Guide for Authors
The journal publishes papers on basic and applied pharmacological research and is proud
of its rapid publication of accepted papers.
Invited and unsolicited review articles are also featured.
Research Areas are:
•
Biochemical and molecular pharmacology
• Cardiovascular pharmacology
• Gastrointestinal pharmacology
• Clinical
pharmacology, if addressing novel mechanisms of action
• Respiratory tract pharmacology
• Urogenital tract pharmacology
• Pharmacology of tissue repair
• Neuropharmacology, psychopharmacology, and neuroendocrinology
• Chemotherapy
and cancer therapy
• Immunopharmacology
• Pharmacological applications of genomics
• Pharmacology of aging
• PK/PD, if relevant to therapeutic effects
• Nutraceuticals, if relevant to human disease
Note that ethnopharmacological
studies generally do not fall into the scope of this journal. Exceptions are made for papers addressing the mechanisms of actions or
the clinical applications of worldwide-used natural substances. Clinical studies on commercially-available nutraceuticals are also taken
into consideration.
Types of paper
1.
Regular papers. Original
full-length research papers which have not been published previously, except in a preliminary form, may be submitted as regular papers.
2. Review articles. Review articles are welcome but should be topical and not just an overview of the literature.
3.
Perspectives. These articles provide expert views on future research and clinical trends in specific fields. These articles are
solicited by the Editors, but suggestions are welcome.
Note: Pharmacological Research does not accept case reports for publication,
nor short communications.
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.
Policy and ethics
The work described in your article must have been carried out in accordance with
The Code of Ethics of the World Medical
Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm;
EC Directive
86/609/EEC for animal experiments http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm;
Uniform
Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical journals http://www.icmje.org. This must be stated at an appropriate
point in the article.
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.
Contributors
The corresponding author of a manuscript for
Pharmacological Research has the duty
to ensure that all the named authors have seen and approved the original and any revised version of the paper and are in agreement with
its content before it is submitted to the Editorial Office. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public
responsibility for the content. The corresponding author should also ensure that all those who have contributed to the research are acknowledged
appropriately either as a co-author or in the Acknowledgements. In addition, the corresponding author has the prime responsibility for
ensuring the paper is correctly prepared according to the Guide for Authors. Submitted manuscripts not complying with the Guide for Authors
may be returned to the authors for possible revision and resubmission.
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.
Patient details
Unless you have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, the next
of kin), the personal details of any patient included in any part of the article and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations
and videos) must be removed before submission. For further information see
http://www.elsevier.com/patientphotographs.
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.
Referees
Authors are highly encouraged to include a list of 5-6 potential reviewers for their manuscript, with complete
contact information.
Additional information
Please make sure that your
submission is in strict compliance with the guidelines provided in this document. The Publisher and Editors regret that they are not
able to consider submissions that do not follow these guidelines.
Please note also that the following immediate rejection criteria
apply:
1. Ethnopharmacological papers, namely studies that deal with locally-consumed plants.
2. In vitro antioxidant activity
of plant extracts and pure compounds isolated from them.
3. Papers that describe pharmacological activities of plants which are not
easily found worldwide, eg, Chinese herbs.
4. Papers reporting pharmacological activities of novel compounds if no proper controls
with known substances are performed.
5. Papers describing the pharmacological activities of natural compounds are considered only
if they identify novel mechanisms of action.
Note that ethnopharmacological studies generally do not fall into the scope of this
journal. Exceptions are made for papers addressing the mechanisms of actions or the clinical applications of worldwide-used natural substances.
Clinical studies on commercially-available nutraceuticals are also taken into consideration.
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). Do not import the figures into the text
file but, instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic text and on the manuscript. 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.
Article structure
Subdivision - numbered sections
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should
be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for
internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to "the text". Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear
on its own separate line.
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.
Results
Results should be clear and concise.
Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often
appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of
a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.
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
A concise and factual
abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An
abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided,
but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential
they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
Graphical
Abstract
Authors must supply a graphical abstract for all types of articles at the time the paper is 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. The content of the graphical
abstract will be typeset and should have the dimensions 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
Biochemical Pharmacology at
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00062952
.
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.
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.
• Submit
each figure as a separate file.
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 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.
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
Citation in 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 are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these
references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution
of the publication date with either "Unpublished results" or "Personal communication" Citation of a reference as "in press" implies that
the item has been accepted for publication.
Web references
As a minimum,
the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (DOI, 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.
References in a special issue
Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles
in the same Special Issue.
Reference style
Text: Indicate
references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s)
must always be given.
List: Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order in which they appear
in the text.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
[1] Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art
of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2000;163:51-9.
Reference to a book:
[2] Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of
style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan; 1979.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an
electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age, New York: E-Publishing Inc;
1999, p. 281-304.
Note shortened form for last page number. e.g., 51-9, and that for more than 6 authors the first 6 should be listed
followed by "et al." For further details you are referred to "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals"
(J Am Med Assoc 1997;277:927-934) (see also
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).
Journal abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to
Index Medicus journal
abbreviations:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of serial title word abbreviations:
http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service):
http://www.cas.org/sent.html.
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. 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
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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