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Your Paper Your Way

We now differentiate between the requirements for new and revised submissions. You may choose to submit your manuscript as a single Word or PDF file to be used in the refereeing process. Only when your paper is at the revision stage, will you be requested to put your paper in to a 'correct format' for acceptance and provide the items required for the publication of your article.
To find out more, please visit the Preparation section below.

Introduction



Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep Foundation is a multidisciplinary journal that explores sleep's role in population health and elucidates the social science perspective on sleep and health. Aligned with the National Sleep Foundation's global authoritative, evidence-based voice for sleep health, the Journal serves as the foremost publication for manuscripts that advance the sleep health of all members of society.

The scope of the journal extends across diverse sleep-related fields, including anthropology, education, health services research, human development, international health, law, mental health, nursing, nutrition, psychology, public health, public policy, fatigue management, transportation, social work, and sociology. The Journal welcomes original research articles, systematic review articles, brief reports, letters to the editor, editorials, and commentaries.

Contact details for submission

If you experience any problems, contact our staff at [email protected].

Submission Checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

Ensure that the following items are present:

The author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address

All necessary files have been uploaded:
Manuscript:
• Include 4-6 keywords
• All figures (include relevant captions) clear and legible
• All tables (including titles, description, footnotes) on a separate page
• All figure and table citations in the text match the files provided
• Indicate clearly if color should be used for any figures in print
• Original Research Articles include a structured abstract; other article types include an unstructured abstract (see Article types below for specific requirements)
• The Editorial Manager system will automatically build line numbers for manuscript file type. Please do not add line numbers manually
• Pages are numbered.
• Graphical Abstracts / Highlights files (where applicable)
• Supplemental files (where applicable; supplemental items labeled A.1, A.2, etc)

Further considerations:
• Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
• 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 Internet)
• An NSF Sleep Health Author Disclosure of Potential Conflicts Form is included for each author, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare
• Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed
• Referee suggestions and contact details provided
• Ethics committee approval and informed consent have been addressed in the Methods section. If the work described is exempt, state the reason for exemption.

For further information, visit our Support Center.

Before you begin

Ethics in publishing

Please see our information on Ethics in publishing.

Conflict of interest

Please include very brief information on the following items. Use initials to refer to authors where appropriate.

Conflict of interest
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Authors must disclose any interests in two places: 1. A summary declaration of interest statement in the title page file (if double anonymized) or the manuscript file (if single anonymized). If there are no interests to declare then please state this: 'Declarations of interest: none'. This summary statement will be ultimately published if the article is accepted. 2. Detailed disclosures as part of a separate Declaration of Interest form, which forms part of the journal's official records. It is important for potential interests to be declared in both places and that the information matches. More information. See also https://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.

Please complete and include with your submission the Sleep Health Journal Disclosure of Potential Conflicts Form (Note: If you have difficulty opening the form or receive a ‘Please wait’ message, the form will only open if you download it to your computer, then open Adobe, then click ‘file’, then click ‘open’, and navigate to the form (usually in downloads or documents). Clicking the link will usually not enable you to open the form.)

Formatting of funding sources
List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements:

Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA [grant number zzzz]; and the United States Institutes of Peace [grant number aaaa].

It is not necessary to include detailed descriptions on the program or type of grants and awards. When funding is from a block grant or other resources available to a university, college, or other research institution, submit the name of the institute or organization that provided the funding.

If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence:

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 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.).

Contributors
Each author is required to declare his or her individual contribution to the article: all authors must have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should be described. The statement that all authors have approved the final article should be true and included in the disclosure.

Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process.

Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans, as outlined in Elsevier’s AI policy for authors.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Disclosure instructions
Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled ‘Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process’.

Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

Institutional Review

If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. The manuscript should be in line with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations (sex, age and ethnicity) as per those recommendations. The terms sex and gender should be used correctly.

Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Institutes of Health guide for the care and use of Laboratory animals (NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978) and the authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. The sex of animals must be indicated, and where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the results of the study. If research was exempt from institutional review, authors should state this in the methods section.IRB FAQs from the FDA: http://www.fda.gov/regulatoryinformation/guidances/ucm126420.htm.

Submission declaration

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis, see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information), 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, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Research on health disparities is strongly encouraged. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing that might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. For gender neutrality, we advise using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using gendered pronouns (e.g., he, she). We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". Do not use "Blacks", "whites", or other racial or ethnic descriptors as nouns. Instead, use, for example, Latinx participants, Black adults, or white adolescents. Use "Americans"; as the noun only if the participants are, in fact, all American; avoid using "American" to refer specifically to people in the United States of America. Describe your rationale for the term you use if appropriate. (e.g., The term "African American" is used throughout this manuscript because it is the term used in the survey instrument.) Capitalize "Black" when used to identify race.

List the racial/ethnic characteristics of your sample when known. Race and ethnicity should be acknowledged as a social construct, rather than as genetic or biological categories. The use of racial and/or ethnic categories in models and analyses and the selection of comparison groups should be explicitly justified. Avoid grouping multiple under-represented minority groups in comparison to the majority group (e.g., white vs. non-white). Research questions and interpretation of results should consider minority group members' successes, the effects of racism (interpersonal, institution, or internalized), and histories of exclusion, mistreatment, and exploitation. Work should not focus on presumed deficits of minority group members, their individual behaviors, or perceived mistrust.

These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Use person-first language if this is what is generally preferred by the study population

Reporting sex- and gender-based analyses

Reporting guidance
For research involving or pertaining to humans, animals or eukaryotic cells, investigators should integrate sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA) into their research design according to funder/sponsor requirements and best practices within a field. Authors should address the sex and/or gender dimensions of their research in their article. In cases where they cannot, they should discuss this as a limitation to their research's generalizability. Importantly, authors should explicitly state what definitions of sex and/or gender they are applying to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of their research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer (see Definitions section below). Authors can refer to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist. These offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting and research interpretation - however, please note there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender.

Definitions
Sex generally refers to a set of biological attributes that are associated with physical and physiological features (e.g., chromosomal genotype, hormonal levels, internal and external anatomy). A binary sex categorization (male/female) is usually designated at birth (""sex assigned at birth""), most often based solely on the visible external anatomy of a newborn. Gender generally refers to socially constructed roles, behaviors, and identities of women, men and gender-diverse people that occur in a historical and cultural context and may vary across societies and over time. Gender influences how people view themselves and each other, how they behave and interact and how power is distributed in society. Sex and gender are often incorrectly portrayed as binary (female/male or woman/man) and unchanging whereas these constructs actually exist along a spectrum and include additional sex categorizations and gender identities such as people who are intersex/have differences of sex development (DSD) or identify as non-binary. Moreover, the terms ""sex"" and ""gender"" can be ambiguous—thus it is important for authors to define the manner in which they are used. In addition to this definition guidance and the SAGER guidelines, the resources on this page offer further insight around sex and gender in research studies.

Statistical guidelines

Generally, follow the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (https://www.icmje.org/index.html).
  • Be cautious when using causal language; any such language should be used intentionally and carefully only in appropriate contexts (e.g., randomized clinical trials, laboratory experimental studies). For all other study designs (including meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials and secondary analysis of randomized clinical trial data), methods and results should instead be described in terms of association without cause-and-effect wording. Avoid conflating correlation and causation.
  • Clearly state the study objectives in the Introduction.
  • Explain the study design and its relation to the stated objectives.
  • Describe recruitment and inclusion/exclusion criteria.
  • Consider the overall response rate, differential response rate, dropout, sample attrition, and non-responder bias.
  • Address measurement reliability using appropriate measures.
  • Describe the statistical methodology so the intent and purpose are clearly related to the study objectives.
  • Statistical methods and models should be described in enough detail that they can be replicated by others.
  • Reference all but very common tests with standard text.
  • Consider statistical power and type II error rates in both the planning of analysis and in the interpretation of results.
  • Be mindful of the inflated risk of Type I errors resulting from numerous statistical tests. Use appropriate methods to adjust for multiple comparisons and be mindful to appropriately balance Type I vs. Type II error. An exception is in clearly labeled exploratory analyses, where multiple comparison adjustment is not appropriate. (See Cao and Zhang, JAMA, 2014)
  • In the Results section, give the test value, degrees of freedom (or N, if appropriate), and P-value (actual number) for all important results. Do not include p-values without test statistics or effect sizes.
  • P-values alone do not provide information about the clinical/scientific importance of a finding. Use caution when statistical significance has doubtful clinical or practical significance. Instead of focusing on p-values, findings should be interpreted in terms of standardized effect sizes, which should be used liberally.
  • Provide standard deviations when means are reported. Standard errors are appropriate only with coefficients, such as correlations, sample survey estimates, and regression results.
  • Use multivariate statistical approaches instead of a series of univariate tests.
  • Use confidence intervals to put statistical results in context.
  • Avoid P-value trend language.
  • State assumptions clearly. Consider assumptions when choosing statistical methods, and discuss results in the context of all relevant assumptions. Include assumptions in limitations section as appropriate.

Author contributions

For transparency, we encourage corresponding authors to provide co-author contributions to the manuscript using the relevant CRediT roles. The CRediT taxonomy includes 14 different roles describing each contributor’s specific contribution to the scholarly output. The roles are: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; and Writing - review & editing. Note that not all roles may apply to every manuscript, and authors may have contributed through multiple roles. More details and an example.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (see more information on this). 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. 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.

For gold open access articles: Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'License Agreement' (more information). Permitted third party reuse of gold open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license.

Author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. More information.

Elsevier supports responsible sharing
Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals.

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; the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; the writing of the report; the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, then their role should be described. Please see NSF Sleep Health Author Disclosure of Potential Conflicts Form.

Open access

Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal.

Language (usage and editing services)

Please write your text in clear, fluent American English. Authors who feel their manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to use the English Language Editing service available from Elsevier's WebShop (https://webshop.elsevier.com/language-editing/). Visit our customer support site (https://service.elsevier.com) for more information.

Submission

Our online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your article details and uploading your files. The system converts your article files to a single PDF file used in the peer-review process. Editable files (e.g., Word, LaTeX) are required to typeset your article for final publication. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, is sent by e-mail.

Submit your article
Please submit your article via https://www.editorialmanager.com/sleephealth/Default.aspx.

First-time users
Please click the Register button from the main menu and enter the requested information. On successful registration, you will be sent an e-mail indicating your user name and password. Print a copy of this information for future reference. Note: If you have received an e-mail from us with an assigned user ID and password, or if you are a repeat user, do not register again. Just log in. Once you have an assigned ID and password, re-registration is unnecessary, even if your status changes (that is, author, reviewer, or editor).

Article types

Please note the submission requirements for each article type listed br.
  • Original Research Articles are original papers demonstrating the results of scientific studies. Regular Research Articles are based on empirical data. They can contain case vignettes, but clinical descriptions cannot be used as the main content of the article. The text of the article should contain no more than 4,000 words, and up to 50 references. This word count includes only the main body of text (i.e., not abstract, references, tables, or figures). Structured Abstracts are required for all research articles; this abstract should be limited to 250 words or less. Please use the following headings in your abstract: Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusions.

  • Systematic Review Articles are evidence-based, state-of-the-art overviews of topics that are relevant to sleep health. Systematic Review Articles should be a balanced review of the literature, not simply a review of the author's own work. These articles contain no more than 8,000 words, including the main body of text, the references, and an unstructured abstract of up to 250 words. Reviews may have up to 4 tables and/or figures and up to 100 references. Authors intending to write Systematic Review Articles are advised to consult the Editor-in-Chief before proceeding, to ensure that the topic is considered suitable and timely for publication in the journal.

  • Brief Reports are original papers demonstrating the results of scientific studies. Brief Reports are based on empirical data. Brief Reports should contain no more than 1,500 words (not including references), in addition to a structured abstract of less than 150 words. Please use the following headings in your abstract: Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Brief Reports may include 1 table, 1 figure and approximately 25 references.

  • Performance Evaluation manuscripts are research articles designed to compare a new technology/method to an existing technology/method. The instructions and template for these manuscripts can be found here.

  • Invited Commentaries and Editorials are relatively short pieces that respond to a current topic in Sleep Health. The Editor-in-Chief will invite authors to submit commentaries or editorials and provide guidelines on length on a case-by-case basis, usually not to exceed 1000 words and 20 references. Invited commentaries must meet journal standards for publication.

  • Letters to the Editor that comment on an article published in Sleep Health will be sent to the authors for reply. Space will not allow the publication of all submitted letters. Letters to the Editor must be signed by all authors and become the property of the journal. Letters to the Editor should be no more than 500 words with a maximum of 5 references. Single case reports or studies on a small number of cases may also be considered for publication in this section.

Suggesting reviewers
Please submit the names and institutional e-mail addresses of several potential reviewers.

You should not suggest reviewers who are colleagues, or who have co-authored or collaborated with you during the last three years. Editors do not invite reviewers who have potential competing interests with the authors. Further, in order to provide a broad and balanced assessment of the work, and ensure scientific rigor, please suggest diverse candidate reviewers who are located in different countries/regions from the author group. Also consider other diversity attributes e.g. gender, race and ethnicity, career stage, etc. Finally, you should not include existing members of the journal's editorial team, of whom the journal are already aware.

Note: the editor decides whether or not to invite your suggested reviewers.

Preparation

Use of word processing software
Regardless of the file format of the original submission, at revision you must provide us with an editable file of the entire article. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier). See also the section on Electronic artwork.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor.

Article structure

  • Introduction. State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate and succinct background on the topic. The literature review should be thorough, yet concise, and provide motivation for the investigation of the current objectives. Hypothesized results along with justification should be included here.

  • Participants and Methods. This section should provide information about the data and data analysis used in the study. Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.

  • Results. Results should be clear and concise.

  • Discussion. This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature. The results should be discussed in the context of prior literature and how the current findings either reinforce or contradict previous research. Limitations of the study, next research steps, and policy implications should also be discussed here.

  • Conclusions. The primary conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of the Discussion section.

  • Appendices/Supplementary Materials. If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.
    Appendices will be published online only.

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. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. You can add your name between parentheses in your own script behind the English transliteration. 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. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
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.
Word Count. Please include word count for the main text and the number of tables, figures, references, and supplementary files.

Unstructured abstract

The unstructured abstract must be used for Review Articles, Special Articles, and Invited Commentaries.

Structured abstract

A structured abstract, by means of appropriate headings, should provide the context or background for the research. Please use the following sections: Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusions. The abstract should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations.

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

Only abbreviations firmly established in the field should be used. Avoid abbreviations in the title of the manuscript. Abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there. Maintain consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Place any required disclaimers from funding agencies in this section.

Units
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other units are mentioned, please give their equivalent in SI.

Footnotes
Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article. Many word processors 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.

Artwork

Electronic Artwork

General points
• Artwork will be printed as it is submitted, and will not be copyedited. Please ensure that the artwork you submit is neat, legible, and ready for publication. Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork. Recommended size is 6-8 points.
• Embed the used fonts if the application provides that option.
• Aim to use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, Symbol, or use fonts that look similar. Try to use only one font throughout all figures in the paper.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions to illustrations on a separate page. Be sure to explain all abbreviations, color-coding, symbols, etc, in captions.
• Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the published version; image widths should be 90 mm, 140 mm, or 190 mm. At these widths, text in Arial font should be 7-10 pt; other fonts may be used but should be sized equivalently.
• Submit each illustration as a separate file.
• Ensure that color images are accessible to all, including those with impaired color vision. Wherever possible, use patterns in addition to colors to distinguish elements (dashed red line vs. solid blue line, instead of red line vs. blue line.)

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available.
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply 'as is' in the native document format.
Regardless of the application used other than Microsoft Office, when your electronic artwork is finalized, 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 (or PDF): Vector drawings, embed all used fonts.
TIFF (or JPEG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones), keep to a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF (or JPEG): Bitmapped (pure black & white pixels) line drawings, keep to a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF (or JPEG): Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale), keep to a minimum of 500 dpi.
Please do not:
• Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colors;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF (or JPEG), EPS (or PDF), 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 online (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 online only. Further information on the preparation of electronic artwork.

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 numbers in table match to the relevant numbers in the text.

Tables are reserved for presentation of numerical data and should not be used as lists or charts. ea expressed in the same unit of measurement should read down, not across; when percentages are given, the appropriate numbers must also be given. Create tables using the table creating and editing feature of your word processing software. Do not use Excel or comparable spreadsheet programs. Cite tables consecutively in the text, and number them in that order. Each table should appear on a separate page and should include the table title, appropriate column heads, and explanatory legends (including definitions of any abbreviations used). Identify statistical measures of variations, such as SD and SEM. Omit internal horizontal and vertical lines. Tables should be no wider than 120 characters (10 inches), including spaces, and no more than 70 lines. Use sentence case throughout tables. Define all table abbreviations in the table note. Bolding significant values is recommended. Run table notes together as in a paragraph.

References

Citation in text
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. 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.

Web references
As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

Data references
This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

Preprint references
Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, the formal publication should be used as the reference. If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but are not yet formally published, these may be referenced. Preprints should be clearly marked as such, for example by including the word preprint, or the name of the preprint server, as part of the reference. The preprint DOI should also be provided.

References in a special issue
Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.

Reference formatting
There are no strict requirements on reference formatting at submission. References can be in any style or format as long as the style is consistent. Where applicable, author(s) name(s), journal title/book title, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume number/book chapter and the article number or pagination must be present. Use of DOI is highly encouraged. The reference style used by the journal will be applied to the accepted article by Elsevier at the proof stage. Note that missing data will be highlighted at proof stage for the author to correct. If you do wish to format the references yourself they should be arranged according to the following examples:

Video

Elsevier accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit with their article are strongly encouraged to include links to these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the file in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 150 MB per file, 1 GB in total. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages. Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.

Research data

This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings, which may also include software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.

Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. If you are sharing data in one of these ways, you are encouraged to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.

Data linking
If you have made your research data available in a data repository, you can link your article directly to the dataset. Elsevier collaborates with a number of repositories to link articles on ScienceDirect with relevant repositories, giving readers access to underlying data that gives them a better understanding of the research described.

There are different ways to link your datasets to your article. When available, you can directly link your dataset to your article by providing the relevant information in the submission system. For more information, visit the database linking page.

For supported data repositories a repository banner will automatically appear next to your published article on ScienceDirect.

In addition, you can link to relevant data or entities through identifiers within the text of your manuscript, using the following format: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).

Data statement
To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect. For more information, visit the Data Statement page.

After 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 Assistant 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 Ediorial Assistant to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Editorial Assistant will inform the Editor-in-Chief 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.

Online proof correction

To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors.
If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF.
We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. 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. It is important to ensure that all 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.

Author inquiries



Visit the Elsevier Support Center to find the answers you need. Here you will find everything from Frequently Asked Questions to ways to get in touch.
You can also check the status of your submitted article or find out when your accepted article will be published.

OMBUDSMAN

If you need to question an editorial decision, your first step should be to contact the editorial staff at [email protected] about your particular issue. If you are not satisfied with the Journal's response, your next point of contact is our ombudsman. Information about our ombudsman process is found here.