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
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
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, without
the written consent of the copyright-holder.
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 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
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.
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 the
standard document class "article".
The Elsevier 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.
•
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.
Please provide, when submitting your article, a graphical abstract. This comprises one representative figure
(kept within an area of 5 x 5 cm) and a short (no more than 25-30 word) summary directly under the figure, just as a caption would appear
under a photo.
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 journal's home
page at
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00219797 and click 'Sample Issue Online'.
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
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 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.
Supplementary material
Elsevier 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 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 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 by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding
author.
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.
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