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. Colloidal Materials and Nanomaterials
- B. Surfactants and Soft Matter
- C. Adsorption, Catalysis and Electrochemistry
- D. Interfacial Processes, Capillarity and Wetting
- E. Biomaterials and Nanomedicine
- F. Novel Phenomena
and Techniques
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
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
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. Short communications
should not exceed 4 pages double line spaced and in total 4 reasonable sized figures or tables.
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.
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 and verification
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 in the same form, in English or in any other language, including
electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originality
detection software iThenticate. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/editors/plagdetect.
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
For submission of articles to the
Journal of Colloid
and Interface Science please go to the journal's online submission site at:
http://ees.elsevier.com/jcis/.
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.
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.
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. Do not embed "graphically designed" equations or tables, but prepare these using the wordprocessor'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)
Figures should be embedded in the
article in the correct position. In addition, please supply separate source files for each figure. 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
wordprocessor.
LaTeX
If the LaTeX file is suitable, proofs will be produced without rekeying
the text. The article should preferably be written using Elsevier's document class 'elsarticle', or alternatively any of the other recognized
classes and formats supported in Elsevier's electronic submissions system, for further information see
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/latex-ees-supported.
The Elsevier 'elsarticle' LaTeX style file package (including detailed instructions for LaTeX preparation) can be obtained from the
Quickguide:
http://www.elsevier.com/latex. It consists of the file: elsarticle.cls, complete user documentation for the
class file, bibliographic style files in various styles, and template files for a quick start.
Article
structure
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.
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(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
A Graphical abstract is mandatory for this journal. It 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.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should follow the usage established
by Chemical Abstracts.
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.).
Footnotes
Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively
throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be
used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at
the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.
Table footnotes
Indicate each footnote in a
table with a superscript lowercase letter.
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.
• Figures should be embedded in the article in the correct position. In addition, please supply separate source files for
each figure
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 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
Reference management software
This journal has standard templates
available in key reference management packages EndNote (
http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp) and Reference Manager
(
http://refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp). Using plug-ins to wordprocessing packages, authors only need to select the appropriate
journal template when preparing their article and the list of references and citations to these will be formatted according to the journal
style which is described below.
Reference Style
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.
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 or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. If the corresponding
author opts for paper offprints, this preference must be indicated via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted
for publication. Additional paper offprints can also be ordered via this form for an extra charge. 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.
