The Journal is an international, broadly based, cross-disciplinary journal that addresses itself to issues of professional and academic importance. The Journal aims to enhance theory, research and clinical practice in adolescent psychology, psychiatry, sociology, social work, education and allied disciplines through the publication of papers concerned with the nature of adolescent development, interventions to promote successful functioning during adolescence, and the management and treatment of disorders occurring during adolescence. Its goal is to provide a forum for all who are concerned with the nature of adolescence, whether they are teaching, carrying out research, providing a service, or offering treatment, guidance or counselling. It is recognized that a variety of professions have an important contribution to make in furthering knowledge of adolescence, and the Editors welcome relevant contributions from all disciplinary areas. For the purposes of the Journal, adolescence is considered to be the developmental period between childhood and the attainment of adult status within a person's community and culture. The Journal publishes articles developed from a broad array of theoretical frameworks and diverse methodologies, including both quantitative and qualitative techniques. While the majority of the articles published in the Journal are reports of empirical research studies, the Journal also publishes reviews of the literature, when such reviews provide the basis for extending knowledge in the field.

Submission to the journal
Submission for all manuscripts to the Journal of Adolescence proceeds totally on-line. Via the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) website for this journal at http://ees.elsevier.com/yjado you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files.

When submitting a manuscript to EES, authors need to provide an electronic version of their manuscript. For this purpose, only original source files are permitted, so no PDF files. Once the uploading is done, our system automatically generates an electronic (PDF) proof, which is then used for reviewing. It is crucial that all graphical elements be uploaded in separate files, so that the PDF is suitable for the reviewing process. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revisions, will be by e-mail.

The above represents a very brief outline of electronic submission, you can find further details at the website given above. You may also find it useful to print the 'Guide for Authors' section from the site for reference in the subsequent stages of article preparation.

Submission of an article is understood to imply that the article is original and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

Submission also implies that all authors have approved the paper for release and are in agreement with its content. Upon acceptance of the article by the journal, the author(s) will be asked to transfer the copyright of the article to the publisher. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information.

Presentation of manuscript
Please write your text in English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Articles should not exceed 5000 words in length (excluding tables/references). Italics are not to be used for expressions of Latin origin, for example, in vivo, et al., per se. Use decimal points (not commas); use a space for thousands (10 000 and above).

Manuscripts must be typewritten using double spacing and wide (3 cm) margins. (Avoid full justification, i.e., do not use a constant right-hand margin.) Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. Present tables and figure legends on separate pages (and separate electronic files) at the end of the manuscript. If possible, consult a recent issue of the journal to become familiar with layout and conventions. Number all pages consecutively.

Provide the following data on the title page (in the order given).

Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.

Please make sure that all author details are included in the Title Page only, which should be uploaded separately, when submitting online.

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 is willing to 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 (maximum length 150 words). The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separate from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. References should therefore be avoided, but if essential, they must be cited in full, without reference to the reference list.

Abbreviations. Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field at their first occurrence in the article: in the abstract but also in the main text after it. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Keywords. It is recommended that you provide a list of keywords immediately following the abstract, which will be used for indexing purposes.

N.B. Acknowledgements. Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise.

Brief Reports
The Editors will consider Brief Reports of between 1000 and 1500 words (three to five typewritten pages). This format should be used for reports of findings from the early stages of a program of research, replications (and failures to replicate) previously reported findings, results of studies with sampling or methodological problems that have yielded findings of sufficient interest to warrant publication, results of well designed studies in which important theoretical propositions have not been confirmed, case studies of individual adolescents in treatment, and creative theoretical contributions that have yet to be studied empirically. The title of the Brief Report should start with the words: "Brief Report:" A footnote should be included if a full-length report is available upon request from the author(s).

Arrangement of the article

Subdivision of the article. Divide your article into clearly defined sections. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

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 forth.

Acknowledgements. Place acknowledgements, including information on grants received, before the references, in a separate section, and not as a footnote on the title page.

Figure legends, tables, figures, schemes. Present these, in this order, at the end of the article. They are described in more detail below. High-resolution graphics files must always be provided separate from the main text file (see Preparation of illustrations).

Specific remarks

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.

Preparation of supplementary data. Elsevier now 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 is 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 http://www.authors.elsevier.com/guidepublication.

References.
Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors.

Citations in the 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 should not be in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Citing and listing of web references. As a minimum, the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (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.

Citations should follow the referencing style used by the American Psychological Association. You are referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition, ISBN 1-55798-790-4, copies of which may be ordered from http://www.apa.org/books/4200061.html or APA Order Dept., P.O.B. 2710, Hyattsville, MD 20784, USA or APA, 3 Henrietta Street, London, WC3E 8LU, UK.

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. (2000). The art of writing a scientific article. Journal of Scientific Communications, 163, 51-59.

Reference to a book:
Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of style. (3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan, (Chapter 4).

Reference to a chapter in an edited book: Mettam, G. R., & Adams, L. B. (1994). How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In B. S. Jones, & R. Z. Smith (Eds.), Introduction to the electronic age (pp. 281-304). New York: E-Publishing Inc.

Note that journal names are not to be abbreviated.

Preparation of 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 and as hardcopy printouts on separate sheets.
• 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/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: Colour or greyscale 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 (colour or greyscale): 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.

Line drawings. The lettering and symbols, as well as other details, should have proportionate dimensions, so as not to become illegible or unclear after possible reduction; in general, the figures should be designed for a reduction factor of two to three. The degree of reduction will be determined by the Publisher. Illustrations will not be enlarged. Consider the page format of the journal when designing the illustrations. Do not use any type of shading on computer-generated illustrations.

Copyright
Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that if it is accepted for publication, copyright of the article, including the right to reproduce the article in all forms and media, shall be assigned exclusively to The Association for Professional in Services for Adolescents. The written consent of the publisher must be obtained if any article is to be published elsewhere in any language. It is the policy of the publisher that authors need not obtain permission in the following cases: (1) to use their original figures or tables in their future work; (2) to make copies of their papers for use in their classroom teaching; and (3) to include their papers as part of their dissertation.

Proofs
One set of page proofs in PDF format 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). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. 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 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 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.