INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Uniform requirements of ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors)

 Before submitting their manuscript, authors should check that they conform to the Uniform Requirements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.ICMJE.org).

Types of manuscripts published

Manuscripts submitted must be based on original work and not have been published, submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere. The Journal accepts the following kinds of manuscripts:

  1. Editorial
  2. Original article
  3. Review
  4. Systematic review / Meta-analysis
  5. Case report / series
  6. How I do it
  7. Commentary
  8. Letter to the Editor
  9. Surgical history
  10. Perspective
  11. Brief communication
  12. Surgical image

Confidentiality

HJS editors and publication staff keep all information about a submitted manuscript confidential and limited to those involved in the evaluation, review and publication process. Only the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing and Associate Editors and the allocated Subject Editors are aware of the names of manuscript authors and their affiliations. HJS has a double-blind review process so that authors’ names and affiliations are not revealed to reviewers nor are reviewers’ names revealed to authors. Only information on accepted articles is archived for future reference.

Primary publication

Manuscripts submitted to the journal must represent reports of original research, and the original data must be available for review by the editor if necessary. By submitting a manuscript to the journal, the authors guarantee that they have the authority to publish the work and that the manuscript, or one with substantially the same content, was not published previously, is not being considered or published elsewhere, and was not rejected on scientific grounds by another journal. It is incumbent upon the author to acknowledge any prior publication, including his/her own articles, of the data contained in a manuscript submitted to the journal. A copy of the relevant work should be submitted with the paper as supplemental material not for publication. Whether the material constitutes the substance of a paper and therefore renders the manuscript unacceptable for publication is an editorial decision. In the event that the authors’ previously published figures and/or data are included in a submitted manuscript, it is incumbent upon the corresponding author to (i) identify the duplicated material and acknowledge the source on the submission form, (ii) obtain permission from the original publisher (i.e., copyright owner), (iii) acknowledge the duplication in the figure legend, and (iv) cite the original article.

Authorship 

Authorship must be based on all of the following four criteria: 1) Substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) Drafting the article or revising it critically; 3) Final approval of the version to be published and 4) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgements section at the end of the article.

Authorship changes

Authorship changes must be requested before publication of an article in an online issue. Requests for the addition, removal and re-arrangement of authors should be sent to the Submission Manager from the corresponding author with an appropriate statement which must state the reason. Agreement will be requested by all authors following evaluation of the request by the Editorial Board.

Conflict of interest

Trust in the peer review process and the credibility of published articles depends partly on the handling of conflict of interest issues in the writing, peer review and editorial decision-making process. Conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author’s institution), reviewer or editor has financial or personal relationships that inappropriately influence his/her actions. These people must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest. Authors need to add a Conflict of Interest statement in the Cover Letter. In addition, a Conflict of Interest statement must be added in the main manuscript just before References. The editors may use this information as a basis for editorial decisions and may publish it in the Journal. Peer-reviewers are requested to declare any conflict of interest. HJS Subject Editors have to declare any conflict of interest before taking responsibility for a manuscript.

Informed consent

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. HJS does not publish identifying information in written descriptions or images unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or guardian) has given written informed consent for publication. This requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript before publication. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should note this. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the manuscript.

Ethics in publishing

All studies on human or animal subjects must contain a statement about ethical permission for the study including the name of the organization which granted it. Such studies must be in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach, and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

Copyright

Copyright of the accepted manuscripts will transfer from the authors to the Hellenic Journal of Surgery. Copyright covers all publication forms and media, now or hereafter known, and is effective as soon as a manuscript is accepted for publication in HJS. The corresponding author should submit to the journal the copyright transfer agreement form signed by all authors. In case of submission of an original paper that has been already published in a foreign journal, it must be clearly stated that the authors have obtained the written permission of the copyright owners, a copy of which must be attached. The final revised text will

be resubmitted electronically in WORD and PDF form. All papers published in HJS are owned  by the journal and are not allowed to be republished without the written consent of the Editor in chief. The authors retain the following nonexclusive copyrights, to be exercised only after the manuscript has been published in online format on the HJS website:

  1. Reprint the manuscript in print collections of the author’s own writing.
  2. Present the manuscript orally in its entirety.
  3. Use the manuscript in theses and/or dissertations.
  4. Reproduce the manuscript for use in courses the author is teaching. (If the author is employed by an academic institution, that institution may also reproduce the manuscript for course teaching.)
  5. Distribute photocopies of the manuscript to colleagues, but only for non-commercial purposes.
  6. Reuse figures and tables created by the author in future manuscripts the author writes.
  7. Post a copy of the manuscript on the author’s personal website, departmental website, and/or the university’s intranet, provided a hyperlink to the manuscript on the HJS website is included.

In all the above instances, the author shall give proper credit to the original publication in SQUMJ as follows: This research was originally published in HJS. Author(s). Title. HJS Year;vol:pp-pp. © by Hellenic Journal of Surgery.

User rights

Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles under the following conditions: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Scientific misconduct policy

Following the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), SQUMJ defines scientific misconduct as:

  1. Falsifying data: Inventing data, selective reporting or the omission, suppression or distortion of data.
  2. Plagiarism: Using the published or unpublished language, ideas, or thoughts of another writer without reference or permission and presenting them as one’s own. Plagiarism includes self-plagiarism (duplication of portions of your own previously published work), duplicate publication (publication of an article in more than one journal or in another language) and redundant publication (more than 10% of an article overlapping with another submission/publication).
  3. Authorship issues: Exclusion of involved researchers, or inclusion of researchers who have not contributed to the work, or publication without permission from all authors.
  4. Disregard for generally accepted research practice: Manipulation of experiments/statistics to get biased results, or improper reporting of results, for example.
  5. Failure to follow legal requirements: Violation of local regulations and laws involving the use of funds, copyright, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biological or chemical materials.
  6. Inappropriate behavior in cases of misconduct: False accusations of misconduct; failure to report misconduct; not providing information relevant to a misconduct claim; and retaliation against people claiming or investigating misconduct, for example.

HJS takes all these forms of misconduct extremely seriously. It follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. The final decision on action is taken by the Editor-in-Chief.

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; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, it is recommended to state this. A Funding statement must be added both in the Cover Letter and in the main manuscript just before References.

Open access

HJS is an Open Access Journal. This means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles under the following conditions: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). This is also in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.

PREPARING THE MANUSCRIPT

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.

Ensure that the following items are present:

One 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 keywords
  • All figures (include relevant captions)
  • All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
  • Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided
  • Indicate clearly if color should be used for any figures in print

Supplemental files (where applicable)

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)
  • A competing interests statement is provided, 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, based on journal requirements

Types of papers

Types of papers that can be submitted for consideration by the Editorial Board include:

  1. Editorial. Invited leading articles commissioned by the editorial team. Word and reference limits:800–1000 words and up to 10 references. Submissions will be subjected to peer review and the Editors retain the right to alter textual style.
  2. Original article. Full-length original research articles, representing substantial, novel research in general surgery. Word and reference limits:Text: 3500 words, excluding abstract, references, tables, and figures; Structured abstract: 250 words; References: 50 maximum. A maximum combined number of 7 tables & figures may be included for publication. Additional tables and figures may be included as online-only supplemental data content.All clinical trials that prospectively assign human subjects to medical interventions, comparison groups, or control groups should ensure that all elements in the CONSORT checklist are covered. A copy of the CONSORT checklist must be uploaded as supplemental material. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information. Submitted manuscripts must include the unique registration number in the abstract as evidence of registration. In addition, experimental animal studies must be reported in accordance with the ARRIVE guidelines and must include the checklist as supplemental material (Animals in Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments, Kilkenny C, Browne WJ, Cuthill IC, Emerson M, Altman DG (2010) Improving Bioscience Research Reporting: The ARRIVE Guidelines for Reporting Animal Research. PLoS Biol 8(6): e1000412. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000412). The institutional protocol number should be included at the end of the abstract of the article.
  3. Review. State-of-the-art reviews on specific topics within surgery. Word and reference limits:Text: 7000 words, excluding abstract, references, tables, and figures; Structured abstract: 250 words; For narrative reviews an unstructured abstract is acceptable. References: 75 maximum. A maximum combined number of 7 tables & figures may be included for publication. Additional tables and figures may be included as online-only supplemental data content.
  4. Systematic Review / Meta-analysis. Systematic, critical assessments of current literature pertaining to clinical topics, emphasizing factors such as cause, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy or prevention. All articles should be searched for and selected systematically for inclusion and critically evaluated, and the search and selection process should be described in the manuscript. The specific type of study or analysis should be described for each article or data source. Submitted meta-analyses need to comply with the PRISMA guidelines (https://prisma-statement.org/). The flow diagram should be uploaded as a figure and the checklist as supplemental material. Word and reference limits:Text: 5000 words, excluding abstract, references, tables, and figures; Structured abstract: 250 words; References: 75 maximum. A maximum combined number of 7 tables & figures may be included for publication. Additional tables and figures may be included as online-only supplemental data content.
  5. Case report / series. Reports on new or very rare clinical cases, new diagnostic criteria or new therapeutic methods with proven results. Submitted case reports should comply with the CARE guidelines (https://www.care-statement.org/) and the checklist should be uploaded as a supplemental file. Word and reference limits: Text: 2000 words and up to 20 references; Unstructured abstract: 150 words.
  6. How I do it. Articles describing a new surgical technique or a modification of known surgical techniques. Manuscripts should be accompanied by drawing figures of technique. Word and reference limits:1000-1500 words and up to 10 references.
  7. Commentary. Short, decisive observations and findings that generally relate to a contemporary issue, such as recent research findings, but can also include the discussion of difficulties and possible solutions in a field of research. Word and reference limits:500 words and up to 5 references.
  8. Letter to the Editor. Letters to the Editor will be considered for publication only if they are relevant to articles recently published in HJS. All letters should be received within 90 days of the published paper appearing in HJS. In addition, all letters should be clearly referred to the published article they are relevant to and should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief. Letters should not duplicate other material published or submitted for publication and should not include unpublished data. Word and reference limits:500 words and up to 5 references, 1 of which should be to the recent article, and no more than 3 authors. Letters not meeting these specifications are generally not considered for publication.
  9. Surgical History. Articles that explore the life of a surgeon, examine the development of a new technique or technology, interrogate relationships among surgeons other health care providers, analyze the experience of patients who underwent an operation, address the hurdles minorities encountered when trying to enter the profession, assess the impact of race/gender/class in surgical history or research any other topic that relates to the history of surgery. Word and reference limits:Text: 3500 words, excluding abstract, references, tables, and figures; Unstructured abstract: 250 words; References: 50 maximum.
  10. Perspective. Perspective articles present a viewpoint on a specific area of investigation. They may discuss current advances and future directions and can include original data as well as personal insights and opinions. Word and reference limits:Text: 3000 words, excluding abstract, references, tables, and figures; Unstructured abstract: 150 words; References: 50 maximum. A maximum combined number of 3 tables & figures may be included for publication.
  11. Brief Communication. These manuscripts are short reports of original studies or evaluations or unique, first-time reports of clinical case series. Word and reference limits:Text: 1500 words, excluding abstract, references, tables, and figures; Unstructured abstract: 150 words; References: 15 maximum. A maximum combined number of 2 tables & figures may be included for publication.
  12. Surgical image. These short articles highlight interesting surgical images (s), with a brief Introduction to the image/s and a detailed caption for each one, followed by a Comment section. Word and reference limits: Text: 500 words, excluding abstract, references and figures; References: 5 maximum. A maximum number of 3 figures may be included for publication.

Journal language 

The official language of HJS is English. Authors whose native language is not English should review and edit their manuscripts by a native English speaker prior to submission. 

Journal style

The modern trend to simplify has also influenced scientific writing. When preparing your manuscript, avoid long sentences, jargon and clichés. When tempted to use a difficult word or complex sentence, see if it can be replaced by a simpler one. Always write for the generalist, rather than the specialist. The overall essence of your manuscript should be understandable to someone educated until university level.

Abbreviations and Unit system

Since abbreviations tend to make the text difficult to read, avoid them except when essential. In the Abstract and the article itself, define each abbreviation when first used—e.g. coronary artery disease (CAD)—and thereafter use the abbreviation alone without further explanation. Avoid beginning sentences with abbreviations. All abbreviations must be expanded in titles, subtitles and captions. Use standard abbreviations, rather than words, for units and percentages (e.g. km, mm, kg, L, mL, %, etc.). This Journal uses the International System (SI) units for most measurements (eg. pmol/L). Alternative corresponding units may be included in parentheses. 

Formatting 

All manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word. Use 12 point Times New Roman font for the entire manuscript. In addition, all manuscripts should have 2 spacing between the lines and have continuous line-numbering for the entire manuscript to facilitate the review and revision process. Use minimum formatting, restricting formatting to superscripts and subscripts and what is absolutely essential to reveal various heading levels, since most formatting will be removed before typesetting. Use true superscripts and subscripts and not “raised/lowered” characters. For symbols, use the standard symbol fonts on Windows or Macintosh. Using strange symbol fonts may give unpredictable results in print, even if the fonts are supplied by the author. Put exactly one space between words and after any punctuation. Put one blank line between paragraphs and do not use indents to indicate new paragraphs. Ensure that the text of the entire manuscript is in uniform black font color, unless you need to indicate changes to your article made during a request for revision. Please do not insert page borders. 

ARTICLE SECTIONS 

Details

Papers must be typed in double space of the usual dimensions (ISO A4 210 × 297 mm), with margins of at least 3.5 cm. A separate page must be used for the title, the abstract and keywords, the main text, the acknowledgements, the references, the tables, the figures and the figure legends. Please ensure that you remove the author names and affiliation details from the Microsoft Word document of your manuscript as it will be sent out for blind peer review. In addition, ensure that any potential identifying information—such as that which might be included in an Acknowledgments/Funding/Conflict of Interest section—is uploaded as part of the Cover Letter on the HJS Editorial Manager website. This information can subsequently be included in the manuscript after an acceptance decision has been made.

Cover letter

The cover letter, from the author responsible for all correspondence regarding the manuscript, should contain a statement that the manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors. If color figures have been submitted, a statement should be included as to whether the authors are willing to meet possible costs of color reproduction. 

Title page

Title: Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible. It must be brief (up to 12 words) accompanied by a running title (up to 50 characters).

Author names and affiliations: Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors’ affiliation addresses (where the actual affiliations) with lower-case superscript letters 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 email address of each author.

Corresponding author: Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication. Ensure that phone numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the email address and the complete postal address. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.

Blinded manuscript 

Abstract: A concise and factual abstract is required in English. The article title should be repeated. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract. Abstracts of original articles, systematic reviews/meta-analyses and brief communications should be structured into four paragraphs, under the following captions: Background, Material and Methods, Results, Conclusions (maximum 250 words). Editorials, commentaries and letters to the editor do not need an abstract. Reviews, “how I do it” articles, perspectives, historical articles and case reports have a narrative abstract in a single paragraph (up to 150 words). The high- quality of the English abstract would be strongly considered as a crucial requirement for publication.

Keywords: Immediately after the abstract, provide 3-5 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (e.g.  ‘and’, ‘of’) chosen from the MeSHterms of Index Medicus.

Main text: Original papers usually contain the following chapters: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion. The introduction contains the background along with the necessary references and cites the objective of the study. The study protocol must be thoroughly described in the methodology section. Details such as the mode of patient or material selection, as well as the methodology applied must be fully disclosed in order to allow the reported research to be reproduced by future investigators. In the case of research related to human beings it must be stated that the research was performed according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (1975). The pharmaceutical substances used must be mentioned by their generic names. In the same chapter the data evaluated must be described and the chapter should be completed by an analysis of the statistical criteria used. In the next chapter the results should be presented fully, but briefly. Results shown in tables should not be repeated in the text. In the Discussion, the perspectives opened up by the results of the study as well as the final conclusions are discussed.The results must not be repeated in this section. A comparison with the results of other similar studies may be done. The results may, also, be related to the objectives of the study, but it is advisable to avoid arbitrary conclusions, not emerging from the results themselves. The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section. Acknowledgements are addressed only to individuals who have contributed substantially to the presented work.

References

All statements which require support/evidence or cite data from previously published material should be referenced. Other literature should be referenced sequentially in their order of appearance, for example: “The Ministry of Health has prioritized eye care in its next 5 year plan (3)”. Always try to use primary rather than secondary sources of data, if available. Avoid references to personal communications, unpublished data or other manuscripts which have not yet been accepted for publication. The reference number must be inserted within the text in brackets before a comma or full stop. In the article itself and the Reference section, list all the references in sequential numerical order. In the Reference section, list all authors up to a maximum of six. If there are more than six authors then write et al. after the sixth author. The Journal uses Vancouver style for references. Please adopt the exact style as shown in the examples below, including punctuation. Journal names should be abbreviated as per the Journals Database section in PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals).

Journal Citation

Rose-Nussbaumer J, Prajna NV, Krishnan T, Mascarenhas J, Rajaraman R, Srinivasan M, et al. Risk factors for low vision related functioning in the Mycotic Ulcer Treatment Trial: A randomised trial comparing natamycin with voriconazole. Br J Ophthalmol 2016; 7:929–32.

Book Chapter

Brown J, Murphy KH. Adult-onset Still’s disease. In: Maddison PJ, Woo P, Glass DN, Eds. Oxford Textbook of Rheumatology, 3rd ed. Oxford, UK: Medical Publication, 2010. Pp. 1127–31.

Book

Smith MD. Introduction to Gynaecology, 6th ed. New York, USA: Institutional Press, 2005. P. 15.

Report

World Health Organization. Issues in Health Services Delivery. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. WHO/EIP/00I. Pp. 3–4.

Thesis

Rowe L. DNA damage-induced reactive oxygen species: A genotoxic stress response. PhD Thesis, 2012, Emory University, Georgia, USA. Pp. 315–22.

Website

Smith AD. Pregnancy after 35. From: www.marchof-dimes.com/pregnancy Accessed: Sep 2016.

Figures and tables

All tables and figures should be inserted/placed at the end of the manuscript, rather than within the main text. Provide a brief but fully self-explanatory caption and title for each figure and cite each figure in the text and number them consecutively. Number tables consecutively, give concise but self-explanatory titles to each and cite them in the text. All figures will appear in color, if necessary. Tables will be formatted to fit the standard shading/layout of the Journal. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission for the reproduction of previously published figures or tables from other sources and the source of the original figure/table should be clearly cited underneath the reproduction. An explanation of all definitions used, as well as any other potentially non-intuitive features, should be included in the legend to the figure or table.

Photographs/Images/Scans – The quality of such figures must be high enough resolution for good print reproduction and should stand reduction. The Journal uses standard arrows/identifying symbols for figures, so additional arrows, symbols, words and other identifying/descriptive features should not be placed on the figure itself, if possible, but into the Microsoft Word document instead. After acceptance, figures should be provided to the Editorial Office in digital format (300 dpi) and in JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF or other image format. Sourcing figures directly from a Microsoft Word document may greatly and negatively affect their quality in print.

Drawings – All line drawings should be planned to fit the Journal’s page size (12 x 18 cm). Lines should be dark enough and letters should be of professional quality in order to stand reduction. Do not use bold or all-capital lettering. Do not combine line drawings and photographs into one illustration. For best results, it is advisable to execute your drawings in a vector application such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. The Editorial Office is able to accommodate a wide range of vector and bitmap formats executed on Windows or Macintosh platforms.

Diagrams/Flow Charts – All diagrams and flowcharts should be created in Microsoft Word, if possible, and be editable so that the font/formatting of the text can be changed by the Editorial Office if necessary.

Tables and Charts – All X and Y axes must be clearly labeled. Charts and tables pasted into Microsoft Word documents in un-editable “picture” formats are not acceptable and should be provided in Microsoft Excel or a similar programme. Please ensure that no charts or graphs are displayed in three dimensions. For tables, please ensure that as few cells as possible are merged and that each column and row is clearly labeled and outlined using the border function. Within a table, do not insert multiple spaces or tabs within a single cell.

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.

Whilst it is accepted that authors sometimes need to manipulate images for clarity, manipulation for purposes of deception or fraud will be seen as scientific ethical abuse and will be dealt with accordingly. No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original.

Figure legends

On initial submission, each legend should be placed in the text file and be incorporated into the image file beneath the figure to assist review. Legends should provide enough information so that the figure is understandable without frequent reference to the text. However, detailed experimental methods must be described in the Materials and Methods section, not in a figure legend. A method that is unique to one of several experiments may be reported in a legend only if the discussion is very brief (one or two sentences). Define all symbols used in the figure and define all abbreviations that are not used in the text.

Acknowledgements

Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references. List here those individuals who provided assistance during the research.

Data statement

To foster transparency, we require you to state the availability of your data in your submission if your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post. This may also be a requirement of your funding body or institution. You will have the opportunity to provide a data statement during the submission process. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect.

Math formulae

Present simple formulae in the line of normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of “e” are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. 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. Do not include footnotes in the reference list.

Reprints

Photocopy reproduction of published papers is not allowed.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material such as applications, images and sound clips, can be published with your article to enhance it. Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received (Excel or PowerPoint files will appear as such online). Please submit your material together with the article and supply a concise, descriptive caption for each supplementary file. If you wish to make changes to supplementary material during any stage of the process, please make sure to provide an updated file. Do not annotate any corrections on a previous version. Please switch off the ‘Track Changes’ option in Microsoft Office files as these will appear in the published version.