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NEURAL NETWORKS
The Official Journal of the International Neural Network Society, European Neural Network Society & Japanese Neural Network Society

Guide for Authors

Neural Networks
Guide for Authors

Submission of articles
Authors are requested to submit their original papers using the submission website. To submit your paper online, please go to External link http://ees.elsevier.com/neunet. Authors interested in online submission are requested to go to the website and upload their manuscript and its associated artwork. An electronic (PDF) proof is generated and the reviewing process is carried out using that PDF. The PDF file may be edited after acceptance to follow journal standards. Authors and editors send and receive all correspondence by email via the website and no paper correspondence is performed.

Contributed Articles
Contributed articles are accepted for consideration with the understanding that they have not been published except in abstract form and are not concurrently under review elsewhere. Manuscripts for all sections should be submitted online to the editor-in-chief nearest the author:

North and South America: Prof. Stephen Grossberg (steve@bu.edu)

Asia and Australia: Dr. Kenji Doya (nneo@oist.jp)

Europe and Africa: Prof. John Taylor (john.g.taylor@kcl.ac.uk)

Letters
Letters (up to 2500 words) are expected to contain exceptionally important new research results for which rapid publication is justified. A copy of the Letter should be e-mailed directly to an appropriate action editor (listed on the Editorial Board), including an explanation why the work is of exceptional importance. Addresses for all authors should be listed on the title page and the corresponding author should be indicated by an asterisk. Each Letter should include an abstract (no more than 100 words), up to eight keywords, and an introductory paragraph. A maximum of 25 references is suggested. Figures and tables together with their legends should occupy no more than one of the pages.

A Letter is submitted directly to an action editor who is an expert in its subject matter. Research areas and addresses of action editors are listed in the first issue each year. A Letter may only be submitted to and reviewed by one action editor. A rejected Letter that is resubmitted and then accepted by another action editor will still be rejected by the editor in- chief. Authors are encouraged to contact prospective action editors by E-mail before submission. Please do not submit a Letter to one of the three Editors-in-Chief, but only to an action editor who has agreed to handle the submission. The action editor provides a rapid review within 4 weeks and may recommend acceptance or rejection to the editor-in-chief in the corresponding geographical area or may immediately decline to review the Letter. The action editor may also elect to request revisions from the author(s) before making a final recommendation. The editor-in-chief determines publication based on the importance of the Letter, as reflected by its priority rating. Accepted Letters are published on an accelerated basis in the next available issue.

Current Opinions
Current Opinions should contain a clear statement and present views on a chosen topic. Opinion articles will both be solicited upon invitation as well as be submitted autonomously. The Opinions article should always be submitted online to one of the editorial offices. Authors are encouraged to contact the editorial office by email before submission, including a brief summary of the proposed article of less than one page (300 words). An autonomously submitted Opinions article will either be accepted or rejected; resubmissions will not be accepted. Accepted Current Opinions will be pre-published on http://www.elsevier.com/locate/neunet. Comments on a Current Opinions article will follow the same route and criteria.

Authors should adhere to the following guidelines:
  1. Address(es) of the author(s) should be listed on the title page and, if more than one author, the corresponding author should be indicated by an asterisk.
  2. Each Opinion should include a clear statement (that will be used as the Abstract) and up to 5 keywords.
  3. The ideal Opinion article is exciting, consists of no more than 1250 words, has less than 10 references, and no more than 2 figures.
General Articles must be written in good English.

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.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a "Journal Publishing Agreement" (for more information on this and copyright see External link http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail (or letter) 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.

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: contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Oxford, UK: phone (+44) 1865 843830, fax (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail permissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage (External link http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

Sending accepted articles to Elsevier in electronic format We accept most wordprocessing formats, but Word, WordPerfect or LaTeX is preferred. A PDF of the final article should be included to illustrate proper format of equations and figures. Always keep a backup copy of the electronic file for reference and safety. Name your files using the default extension of the program used. No changes to the accepted version are permissible without the explicit approval of the Editor.

Presentation of manuscript
Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. Present tables and figure legends on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. If possible, consult a recent issue of the journal to become familiar with layout and conventions. Number all pages consecutively.

Title page
The title page should contain the article title, author(s) names and affiliations, related footnotes, a self-contained abstract not exceeding 250 words, and a list of three to five keywords.

Corresponding author
Clearly indicate who is willing to 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.

References
References should be listed alphabetically, in the same way as the following examples:
  1. Bostrom, R.P., Anson, R., & Clawson, V.K. (1993). Group facilitation and support systems. In L.M. Jessup, & J.S. Valacich, Group support systems: new perspectives (pp. 146-168). New York: Macmillan.
  2. Liu, S. (1998). Business environment scanner for senior managers: towards active executive support with intelligent agents. Expert Systems with Applications, 15(2), 111-121.
  3. Liebowitz, J., & Salvo, D.A. (1989). Structuring expert systems: domain, design, and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  4. Slow, R., Lunn, S., & Slatter, P. (1986). How to identify business applications of expert systems. Proceedings of the Second International Expert Systems Conference (pp. 327-338). London
In text, references should be indicated by [number].

Figures
Provide all illustrations on separate pages as high-quality printouts, suitable for reproduction (which may include reduction). Number illustrations consecutively in the order in which they are referred to in the text. They should accompany the manuscript, but not be included within the text. Clearly mark all illustrations on the back (or - in case of line drawings - on the lower front side) with the figure number and the author's name and, in case of ambiguity, the correct orientation.

Captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions on a separate sheet, 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.

Line drawings
Supply high-quality printouts on white paper produced with black ink. The lettering and symbols, as well as other details, should have proportionate dimensions, so as not to become illegible or unclear after possible reduction; in general, the figures should be designed for a reduction factor of two to three. The degree of reduction will be determined by the Publisher. Illustrations will not be enlarged. Consider the page format of Displays when designing the illustrations. Photocopies are not suitable for reproduction. Do not use any type of shading on computer-generated illustrations.

Photographs (halftones)
Please supply original photographs for reproduction, printed on glossy paper, very sharp and with good contrast. Remove non-essential areas of a photograph. Do not mount photographs unless they form part of a composite figure. Where necessary, insert a scale bar in the illustration (not below it), as opposed to giving a magnification factor in the legend. Note that photocopies of photographs are not acceptable.

Colour illustrations
Please submit colour illustrations as 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. Further information concerning colour illustrations and costs is available from the Publisher.

For detailed guidelines on electronic figures, please refer to the 'artwork instructions' at External link http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Proofs
One set of page proofs in PDF format 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). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available free from External link http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: External link 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 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.

Author enquiries
For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal's homepage at External link http://www.elsevier.com/locate/neunet. You can track accepted articles at External link http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed, as well as copyright information, frequently asked questions and more. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided after registration of an article for publication.

Author benefits
No page charge is made. 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. Contributors to Elsevier journals are entitled to a 30% discount on all Elsevier books.
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