SCOPE

Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy is an international journal for the dissemination of scientific knowledge and clinical developments of Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy in all medical specialities. The journal publishes original articles, review articles, case presentations, "how-to-do-it" articles, Letters to the Editor, short communications and relevant images with short descriptions. All submitted material is subject to a strict peer review process.

TYPES OF MANUSCRIPT

Original Articles should report original clinical studies or research not previously published or being considered for publication elsewhere. Work in Progress may also be submitted. See below for the standard layout. Submission of a manuscript to this journal gives the publisher the right to publish that paper if it is accepted. Manuscripts may be edited to improve clarity and expression.

Review articles, including institutional reviews of recent developments are welcome, and will undergo peer review. Reviews should have an abstract of up to 250 words.

Letters to the Editor. Readers are encouraged to write about any topic that relates to photodiagnosis or photodynamic therapy, clinical, scientific, educational, social or economic. Letters should be no longer than 500 words and may include discussions on material previously printed in the Journal.

Case Presentations will be considered if formatted as a research letter with 2 figures maximum. Maximum length is up to 1000 words with up to 6 references and 2 tables or figures. There should be no Abstract and no headings.

How-to-do-it articles should be a description of a useful technique and contain descriptive, illustrative material. These articles are limited to a total of 1500 words including title page, abstract, text, references and figure legends. For each illustration subtract 100 words and for each table subtract 300 words from the word limit. References are limited to eight.

Short Communications should not exceed 1000 words and should consist of a background section (not to exceed 100 words), aims (not to exceed 50 words), methods (not to exceed 250 words), results (not to exceed 250 words) and conclusion (not to exceed 250 words). The editorial team reserves the right to decide which tables/figures submitted are necessary. No abstract is necessary.

Relevant images with short description are limited to 350 words including title and text and to two, possibly three figures. The entire contribution must fit on one printed page of the journal.

Posters
Posters should be submitted as size A4 and should comprise the following sections:
(1) Background/Objectives, (2) Material and Methods, (3) Results and (4) Conclusions/Message To Take Home. A maximum of 4 authors per poster is allowed. A maximum of 5 figures and tables are permitted and references should be limited to 4. An abstract of maximum 300 words should be provided (to be printed on the page facing the Poster) which should be structured and may contain additional information.
Posters should be submitted together with the written agreement of ALL authors.
Authors retain the copyright of the original article. The Poster will not be considered as a duplicate publication if the authors wish to publish the full article of the subject in this journal or any other.
Posters are reviewed by one reviewer plus the Editor or one of the journal's Associate Editors.

LAYOUT OF MANUSCRIPT

Divide the manuscript into the following sections: Title page, Structured Abstract, Key words (3-6), Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, References. The editors will consider the use of other sections if more suitable for certain manuscripts.
The Title Page should include authors' names, highest earned degrees (maximum of TWO), academic addresses, address for correspondence, and grant support. Authorship should be assumed only by those workers who have contributed materially to the work and its report. Colleagues who have otherwise assisted or collaborated should be recognized in the Acknowledgment section. Corresponding authors only will be listed with a maximum of two qualifications. Please provide such qualifications as appropriate.
The title should be informative and not exceed 85 characters, including spaces.
The Structured Abstract, of no more than 250 words, should be written with particular care since this will be the only part of the article studied by some readers. The preferred subheadings are: Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions.
The Introduction should be brief and set out the purposes for which the study has been performed along with relevant previous studies only where essential.
The Materials and Methods should be sufficiently detailed so that readers and reviewers can understand precisely what has been done without studying the references directly. The description may be abbreviated when well accepted techniques are used.
The Results should be presented precisely. Keep discussion of their importance to a minimum in this section of the manuscript.
The Discussion should directly relate to the study being reported. Do not include a general review of the topic.
References should be numbered consecutively (with brackets) as they appear in the text. Type the reference list with double spacing on a separate sheet. References should accord with the system used in Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (N Engl J Med 1991; 324: 424-428). Examples:
[1] De Soyza N, Thenabadu PN, Murphy ML, Kane JJ, Doherty JE. Ventricular arrhythmia before and after aortocoronary bypass surgery. Int J Cardiol 1981; 1:123-130.
[2] Akutsu T. Artificial heart: total replacement and partial support. Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland, 1975.
[3] Goldman RH. Digitalis toxicity. In: Bristow MR, editors. Drug-induced heart disease. Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland, 1980:217-40.
Please note that all authors should be listed when six or less; when seven or more, list only the first three and add et al. Do not include references to personal communications, unpublished data or manuscripts either "in preparation" or "submitted for publication". If essential, such material may be incorporated into the appropriate place in the text. Recheck references in the text against reference list after your manuscript has been revised.
Tables should be typed with double spacing and each should be on a separate sheet. They should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals, and contain only horizontal lines. Provide a short descriptive heading above each table with footnotes and/or explanations underneath.
Figures should ideally be submitted in high-resolution TIF format, or alternatively in GIF, JPEG/JPG, or EPS format. The figures should be placed in separate files, named purely with the figure numbers (e.g. "Figure1.tif".) The cost of colour figures will be paid by the author.
Colour illustrations online
If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures (original photographs, high-quality computer prints or transparencies, close to the size expected in publication, or as 35 mm slides; polaroid colour prints are not suitable) then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour in the electronic version of the journal. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.authors.elsevier.com/authors.
Legends for Figures should be typed with double-spacing on a separate sheet.
The Language of the Journal is English.
Language Editing: International Science Editing and Asia Science Editing can provide English language and copyediting services to authors who want to publish in scientific, technical and medical journals and need assistance before they submit their article or, before it is accepted for publication. Authors can contact these services directly: International Science Editing http://www.internationalscienceediting.com and Asia Science Editing http://www.asiascienceediting.com or, for more information about language editing services, please contact authorsupport@elsevier.com who will be happy to deal with any questions.

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 and conditions http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/termsconditions.cws_home/termsconditions.

BEFORE SUBMISSION

Ethical considerations. Manuscripts reporting data obtained from research conducted in human subjects must include a statement of assurance in the Methods section of the manuscript that (1) informed consent was obtained from each patient and (2) the study protocol conforms to the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki as reflected in a priori approval by the institution's human research committee. Manuscripts reporting experiments using animals must include a statement giving assurance that all animals received humane care and that study protocols comply with the institution's guidelines.
Style. Use no abbreviations. Headlines and Subheadlines should be liberally employed in the Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. Use short paragraphs whenever possible. Clarity of expression, good syntax and the avoidance of medical jargon will be appreciated by the editors, reviewers and readers.
Suggested referees Names and addresses of 3 suggested referees must be included with the submission.

For each and every gene accession number cited in an article, authors should type the accession number in bold, underlined text. Letters in the accession number should always be capitalised. Example: (GenBank accession nos. AI631510 , AI631511 , AI632198, and BF223228 ), a B-cell tumor from a chronic lymphatic leukemia (GenBank accession no. BE675048 ), and a T-cell lymphoma (GenBank accession no. AA361117 ).

PROCESS OF SUBMISSION

On-line submission Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy uses an online submission and review system. Authors can upload their article via the Elsevier Editorial System at http://ees.elsevier.com/pdpdt. By accessing the website Authors will be guided stepwise through the uploading of the various files. Editable file formats are necessary. We accept most wordprocessing formats, but Word, WordPerfect or LaTeX is preferred. Figure files (TIFF, EPS, JPEG) should be uploaded separately. Always keep a backup copy of the electronic file for reference and safety. Save your files using the default extension of the program used. The system generates an Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article which is used for the reviewing process. Authors, Reviewers and Editors send and receive all correspondence by e-mail and no paper correspondence is necessary. For assistance contact Author Support at authorsupport@elsevier.com.

Preparation of supplementary data The journal now 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

AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author to be carefully checked for printer's errors. Changes or additions to the edited manuscript cannot be allowed at this stage. Corrected proofs should be returned to the publisher within 2 days of receipt.

Page Charges will not be made.

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.

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

Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish in Elsevier journals to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.