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Types of paper
Original Article (full-paper):
full-length research report.
Brief Communication: description of a technical aspect of a field or issue, report on a procedure
or method, or work on validation of techniques or methods. Usually a brief description or analysis of an unusual case or a small series
of cases. Case reports are acceptable only if the contribution to the better understanding in forensic pathology, forensic toxicology,
or medical law is clearly described.
Review: full-length paper reviewing the state of the art or the published literature
in a particular area of general interest to the readership.
Announcement of population data: authors are invited to submit
population data to the journal in table format: as an example, please refer to Legal Medicine Volume 11 (2009), pages 302-304. Click here
Letter to the Editor: usually a discussion of a previously published
item or commentary on the Journal. Publication of letters is solely at the discretion of the Editor. Letters commenting on previously
published items are ordinarily shared with the original authors to afford them an opportunity to respond to the commentary.
Papers
submitted are subject to peer review. Papers will be evaluated by at least two anonymous persons, either members of the Editorial Board
or qualified invited referees. Authors may expect to hear a decision -- acceptance, revision, or rejection -- from the Editor-in-Chief
within 6 to 8 weeks after the paper has been received. Papers requiring revision and/or shortening will be returned to the authors by
the Editor-in-Chief specifying the requested alterations and including the (anonymous) referee reports. Authors are requested to submit
the revised paper within 3 months to the Editor-in-Chief; if submitted at a later date, it will be treated as a new paper and the date
of receipt will be altered to the date of submission of the revised paper.
Papers should be concise, but with sufficient experimental
detail to permit a critical appraisal of the work. Unnecessary repetition should be avoided. Responsibility for the accuracy of materials
in the manuscripts, including appropriate references to related work, lies entirely with the authors.
Contact details for submission
Authors should send queries concerning the submission process or journal
procedures to AuthorSupport@elsevier.com. Authors can check the status of their manuscript within the review procedure
using Elsevier Editorial System.
Page charges
This journal has no page
charges.
Ethics
in Publishing
For information on Ethics in Publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see  http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics
and http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.
Policy and ethics
The work described in your article must have been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical
Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm; EC Directive
86/609/EEC for animal experiments http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm; Uniform
Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical journals http://www.icmje.org. This must be stated at an appropriate
point in the article.
Conflict of interest
All authors are requested to
disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations
within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See
also http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Submission declaration
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract
or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication
is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted,
it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written
consent of the copyright-holder.
Authorship
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.
Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article,
authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright).
Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding
author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this
agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation
within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other
derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions). If excerpts
from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s)
in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Retained author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details
you are referred to: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Role of the
funding source
You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation
of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation
of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such
involvement then this should be stated. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/funding.
Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose
articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions
of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Language and language services
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted,
but not a mixture of these). Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission
please visit http://www.elsevier.com/languageediting or our customer support site at http://epsupport.elsevier.com
for more information.
Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally
online and you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of your files. The system automatically converts source files
to a single PDF file of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are
converted to PDF files at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All
correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail removing the need for
a paper trail.
Submit your article
Please submit your article via
http://ees.elsevier.com/legmed.
Additional information
Manuscripts
that are not properly prepared will be returned to the authors without review, since it is not feasible for the Editors to undertake
extensive revision or rewriting of manuscripts submitted.
Article structure
Original Articles and Brief Communications should be organized as follows:
1. Abstract and Keywords
2. Introduction
3. Materials and Methods
4. Results
5. Discussion
6. Acknowledgements
7. References
8. Tables
9. Legends to Figures
Subdivision - numbered
sections
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1,
1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do
not just refer to "the text". Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.
Introduction
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed
literature survey or a summary of the results.
Materials and Methods
Material and Methods should be as brief as possible, but sufficiently descriptive to permit a qualified reader to repeat the experiments
reported. Only truly new procedures should be described in detail; previously published procedures should be cited as references. Modifications
of previously published procedures need be given in detail only when this is necessary to repeat the work. In a case report, the case
history should be presented in this section. Describe statistical methods in sufficient detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with
access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators
of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals).
Results
The Results of experiments should be presented in figures and tables, although some results that do not require documentation may
be given solely in the text. Discussion in this section should not be extensive.
Discussion
The Discussion should be concise (usually less than four typed pages) and should focus on the interpretation of the results, rather
than a repetition of the Results section. In some shorter papers, combining the Results and Discussion into one section entitled Results
and Discussion may provide a clearer presentation.
Essential title page information
•
Title.
Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations
and formulae where possible.
•
Author names and affiliations.
Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a
double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names.
Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address.
Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
•
Corresponding author.
Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also
post-publication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address
and the complete postal address.
•
Present/permanent address.
If an author has moved since the work described
in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a "Present address" (or "Permanent address") may be indicated as a footnote to
that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript
Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.
Abstract
A concise and factual
abstract is required. 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. For this reason, References should be avoided,
but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential
they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
Keywords
Immediately
after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts
(avoid, for example, "and", "of"). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible.
These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.
Abbreviations
Define
abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that
are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations
throughout the article.
Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements in a
separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote
to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing
assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).
Footnotes
Footnotes should
be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors 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.
Table footnotes
Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.
Artwork
Electronic artwork
General points
• Make sure
you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font.
• Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times, Symbol.
• Number the illustrations according
to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions to illustrations
separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
• Submit each figure as a separate file.
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
You
are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
Regardless of
the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats
(note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS: Vector drawings.
Embed the font or save the text as "graphics".
TIFF: color or grayscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale): a
minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications
please supply "as is".
Please do not:
• Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation)
document;
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
•
Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.
Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office
files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure,
at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether
or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For color reproduction in print, you will receive information
regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for color in print or on
the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting color figures to "gray scale" (for the printed version
should you not opt for color in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the color illustrations.
Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached
to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep
text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
Tables
Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the
table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that
the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
References
Citation in text
Please ensure that every reference
cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full.
Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these
references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution
of the publication date with either "Unpublished results" or "Personal communication" Citation of a reference as "in press" implies that
the item has been accepted for publication.
Reference style
Text:
Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s)
must always be given.
List: Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order in which they appear
in the text.
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 2000;163:51–9.
Reference to a book:
[2] Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements
of style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan; 1979.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] 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;
1999, p. 281–304.
Note 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;277:927–934) (see also http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).
Supplementary data
Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific
research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, high-resolution images, background
datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article
in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted
material is directly usable, please provide the data in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic
format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit
our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Submission checklist
It is hoped that this list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending
it to the journal's Editor for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the
following items are present:
One Author designated as corresponding Author:
• E-mail address
• Full postal
address
• Telephone and fax numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been "spellchecked"
and "grammar-checked"
• References are in the correct format for this journal
• 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 Web)
• Color figures are 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 only color on the
Web is required, black and white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes
For any further information please
visit our customer support site at http://epsupport.elsevier.com.
Use of the Digital Object Identifier
The
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character
string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore,
it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic
information. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal Physics Letters
B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed
never to change.
Proofs
One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be
sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will
be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Elsevier now provides authors with PDF proofs which can
be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 (or higher) available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.
Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online). The exact system requirements are given at the
Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations
function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return them to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your
corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including
replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof
only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the
article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible
to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back
to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed.
Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.
Offprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail
or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. If the corresponding author opts for paper offprints, this preference must be indicated via
the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Additional paper offprints can also be ordered via
this form for an extra charge. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal
cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use.
Author
orders
When your article is published, you can commemorate your publication with printed author copies of the journal issue,
customized full-color posters, extra offprints, and more. Please visit Elsevier
Author Orders to learn more.
For inquiries
relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal's homepage. You can
track accepted articles at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's
status has changed. Also accessible from here is information on copyright, frequently asked questions and more. Contact details for questions
arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher.
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