Guide for authors

Official journal of the Asociación Española de Vacunología (AEV)

Vacunas publishes research articles related to the field of vaccine-preventable diseases in humans and those with zoonotic potential in animals. It places special emphasis on aspects associated with planning and evaluation, including the epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases, the development of vaccination programs, and the evaluation of the efficacy, effectiveness, and efficiency of vaccinations. It accepts articles in both Spanish and English.

The areas of interest of the journal are as follows:

• Vaccine development and evaluation

• Epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases

• Regulatory affairs and commercial utilization and historical background of vaccines

• Vaccine technology, vectors, adjuvants, and immunomodulators

• Public health policies and vaccination programs

• Vaccine immunology and mechanisms of action

• Immunological mechanisms related to vaccination

• Vaccine safety, efficacy, and effectiveness

• Vaccine hesitancy and acceptance

• Vaccines for chronic conditions, autoimmune diseases, allergies, and non-communicable diseases

• Veterinary vaccines for animal health from a One Health perspective

This journal is published in Spanish and in English language.

Regardless of the type of article or the section of this journal, authors must always include on the first page of the article, in addition to the title, authors, affiliation, and email address, statements regarding Ethical Considerations, Informed Consent, Funding, Conflict of Interest, the use of artificial intelligence, and Authors' contributions.

Originals:

Research works on the immunogenicity, efficacy, effectiveness and safety of vaccines are accepted, as well as those on the microbiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of immuno-preventable diseases. The recommended designs are analytical type in the form of clinical trials, community trials, cohort studies, case control studies, and seroprevalence studies. The maximum length of the text will be 3,000 words and up to a maximum of 8 Figures and/or Tables will be accepted. The number of literature references must not exceed 30. The article should have the following headings: Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions, and will be accompanied by an abstract in Spanish and English of a maximum of 250 words structured in the following sections: Objective, Material and methods, Results and Conclusions.

Short Communication:

This section will admit research works, which due to their special characteristics (including, but not limited to, a reduced number of observations, works with very specific aims and results, descriptive epidemiological studies, may be published in a shorter and more rapid form. The maximum length of the text will be 1,500 words, with 15 literature references and four Tables or Figures. They should be structured as an Original article and will also include a structured Abstract of approximately 250 words, in Spanish and in English. There must be no more than six authors.

Vaccine Development:

The section aims to provide expert analysis on vaccine development and challenges of different classes of biopharmaceuticals, including monoclonal antibodies. Submissions should deliver the latest developments in pharmaceutical biotechnology, up-to-date information about new vaccine developments and their main clinical applications. The article will also include an Abstract of approximately 250 words, in Spanish and in English.

Letters to the Editor:

This section will publish discussions and comments associated with publications in the Journal during the three previous months, as well as observations or experiences that could be summarized in a short text. The maximum length will be 600 words, with a maximum of 10 literature references and two Figures or Tables. There must be no more than four authors.

Other sections:

The Journal includes other sections, such as Editorials, Reviews. Special Articles, vaccination strategies, Questions and Answers, Conferences and Scientific Meetings, where the articles are commissioned by the Editorial Board. The authors who wish to contribute to any of these sections without having been commissioned should contact the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal. Works on vaccinations and immunopreventable diseases that are promoted by bodies of the Health Administration, University bodies or Scientific Societies will be particularly welcome.

This journal follows a single anonymized review process. Your submission will initially be assessed by our editors to determine suitability for publication in this journal. If your submission is deemed suitable, it will typically be sent to a minimum of two reviewers for an independent expert assessment of the scientific quality. The decision as to whether your article is accepted or rejected will be taken by our editors.

Read more about peer review.

Our editors are not involved in making decisions about papers which:

• they have written themselves.

• have been written by family members or colleagues.

• relate to products or services in which they have an interest.

Any such submissions will be subject to the journal's usual procedures and peer review will be handled independently of the editor involved and their research group. Read more about editor duties.

Authors may submit a formal appeal request to the editorial decision, provided it meets all the requirements and follows the procedure outlined in Elsevier’s Appeal Policy. Only one appeal per submission will be considered and the appeal decision will be final.

Special issues and article collections

The peer review process for special issues and article collections follows the same process as outlined above for regular submissions, except, a guest editor may send the submissions out to the reviewers and may recommend a decision to the journal editor. The journal editor oversees the peer review process of all special issues and article collections to ensure the high standards of publishing ethics and responsiveness are respected and is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles.

We refer you to our open access information page to learn about open access options for this journal.

Authors must follow ethical guidelines stated in Elsevier's Publishing Ethics Policy.

When authors submit an article to an Elsevier journal it is implied that:

• the work described has not been published previously except in the form of a preprint, an abstract, a published lecture, academic thesis or registered report. See our policy on multiple, redundant or concurrent publication.

• the article is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

• the article's publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out.

• if accepted, the article 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.

To verify compliance with our journal publishing policies, we may check your manuscript with our screening tools.

All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following:

1. The conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.

2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content.

3. Final approval of the version to be submitted.

Authors should appoint a corresponding author to communicate with the journal during the editorial process. All authors should agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work to ensure that the questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

The editors of this journal generally will not consider changes to authorship once a manuscript has been submitted. It is important that authors carefully consider the authorship list and order of authors and provide a definitive author list at original submission.

The policy of this journal around authorship changes:

• All authors must be listed in the manuscript and their details entered into the submission system.

• Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should only be made prior to acceptance, and only if approved by the journal editor.

• Requests to change authorship should be made by the corresponding author, who must provide the reason for the request to the journal editor with written confirmation from all authors, including any authors being added or removed, that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement.

• All requests to change authorship must be submitted using this form. Requests which do not comply with the instructions outlined in the form will not be considered.

• Only in exceptional circumstances will the journal editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors post acceptance.

• Publication of the manuscript may be paused while a change in authorship request is being considered.

• Any authorship change requests approved by the journal editor will result in a corrigendum if the manuscript has already been published.

• Any unauthorized authorship changes may result in the rejection of the article, or retraction, if the article has already been published.

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias their work. Examples of potential competing interests include:

• Employment

• Consultancies

• Stock ownership

• Honoraria

• Paid expert testimony

• Patent applications or registrations

• Grants or any other funding

• Affiliation with the journal as an Editor or Advisory Board Member

The declarations tool should always be completed.

Authors with a journal affiliation to declare should enter the following text under “Other Activities” within the  declarations tool and should inform the journal and publisher prior to completing the submission process:
Given their role as [insert journal role title], [insert your name] had no involvement in the peer-review of this article and has no access to information regarding its peer-review.  Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to another journal editor.

Authors with no competing interests to declare should select the option "I have nothing to declare".

The resulting Word document containing your declaration should be uploaded at the "attach/upload files" step in the submission process. It is important that the Word document is saved in the .doc/.docx file format. Author signatures are not required.

Authors must disclose any funding sources who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article. The role of sponsors, if any, should be declared in relation to the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report and decision to submit the article for publication. If funding sources had no such involvement this should be stated in your submission.

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, scholarships 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, it is recommended to include the following sentence:

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

Authors must declare the use of generative AI in the manuscript preparation process upon submission of the paper.

Elsevier recognizes the potential of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies (“AI Tools”), when used responsibly, to help researchers work efficiently, gain critical insights fast and achieve better outcomes. Increasingly, these tools, including AI agents and deep research tools, are helping researchers to synthesize complex literature, provide an overview of a field or research question, identify research gaps, generate ideas, and provide tailored support for tasks such as content organization and improving language and readability.

Authors preparing a manuscript for an Elsevier journal can use AI Tools to support them. However, these tools must never be used as a substitute for human critical thinking, expertise and evaluation. AI technology should always be applied with human oversight and control.

Ultimately, authors are responsible and accountable for the contents of their work. This includes accountability for:

• Carefully reviewing and verifying the accuracy, comprehensiveness, and impartiality of all AI-generated output (including checking the sources, as AI-generated references can be incorrect or fabricated).

• Editing and adapting all material thoroughly to ensure the manuscript represents the author’s authentic and original contribution and reflects their own analysis, interpretation, insights and ideas.

• Ensuring the use of any tools or sources, AI-based or otherwise, is made clear and transparent to readers. If AI Tools have been used, we require a disclosure statement upon submission; please see example below.

• Ensuring the manuscript is developed in a way that safeguards data privacy, intellectual property and other rights, by checking the terms and conditions of any AI tool that is used.

Finally, authors must not list or cite AI Tools as an author or co-author on the manuscript since authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to, and performed by, humans.

The use of AI Tools in the manuscript preparation process must be declared by adding a statement at the end of the manuscript when the paper is first submitted. The statement will appear in the published work and should be placed in a new section before the references list.

An example:

• Title of new section: Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the manuscript preparation process.

• Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME OF 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 published article.

The declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools, such as tools used to check grammar, spelling and references. If you have nothing to disclose, you do not need to add a statement.

Please read Elsevier’s author policy on the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies, which can be found in our generative AI policies for journals.

Please note: to protect authors’ rights and the confidentiality of their research, this journal does not currently allow the use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies such as ChatGPT or similar services by reviewers or editors in the peer review and manuscript evaluation process, as is stated in our generative AI policies for journals. We are actively evaluating compliant AI Tools and may revise this policy in the future.

Authors may share preprints in line with Elsevier's article sharing policy. Sharing preprints, such as on a preprint server, will not count as prior publication.

We advise you to read our policy on multiple, redundant or concurrent publication.

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Authors should ensure their work uses inclusive language throughout and contains nothing which might imply one individual is superior to another on the grounds of:

• age

• gender

• race

• ethnicity

• culture

• sexual orientation

• disability or health condition

We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors about personal attributes unless they are relevant and valid. Write for gender neutrality with the use of plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default. Wherever possible, avoid using "he, she," or "he/she."

No assumptions should be made about the beliefs of readers and writing should be free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions.

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

There is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender. We offer the following guidance:

• Sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA) should be integrated into research design when research involves or pertains to humans, animals or eukaryotic cells. This should be done in accordance with any requirements set by funders or sponsors and best practices within a field.

• Sex and/or gender dimensions of the research should be addressed within the article or declared as a limitation to the generalizability of the research.

• Definitions of sex and/or gender applied should be explicitly stated to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of the research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer.

We advise you to read the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the SAGER checklist (PDF) on the EASE website, which offer systematic approaches to the use of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting and research interpretation.

For further information we suggest reading the rationale behind and recommended use of the SAGER guidelines.

Definitions of sex and/or gender

We ask authors to define how sex and gender have been used in their research and publication. Some guidance:

• Sex generally refers to a set of biological attributes that are associated with physical and physiological features such as chromosomal genotype, hormonal levels, internal and external anatomy. A binary sex categorization (male/female) is usually designated at birth ("sex assigned at birth") and is in most cases based solely on the visible external anatomy of a newborn. In reality, sex categorizations include people who are intersex/have differences of sex development (DSD).

• 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.

Depending on the focus of a paper, sex and/or gender may or may not be relevant to the content of the paper. We recognize that beliefs, attitudes, and laws relating to sex and gender may vary. These articles do not attempt to dictate author beliefs but rather require that, where relevant to an author’s research or paper, the author must provide clear explanations of how the paper and research define and use sex and gender.

We accept that authors sometimes need to adjust images for clarity but any manipulation of images for the purpose of deception or fraud will be seen as scientific ethical abuse and will be dealt with accordingly.

Authors must adhere to this journal’s policy for graphical images:

• 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 only as long as, they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original image.

• Nonlinear adjustments such as changes to gamma settings must be disclosed in the figure legend.

• We do not permit the use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools to create or alter images in submitted manuscripts. Please read our policy on the use of generative AI and AI-assisted tools in figures, images and artwork, which can be found in Elsevier’s GenAI Policies for Journals.

To verify compliance with the above, this journal may send your images to a third-party service who screen for image irregularities. Our editors may ask you to provide original data or images if any questions arise as a result of the screening. The final decision as to whether images are acceptable will be taken by our editors.

Authors are encouraged to carefully check all images before submission and to connect all the data in any figures to the original, unprocessed data.

Elsevier respects the decisions taken by its authors as to how they choose to designate territories and identify their affiliations in their published content. Elsevier’s policy is to take a neutral position with respect to territorial disputes or jurisdictional claims, including, but not limited to, maps and institutional affiliations. For journals that Elsevier publishes on behalf of a third party owner, the owner may set its own policy on these issues.

• Maps: Readers should be able to locate any study areas shown within maps using common mapping platforms. Maps should only show the area actually studied and authors should not include a location map which displays a larger area than the bounding box of the study area. Authors should add a note clearly stating that "map lines delineate study areas and do not necessarily depict accepted national boundaries”.  During the review process, Elsevier’s editors may request authors to change maps if these guidelines are not followed.

• Institutional affiliations: Authors should use either the full, standard title of their institution or the standard abbreviation of the institutional name so that the institutional name can be independently verified for research integrity purposes.
  

Authors must follow ethical guidelines for studies carried out in humans.

Work which involves the use of human subjects should be carried out in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. 

Manuscripts should follow the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing and publication of scholarly work in medical journals and aim to be representative of human populations in terms of sex, age and ethnicity. Sex and gender terms should be used correctly, as outlined by WHO (World Health Organization).

Manuscripts must include a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and have been approved by the appropriate institutional committee(s). The statement should contain the date and reference number of the ethical approval(s) obtained.

Manuscripts must also include a statement that the privacy rights of human subjects have been observed and that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects.

This journal will not accept manuscripts that contain data derived from unethically sourced organs or tissue, including from executed prisoners or prisoners of conscience, consistent with recommendations by Global Rights Compliance on Mitigating Human Rights Risks in Transplantation Medicine. For all studies that use human organs or tissues, sufficient evidence must be provided that these were procured in line with WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation. For clinical studies, a statement of informed consent having been obtained from a patient or their nominated representative, paired with ethical approval for the study from a suitable institution, as required by the policies of the journal, may be considered sufficient evidence, but the journal reserves the right to request additional evidence in cases where it feels this is not sufficient. The source of the organs or tissues used in clinical research must be transparent and traceable. If your manuscript describes organ transplantation you must additionally declare within the manuscript that:

• autonomous consent free from coercion was obtained from the donor(s) or their next of kin.

• organs and/or tissues were not sourced from executed prisoners or prisoners of conscience.

Authors must document in the manuscript that ethics committee approval and informed consent have been obtained for studies involving patients or volunteers (including organ/tissue donors). Key guidelines:

• Appropriate consents, permissions and releases must be obtained if case details, personal information and images of patients or any other individuals are included in a publication, even if anonymized.

• Patient and research subjects’ names, initials, hospital or social security numbers, dates of birth or any other personal or identifying information should never be used, even where consent has been provided.

Written consents must be retained. They should not be provided to this journal unless this is specifically requested in exceptional circumstances, for example, when a legal issue arises. Only then should you provide copies of the consents, or evidence that all relevant consents were obtained.  

Personal details of any patient must only be included in your article or in any supplementary materials (including all images and videos) in cases where written permission has been given by the patient (or, where applicable, the next of kin).

We advise you to review Elsevier’s policy on patient consent prior to preparing your manuscript.

This journal follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) clinical trials registration guidelines. 

Registration 

Clinical trials must be registered in a public trials registry. Purely observational studies, in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator, do not require registration.  

Some important points: 

• Trials must be registered at or before the onset of patient enrolment.   

• The clinical trial registration number must be included in the manuscript, preferably at the end of the article abstract.

• A clinical trial is defined as any research study that prospectively assigns human participants, or groups of humans, to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects of health outcomes.   

• Health-related interventions include any intervention used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome such as drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, dietary interventions, and process-of-care changes.   

• Health outcomes include any biomedical or health-related measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures and adverse events.   

Results 

Authors are required to disclose all posting in registries of results of the same or closely related work. Editors will not consider results to be a prior publication if they have already been posted in the same clinical trials registry in which primary registration resides, as long as the results are presented in the form of a brief structured abstract (fewer than 500 words) or table.   

Disclosing results in other circumstances, such as in an investors’ meeting, for example, is discouraged and may jeopardize consideration of your manuscript by this journal. 

Reporting 

Authors are encouraged to follow CONSORT guidelines when presenting randomized controlled trials, and provide the CONSORT checklist at manuscript submission, with an accompanying flow diagram illustrating the progress of patients through the trial - including recruitment, enrolment, randomization, withdrawal, completion and a description of the randomization procedure. 

• Read the CONSORT guidelines.  

• Follow the CONSORT checklist.  

We ask you to provide editable source files for your entire submission (including figures, tables and text graphics). Some guidelines:

• Save files in an editable format, using the extension .doc/.docx for Word files and .tex for LaTeX files. A PDF is not an acceptable source file.

• Format Word files in a single-column layout. Double-column formatting is only permitted for LaTeX submissions.

• Remove any strikethrough and underlined text from your manuscript, unless it has scientific significance related to your article.

• Use spell-check and grammar-check functions to avoid errors.

We advise you to read our Step-by-step guide to publishing with Elsevier.

You are required to include the following details in the title page information:

• Article title. Article titles should be concise and informative. Please avoid abbreviations and formulae, where possible, unless they are established and widely understood, e.g. DNA.

• Author names. Provide the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author. The order of authors should match the order in the submission system. Carefully check that all names are accurately spelled. If needed, you can add your name between parentheses in your own script after the English transliteration.

• Affiliations. Add affiliation addresses, referring to where the work was carried out, below the author names. Indicate affiliations using a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the corresponding address. Ensure that you 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 for your article at all stages of the refereeing and publication process and also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about your results, data, methodology and materials. It is important that the email address and contact details of your corresponding author are kept up to date during the submission and publication process.

• Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in your article was carried out, or the author was visiting during that time, a "present address" (or "permanent address") can be indicated by a footnote to the author's name. The address where the author carried out the work must be retained as their main affiliation address. Use superscript Arabic numerals for such footnotes.

You are required to provide a concise and factual abstract which does not exceed 250 words. The abstract should briefly state the purpose of your research, principal results and major conclusions. Some guidelines:

• Abstracts must be able to stand alone as abstracts are often presented separately from the article.

• Avoid references. If any are essential to include, ensure that you cite the author(s) and year(s).

• Avoid non-standard or uncommon abbreviations. If any are essential to include, ensure they are defined within your abstract at first mention.

A structured abstract, by means of appropriate headings, should provide the context or background for your research. Some guidelines:

• State the purpose of your research.

• Outline basic procedures followed such as the selection of study subjects or laboratory animals and observational and analytical methods.

• Include your main findings, providing specific effect sizes and their statistical significance, if possible, and your principal conclusions.

• Emphasize new and important aspects of your study or observations.

You are required to provide 1 to 7 keywords for indexing purposes. Keywords should be written in English. Please try to avoid keywords consisting of multiple words (using "and" or "of").

We recommend that you only use abbreviations in keywords if they are firmly established in the field.

You are encouraged to provide article highlights at submission.

Highlights are a short collection of bullet points that should capture the novel results of your research as well as any new methods used during your study. Highlights will help increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. Some guidelines:

• Submit highlights as a separate editable file in the online submission system with the word "highlights" included in the file name.

• Highlights should consist of 3 to 5 bullet points, each a maximum of 85 characters, including spaces.

We encourage you to view example article highlights and read about the benefits of their inclusion.

You are encouraged to provide a graphical abstract at submission.

The graphical abstract should summarize the contents of your article in a concise, pictorial, professional form which is designed to appeal to an interdisciplinary audience. A graphical abstract will help draw more attention to your online article and support readers in digesting your research. Some guidelines:

• You need to ensure that you have obtained the necessary permission to include any third party owned material in a graphical abstract.

• The use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in the production of graphical abstracts must align with our generative AI policies for journals.

• Submit your graphical abstract as a separate file in the online submission system.

• Ensure the image is a minimum of 531 x 1328 pixels (h x w) or proportionally more and is readable at a size of 5 x 13 cm using a regular screen resolution of 96 dpi.

• Our preferred file types for graphical abstracts are TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files.

We encourage you to view example graphical abstracts and read about the benefits of including them.

This journal requires you to use the international system of units (SI) which follows internationally accepted rules and conventions. If other units are mentioned within your article, you should provide the equivalent unit in SI.

Tables must be submitted as editable text, not as images. Some guidelines:

• Place tables next to the relevant text or on a separate page(s) at the end of your article.

• Cite all tables in the manuscript text.

• Number tables consecutively according to their appearance in the text.

• Please provide captions along with the tables.

• Place any table notes below the table body.

• Avoid vertical rules and shading within table cells.

We recommend that you use tables sparingly, ensuring that any data presented in tables is not duplicating results described elsewhere in the article.

Figures, images, artwork, diagrams and other graphical media must be supplied as separate files along with the manuscript. We recommend that you read our detailed artwork and media instructions. Some excerpts:

When submitting artwork:

• Cite all images in the manuscript text.

• Number images according to the sequence they appear within your article.

• Submit each image as a separate file using a logical naming convention for your files (for example, Figure_1, Figure_2 etc).

• Please provide captions for all figures, images, and artwork.

• Text graphics may be embedded in the text at the appropriate position. If you are working with LaTeX, text graphics may also be embedded in the file.

Artwork formats

When your artwork is finalized, "save as" or convert your electronic artwork to the formats listed below taking into account the given resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations:

• Vector drawings: Save as EPS or PDF files embedding the font or saving the text as "graphics."

• Color or grayscale photographs (halftones): Save as TIFF, JPG or PNG files using a minimum of 300 dpi (for single column: min. 1063 pixels, full page width: 2244 pixels).

• Bitmapped line drawings: Save as TIFF, JPG or PNG files using a minimum of 1000 dpi (for single column: min. 3543 pixels, full page width: 7480 pixels).

• Combinations bitmapped line/halftones (color or grayscale): Save as TIFF, JPG or PNG files using a minimum of 500 dpi (for single column: min. 1772 pixels, full page width: 3740 pixels).

Please do not submit:

• files that are too low in resolution (for example, files optimized for screen use such as GIF, BMP, PICT or WPG files).

• disproportionally large images compared to font size, as text may become unreadable.

Figure captions

All images must have a caption. A caption should consist of a brief title (not displayed on the figure itself) and a description of the image. We advise you to keep the amount of text in any image to a minimum, though any symbols and abbreviations used should be explained.

Provide captions in a separate file.

Color artwork

If you submit usable color figures with your accepted article, we will ensure that they appear in color online.

Please ensure that color images are accessible to all, including those with impaired color vision. Learn more about color and web accessibility.

Please read our policy on the use of generative AI and AI-assisted tools in figures, images and artwork, which can be found in Elsevier’s GenAI Policies for Journals. This policy states:

• We do not permit the use of Generative AI or AI-assisted tools to create or alter images in submitted manuscripts.

• The only exception is if the use of AI or AI-assisted tools is part of the research design or methods (for example, in the field of biomedical imaging). If this is the case, such use must be described in a reproducible manner in the methods section, including the name of the model or tool, version and extension numbers, and manufacturer.

• The use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in the production of artwork such as for graphical abstracts is not permitted. The use of generative AI in the production of cover art may in some cases be allowed, if the author obtains prior permission from the journal editor and publisher, can demonstrate that all necessary rights have been cleared for the use of the relevant material, and ensures that there is correct content attribution.

We encourage the use of supplementary materials such as applications, images and sound clips to enhance research. Some guidelines:

• Supplementary material should be accurate and relevant to the research.

• Cite all supplementary files in the manuscript text.

• Submit supplementary materials at the same time as your article. Be aware that all supplementary materials provided will appear online in the exact same file type as received. These files will not be formatted or typeset by the production team.

• Include a concise, descriptive caption for each supplementary file describing its content.

• Provide updated files if at any stage of the publication process you wish to make changes to submitted supplementary materials.

• Do not make annotations or corrections to a previous version of a supplementary file.

• Switch off the option to track changes in Microsoft Office files. If tracked changes are left on, they will appear in your published version.

This journal accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. We encourage you to include links to video or animation files within articles. Some guidelines:

• When including video or animation file links within your article, refer to the video or animation content by adding a note in your text where the file should be placed.

• Clearly label files ensuring the given file name is directly related to the file content.

• Provide files in one of our recommended file formats. Files should be within our preferred maximum file size of 150 MB per file, 1 GB in total.

• Provide "stills" for each of your files. These will be used as standard icons to personalize the link to your video data. You can choose any frame from your video or animation or make a separate image.

• Provide descriptive text in your manuscript to refer to the video content. This text helps ensure accessibility for visually impaired readers who rely on descriptive information. For journals publishing in print this is also essential, as video and animation files cannot be embedded in the print version.

We publish all video and animation files supplied in the electronic version of your article.

For more detailed instructions, we recommend that you read our guidelines on submitting video content to be included in the body of an article.

We are committed to supporting the storage of, access to and discovery of research data, and our research data policy sets out the principles guiding how we work with the research community to support a more efficient and transparent research process.

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.

Please read our guidelines on sharing research data for more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials.

Research data deposit and citation

For this journal, Option A instructions from our research data guidelines apply. This means that you are encouraged to:

• Deposit your research data in a relevant data repository.

• Cite this dataset in your article.

Linking to the data underlying your work increases your exposure and may lead to new collaborations. It also provides readers with a better understanding of the described research.

If your research data has been made available in a data repository there are a number of ways your article can be linked directly to the dataset:

• Provide a link to your dataset when prompted during the online submission process.

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

• You can also link relevant data or entities within the text of your article through the use of identifiers. Use the following format: Database: 12345 (e.g. TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).

Learn more about linking research data and research articles in ScienceDirect.

Divide your manuscript into clearly defined sections covering all essential elements using headings.

Please provide definitions of field-specific terms used in your article, in a separate list.

Include any individuals who provided you with help during your research, such as help with language, writing or proof reading, in the acknowledgements section. Acknowledgements should be placed in a separate section which appears directly before the reference list. Do not include acknowledgements on your title page, as a footnote to your title, or anywhere else in your article other than in the separate acknowledgements section.

Authors must disclose any funding sources who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article. The role of sponsors, if any, should be declared in relation to the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report and decision to submit the article for publication. If funding sources had no such involvement this should be stated in your submission.

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, scholarships 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, it is recommended to include the following sentence:

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

We ask you to use the following format for appendices:

• Identify individual appendices within your article using the format: A, B, etc.

• Give separate numbering to formulae and equations within appendices using formats such as Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc. and in subsequent appendices, Eq. (B.1), Eq. (B. 2) etc. In a similar way, give separate numbering to tables and figures using formats such as Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

Any references cited within your article should also be present in your reference list and vice versa. Some guidelines:

• References cited in your abstract must be given in full.

• We recommend that you do not include unpublished results and personal communications in your reference list, though you may mention them in the text of your article.

• Any unpublished results and personal communications included in your reference list must follow the standard reference style of the journal. In substitution of the publication date add "unpublished results" or "personal communication."

• References cited as "in press" imply that the item has been accepted for publication.

Linking to cited sources will increase the discoverability of your research.

Before submission, check that all data provided in your reference list are correct, including any references which have been copied. Providing correct reference data allows us to link to abstracting and indexing services such as Scopus, Crossref and PubMed. Any incorrect surnames, journal or book titles, publication years or pagination within your references may prevent link creation.

We encourage the use of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) as reference links as they provide a permanent link to the electronic article referenced.

Indicate references by using superscript numbers in the text. You can refer to author names within your text, but you must always give the reference number, e.g., "as demonstrated.^3,6 Barnaby and Jones ⁸ obtained a different result ....".

Number the references in the reference list in the order in which they appear in the text.

Please note the shortened form for last page number. e.g., 51-9, and that for more than 6 authors the first 6 should be listed followed by 'et al.'

For further details you are referred to 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals' (J Am Med Assoc 1997;277:927-34) and more samples of formatted references.

Abbreviate journal names according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations (LTWA).

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

1. Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2020;163:51-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sc.2020.00372.

Reference to a journal publication with an article number:

2. Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. Heliyon. 2022;19:e00205. https://doi.org/j.heliyon.2022.e00205.

Reference to a book:

3. Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 4th ed. New York: Longman; 2000.

Reference to a chapter in a book:

4. Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age, New York: E-Publishing Inc; 2023, p. 281–304.

Reference to a website:

5. Cancer Research UK. Cancer statistics reports for the UK, http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/aboutcancer/statistics/cancerstatsreport/; 2023 [accessed 13 March 2023].

Reference to a dataset:

6. Oguro M, Imahiro S, Saito S, Nakashizuka T. Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions [dataset]. Mendeley Data. 2015. https://doi.org/10.17632/xwj98nb39r.1.

Reference to software:

7. Coon E, Berndt M, Jan A, Svyatsky D, Atchley A, Kikinzon E, et al. Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS). Version 0.88 [software]. Zenodo; 2020 Mar 25. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3727209.

When listing web references, as a minimum you should provide the full URL and the date when the reference was last accessed. Additional information (e.g. DOI, author names, dates or reference to a source publication) should also be provided, if known.

You can list web references separately under a new heading directly after your reference list or include them in your reference list.

We encourage you to cite underlying or relevant datasets within article text and to list data references in the reference list.

When citing data references, you should include:

• author name(s)

• dataset title

• data repository

• version (where available)

• year

• global persistent identifier

Add [dataset] immediately before your reference. This will help us to properly identify the dataset. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

We ask you to mark preprints clearly. You should include the word "preprint" or the name of the preprint server as part of your reference and provide the preprint DOI.

Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, use the formal publication as your reference.

If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but they are not yet formally published, you may reference the preprint.

Most Elsevier journals have their reference template available in popular reference management software products. These include products that support Citation Style Language (CSL) such as Mendeley Reference Manager.

If you use a citation plug-in from these products, select the relevant journal template and all your citations and bibliographies will automatically be formatted in the journal style. We advise you to remove all field codes before submitting your manuscript to any reference management software product.

If a template is not available for this journal, follow the format given in examples in the reference style section of this Guide for Authors.

Before completing the submission of your manuscript, we advise you to read our submission checklist:

• One author has been designated as the corresponding author and their full contact details (email address, full postal address and phone numbers) have been provided.

• All files have been uploaded, including keywords, figure captions and tables (including a title, description and footnotes) included. This includes any supplementary materials and videos.

• Spelling and grammar checks have been carried out.

• All references in the article text are cited in the reference list and vice versa.

• Permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted material from other sources, including the Web.

• For open access articles, all authors understand that they are responsible for payment of the article publishing charge (APC) if the manuscript is accepted. Payment of the APC may be covered by the corresponding author's institution, or the research funder.

Our online submission system guides you through the process steps of entering your manuscript 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 email.

Please follow this link to submit your paper.

If your manuscript is more suitable for an alternative Elsevier journal, you may receive an email asking you to consider transferring your manuscript via the Elsevier Article Transfer Service.

The recommendation could come from the journal editor, a dedicated in-house scientific managing editor, a tool-assisted recommendation or a combination.

If you agree with the recommendation, your manuscript will be transferred and independently reviewed by the editors of the new journal. You will have the opportunity to make revisions, if necessary, before the submission is complete at the destination journal.

Authors will be asked to complete a publishing agreement after acceptance. The corresponding author will receive a link to the online agreement by email. We advise you to read Elsevier's policies related to copyright to learn more about our copyright policies and your, and your employer’s/institution’s, additional rights for subscription and open access articles.

Authors will be offered open access user license options which will determine how you, and third parties, can reuse your open access article. We advise that you review these options and any funding body license requirements before selecting a license option.

We refer you to our open access information page to learn about open access options for this journal.

If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included in your article, you must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) within your article using Elsevier’s permission request and license form.

To ensure a fast publication process we will ask you to provide proof corrections within two days.

Corresponding authors will be sent an email which includes a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to Word. You can edit text, comment on figures and tables and answer questions raised by our copy editor. Our web-based proofing service ensures a faster and less error-prone process.  

You can choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version of your article, if preferred. We will provide you with proofing instructions and available alternative proofing methods in our email. 

The purpose of the proof is to check the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of your article text, tables and figures. Significant changes to your article at the proofing stage will only be considered with approval of the journal editor.  

A customized Share Link, providing 50 days free access to the final published version of your article on ScienceDirect, will be sent by email to the corresponding author. The Share Link can be used to share your article on any communication channel, such as by email or on social media.

A Share Link will not be provided if your article is published open access. The final published version of your open access article will be openly available on ScienceDirect and can be shared through the article DOI link.

We encourage you to share and promote your article to give additional visibility to your work, enabling your paper to contribute to scientific progress and foster the exchange of scientific developments within your field. Read more about how to responsibly share and promote your article.   

If you would like help to improve your submission or navigate the publication process, support is available via Elsevier Researcher Academy.  

Elsevier Researcher Academy offers free e-learning modules, webinars, downloadable guides and research writing and peer review process resources.

We recommend that you write in American or British English but not a combination of both.   

If you feel the English language in your manuscript requires editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English, you may wish to use the English Language Editing service provided by Elsevier’s Author Services. 

We recommend that you visit our Journal Article Publishing Support Center if you have questions about the editorial process or require technical support for your submission. Some popular FAQs: 

• How can I track the status of my submitted article? 

• When will my article be published?