International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine

The Editors of the Journal welcome contributions for publication from the following categories: Letters to the Editor and Editorials, Reviews and Original Research articles, Commentaries, Clinical Practice articles (Case Studies) with educational value and Protocols.

The Guidelines are separated into the following sections:

A Online Submission
B Types of Contributions
C General Guidance
D Preparation of the Manuscript
E Specific Guidance for Original Research Articles
F Specific Guidance for Protocols
G Post Acceptance

(A) ONLINE SUBMISSION
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online at ( http://ees.elsevier.com/ijom). You will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF 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 and via the Author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail.

The above represents a very brief outline of this form of submission. It can be advantageous to print this "Guide for Authors" section from the site for reference in the subsequent stages of article preparation.

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and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.

(B) TYPES OF CONTRIBUTIONS - word limits exclude tables, figures and references.

Letters to the Editor (up to 1,000 words)
As is common in biomedical journals the Editorial Board welcomes critical responses to any aspect of the journal. In particular, letters that point out deficiencies and that add to, or further clarify points made in a recently published work, are welcomed. The Editorial Board reserves the right to offer authors of papers the right of rebuttal, which may be published alongside the letter.

Reviews and Original Articles (2,000 - 5,000 words)
These should be either (i) reports of new findings related to osteopathic medicine that are supported by research evidence. These should be original, previously unpublished works; or (ii) a critical or systematic review that seeks to summarise or draw conclusions from the established literature on a topic relevant to osteopathic medicine.

Short review (1,500-3,000 words)
The drawing together of present knowledge in a subject area, in order to provide a background for the reader not currently versed in the literature of a particular topic. Shorter in length than and not intended to be as comprehensive as that of the critical or systematic review paper. These papers typically place more emphasis on outlining areas of deficit in the current literature that warrant further investigation.

Research Note (up to 1,500 words)
Findings of interest arising from a larger study but not the primary aim of the research endeavour, for example short experiments aimed at establishing the reliability of new equipment used in the primary experiment or other incidental findings of interest, arising from, but not the topic of the primary research. Includes further clarification of an experimental protocol after addition of further controls, or statistical reassessment of raw data.

Preliminary Findings (1,500-2,500 words)
Presentation of results from pilot studies which may establish a solid basis for further investigations. Format similar to original research report but with more emphasis in discussion of future studies and hypotheses arising from pilot study.

Commentaries (up to 2,000 words)
Includes articles that do not fit into the above criteria as original research. Includes commentaries and essays especially in regards to history, philosophy, professional, educational, clinical, ethical, political and legal aspects of osteopathic medicine.

Clinical Practice
Authors are encouraged to submit papers in one of the following formats: Case Report, Case Problem, and Evidence in Practice.

i. Case Reports - usually document the management of one patient, with an emphasis on presentations that are unusual, rare or where there was an unexpected response to treatment (e.g. an unexpected side effect or adverse reaction). Authors may also wish to present a case series where multiple occurrences of a similar phenomenon are documented. Preference will be given to reports that are prospective in their planning and utilise Single System Designs, including objective measures.

ii. The aim of the Case Problem is to provide a more thorough discussion of the differential diagnosis of a clinical problem. The emphasis is on the clinical reasoning and logic employed in the diagnostic process.

iii. The purpose of the Evidence in Practice report is to provide an account of the application of the recognised Evidence Based Medicine process to a real clinical problem. The paper should be written with reference to each of the following five steps: 1. Developing an answerable clinical question. 2. The processes employed in searching the literature for evidence. 3. The appraisal of evidence for usefulness and applicability. 4. Integrating the critical appraisal with existing clinical expertise and with the patient's unique biology, values, and circumstances. 5. Reflect on the process (steps 1-4), evaluating effectiveness, and identifying deficiencies.

Protocols (1,500 - 2,000 words)
The IJOM accepts the submission of protocols of randomised interventions, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, observational studies, and selected phase I and II studies (novel intervention for a novel indication; a strong or unexpected beneficial or adverse response; or a novel mechanism of action), with the overall aim to encourage good principles in clinical research design.

The editors are looking for studies that will appeal to a wide general readership. The question being addressed and the planned design and analysis will need to be as original as possible, topical, and valid. All protocols will be subject to the journal's usual peer review process.

(C) GENERAL GUIDANCE

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.

Ethical considerations
Human subjects. Work on human beings that is submitted to The International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine should comply with the principles laid down in the declaration of Helsinki; Recommendations guiding physicians in biomedical research involving human subjects. Adopted by the 18th World Medical Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964, amended by the 29th World Medical Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 1975, the 35th World Medical Assembly, Venice, Italy, October 1983, and the 41st World Medical Assembly, Hong Kong, September 1989. The manuscript should contain a statement that the research has been approved by the appropriate ethical committees related to the institution(s) in which it was performed and that subjects gave informed consent to the work. Studies involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution guidelines. Patients' and volunteers' names, initials, and hospital numbers should not be used. In a case report, the subject's written consent should be provided. It is the author's responsibility to ensure all appropriate consents have been obtained.

Patient anonymity. Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent which should be documented in the manuscript.

Patients have a right to privacy. Therefore identifying information, including patients' images, names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be included in videos, recordings, written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and you have obtained written informed consent for publication in print and electronic form from the patient (or parent, guardian or next of kin where applicable). If such consent is made subject to any conditions, Elsevier must be made aware of all such conditions. Evidence of written consent must be provided to Elsevier on request.

Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.

Authors submitting manuscripts as Case Reports, Case Problems, and Evidence in Practice should ensure that they have received consent from patients who are the subject of such reports. A statement to this effect should be included in the manuscript.

If such consent has not been obtained, personal details of patients included in any part of the paper and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.

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.

Conflict of interest
At the end of the text, under a subheading "Conflict of interest statement" all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Acknowledgments
In the appendix one or more statements should specify (a) contributions that need acknowledging, but do not justify authorship (b) acknowledgments of technical support (c) acknowledgments of financial and material support, specifying the nature of the support. Persons named in this section must have given their permission to be named. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from those acknowledged by name since readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions.

Sponsored Articles
The IJOM now offers authors the option to sponsor non-subscriber access to individual articles. The access sponsorship contribution fee per article is $3,000. This contribution is necessary to offset publishing costs - from managing article submission and peer review, to typesetting, tagging and indexing of articles, hosting articles on dedicated servers, supporting sales and marketing costs to ensure global dissemination via ScienceDirect, and permanently preserving the published journal article. The sponsorship fee excludes taxes and other potential author fees such as colour charges which are additional.

Authors can specify that they would like to select this option after receiving notification that their article has been accepted for publication, but not before. This eliminates a potential conflict of interest by ensuring that the journal does not have a financial incentive to accept an article for publication.

English Language Service
Please write your text in good English. 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.

Review Process
The decision to publish a paper is based on an editorial assessment and peer review. Initially all papers are assessed by an editor of the journal. The prime purpose is to decide whether to send a paper for peer review and to give a rapid decision on those that are not.

Manuscripts going forward to the review process are reviewed by members of an international expert panel. All such papers will undergo a double blind peer review by two or more reviewers. All papers are subject to peer review and the Journal takes every reasonable step to ensure author identity is concealed during the review process. The Editors reserve the right to the final decision regarding acceptance.

Author Enquiries
For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal s homepage at http://www.elsevier.com/ijosm. You can track accepted articles at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an articles 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.

(D) PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

Submitted papers should be relevant to an international audience and authors should not assume knowledge of national practices, policies, law, etc. Authors should consult a recent issue of the journal for style if possible. Since the journal is distributed all over the world, and as English is a second language for many readers, authors are requested to write in plain English and use terminology which is internationally acceptable.

Abbreviations - Avoid the use of abbreviations unless they are likely to be widely recognised. In particular you should avoid abbreviating key concepts in your paper where readers might not already be familiar with the abbreviation. Any abbreviations which the authors intend to use should be written out in full and followed by the letters in brackets the first time they appear, thereafter only the letters without brackets should be used.

Statistics - Standard methods of presenting statistical material should be used. Where methods used are not widely recognised explanation and full reference to widely accessible sources must be given.

Manuscript Layout
The manuscript with a font size of 12 or 10 pt double-spaced with wide margins (2.5 cm at least) and number pages consecutively beginning with the Title Page. Depending on the paper type (see above) this should include the title, abstract, key words, text, references, tables, figure legends, figures, appendix. Microsoft Word or similar programme should be used.

Please check your typescript carefully before you send it off, both for correct content and typographic errors. It is not possible to change the content of accepted typescripts during production.

To facilitate anonymity, the author's names and any reference to their addresses should only appear on the title page. Please check your typescript carefully before you send it off, both for correct content and typographic errors. It is not possible to change the content of accepted typescripts during production.

Papers should be set out as follows, with each section beginning on a separate page:

Title page
To facilitate the blinded peer-review process, two title pages are required. The first should carry just the title of the paper and no information that might identify the author or institution. The second should contain the following information: title of paper; full name(s) and address(es) of author(s) clearly indicating who is the corresponding author; you should give a maximum of four degrees/qualifications for each author and the current relevant appointment only; institutional affiliation; name, address, telephone, fax and e-mail of the corresponding author; source(s) of support in the form of funding and/or equipment.

Keywords
Include four to ten keywords in alphabetical order, which accurately identify the paper's subject, purpose, method and focus. These should be indexing terms that may be published with the abstract with the aim of increasing the likely accessibility of your paper to potential readers searching the literature. Therefore, ensure keywords are descriptive of the study. Use the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) thesaurus or Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) headings where possible (see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html).

Abstract
Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches should be accompanied by a structured abstract of no more than 250 words. Commentaries and Essays may continue to use text based abstracts of no more than 150 words. All original articles should include the following headings in the abstract as appropriate: Background, Objective, Design, Setting, Methods, Participants, Results, and Conclusions. As an absolute minimum: Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusions must be provided for all original articles. Abstracts for reviews of the literature (in particular systematic reviews and meta-analysis) should include the following headings as appropriate: Objectives, Data Sources, Study Selection, Data Extraction, Data Synthesis, Conclusions. Abstracts for Case Studies should include the following headings as appropriate: Background, Objectives, Clinical Features, Intervention and Outcomes, Conclusions.

Text
The text of observational and experimental articles is usually, but not necessarily, divided into sections with the headings; introduction, methods, results, results and discussion. In longer articles, headings should be used only to enhance the readability. Three categories of headings should be used:

• major headings should be typed in capital letter in the centre of the page and underlined (i.e. INTRODUCTION)
• secondary ones should be typed in lower case (with an initial capital letter) in the left hand margin and underlined (i.e. Participants).
• minor ones typed in lower case and italicised (i.e. questionnaire).

Do not use 'he', 'his' etc. where the sex of the person is unknown; say 'the patient' etc. Avoid inelegant alternatives such as 'he/she'.

Statement of Competing Interests
When submitting a manuscript you will need to consider if you, or any of your co-authors, are an Editor or Editorial Board member of the International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine. If this is the case you will need to include a section, at the end of your manuscript immediately before the reference section, called "Statement of Competing Interests". Example statement, which may require editing, is as follows: {Name of author} is an Editor of the Int J Osteopath Med; {Name of author} is a member of the Editorial Board of the Int J Osteopath Med but was not involved in review or editorial decisions regarding this manuscript.

References
Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors.

Citations in the text: Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Avoid using references in the abstract. 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.

Text: Indicate references by superscript numbers in the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given.

List: Number the references 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

For journal articles, the abbreviated title of the journal should be used. Authors should refer to the National Library of Medicine database for journal abbreviations ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals).

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.nejm.org/general/text/requirements/1.htm).

Web references - As a minimum, the full URL and access date should be given. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be provided. Web references should be included in the reference list.

Tables, Illustrations and Figures
Tables, illustrations and figures should be placed on separate pages as separate electronic files and not placed within the manuscript. Each table, illustration or figure should be accompanied by a number (e.g. Table 1) and a brief description of the content of the table, figure or illustration, below the table, illustration or figure. All tables, illustrations or figures should be referred to in the manuscript.

File Formatting for Artwork &Illustrations - 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

Please do not:
• Supply embedded graphics in your word processor (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.

Appendices - Ordinarily there should be no appendices although in the case of papers reporting tool development or the use of novel questionnaires authors must include a copy of the tool as an appendix unless all items appear in a table in the text. Appendices may be published as online supplementary files to which a reference should be made in the printed article.

Illustrations and tables that have appeared elsewhere must be accompanied by written permission to reproduce them from the original publishers. This is necessary even if you are an author of the borrowed material. Borrowed material should be acknowledged in the captions in the exact wording required by the copyright holder. If not specified, use this style: `Reproduced by kind permission of . . . (publishers) from . . . (reference).' Identifiable clinical photographs must be accompanied by written permission from the patient.

Implications for Clinical Practice
At submission stage, authors of reviews and original research articles are required to provide three to four bullet points outlining the manuscript implications for clinical practice.

(E) SPECIFIC GUIDANCE FOR ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLES

The text of original research for a quantitative or qualitative study is typically subdivided into the following sections:

Introduction
State the purpose of the article. Summarise the rationale for the study or observation. Give only strictly pertinent references and do not review the subject extensively. Do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported.

Materials and Methods
Describe your selection of observational or experimental participants (including controls). Identify the methods, apparatus (manufacturer's name and address in parenthesis) and procedures in sufficient detail to allow workers to reproduce the results. Give references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new methods and evaluate limitations.

Indicate whether procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or regional committee responsible for ethical standards. Do not use patient names or initials. Take care to mask the identity of any participants in illustrative material.

Results
Present results in a logical sequence in the text, tables and illustrations. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations. Emphasise or summarise only important observations.

Discussion
Emphasise the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the introduction or the results section. Include implications of the findings and their limitations, and include implications for future research. Relate the observations to other relevant studies. Link the conclusion with the goals of the study, but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not completely supported by your data. State new hypothesis when warranted, but clearly label them as such. Recommendations, when appropriate, may be included.

Conclusion
A summary of the pertinent findings and, relevance of the study and implications of the study for future research.

CONSIDERATIONS SPECIFIC TO TYPES OF RESEARCH DESIGNS

Manuscripts are required to adhere to recognized reporting guidelines relevant to the research design used. These identify matters that should be addressed in your paper. These are not quality assessment frameworks and your study need not meet all the criteria implied in the reporting guideline to be worthy of publication in the journal.

You are encouraged (but not required) to provide a brief description of the reporting tool employed in your manuscript to guide the editors and reviewers.

Reporting guidelines endorsed by the journal are listed below:

Observational cohort, case control and cross sectional studies - STROBE - Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Quasi-experimental/non-randomised evaluations - TREND - Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Non-randomized Designs http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Randomised (and quasi-randomised) controlled trial - CONSORT - Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Study of Diagnostic accuracy/assessment scale - STARD - Standards for the Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Systematic Review of Controlled Trials - PRISMA - Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Systematic Review of Observational Studies - MOOSE - Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Qualitative researchers might wish to consult the guideline listed below:

Qualitative studies - COREQ - Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research. Tong, A., Sainsbury, P., Craig, J., 2007. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ): a 32-item checklist for interviews and focus groups. International Journal for Quality in Health Care 19 (6), 349-357. http://www.emgo.nl/kc/Analysis/statements/COREQ.pdf

IJOM Author Contribution Statement
All manuscripts submitted to the journal should be accompanied by an Author Contribution Statement. The purpose of the Statement is to give appropriate credit to each author for their role in the study. All persons listed as authors should have made substantive intellectual contributions to the research. To qualify for authorship each person listed should have made contributions in each of the following;
1) Contributions to conception and design; data acquisition; data analysis and interpretation;
2) Drafting of manuscript, or critical revision for important intellectual content;
3) All authors must have given approval to the final version of the manuscript submitted for consideration to publish.
Acquisition of funding; provision of resources; data collection; or general supervision, alone, is not sufficient justification for authorship. Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as outlined above should be listed in the Acknowledgements section. Acknowledgements may include contributions of technical assistance, proof reading and editing, or assistance with resources and funding. The statement may be published in the paper as appropriate.
Example of suggested format (note the use of author initials).
AB conceived the idea for the study. AB and CD contributed to the design and planning of the research. All authors were involved in data collection. AB and EF analysed the data. AB and CD wrote the first draft of the manuscript. EF coordinated funding for the project. All authors edited and approved the final version of the manuscript.

(F) SPECIFIC GUIDANCE FOR PROTOCOLS

Organisation of a Protocol - the following need to be adequately addressed.
• Title
• Abstract/Summary - this should provide a concise description of the purpose of the Protocol and should not exceed 200 words.
• Background, including rationale and any previous systematic review(s).
• Keywords - provide 4-10 keywords.
• Principal investigator(s); contact details.
• Aim(s).
• Design (randomised, double-blind) - including inclusion and exclusion criteria; intervention(s)/method; primary and secondary endpoint(s); side-effects reporting and quantification
• Statistical analysis - including sample size and power calculations; type of analysis; statistical testing.
• Ethical issues - including ethics committee approval; informed consent form and information sheet.
• Publication plan.
• Time required - an estimation of the time required to run the protocol should be given per separate step and for the whole protocol, including reporting.
• Funding source(s).
• References.

(G) POST ACCEPTANCE

Changes to authorship
This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:

Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.

After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.

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. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.

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 pre-printed forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

Submission Checklist
Please check the manuscript carefully before it is sent off to the Editorial Office, both for correct content and typographical errors, as it is not possible to change the content of accepted typescripts during the production process. As a guide, please ensure the following had been included:

• One copy of manuscript and;
• Tables, figures and illustrations, uploaded separately and correctly labelled;
• Reference list in correct style and correct in-text referencing;
• Written permission from original publishers and authors to reproduce any borrowed any borrowed material (where relevant).