Original research papers for Food Microbiology should be written in English and normally not exceed 6000 words. Short research notes describing interesting but limited studies are welcome, but the same rigorous review process will be applied. Short research notes will not normally exceed 3500 words. Short reviews on matters of immediate interest and longer, definitive reviews will be published; authors should discuss proposed topics with the editor before preparing a manuscript. Book reviews and letters to the editorare welcome.

Submission of Papers

Submission for all types of manuscripts to Food Microbiology proceeds totally online. Via the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) website for this journal, http://ees.elsevier.com/fm , you will be guided step-by-step through the creation and uploading of the various files. When submitting a manuscript via EES, authors need to provide an electronic version of their manuscript. For this purpose only original source files are allowed, so PDF files are not permitted. Once the uploading is done, the system automatically generates an electronic proof, which is then used for reviewing. All correspondence, including the Editor's decision and request for revisions, will be by e-mail. Authors may send queries concerning the submission process, manuscript status, or journal procedures to authorsupport@elsevier.com.

Questions regarding content of a proposed submission may be sent to the Chief Editor:


M.L. Tortorello
US Food and Drug Administration
National Center for Food Safety and Technology
6502 S. Archer Road
Summit-Argo, IL 60501, USA
Fax: +1(708) 728 4177
E-mail: mlt@cfsan.fda.gov

It is the author's responsibility to ensure that papers are written in clear and comprehensible English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly advised to have their manuscripts checked by an English-speaking colleague prior to submission. Language Polishing: For authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit http://www.elsevier.com/locate/languagepolishing or contact authorsupport@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 and Conditions.

All papers will be independently refereed.

Submission of a paper implies that it 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 Publisher.

Preparation of Manuscripts

Manuscripts should be typewritten, double spaced, with one-inch (2.5 cm) margins. A font size of 12 or 10 pt is required. Other than the cover page, every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables etc. should be numbered; however, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers. Lines must be numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript. The corresponding author should be identified with an asterisk and footnote, and must provide an e-mail address for correspondence. Full postal addresses must be given for all co-authors. All other footnotes (except for table footnotes) should be identified with superscript Arabic numbers. The title of the paper should unambiguously reflect its contents. Where the necessary title exceeds 40 characters, a suggestion for an abbreviated running title should be given.

The first page should contain only the title, names of authors, address of laboratory where the work originated, full postal address to which correspondence should be sent, a running title if necessary, and current addresses of authors if different from the above correspondence address.

The second page should contain the summary/abstract only, which will not normally exceed 200 words. The text of the paper should normally follow the sequence: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Tables, Legends to Figures. In appropriate cases (e.g. Short Notes), Results and Discussion sections may be combined.

References in text should be cited as follows: Hobson and Wallace (1969) or (Hobson and Wallace 1959). If a paper has more than two authors, use the form (Hobson et al. 1963). When more that one paper by the same author is cited in a given year, the references should be distinguished in the bibiography and the text by letters a, b, etc. after the year citation (e.g. 1963a, 1963b, 1963a,b). References in the bibliography at the end of the paper should be quoted in alphabetical order, except for those with more than two authors, which should be listed in chronological order after any other papers by the first author. References should include the title of the paper as well as both initial and final page numbers. References to books should include the year of publication, the title, town of publication and publisher.

The following formats should be used:

Baresi, L., Mah, R. A., Ward, D. M. and Kaplan, I. R., 1978. Methanogenesis from acetate: enrichment studies. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 36, 186-197.

Mah, R. A., Hungate, R. E. and Ohwaki, K., 1977a. Acetate, a key intermediate in methanogenesis. In:Schlegel, H.G., Barnea, J. (Eds.), Microbial energy conversion. Pergamon Press, Oxford, pp. 97-106.

Abbreviations and Units
Non-standard abbreviations should be kept to a minimum and on first use should be defined by a footnote to the test. SI units are recommended, but conventional ones will be accepted if unambiguous.

Nomenclature and Descriptions of Organisms
The correct name of the organism must be used, conforming with international rules of nomenclature: synonyms may be added in brackets when the name is first mentioned. Names of bacteria must conform with the current Bacteriological Code of Botanical Nomenclature. The species name should be underlined in the typescript and written in full at first mention, but subsequently the name of the genus may be abbreviated, single letter abbreviations being used where they are not ambiguous. To facilitate further studies the journal supports the view that important strains should be deposited in a recognized culture collection.

Tables


Tables should be indicated with Arabic numerals and should be comprehensible without reference to the text; titles should be brief and explanatory material should be referenced with lower case superior letters and listed in footnotes. Appropriate indications of replication and variability should be included. Each table should occupy a separate sheet in the manuscript.

Illustrations

Photographs, charts and diagrams are all to be referred to as "Figure(s)" and should be numbered in Arabic numbers consecutively in the order to which they are referred. They should accompany the manuscript, but should not be included within the text. All illustrations should be clearly marked with the figure number and the author's name. All figures are to have a caption. Captions should be supplied on a separate sheet.
If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to 'grey scale' (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white prints corresponding to all the colour illustrations.

Preparation of electronic illustrations

General points
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font.
• Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide all illustrations as separate files
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version. A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkguidelines You are urged to visit this site.

Supplementary material submission

Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material (e-components) 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 on-line 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. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at the Author Gateway at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkguidelines

. Proofs

When your manuscript is received at the Publisher it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as 'drafts'. One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. A form with queries from the copy editor may accompany your proofs. Please answer all queries and make any corrections or additions required. The Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated. Return corrections within two working days of receipt of the proofs. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this. Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible. In order to do this we need your help. When you receive the (PDF) proof of your article for correction, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Subsequent corrections will not be possible, so please ensure your first sending is complete. Note that this does not mean you have any less time to make your corrections, just that only one set of corrections will be accepted. Return proofs by e-mail to proofcorrections@elsevier.com.

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. If colour is paid for within an article then 100 extra offprints will be supplied at no extra charge. Additional offprints and copies of the issue can be ordered at a specially reduced rate using the order form sent to the corresponding author after the manuscript has been accepted. Orders for reprints (produced after publication of an article) will incur a 50% surcharge.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided. 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: contact Elsevier, Global Rights Department, P.O. Box 800, Oxford, OX5 1DX, UK; phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com

Author Enquiries A submission checklist can be found at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/guidepublication. Register for free to receive email updates from the article tracking service at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. If you are interested in submitting a book in this area go to http://www.elsevier.com/bookauthors. Do not contact the editors - they do not have access to this information. Food Microbiology carries no page charges.