Guide for Authors
Official Journal of the European Society of Toxicology in Vitro
INTRODUCTION
Toxicology in Vitro publishes original research papers and reviews on the application
and use of in vitro systems for assessing or predicting the toxic effects of chemicals and elucidating their mechanisms of action. These
in vitro techniques include utilizing cell or tissue cultures, isolated cells, tissue slices, subcellular fractions, transgenic cell
cultures, and cells from transgenic organisms, as well as in silico modelling. The Journal will focus on investigations that involve
the development and validation of new in vitro methods, e.g. for prediction of toxic effects based on traditional and in silico modelling;
on the use of methods in high-throughput toxicology and pharmacology; elucidation of mechanisms of toxic action; the application of genomics,
transcriptomics and proteomics in toxicology, as well as on comparative studies that characterise the relationship between in vitro and
in vivo findings. The Journal strongly encourages the submission of manuscripts that focus on the development of in vitro methods, their
practical applications and regulatory use (e.g. in the areas of food components cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and industrial
chemicals).
Types of paper
The Journal's main purpose will be the publication
of papers reporting and interpreting original toxicological research involving the application or development of in vitro techniques.
Brief Communications documenting important new findings warranting expeditious publication will also be considered, as will concise interpretative
Reviews of toxicological topics of contemporary significance. Letters to the Editor will be limited to comments on contributions already
published in the Journal; if a letter is accepted, a response (for simultaneous publication) will be invited from the authors of the
original contribution.
Toxicology in Vitro also welcomes Correspondence from the scientific community, especially as they relate
to Hot Topics and Debates. These are handled directly by the Editor-in-Chief and may be accompanied by responses.
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.
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. A conflict of interest exists when an author or
the author's institution has a financial or other relationship with other people or organizations that may inappropriately influence
the author's actions. All submissions to
Toxicology in Vitro must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed
as presenting a potential conflict of interest.
Toxicology in Vitro may use such information as a basis for editorial decisions
and may publish such disclosures if they are believed to be important to readers in judging the article. 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.
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. All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgment at the end of the text. Authors
must also describe the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in a 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 study sponsor(s) had no such involvement,
the authors should so state. 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.
US National Institutes of Health (NIH) voluntary posting (" Public Access") policy.
Elsevier facilitates author response to the
NIH voluntary posting request (referred to as the NIH "Public Access Policy"; see http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm) by
posting the peer-reviewed author's manuscript directly to PubMed Central on request from the author, 12 months after formal publication.
Upon notification from Elsevier of acceptance, we will ask you to confirm via e-mail (by e-mailing us at
NIHauthorrequest@elsevier.com
) that your work has received NIH funding and that you intend to respond to the NIH policy request, along with your NIH award number
to facilitate processing. Upon such confirmation, Elsevier will submit to PubMed Central on your behalf a version of your manuscript
that will include peer-review comments, for posting 12 months after formal publication. This will ensure that you will have responded
fully to the NIH request policy. There will be no need for you to post your manuscript directly with PubMed Central, and any such posting
is prohibited.
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.
http://ees.elsevier.com/tiv
Questions
about submission may be directed to the appropriate editor.
Americas and Canada:
daniel.acosta@uc.edu
Europe:
b.blaauboer@iras.uu.nl
All other areas of the world:
daniel.dietrich@uni-konstanz.de
Revised versions
The medium of submission for revised papers is electronically through the Elsevier website (
http://authors.elsevier.com/toxinvit).
Figures should be submitted as original high quality files of a standard graphics program. Revised versions should be returned within
3 months of the first date of decision. Failure to do so will result in any resubmission being treated as a new version and will therefore
carry a new date of receipt.
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.
Manuscript Format
Manuscripts should be written in clear and concise English; incomprehensible submissions will be returned to authors for revision.
All pages must be numbered, including the Title Page, which should carry the title of the paper, the surnames and initials of the authors,
and the names and address of the institutions where the work was done (with the affiliation of each author clearly indicated). Titles
consisting of declarative or interrogative sentences are not acceptable. Please do not add line numbering to your source file as this
will be added automatically by the EES system upon building of the PDF.
Introduction
Introduction-a concise and clear statement on the background, purposes and significance of the work.
Material and methods
Materials and Methods-a detailed description of the experimental design and of any
new or improved methods. Well-established methods and techniques may be identified by reference only.
Results
Results-presented concisely with the aid of tables or figures where appropriate. Duplication between
this section and the Discussion must be avoided.
Discussion
Discussion-a
succinct interpretation of the data. Extensive literature reviews and highly speculative comments are discouraged.
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. Each author's academic or professional qualifications should also be listed.
-
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
Abstract-a self-contained summary of the objectives, results and significance of the study, not
exceeding 200 words. Uninformative sentences such as "the significance of the results is discussed" are not acceptable.
Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding
general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, "and", "of"). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly
established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.
Abbreviations
Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of
the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the
footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article. Abbreviations should be used sparingly.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements-providing recognition of sources of funding and donations of materials,
and including any thanks the authors may wish to accord for advisory, technical or other assistance, since authorship should be limited
to those who have made a major contribution to the study and to the preparation of the paper. Authors are advised to obtain approval
for the wording of any acknowledgement from those whose help is noted.
Nomenclature
The metric system is the standard for all measurements. Test chemicals and enzymes must be clearly identified, wherever possible
with the aid of CAS Registry and EC numbers.
Footnotes
Footnotes should
be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors build footnotes
into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present
the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.
Table footnotes
Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.
Artwork
Electric 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.
No information
that can be included in the legend should appear on the figure and the following standard symbols are preferred for line drawings: (closed
triangle), (open triangle), (closed square), (open square), (closed circle), (open circle), (open circle with a dot in the middle), +,
(open diamond). The legends for photomicrographs must state the staining method and magnification. Authors should bear in mind that the
figures they submit may be subjected to photographic reduction. T. If figures that have already been published under copyright are to
be reproduced in the Journal (e.g. in reviews), copies of letters from the first publisher and the original author giving permission
for such reproduction must always accompany the submitted manuscript.
Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If,
together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures
will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced
in color in the printed version.
For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after
receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for color in print or on the Web only. For further information
on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because
of technical complications which can arise by converting color figures to "gray scale" (for the printed version should you not opt for
color in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the color illustrations.
Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached
to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (
not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep
text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
Tables
Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the
table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that
the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
Tables should be intelligible without reference
to the text and should be planned to fit the page size of the Journal. The same data may not be reproduced in both a table and a figure.
Each table must have a title and on each column there should be a heading that clearly identifies the data therein.
References
References-listed strictly in alphabetical order and including the names of all authors of the
cited work. References to published papers should provide authors' names and initials, year of publication, full title of the paper,
title of the journal (in full), volume number, and the first and last page numbers of the paper:
e.g. Wright, A., Cowie, H., Gormley,
I.P., Davies, J.M.G., 1986. The in vitro cytotoxicity of asbestos fibres: 1. P388D1 cells. American Journal of Industrial Medicine 9,
371-384.
References to books should include authors' names and initials, year of publication, title, edition, appropriate page number(s)
and name and location of the Publisher:
e.g. Foussereau, J., Benezra, C., Maibach M., 1982. Occuptational Contact Dermatitis. Clinical
and Chemical Aspects. Munksgaard, Copenhagen, p. 227.
For multi-author books, the names and initials of the relevant authors, year
of publication, title of the relevant chapter, title of the book, names and initials of all editors, numbers of first and last pages
of the cited chapter and name and location of the Publisher should be given:
e.g. Mather, J.P., Phillips, D.M., 1984. Primary culture
of testicular somatic cells. In: Barnes, D.W., Sirbasku, D.A., Sato, G.H. (Eds.), Methods for Serum-free Culture of Cells of the Endocrine
System. Alan R. Liss, New York, pp. 29-45.
For papers with the same author(s) and year, the references should be distinguished in
the text and reference list by the letters a, b etc. following the year (but still in alphabetical order). Authors names must not be
typed in upper case letters in either text or reference list.
References may be listed if they are in press, but the journal that
has accepted the paper for publication must be identified. Submitted papers or papers in preparation should not be listed; such work
should be mentioned in the text only, as 'unpublished data' or 'personal communication' (with surnames, initials and year).
Citation in text
Citations of references in the text should give the surname(s) of the author(s), together
with the year of publication. For references with more than two authors, the name of the first followed by et al. should be cited. For
papers with the same author(s) and year, the references should be distinguished in the text and reference list by the letters a, b etc.
following the year (but still in alphabetical order). Authors names must not be typed in upper case letters in either text or 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.
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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