural
mechanisms of cognition and behavior in humans and animal models including basic behaviors and higher mental functions; as well as studies
dealing with realistic simulation, analysis and prediction of the structure and functions of nervous systems and individual neuronal
and glial elements within nervous systems.
Development, Degeneration and Regeneration, and Aging
Senior Editors:
Fen-Biao Gao (Worcester, MA, USA), Michael E. Selzer (Philadelphia, PA, USA), Flora M. Vaccarino (New Haven, CT, USA)
Studies concerning
neuronal and glial development and the formation of the nervous system, molecular and cellular aspects of degeneration and regeneration,
and changes associated with the aging brain.
Neurobiology of Disease
Senior Editors: Lorraine Iacovitti (Philadelphia,
PA, USA), Jae-Young Koh (Seoul, Korea), Brian A. MacVicar (Vancouver, Canada), Peter H. Reinhart (Boston, MA, USA), J. Paul Taylor (Memphis,
TN, USA)
Studies whose primary focus is on clinically diseased nervous systems or disease models, including molecular, cellular, systems
and behavioral approaches and analysis of therapeutic interventions.
Reviews
Senior Editor: Irwin B. Levitan (Philadelphia,
PA, USA)
Invited reviews on all aspects of nervous system structure and function. The editors welcome suggestions for specific review
topics. .
Systems Neuroscience and Behavior
Senior Editors: Gary Aston-Jones (Charleston, SC, USA), Leslie C.
Griffith (Waltham, MA, USA), David J. Perkel (Seattle, WA, USA)
Studies concerning structure and organization of neural circuits,
sensory and motor systems, internal regulatory systems and the control of behaviors.
TYPES OF PAPERS
1.
Research
Reports reporting results of original fundamental research in any branch of the brain sciences. Papers describing new methods or
significant developments of recognised methods which provide significant insight into the structure or function of the nervous system,
the pathophysiology of a disease, or its treatment may also be submitted. Articles should be written in sufficient detail to allow others
to verify the above methods.
2.
Reviews: Reviews are by invitation only. Inquiries and suggestions for reviews should be
directed to the
Brain Research Editorial Office (bres@elsevier.com).
Brain Research will also regularly publish
thematic
special issues highlighting important new developments in neuroscience research.
The Neuroscience Peer Review Consortium
Brain Research is a member of the Neuroscience Peer Review Consortium (NPRC). The NPRC has been formed to reduce the time
expended and, in particular, the duplication of effort by, and associated burden on reviewers involved in the peer review of original
neuroscience research papers. It is an alliance of neuroscience journals that have agreed to accept manuscript reviews from other Consortium
journals. By reducing the number of times that a manuscript is reviewed, the Consortium will reduce the load on reviewers and Editors,
and speed the publication of research results.
If a manuscript has been rejected by another journal in the Consortium, authors can
submit the manuscript to
Brain Research and indicate that the referees' reports from the first journal be made available to
the Editors of Brain Research. (N.B. Only manuscripts which were first submitted to another journal after 1st January 2008 are eligible
for the NPRC scheme.)
It is the authors' decision as to whether or not to indicate that a set of referee's reports should be forwarded
from the first journal to
Brain Research. If an author does not wish for this to happen, the manuscript can be submitted to
Brain Research without reference to the previous submission. No information will be exchanged between journals except at the
request of authors. However, if the original referees' reports suggested that the paper is of high quality, but not suitable for the
first journal, then it will often be to an author's advantage to indicate that referees' reports should be made available.
Authors
should revise the original submission in accordance with the first journal's set of referee reports, reformat the paper to
Brain
Research specification and submit the paper to
Brain Research with a covering letter describing the changes that have been
made, and informing the Editors that they are happy for referees' reports to be forwarded from the first Consortium journal. Authors
will be asked upon submission to
Brain Research the title of the first journal submitted to and the manuscript ID that was
given by that journal. The editorial office of
Brain Research will request the referees' reports from the first journal.
The Editors of
Brain Research will use forwarded referees' reports at their discretion. The Editors may use the reports directly
to make a decision, or they may request further reviews if they feel such are necessary.
Visit
http://nprc.incf.org
for a list of Consortium journals, as well as further information on the scheme.
Contact Details for submission
Submission of manuscripts to
Brain Research is entirely online at
http://ees.elsevier.com/bres. Queries about the
submission or editorial processes may be directed to the Brain Research Editorial Office, Elsevier, 525 B Street, Suite 1800, San Diego,
CA 92101-4495, USA; Fax: (1)-619-699.6850, Email:
bres@elsevier.com
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.
Policy and ethics
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 experiments involving humans http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html;
EC Directive 86/609/EEC for animal experiments http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm;
Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical journals http://www.icmje.org. This must be stated
at an appropriate point in the article.
For other policy issues, authors are referred to the policy guidelines of the Society for
Neuroscience (see their website
http://www.jneurosci.org/misc/itoa.shtml).
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 including electronically 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.
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:
- The reason the name
should be added or removed or the author names rearranged.
- Written confirmation (email, 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:
- Journal Managers will inform the Journal
Editors of any such requests.
- 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.
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.
Open access
This
journal offers you the option of making your article freely available to all via the ScienceDirect platform. To prevent any conflict
of interest, you can only make this choice after receiving notification that your article has been accepted for publication. The fee
of $3,000 excludes taxes and other potential author fees such as color charges. In some cases, institutions and funding bodies have entered
into agreement with Elsevier to meet these fees on behalf of their authors. Details of these agreements are available at
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Authors of accepted articles, who wish to take advantage of this option, should complete and submit the order form (available at
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/openaccessform.pdf).
Whatever access option you choose, you retain many rights as an author, including the right to post a revised personal version of your
article on your own website. More information can be found here:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
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
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.
Submit your article
Please submit your article via
http://ees.elsevier.com/bres
Section,
Senior Editor and Reviewers
Authors will be asked during manuscript submission to select a section of the journal, and a senior
editor from that section whom they consider most appropriate to edit their manuscript. While every effort will be made to honor authors'
selections, the assignment to a handling editor will be made by the Editor-in-Chief. Please submit, with the manuscript , the names,
addresses and email addresses of 3 potential reviewers. Note that the handling editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not
the suggested reviewers are used.
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.
Additional information
Cover illustrations: Authors
are encouraged to submit visually and scientifically interesting figure(s) representative of their data, though not necessarily as they
appear in the manuscript, for potential cover illustrations (see specific instructions for submission of cover art under
PREPARATION
/ Color Artwork below). The use of illustrations for journal covers is at the discretion of the Editors; only those related to articles
accepted for publication will be considered. At the end of each year, all published covers will automatically be considered in a competition
for the year's best cover illustration, and will be judged on their aesthetic value and scientific interest. The author(s) of the winning
image will receive US$ 500 from Elsevier.
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. 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).
Note that source files of figures, tables and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also
the section on Electronic artwork.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check'
functions of your wordprocessor.
Article structure
Subdivision
Divide
your article into clearly defined and numbered sections (e.g. Abstract, 1. Introduction, 2. Results, 3. Discussion, 4. Experimental Procedure,
Acknowledgements, References). 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 relevant background information. Published studies should be described concisely, and be cited
appropriately.
Results
The results should be described clearly and in logical order without
extended discussion of their significance. Results should usually be presented descriptively and be supplemented by photographs or diagrams.
Discussion
The results of the research should be discussed in the context of other relevant published work;
Extensive citations and discussion of published literature should be avoided. 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 section.
Experimental Procedure
This
section should contain all the details necessary to reproduce the experiments. Avoid re-describing methods already published; only relevant
modifications should be included in the text.
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. Contact
details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.
•
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
The
abstract should state briefly (in no more than 250 words) 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.
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.
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.).
Units
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the
international system of units (SI). If other units are mentioned, please give their equivalent in SI.
Database
linking
Elsevier aims at connecting online articles with external databases which are useful in their respective research
communities. If your article contains relevant unique identifiers or accession numbers (bioinformatics) linking to information on entities
(genes, proteins, diseases, etc.) or structures deposited in public databases, then please indicate those entities according to the standard
explained below.
Authors should explicitly mention the
database abbreviation (as mentioned below) together with the actual database
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:
Database ID: xxxx
Links can be provided in your online article to the following databases (examples
of citations are given in parentheses):
•
ASTM: ASTM Standards Database
(ASTM ID: G63)
•
CCDC: Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre
(CCDC ID: AI631510)
•
GenBank: Genetic sequence database
at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) (GenBank ID: BA123456)
•
GEO:
Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO ID: GSE27196; GEO ID: GPL5366; GEO ID: GSM9853)
•
MI:
EMBL-EBI OLS Molecular Interaction Ontology (MI ID: 0218)
•
MINT:
Molecular INTeractions database (MINT ID: 6166710)
•
NCBI Taxonomy:
NCBI Taxonomy Browser (NCBI Taxonomy ID: 48184)
•
NCT: ClinicalTrials.gov
(NCT ID: NCT00222573)
•
OMIM: Online Mendelian Inheritance
in Man (OMIM ID: 601240)
•
PDB: Worldwide Protein Data
Bank (PDB ID: 1TUP)
•
TAIR: The Arabidopsis Information Resource
database (TAIR ID: AT1G01020)
•
UniProt: Universal Protein Resource
Knowledgebase (UniProt ID: Q9H0H5)
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.
If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
then please supply 'as is'.
Please do not:
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (e.g., 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.
Cover art: Illustrations to be considered
for the cover should be related to the authors' submitted article and be representative of their data, but need not necessarily be as
they appear in the manuscript. Cover art should be formatted to occupy an area of 18X21 cm and should be submitted in digital format
(TIFF, Photoshop, JPEG or Powerpoint) with a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Please also include a descriptive text with your cover art
submission. The files should be uploaded to a specified FTP site - please contact the Editorial Office at
bres@elsevier.com
for instructions. For authors who wish to postal mail a CD with the cover art, please send it to:
Brain Research Editorial Office,
Elsevier, 525 B Street, Suite 1800, San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA. Please ensure that the manuscript reference number is included on
all materials.
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 and the date when the reference was last accessed.
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:
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.
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 title word abbreviations:
http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service):
http://www.cas.org/sent.html.
Video data
Elsevier accepts video material and
animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit
with their article are strongly encouraged to include these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure
or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should
be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material
is directly usable, please provide the files in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 50 MB. Video and
animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or animation
or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your video data. For more detailed
instructions please visit our video instruction pages at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Note: since video
and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and the print version
for the portions of the article that refer to this content.
Supplementary data
Elsevier
accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional
possibilities to publish supporting applications, 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 provide the data
in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply
a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
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.
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.
