Guide for Authors
Types of paper
Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science is an international multidisciplinary
journal devoted to the analysis of saline water phenomena ranging from the outer edge of the continental shelf to the upper limits of
the tidal zone. The journal provides a unique forum, unifying the multidisciplinary approaches to the study of the oceanography of estuaries,
coastal zones, and continental shelf seas. It features original research papers, review papers and short communications treating such
disciplines as zoology, botany, geology, sedimentology, physical oceanography. Data reports of mainly local interest are discouraged.
Research areas include: Numerical modelling of estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems; Species distribution in relation to varying
environments; Effects of waste disposal; Groundwater runoff and Chemical processes; Estuarine and fjord circulation patterns; Meteorological
and oceanic forcing of semi-enclosed and continental shelf water masses; Sea-surface and sea-bed processes; Estuarine and coastal sedimentary
processes and geochemistry; Brackish water and lagoon phenomena; Transitional waters.
Up-front rejections of papers submitted
to Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science
ECSS handles about 1000 papers per year and over 3000 reviewers are involved in assisting
the journal each year.
As editors we follow the declared guidelines for the journal and we also receive advice and comments from the
publishers, and members of the editorial board as well as reviewers. The consistent advice that we have received from everyone is that
the editors should reject papers which are likely to be rejected at the beginning of the process rather than sending them out for review,
knowing what the answer is likely to be. Over 25% of papers are now rejected at the editorial submission phase.
The papers are subject
to an initial technical pre-screening process by the publisher. This process checks on submission format and examines matters such as
the provision of suitable keywords and legible figures. It also tries to check up on the standard of English, as it is totally inappropriate
to expect a reviewer to undertake linguistic revision.
The pre-screening process however makes no judgement on the suitability of
the paper for ECSS. This judgement is made by one of the editors who will up-front reject a paper judged unsuitable without going to
review. These up-front rejections are due to three principal reasons:
Firstly, we receive several papers each year that have been
submitted to the "wrong journal". We have received, for example, papers on inland freshwater lakes or palaeontology, and other
topics which are clearly beyond the scope of the journal. As a simple guide, if there is no mention of any previous ECSS paper in the
reference list, it strongly suggests that the paper has been submitted to the wrong journal.
Secondly, papers that are "data
reports" or "reports of local interest" will be rejected up-front. Papers in this category may describe a particular estuary
in great detail, but fail to advance estuarine, coastal and shelf science. The overwhelming feeling when reading such a paper is "so-what!"
Thirdly, other reasons for up-front rejection can be a lack of a valid Discussion which integrates
the study with the peer-reviewed literature or else relies on excessive self-citation, or a lack of appropriate statistical analysis,
or purely statistical analyses without considering processes.
We at ECSS seek that all papers are based on hypothesis testing and
that the hypotheses should be of general and international interest. We are interested in contributions that add to general knowledge,
and move the field forward.
By up-front rejection we hope to give the authors a chance to quickly submit to a more appropriate journal.
We do accept that we will sometimes make mistakes in this process, but we do this to protect the reviewers by offering them only relevant
papers that are potentially publishable in ECSS. Up-front rejected papers will not be reconsidered for publication and we have a similar
policy for papers rejected after review.
Ethics in Publishing
For information on Ethics in Publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication
see
http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and
http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.
Conflict of interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest
including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted
work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Submission declaration
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.
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 pre-printed 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 and 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.
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.
In the case of Special Issues, manuscripts should be submitted to the Guest Editor(s). Authors should ensure that they submit manuscripts
and meet any additional requirements in line with deadlines set by the Guest Editor(s) to ensure that the entire Special Issue can be
published in a timely fashion.
The above represents a very brief outline of this type submission. It can be advantageous to print this
"Guide for Authors" section from the site for reference in the subsequent stages of article preparation.
Note: electronic articles
submitted for the review process may need to be edited after acceptance to follow journal standards. For this an "editable" file format
is necessary. See the section on "Electronic format requirements for accepted articles" and the further general instructions on how to
prepare your article below.
Please submit, with the manuscript, the names and addresses of 4 potential Referees. You may also mention
persons who you would prefer not to review your paper.
After peer review, authors will have a 60 days period for submitting their
revised manuscript.
Submit your article
Please submit your article via
http://ees.elsevier.com/ecss/
Referees
Please submit, with
the manuscript, the names and addresses of 4 potential Referees. You may also mention persons who you would prefer not to review your
paper.
Use
of word-processing software
It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the word processor 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 word processor'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 word processor'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 word processor.
Article structure
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. The Results and
Discussion should be separate sections and should not be amalgamated.
Conclusions
A short Conclusions section can be presented at the end of the Discussion.
Place Acknowledgements, including information on grants
received, before the references in a separate section, and not as a footnote on the title page. Figure captions, tables, figures and
schemes should be presented in this order at the end of the article. They are described in more detail below.
Glossary
Please supply, as a separate list, the definitions of field-specific terms used in your article
if applicable.
Appendices
If there is more than one appendix, they
should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.;
in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on.
Paper length
The paper
should not contain more than 8000 words, and not more than 8 figures and 3 tables.
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
Authors must provide 4 to 6 keywords plus regional index terms. At least four of the subject
keywords should be selected from the Aquatic Science & Fisheries Thesaurus. An electronic version of the Thesaurus can be found at
http://www.csa.com/csa/support/demo.shtml. You may also find a paper version in your library. The Regional Terms should
be provided as a hierarchical string (e.g.: USA, California, Monterey Bay). Authors are also encouraged to submit geographic bounding
coordinates at the end of the keyword string. 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 if applicable.
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.).
Reporting
of Salinity Measurements
In articles in ECSS, salinity should be reported using the Practical Salinity Scale. In the Practical
Salinity Scale salinity is defined as a pure ratio, and has no dimensions or units. By decision of the Joint Panel of Oceanographic Tables
and Standards it does not have any numerical symbol to indicate parts per thousand. Salinity should be reported as a number with no symbol
or indicator of proportion after it. In particular, it is not correct to add the letters PSU, implying Practical Salinity Units, after
the number.
An example of correct phrasing is as follows: 'The salinity of the water was 34.2'. It is reasonable to state at some
point early in the paper that salinity was measured using the Practical Salinity Scale.
Nomenclature and units
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI).
If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI. You are urged to consult IUPAC: Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry:
http://www.iupac.org/
for further information.
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).
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 word processor (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
Responsibility for the accuracy
of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the Author(s). 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 as "unpublished results" or "personal communication". Citation
of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication. Papers which have been submitted are not valid
as references until accepted.
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
All citations in the text should refer to:
- 1. Single Author's name (without initials) and year of publication.
- 2.
Two 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.
In the list of references names of authors and all co-authors must be given in full.
References
in the text should be arranged chronologically.
References in the Reference List 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:
References to a journal publication:
Names
and initials of all authors, year. Title of paper. Journal name (given in full), volume number: first and last page numbers of the paper.
Gooday, A.J., Bett, B.J., Shires, R., Lambshead, P.J.D., 1998. Deep-sea benthic foraminiferal species diversity in the NE Atlantic
and NW Arabian sea: a synthesis. Deep Sea Research Part II 45, 165-201.
References to a book:
Names and initials of all authors,
year. Title of the book. Publisher, location of publisher, total number of pages.
Fennel, W. and Neumann, T., 2004. Introduction
to the Modelling of Marine Ecosystems. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 297 pp.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Names and initials
of all authors, year. Title of paper. Names and initials of the volume editors, title of the edited volume. Publisher, location of publisher,
first and last page numbers of the paper.
Thomas, E., 1992. Middle Eocene-late Oligocene bathyal benthic foraminifera (Weddell Sea):
faunal changes and implications for ocean circulation. In: Prothero, D.R., Berggren, W.A. (Eds.), Eocene Oligocene Climatic and Biotic
Evolution. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, pp. 245-271.
Conference proceedings papers:
Names and initials of all authors,
year. Title of paper. Name of the conference. Publisher, location of publisher, first and last page numbers of the paper.
Smith,
M.W., 1988. The significance of climatic change for the permafrost environment. Final Proceedings International Conference on Permafrost.
Tapir, Trondheim, Norway, pp. 18-23.
Unpublished theses, reports,
etc.: Use of unpublished theses and reports is strongly discouraged. If they are essential and the editors agree, you must supply:
Names and initials of all authors, year. Title of item. All other relevant information needed to identify the item (e.g., technical
report, Ph.D. thesis, institute, current status i.e. in press/unpublished etc.).
Moustakas, N., 1990. Relationships of Morphological
and Physiochemical Properties of Vertisols under Greek Climate Conditions. Ph.D. Thesis, Agricultural Univ. Athens, Greece, unpublished.
In the case of publications in any language other than English, the original title is to be retained. Titles of publications in non-Latin
alphabets should be transliterated, and a note such as '(in Russian)' or '(in Japanese, with English Abstract)' should be added at the
end of the reference.
The following provide examples of appropriate citation formats for non-text and electronic-only information.
However, it is requested that a Web site address or list server message is given as a reference ONLY where the information is unavailable
in a more permanent form. If such sources are given, then please give as complete information as possible.
Jones, P., 1996. Research
activities at Smith Technology Institute. WWW Page,
http://www.sti.com/about_us/research.
Smith, F., Peabody, A.N.,
1997. Hydrographic data for the Sargasso Sea, July-September 1993, SarSea mission. (Deep-Sea Data Centre, Hull, UK), online, dataset,
740 MB,
http://www.dcdc.gov.
Green, A., 1991. Deformations in Acanthaster planci from the Coral Sea, observed during
UEA Special Project 7, July 1978. Journal of Pollution Research 14 (7) suppl., CD-ROM, photographic images, 240 MB.
James, Z., 1997.
Ecological effects of sea wall construction during 1994 at Bridlington, UK. List server Message, Eco-list, 20 October 1995.
Supplementary and multimedia data
Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary and multimedia data 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 off-prints 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.