Guide for Authors
Virology publishes the results of original basic research on viruses of animals
(vertebrate and invertebrate), plants, bacteria, and yeasts/fungi. We invite articles on all areas of research, including virus replication
and gene expression, virus structure and assembly (including atomic structure), virus-cell interaction (including cellular changes as
a consequence of viral infection), viral pathogenesis and immunity (at both molecular and organismal levels), viral vectors/gene therapy,
and molecular aspects of prevention of viral infection. Papers describing results on emerging viruses and unconventional agents will
receive special attention.
Types of paper
Virology publishes three
forms of manuscripts: (a) regular manuscripts, including short but complete studies; (b) rapid communications; and (c) minireviews.
Regular manuscripts present the results of original basic research in all areas of virology (above) that break new ground and serve
as a valuable addition to the literature in the field.
A Rapid Communication is a brief, definitive report of highly significant
and timely findings in the field. Authors should indicate the submission as such, and if on preliminary inspection the editor believes
the paper is of a nature to warrant this category, the paper will receive very rapid review and, if acceptable, will be published within
an average of 8 weeks from receipt.
Minireviews bring cutting-edge developments and themes in the field to virologists, postdoctoral
fellows, graduate students, and others interested in the field. The goal of these minireviews is to focus on a sharply defined topic
in an interesting area in virology or on recent research (such as two or three papers coming in a specific area of virology). The objective
is to make the information accessible to researchers who work in other areas of virology. Minireviews should be pithy, that is, should
not cover the field in question comprehensively but rather address fundamental concepts, challenges, and problems in the field. In summary,
virologists and others, both directly in and outside the area of the minireview, should benefit from reading these minireviews. The minireviews
should provide a critical view of the field. Minireviews would also be an appropriate forum for introducing new viewpoints, indicating
important issues to be addressed, and challenging concepts.
Papers will be published in
Virology under one of the following
subheadings:
• Virus Replication/Gene Expression
• Virus Structure and Assembly
• Virus-Cell Biology
• Gene Therapy/Viral Vectors
• Emerging Viruses
• Unconventional Agents
• Viral Pathogenesis
•
Immunity
• Technological Advances
• Genomes and Evolution
Authors should understand that space limitations
make it impossible to publish manuscripts that describe work that does not break new ground conceptually, particularly if the work merely
mirrors work done on a closely related virus without adding significant new knowledge, such as partial sequences of related viruses,
evolutionary studies based on partial sequences, or descriptions of antigenic relationships and epitopes. Exceptions will be made, however,
if these data reveal new insights into the fundamental properties of the virus.
Contact
details for submission
The editors and their areas of responsibility are
given
here
Peer Review Process:
Each editor is responsible for having manuscripts reviewed and for
making the final decision concerning the disposition. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two reviewers. All manuscripts are reviewed
as rapidly as possible, and an editorial decision is usually reached within 4 to 5 weeks of the manuscript's submission.
Additional Information
Requirements
for deposition of structural data
For papers describing structures of biological macromolecules from electron microscopy experiments,
the 3D map should be deposited at either the EMBL-EBI (UK) or RCSB (USA) EMDB deposition site (
http://www.emdatabank.org/).
Once the map has been deposited, any fitted atomic coordinates should be deposited with the Protein Data Bank (PDB) by following the
link provided from the EMDB deposition session. The EMDB and PDB IDs should be included in the manuscript. Both the map and the coordinate
data will be made public when the associated article is published.
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
There are no page charges for publication in
Virology.
Publication of a research article in
Virology
is taken to imply that the authors are prepared to distribute freely to academic researchers for their own use any materials (e.g., viruses,
cells, DNA clones, antibodies) used in the published experiments. Prior to publication, nucleotide sequences and protein sequences must
be deposited with GenBank (Web site:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/) and an accession number obtained for publication
in the manuscript. X-ray crystallographic coordinates must be deposited with the Protein Data Bank (Web site:
http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/).
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.
Please note that online publication
of a submitted article prior to acceptance (i.e. under revision) is also strictly forbidden 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.
Authors are required to submit the names and e-mail addresses of
a minimum
of four potential
referees who are not current Editors of the journal.
Additional information
Special
Subject Repositories
Certain repositories such as PubMed Central ("PMC") are authorized under special arrangement with Elsevier
to process and post certain articles such as those funded by the National Institutes of Health under its Public Access policy (see
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/fundingbodyagreements for more details on our policy and specific arrangements with various funding bodies, including NIH).
As
an author you retain certain rights such as making copies (print or electronic) of the article for your own personal use, including for
your own classroom teaching use. See
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/authorsrights for an overview
of all of these rights, as well as those of your employer or institution.
Language Polishing. Authors who require information
about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please 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.
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 - unnumbered sections
Divide your article into clearly defined sections. Each subsection is given a brief
heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line. Subsections should be used as much as possible when cross-referencing text:
refer to the subsection by heading as opposed to simply "the text".
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
Materials and methods should provide sufficient information to permit the work
to be repeated and should be kept concise by referring to previously published procedures. With increasing studies on pathogenicity of
viruses, it is important that the provenance of viruses be stated clearly.
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 must not exceed 150
words.
Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 10
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.
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.).
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other
quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI. For virus nomenclature, you are urged to consult the International Committee for
the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/. Commonly used vernacular names may be used after viruses are
first correctly identified. Genetic loci should be italicized; protein products of the loci are not italicized.
Accession numbers
Accession numbers are unique identifiers in bioinformatics allocated to nucleotide and
protein sequences to allow tracking of different versions of that sequence record and the associated sequence in a data repository [e.g.,
databases at the National Center for Biotechnical Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine ('GenBank') and the Worldwide
Protein Data Bank]. There are different types of accession numbers in use based on the type of sequence cited, each of which uses a different
coding. Authors should explicitly mention the
type of accession number together with the actual number, bearing in mind that
an error in a letter or number can result in a dead link in the online version of the article. Please use the following format: accession
number type ID: xxxx (e.g., MMDB ID: 12345; PDB ID: 1TUP). Note that in the final version of the
electronic copy, accession
numbers will be linked to the appropriate database, enabling readers to go directly to that source from the article.
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
One color figure will be published free of charge in each article, provided that color is
deemed necessary by the editor. Additional color figures will be charged to the author. 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.
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.
Reference style
Text: All citations in the text should refer to:
1.
Single author:
the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
2.
Two authors: both authors'
names and the year of publication;
3.
Three or more authors: first author's name followed by "et al." and the year of publication.
Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.
Examples: "as demonstrated (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1995). Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...."
List:
References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from
the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2000. The art of writing a scientific article.
J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51-59.
Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 1979. The Elements of Style, third ed. Macmillan,
New York.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 1999. How to prepare an electronic version of
your article, in: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281-304.
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.
Home | Elsevier Sites | Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Feedback | Site Map | A Reed Elsevier Company