Guide for Authors
Official journal of the
Faculty of Legal and Forensic Medicine, the
Australian
College of Legal Medicine and the
British Association in Forensic Medicine.
Former title:
Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine
Types of paper
The following types
of articles will be considered for publication:
Original Communication: new research, previously unpublished.
Review:
detailed review of specific subject, backed up by full reference list and exploring all aspects of subject.
Clinical Practice:
review backed up by relevant literature of specific aspects of clinical practice.
Short Report: new research or clinical
issue, straightforward idea, simple methodology, concise take-home message.
Case Reviews: one or two related cases with
specific message, backed up by broad review of related literature.
Learning Point: single case where outcome identifies
or reinforces an important clinical, pathological or legal issue.
Case Reports: one or two related cases with specific unambiguous
message that needs little discussion, small number of references.
Personal View: unreferenced, discursive paper on aspect
of treatment, care, management that impacted directly on author.
Leading Article: invited article by an authority on a
particular issue.
Editorial: topical polemic on an issue of the day, some commissioned, some submitted.
Conference
Report: personal views of conferences, symposia or meetings of relevance to journal readership.
Letter to the Editor:
comment or useful critique on material published in the journal. The decision to publish submitted letters rests purely with the Editor-in-Chief.
Book Review: review of relevant books which are not more than 2 years old. Unsolicited reviews will not usually be accepted,
but suggestions for appropriate books for review should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief.
Postcard: unreviewed personal opinion
on topical issues.
Consideration will be given by the Editor to other categories of article that do not fit into the above. Contact
the Editor at
jasonpaynejames@aol.com for any specific inquiries on these matters.
Contact details for submission
Authors should send queries concerning the submission process or journal procedures to
AuthorSupport@elsevier.com. Authors can check the status of their manuscript within the review procedure using Elsevier
Editorial System.
Page charges
This journal has no page charges.
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 must disclose any financial
and personal relationships with other people or organisations 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. 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.
Authorship
All authors should
have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis
and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval
of the version to be submitted.
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.
Unpublished material
Material in unpublished letters and manuscripts is also protected and must not
be published unless permission has been obtained.
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.
Submit your article
Please submit your article via
http://ees.elsevier.com/jflm
Article structure
Where appropriate
the manuscript should follow the scheme described below: (1) title page, (2) summary and keywords, (3) text, (4) references, (5) tables,
(6) captions to illustrations, (7) illustrations.
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".
Headings for experimental papers should follow the
usual conventions: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments. Other papers may be subdivided as the authors desire.
The use of headings enhances readability.
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.
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
Avoid
abbreviations in the title and abstract. All unusual abbreviations should be fully explained at their first occurrence in the text.
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.).
Nomenclature and units
Proprietary names of drugs, instruments etc. should be indicated by the use of initial
capital letters. All measurements should be expressed in SI or SI-derived units.
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.
Where illustrations must include recognisable individuals, living or dead and of whatever age, great care must
be taken to ensure that consent for publication has been given. It is the authors' responsibility to obtain written permission to reproduce
borrowed material (illustrations and tables) from the original publishers and authors.
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.
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.
Web references
Refrain from using
online references if possible. When referring to internet sources,
for example Wikipedia, please state so clearly, and indicate if this information can be checked and on which date you visited this online
source.
Reference style
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.
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).
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. Additional paper
offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.
For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission
where available) please visit this journal's homepage. You can track accepted articles at
http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle
and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed. Also accessible from here is information on copyright,
frequently asked questions and more. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating
to proofs, will be provided by the publisher.
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