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.
（ ） The names and addresses of potential Referees, if required. See the journal's Guide for
2
 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.