Short Overview:
Timely and cutting-edge reports documenting significant results will be considered for publication in Acta Materialia.
Papers should be directed to those aspects of the science of materials defined in the scope presented on the inside front cover. Manuscripts
must be written in good English. Poorly written papers will be automatically returned for rewriting before review. Communications are
accepted in English only.
General guidelines for online submission:
Elsevier can accept text files
in most standard word-processing formats but Microsoft Word 97 is preferred. Alternatively, the initial submission can be in either
PostScript or PDF format. Please note, however, that the text file of a revision must be uploaded in an editable format, either Microsoft
Word or LaTex. Graphics should be high-resolution and the preferred formats are either TIFF or JPEG. For further information on the
preparation of electronic artwork please refer to the following website: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please
follow the instructions below for guidance on the style of the journal. Most formatting codes are removed or replaced when your article
is prepared for publication so there is no need for you to use excessive layout styling. However, please do not use options such as automatic
word breaking, justified layout, double columns or automatic paragraph numbering (especially for numbered references). Do use bold face,
italic, subscripts, superscripts, etc., as appropriate. Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. When preparing tables, if
you are using a table grid, please use only one grid for each separate table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is being used, use
tabs to align columns instead of spaces.
All online submissions must be accompanied by a covering letter detailing what you are
submitting. Please indicate the author to whom correspondence should be addressed (in the case of multiple authors) and include a contact
address, telephone/fax numbers and e-mail address. Please include details of any previous or concurrent submissions and also any information
that will support your submission (e.g. original or confirmatory data, relevance, topicality). Please indicate if this is a resubmission
of a paper previously rejected by an Acta Materialia editor and, if so, provide the manuscript number of the rejected paper along with
the name of the processing editor. (It is Acta Materialia policy to allow one resubmission of a rejected paper.) Please note that when
your manuscript is received at Elsevier it is considered to be in its final form. Therefore you need to check your manuscript carefully
before you submit it online. Back to the contents list
Length
of papers:
The pressure for publication space in Acta Materialia is extreme. Authors will understand
that a long manuscript, if published, displaces two shorter ones, each worthy of publication. This position forces the Editors to impose
a limitation on length of papers in Acta Materialia. Papers, to be acceptable, must normally be less than 10 printed
pages in length; as a rule of thumb, a paper of 20 double-spaced typescript pages, plus a typical number of figures (8 or so) reduces
to 10 printed pages. Use double spacing and wide (3 cm) margins, and 12 pt font size standard fonts. Papers which are longer than 25
double-spaced typescript pages will be returned automatically to the authors with a request that they be shortened before they are considered
further. Shortening, almost always, is in the author's best interest: readers read short papers. Please ensure that your manuscript
is paginated, as this will help both editors and reviewers to process it promptly. Back to the
contents list
Abstract:
Abstract will be published in Acta
Materialia in English for all papers. The abstract should indicate the content of the paper, and should describe the
main conclusions. An effective abstract is brief and normally less than 100 words. Abstracts must not exceed 150 words. Back
to the contents list
Keywords:
Authors should list a maximum
of five keywords which appropriately represent the contents of their manuscripts. The list of keywords should appear on the title page
of each paper, following the title, author names and author affiliations, placed in that order. The keywords must be selected from the
Keywords list in the most recently published issue of the journal (also available
here); however, authors may provide one keyword (out of five) which is not listed in the Keywords list. Back
to the contents list
Title and headings:
The title should be
carefully chosen to indicate as clearly as possible the subject of the communication. Descriptive headings should be used to divide the
paper into its component parts. Back to the contents list
Error bars:
Error bars are required on all experimental and calculated data points with an
explanation in the text
as to how the errors were determined. Back to the contents list
Figures:
For electronic submission, all figures must be in digital form
(minimum 300 dpi). Scale marks should be printed in all micrographs. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
for more information. A separate list of figure captions must be included in the main body of your paper, following the references.
Back to the contents list
Colour:
If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these
figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced
in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, the cost of printing in colour, in 2007, will be US $440
per printed colour page. You will receive information regarding the total costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article.
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 from the conversion of colour figures to 'grey scale' (for the printed version
should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white prints corresponding to all the colour illustrations.
Back to the contents list
References:
All references to other papers, books, etc. should be given at the end of the paper. They should be numbered in sequence starting at
the beginning of the paper. The numbers should appear in the text at the appropriate places.
Samples. [1] Flores KM,
Dauskardt RH. Scripta mater 1999;41:937 [2] Quinones SA, Rivas JM, Murr LE. Metallography of hypervelocity impact crater formation
in aluminium and copper. In: Shehata MT, Leduce TR, Lemay I, Louthan MR, editors. Microstructural Science, vol. 22. Materials Park (OH):
ASM International, 1995. p.3.
Spellchecking: Be sure that your manuscripts
are free of spelling errors. If you wish to check the technical spelling of your manuscript, please refer to www.sciproof.com. SCIPROOF
offers a product called Scientific Dictionary Package (SDP) 2.0 that contains over 1.8 million entries and is the only spellchecking
software that specifically includes materials science terms, plus chemical and biomedical terms (for biomaterials), and journal titles
and abbreviations. This program is an add-on for Microsoft Office and augments the native Office spell checker.
Copyright:
It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this Journal have not been published and
will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, the authors agree that the copyright for their
article is transferred to Acta Materialia Inc. if and when the article is accepted for publication. However, assignment of copyright
is not required from authors who work for organizations which do not permit such assignment. The copyright covers the exclusive rights
to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microform or any other reproductions of similar
nature, and translations. Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder permission to reproduce any figures for which
copyright exists. For more information please go to our copyright page http://www.elsevier.com/copyright.
Back to the contents list
Notification:
Authors will be notified of the acceptance of their paper by the editor. The Publisher will also send a notification of receipt of the
paper in production. Back to the contents list
PDF
Proofs:
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, to be checked
for typesetting/editing. The corrections should be returned within 48 hours. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently
edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely the author's responsibility. Any queries should be answered
in full. Please correct factual errors only, or errors introduced by typesetting. For more information on proofreading please go
to our proofreading page http://www.elsevier.com/locate/guidepublication.
Please note that once your paper has been proofed we publish the identical paper online as in print. Back
to the contents list
Author Benefits: No page charges:
Publication in this journal is free of charge. Free Offprints: Twenty-five offprints will be supplied free of charge.
Corresponding authors will be given the choice to buy extra offprints before printing of the article. Authors who pay for colour illustrations
will receive an extra fifty offprints free of charge. Author Discount: Contributors to Elsevier journals are entitled to
a 30% discount on all Elsevier books. See http://www.elsevier.com/bookauthors for more information.
Back to the contents list
