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JOURNAL OF COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE

Guide for Authors

The Journal of Colloid and Interface Science publishes original research on fundamental principles in chemistry, chemical engineering, physics, applied mathematics, materials science, polymer science, electrochemistry, geology, agronomy, biology, medicine, fluid dynamics, and related fields. The following categories are used to identify articles published in the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science:

A. Adsorption and Deposition
B. Macromolecules and Polymer Materials
C. Biomolecules and Biomaterials
D. Fine Particles, Colloid Materials, and Colloid Stability
E. Interfacial Spectroscopy, Photochemistry and Imaging
F. Surface Reactions, Crystallization, Catalysis, and Electrochemistry
G. Porous Materials and Membranes
H. Thin Films, Surface Tension, Capillarity, and Wetting
I. Surfactants, Liquid Crystals, Emulsions, and Foams
J. Transport, Electrokinetics, and Rheology
K. Clusters, Nanomaterials, and Self-Organization
L. Interfacial Forces and Fields

The Journal of Colloid and Interface Science publishes original research articles, short communications, and features and perspectives. Given the cooperation of authors and referees, the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science endeavours to achieve rapid progress from submission to appearance, consistent of course with the reputation of the journal for carefulness of scientific reporting, reviewing, and preparing each manuscript for publication. Manuscripts constituting a series of papers should be submitted, as far as possible, at the same time to avoid repetitious statement of history, etc. Fragmentation of researches into small individual papers should be avoided.

Sufficient detail must be included to enable others to repeat the work. The experimental, theoretical, and numerical procedures must be clearly described; however, methods should be given in extenso only if they represent a new approach. Trade name identification alone is generally insufficient; if commercial materials identified by trade name are the subject of experiment, the authors bear the burden of establishing additional characterization, such as purity, adequate to the purposes of their study. For apparatus and equipment used for experiments, manufacturers' names and model numbers are usually desirable.

Editorial guidelines on length, quality, and readability of manuscripts

Manuscripts must be written in clear, concise, grammatical English. Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission should visit External link http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/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 & Conditions External link http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/termsconditions.cws_home/termsconditions

In this information age, new Internet resources such as journal supporting material have prompted a fresh look at the structure, form, and appearance of published scientific papers. The electronically accessible supporting material section now presents exciting new opportunities for improving readability and efficiency of scientific journals. Importantly, readers still have access to supporting material accompanying the main paper through the Web; they can choose whether to view or print it as need be.

In particular, figures, tables, passages describing theory, or experimental details, which are only of secondary importance to the main scientific thrust of an article, can now be moved to supporting material. This has begun to open up new possibilities: papers that have in the past been considered as "long" and "heavy going" can be transformed into succinct information-rich articles, which are more interesting to read. Through intelligent and creative use of supporting material, your work can potentially gain a wider readership and have greater scientific impact.

When preparing a new article for submission to JCIS, authors are now asked to strongly consider using supporting material. In planning the manuscript, please remember:

1. Journal space is precious. Papers must be concise, and interesting to the readership. The article is more likely to have a positive impact on the reader if it focuses on important new results.

2. Be self-critical and selective. Strive to produce a clear, lucid, efficient manuscript that will attract the reader to your work. Does the scientific importance of the work justify the journal space? Is the work unnecessarily fragmented? Is it repetitious with previous publications in the area?

3. Use supporting material. Place figures, tables, and/or text that are of secondary importance in this section and submit it with your manuscript so that is accessible to the editors and reviewers.

The JCIS editorial team will ask for reviewers' advice on whether a manuscript can be more concise. Therefore, appropriate use of supporting material may be a necessary condition before a manuscript can progress to publication.

Submission of manuscripts

Authors are requested to submit their papers electronically by using online manuscript submission available at External link http://ees.elsevier.com/jcis. This site will guide authors stepwise through the submission process. Authors should upload the source files of their articles in the preferred format of Microsoft (MS) Word, RTF, WordPerfect, or LaTeX for text and TIFF or EPS for figures. If you submit a word processing file, the system generates an Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used for the reviewing process. Authors, reviewers, and editors send and receive all correspondence by e-mail and no paper correspondence is necessary. Should you be unable to provide an electronic version, please contact the Editorial Office prior to submission at jcis@elsevier.com.

There are no submission fees or page charges. Each manuscript should be accompanied by a letter outlining the basic findings of the paper and their significance. The Editors invite authors to suggest the names of up to five persons who are qualified to serve as reviewers. Please provide complete contact information, including an e-mail address. Authors are requested not to suggest reviewers with whom they have a person or professional relationship, especially if that relationship would prevent the reviewer from having an unbiased opinion of the work of the authors. Referees should be from institutions other than (and preferably countries other than) those of any of the Authors.

Original contributions only will be considered. Manuscripts are accepted for review with the understanding that the same work has not been published, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that its submission for publication has been approved by all of the authors; further, that any person cited as a source of personal communications has approved such citation. Written authorization may be required at the Editor's discretion. Articles and any other material published in the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science represent the opinions of the author(s) and should not be construed to reflect the opinions of the Editor(s) and the Publisher.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see External link http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail (or letter) 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 External link 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 External link http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish in Elsevier journals 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 External link http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.

Authors' rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to External link http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.

Timeline for revision of manuscripts

The Journal of Colloid and Interface Science endeavors to publish current scientific research findings in a timely manner. Accordingly, articles returned to the author(s) for revision and not promptly returned in a suitably revised form will be relegated to inactive status after 2 months and will be automatically withdrawn from consideration after 3 months.

Preparation of manuscripts

Abbreviations should follow the usage established by Chemical Abstracts. The length of Letters to the Editors and Notes is restricted to 2000 words or less and three figures and/or tables or less. Reference lists should be kept as short as possible. An Abstract must be included in each article, note, and letter to the editor. Pages should be numbered consecutively and organized as follows:

The Title Page (p. 1) should contain the article title, authors' names and complete affiliations, footnotes to the title, and the address for manuscript correspondence (including e-mail address and telephone and fax numbers).

The Abstract (p.2) must be a single paragraph that summarizes the main finding of the paper in 50 to 200 words. After the abstract a list of up to 10 keywords that will be useful for indexing or searching should be included.

Graphical abstract. Authors must supply a graphical abstract at the time the paper is first submitted. The abstract should summarize the contents of the paper in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership and for compilation of databases. Carefully drawn figures that serve to illustrate the theme of the paper are desired. Authors may also provide appropriate text, not exceeding 30 words. The content of the graphical abstract will be typeset and should be kept within an area of 5 cm by 17 cm. Authors must supply the graphic separately as an electronic file. For examples of graphical abstracts, please visit the home page of Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry at External link http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09680896 and click 'Sample Issue Online'.

The Introduction should be as concise as possible, without subheadings.
Materials and methods should be sufficiently detailed to enable the experiments to be reproduced. In the Methods section, authors should draw attention to any particular chemical or biological hazards that may be involved in carrying out the experiments described. Any relevant safety precautions should be described; if an accepted code of practice has been followed, a reference to the relevant standards should be given.

Results and Discussion may be combined and may be organized into subheadings.
A Summary should be included.
Acknowledgments should be brief and should precede the references.
References should be cited in the text by an Arabic numeral in square brackets and listed numerically typed double-spaced on a separate sheet at the end of the paper. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the latest Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index. Only articles that have been published or are in press should be included in the references. Unpublished results or personal communications should be cited as such in the text. In the reference list, the styling, punctuation, and capitalization should conform to the following:

[1] S.S. Datwani, K.J. Stebe, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 219 (1999) 282.
[2] R.M. Fitch, Polymer Colloids: A Comprehensive Introduction, Academic Press, San Diego, 1997.
[3] F.W. Cooke, J.E. Lemons, B.D. Ratner, in: B.D. Ratner, A.S. Hoffman, F.J. Schoen, J.E. Lemons (Eds.), Biomaterials Science Academic Press, San Diego, 1996, p. 11.

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.

Figures. The figures should be supplied separate from the main text. Each figure should have a number and a caption; the captions themselves should be collected on a separate sheet. Text graphics such as chemical structures should also be supplied on separate pages. Submit figures and illustrations in electronic format: Please visit our Web site at External link http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions for detailed instructions on preparing electronic artwork. Figures should ideally fit into one column (width: 8.8 cm), lettering should be large enough to remain legible after reduction. Please note that Elsevier does allow the submission of MS Office files (Word, Powerpoint, Excel), provided they meet certain conditions (see information given on above mentioned website). It is preferred to save files in EPS or TIFF format. Label figures as referenced in text and include a list of figure legends.

If electronic format is not available, submit as laser-printed paper copies or glossy prints. The photographs should be high-contrast originals; any scale markers should be inserted on the photograph itself, not drawn below it. On the back of each paper-copy illustration, indicate the first author's name and the figure number.

Illustrations in color can be accepted only if the authors defray the cost. However, 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 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. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see External link http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Please note: Because of technical complications that can arise in 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 files corresponding to all the color illustrations.

Tables Prepare tables in double-spaced format (if possible), each with an Arabic numeral and title above the table and explanatory notes and legends below. Indicate notes with lower-case Arabic letters. Include identification of all abbreviations not defined in the text. Design tables to be self-explanatory, and do not duplicate data in text or illustrations.

Equations should be cited as Eq. [1] or simply [1] (an Arabic numeral in square brackets). Equation numbers should be typed on the right-hand margin opposite the equation.

Preparation of supporting (supplementary) material

Supplementary files offer additional possibilities for publishing supporting material and 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 (External link http://www.sciencedirect.com). 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. Please note, however, that supplementary material will not appear in the printed journal. For more detailed instructions and the list of recommended file formats please visit our artwork instruction pages at External link http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

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).To avoid delay in publication, only necessary changes should be made, and proofs should be returned promptly. Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available free from External link http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs.

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.

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