Guide of Authors of Elsevier The following Guide has been designed to help you get published in an Elsevier publication as quickly and easily as possible. While certain journals have longer publication schedules, and there can be unforeseen delays, there are several things you can do as an author to expedite the process. For detailed instructions for an individual journal, please go to the journal page and visit their ‘Guide for Authors’ section. Steps to submitting your paper for publication: 1. Choose a journal and download the journal's 'Guide for Authors' Each Elsevier journal has its own Guide to Authors and its own set of rules and requirements for publication. Be sure to find your journal and examine the Guide to Authors carefully to avoid unnecessary delays. 2. Draft a cover letter All submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter detailing what you are submitting. Please indicate: • The author to whom we should address our correspondence (in the event of multiple authors) • A contact address, telephone/fax numbers and e-mail address (Elsevier is gradually introducing a service for authors to receive PDF proofs by e-mail). • Please include details of any previous or concurrent submissions. • It is also useful to provide the Editor-in-Chief with any information that will support your submission (e.g. original or confirmatory data, relevance, topicality). Note: When your manuscript is received at Elsevier, it is considered to be in its final form. Therefore, please check your manuscript carefully before you submit it to the editor. 3. Proofread your manuscript As a scientific or medical professional, your published works are a reflection upon your knowledge and expertise in a given field. However, not all authors are also experts in language, especially those writing in a language that is not native to them. Therefore, it is important to very carefully proofread your document. Elsevier provides several items to assist with his proofreading process, including: • A proofreading style sheet (Download PDF) • Style guides and Instructions (link) • Language, Editing & Translation Services (link) 4. Format your document In addition to being properly proof-read, your document must also be properly formatted. • We can accept most word-processing formats (but we prefer Microsoft Word or WordPerfect). • Please see your journal’s Guide for Authors to check the style of the individual journal, and particularly the reference style. By submitting a paper in the journal’s preferred style, fewer changes will have to be made later on, which reduces the possibility of errors being introduced. • Most formatting codes are removed or replaced when we process your article, so there is no need for you to use excessive layout styling. Please do not use options such as automatic word breaking, justified layout, double columns or automatic paragraph numbering (especially for numbered references). • You may use bold face, italic, subscripts, superscripts, etc., as appropriate. • 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. When you create your manuscript, please make sure it is in the following order: a) Title b) Authors c) Affiliation d) Abstract e) Keywords f) Main Text g) Acknowledgement h) Appendix i) References j) Vitae k) Figures l) Legends m) Tables Note: Do not import the Figures into the text file. If you use LaTeX to write your articles, we have separate LaTeX instructions. 5. Prepare your graphics, photos and charts. Do not import the Figures into the text file. If you use LaTeX to write your articles, we have separate LaTeX instructions for graphics. Otherwise, you may use the instructions for graphics materials. 6. Recheck your chosen journal’s Guide to Authors to ensure proper formatting and preparation of your submission. In the end, your preparation beforehand will save much time and many delays in the publishing process. 7. Submit your manuscript For initial submission of your paper for review most journals will still accept a printed copy. Please see the individual Guide for Authors for further information 8. Online Submission To speed up the submission process, Elsevier is introducing online submission for its journals. To see if the journal you have chosen allows this new feature, please check the journal home page. Submission Checklist Before sending your paper to the journal's Editor, please make sure that you have included all necessary details. Please consult the journal's Guide for Authors for further details of any item. For all submissions (online, by e-mail or on CD), please make sure you have provided: (1)Name of the author designated as the corresponding author, along with their: • E-mail address • Full postal address • Telephone and fax numbers • Keywords and/or classification codes, if required. See the journal's ‘Guide for Authors’ for details. (2)The names and addresses of potential Referees, if required. See the journal's Guide for Authors for details. (3)Ensure that online submission or submission by e-mail text files are in a standard word processing format (Word, WordPerfect or LaTeX are preferred). Alternatively, they can be submitted in PostScript format. (4)Ensure that graphics are high-resolution. Preferred formats are either TIFF or EPS. Be sure all necessary files have been uploaded/attached. All figure captions are available. (5)All tables are present (including title, description, footnotes). Further considerations: (1)Ensure your manuscript has been ‘spell checked’. (2)Check that references are in the correct format for the journal. (See the journal's ‘Guide for Authors’ for details.) (3)All references mentioned in the Reference list must be cited in the text, and vice versa. (4)Verify that permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web). (5)Color figures should be 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 color is only required on the Web, black and white versions of the figures must also be supplied for printing purposes. Guide for Authors Most Elsevier journal home pages contain a Guide for Authors that gives relevant information for submitting articles to the journal. In the Guide, you will find specific guidelines with regard to the content of a manuscript. The Guide also contains instructions for submitting text, graphics and artwork to that particular journal. This will help ensure that your submission fits the standard requirement levels of that journal. Before submitting your article, it is essential that you review your journal’s Guide for Authors, and that you adhere to all of the requirements listed there. This will ensure that your submission will receive the attention it deserves, and also reduce the chances of delays due to improper submission. Editing Checklist When preparing your paper for submission, please use the following checklist to address some of the more common errors and grammar mistakes. This will help expedite the submission process. (1)Grammar and Syntax ·Check your paper thoroughly for spelling errors, especially in your medical/technical terminology. ·Use correct word inflection. Inflection is the addition of affixes to the word to change its relationship to the other words in a sentence. For example, the -s in dogs or the -ed in played. ·Use proper syntax in the entire document. Syntax refers to the combination of words and symbols that form correct sentence structure. ·Check for correct subject-verb agreement. (‘They is going…’ should be corrected to ‘They are going...’) ·Check for proper use of definite articles (the) and indefinite articles (a, an). ·Check for proper use of prepositions (of, to, on, onto,etc.). ·Check for complete and correct punctuation (full stops at the end of sentences, proper use of commas, semicolons, etc.). ·Check for spelling inconsistencies of the same word within the article. ·Be consistent in the use of units of measurement. ·Avoid inconsistencies in active form (John threw the ball.) and passive form (The ball was thrown by John.). ·Be mindful of the rules and structure for switching between first and third person (switching from using the ‘I’ form to using the ‘he, she, you or they’ forms) ·Ensure proper use of metaphors and figures of speech. ·Be consistent in the use of British or American English spelling. ·Check for consistency in the use of a decimal comma (47,9) or a decimal point (47.9). (2)Style and Formatting ·Check your journal's Guide for Authors for information about symbols and characters, and for artwork instructions. ·If English is not your native language, we recommend that you use a language editing service to improve the English language quality in your paper. We have successfully negotiated with a number of language editing companies to provide their services to you at competitive rates. ·Review and complete your submission checklist. A generic submission checklist is available, but be sure to check your journal's Guide for Authors. Many Guides include a more specific submission checklist. Initiatives offered before a paper enters the peer review process Elsevier has instituted a new program whereby submitted papers will be initially screened, purely on the basis of technical standards - papers written with language of sufficient quality and in adherence to the Guide for Authors - to evaluate whether they are suitable for passing through to the formal peer review process. Papers that do not meet this set of minimum technical standards will be returned to the submitting author(s), along with a checklist of missing or insufficient items. Authors will be able to resubmit once they have attended to these technical insufficiencies. For more information, please visit our page dedicated to technical screening. Technical Screening We have begun extending our “Feedback Programmes” to Editors for structured feedback, and to Reviewers – who also play key roles in the evaluation process, for their opinions. A comment which we repeatedly receive from Reviewers, is that they feel they are too frequently asked to review manuscripts which are of an insufficient quality from a purely technical viewpoint, i.e. poor language, incomplete, inconsistent or outdated references, uninformative abstract, poor quality illustrations, non-adherence to the “Guide for Authors”, etc. Reviewers are becoming increasingly overloaded with requests to review manuscripts, and there is an increasing feeling that we, as the Publisher, should perhaps take more active measures to ensure that all manuscripts which are sent out for peer review, should at least adhere to a set of minimum technical standards. We also realise that you as Editor, would rather spend your time evaluating research on the basis of its creative and intellectual content, rather than having to spend time and effort annotating the technical insufficiencies of the manuscript. On the basis of this feedback, and in order to reduce Reviewers’ workload, we have instituted a new programme whereby all submitted manuscripts will be initially screened, purely on the basis of technical standards, to evaluate whether they are suitable for passing through into the formal peer review process. Manuscripts which do not meet this set of minimum technical standards will be first returned to the submitting Author(s) with a check-list of missing or insufficient items. The Author(s) will be given the opportunity to resubmit after attending to these technical insufficiencies. We believe that this technical screening will not only provide useful feedback to Authors, but will also help to resolve the issue of Reviewers receiving papers for review which are technically sub-standard. Since the advent of online submission, we have noticed a general surge of submissions from developing countries, where Authors are often less familiar with the conventions of international journals, and thus particular attention will be paid to manuscripts from these countries, although all submitted manuscripts will be screened in principle. With an increasing number of the submissions coming from Asian countries, this technical screening process will be coordinated from our Beijing office, but will be fully integrated into the ongoing EES work process, with which you are already familiar. To implement the technical screening initiative for your journal, please contact your Publishing Editor Copy editing team After your paper is accepted, Elsevier's copy editors will prepare a proof of the paper. Final edits and changes may be made during this phase, according to a set group of standards. Upon receipt of the proof, authors can review the content to ensure that the meaning and intention of their text has not changed during these editing phases. Author Responsibility during copy editing As the author of the submitted work, it is ultimately your responsibility to ensure clean, correct copy. Although the guidelines below list the activities and actions of most copy editors, it is essential that you submit text that is as correct as it can possibly be. If extensive editing is required by the copy editors, the publishing process may be significantly delayed. Corrected by Elsevier copy editors (set group of standards) The following points are considered to constitute the ‘basic level’ of language editing and can be expected to be performed by editors of all Elsevier journals. • Spelling errors: plain spelling errors in normal English words will be corrected; scientific words/terms will not be corrected for spelling errors. • Incorrect word inflection will be corrected. Inflection is the addition of affixes to the word to change its relationship to the other words in a sentence. For example, the -s in dogs or the -ed in played. • Fundamental errors in syntax must be corrected. Syntax refers to the combination of words and symbols that form correct sentence structure. • Errors with singular/plural (verb–subject agreement) must be corrected. (‘They is going…’ will be corrected to ‘They are going...’) • Each journal will have its own rules for the usage of hyphens (-), en-dashes (–) and em-dashes (—), in which the length of the dash indicates a particular meaning. Misuse of these three dashes will be corrected. • Incorrect use of definite articles (the) and indefinite articles (a, an) will be corrected. • Missing full stops (periods) at the ends of sentences will be added. • Spelling inconsistencies of the same word within the article will be corrected. • Inconsistencies in the usage of units will be queried to you, the author. Consistency on an issue or journal level is not necessary and not enforced.