Guide for Authors

Introduction

Types of paper

Original Research Papers and Review Articles.

Please ensure that you select the appropriate article type from the list of options when making your submission. Authors contributing to special issues should ensure that they select the special issue article type from this list.

Before you begin

Ethics in publishing

For information on Ethics in Publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see https://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and https://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.

Plagiarism
We are committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors.
Journal of Future Foods and Elsevier take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software, e.g. iThenticate. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

Ethical statements
If the work involves the use of human subjects, the authors should ensure and declare that all experiments on human subjects were conducted in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki). The manuscript should be in line with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations (sex, age and ethnicity) as per those recommendations. The terms sex and gender should be used correctly. All procedures were carried out with adequate understanding and written consent from the subjects. https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/.Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Institutes of Health guide for the care and use of Laboratory animals (NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978) and the authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. The sex of animals must be indicated, and where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the results of the study. To comply with the euthanasia and killing guidelines laid out in DIRECTIVE 2010/63/EU, sections L 276/72 and L 276/73, all manuscripts should include a brief, but clear, description of the method used by the authors to kill/euthanise/slaughter any animal(s), used for the purpose of scientific research.

Authors should include the following points in the ethical statement (if applicable) when submitting a paper:

• The institutional or national research ethics committee/review board that approved the research must be named. Include the approval number/ID if one was given. If the research received a waiver of approval from the ethics committee/review board or did not require approval for some other reason please state this and explain why, and confirm that the appropriate protocols for protecting the rights and privacy of all participants were utilized during the execution of the research, e.g. no coercion to participate, full disclosure of study requirements and risks, written or verbal consent of participants, no release of participant data without their knowledge, ability to withdraw from the study at any time.

• For investigations involving animal experimentation, you should state which institutional and/or national animal care and use guidelines were followed. All materials must adhere to high ethical standards concerning animal welfare. Any use of animals must be based on ethological knowledge and respect for species-specific requirements for health and well-being. A statement indicating that the protocol and procedures employed were ethically reviewed and approved, and the name of the body giving approval, must be included in the Methods section of the manuscript.

• For investigations involving human participants:
  You should state that the research was conducted in accordance with the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki and in accordance with local statutory requirements.

  • You should state that all participants (or their parents or legal guardians in the cases of using vulnerable populations (e.g. children under 16 individuals with diminished physical or intellectual capacity, the socially or economically vulnerable or institutionalized individuals) gave written informed consent to participate in the study. Publication of photographs that reveal a participant's identity must be accompanied by a release signed by the participant or his/her parent or legal guardian.

  • By definition, sensory evaluation by trained or naive panelists and other sensory-consumer research involve humans and requires an ethical statement. If ethical approval is not required by national laws, authors must state that an exemption from ethics committee approval was obtained (with relevant reference number) or, if no human ethics committee or formal documentation process is available, the statement should explain this and confirm that the appropriate protocols for protecting the rights and privacy of all participants were utilized during the execution of the research, e.g. no coercion to participate, full disclosure of study requirements and risks, written or verbal consent of participants, no release of participant data without their knowledge, ability to withdraw from the study at any time.

  • For non-interventional studies (e.g., surveys, questionnaires...), all participants must be fully informed why the research is being conducted, how their data will be used and if there are any risks associated with it. Some cases (for example social media research, etc.) might not require full disclosure, e.g. if de-identified data are obtained or if subject blinding to the manipulation or the purpose of the study is required. In the latter case, such details should be explained in the Ethical Statement and de-briefing of participants should be conducted. All relevant privacy protections related to disclosure of subject identities must be strictly maintained.

Editors reserve the right to reject any submission that does not meet the above requirements.

Consent for publication
If your research or manuscript contains any individual person’s data in any form (including any individual details, images or videos), consent for publication must be obtained from that person, or in the case of children, their parent or legal guardian. All presentations of case reports must have consent for publication.

Contributor’s publishing agreement
Before publication we requires the author(s) as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement, and the author(s) grant(s) Elsevier a license to publish, including to display, store, copy, and reuse the content.

Submission checklist

• The manuscript fits within Aims & Scope of Journal of Future Foods.

• The research has not been published previously.

• Ethical consent has been obtained in case of work on animals and/or humans.

• The manuscript contains a conflict of interest statement.

• The submitted manuscript file is provided as a Microsoft Word file.

• A cover letter is prepared and submitted separately.

• Highlights and graphical abstract are required.

• Keywords are provided.

• All figures must be designated with a number and include clear legends and appropriate statistical analyses.

• All tables must be designated with a number and include title, description, footnotes and appropriate statistical analyses.

• Supplemental files are included where applicable.

• Corresponding Author (s) has been designated, and e-mail address, full postal address, telephone and fax number are provided.

Declaration of competing interest

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Authors should complete the declaration of competing interest statement using this template and upload to the submission system at the Attach/Upload Files step. Note: Please do not convert the .docx template to another file type. Author signatures are not required. If there are no interests to declare, please choose the first option in the template. This statement will be published within the article if accepted. More information.

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 https://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.

Changes to authorship

This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:

Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.

After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum. Note: Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement'. 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.

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.

Author rights

For open access publishing, this journal uses a licensing agreement. Authors will retain copyright alongside scholarly usage rights. As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. For more information on author rights, please see https://www.elsevier.com/copyright.

Role of the funding source

The author(s) should 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, this should be stated. Please see https://www.elsevier.com/funding.

Language and language services

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions.

Please write the manuscript 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 https://webshop.elsevier.com/language-editing-services/language-editing/ or our customer support site at https://service.elsevier.com for more information.

Submission

Submission to this journal proceeds totally online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article. Via the homepage of this journal (http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/journal-of-future-foods/) you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF 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 and via the author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail. If you are unable to provide an electronic version, please contact the editorial office prior to submission [via e-mail: cfoodsci@126.com; telephone: 010-83155448-8029; or fax: 010-83155436].

Additional information

Tables and figures may be presented with captions within the main body of the manuscript; if so, figures should additionally (separately) be uploaded as high resolution files.

Preparation

Peer review

Journal of Future Foods only accepts online submission. A submitted manuscript is initially evaluated by the Managing Editor to check academic misconduct. Considering the research area of the manuscript, it will then be assigned to one of the Associate Editors for evaluation. When a manuscript is considered unqualified for at least one of the following principles, the Associate Editors has the right to decline formal review of a manuscript when it is deemed that the manuscript: 1) is on a topic outside the scope of the Journal; 2) is lacking originality or technical merit; 3) is focused on foods or ingredients that are of narrow significance; 4) is filled with fragmentary results or findings; 5) is poorly written. If a manuscript meets basic requirement, the Associate Editors will then invite at least three independent reviewers with relevant expertise for double-blind peer review. Taking the reviewers’ opinions into consideration, the Associate Editors will evaluate the manuscript comprehensively and then will make a final decision. A Scientific Editor will help make the final decision when necessary. If a manuscript is accepted, the Associate Managing Editor will then be responsible for reviewing the format, English grammar and language of the manuscript before sending it back to authors for revision. The Editor's decision is final. For more information on the types of peer review, please visit: https://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/peer-review.

Use of word processing software

It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the word processor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the word processor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier). Note that source files of figures, tables and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also the section on Electronic artwork. To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor.

Article structure

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.

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should not exceed 300 words. 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

Authors are invited to submit up to 8 keywords associated with their paper.

Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Material and methods

Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.

Theory/calculation

A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already dealt with in the Introduction and lay the foundation for further work. In contrast, a Calculation section represents a practical development from a theoretical basis.

Results

Results should be clear and concise.

Discussion

This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Conclusions

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.

Appendices

If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on.

Supplementary materials

Supplementary material such as applications, images and sound clips, can be published with your article to enhance it. If there is more than one Supplementary material, they should be identified as S1, S2, etc. Supplementary figures and tables should be labeled as Fig. S1, Fig. S2., etc. and Table S1, Table S2, etc. Note: Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received.

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. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. 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. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.

• 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.

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.).

Nomenclature and units

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI. Authors wishing to present a table of nomenclature should do so on the second page of their manuscript.

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 can build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. In any case, please indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately as a list at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

Table footnotes

Place footnotes to tables below the table body and 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.

• 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.

You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.

Formats

Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing, and a logical naming convention for your original artwork files. Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalized, the authors are recommended to '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, EMF, WMF: Vector drawings.
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.

Please do not:

• Supply files that are optimized 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 online (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version.

Figure captions

Figures include all graphical displays of information that are not tables, such as graphs, charts, drawings, maps, plots, and photos. Figures shall be numbered in Arabic numerals in the order of their appearance in the manuscript’s text. Figures (coordinate scales, scale values, legends, coordinate title names, units) should be accurate, clear and legible to peer review and typesetting. Make sure that the text in a figure is readable after the graphic is resized to its final dimensions. Figures should be complete and self-explanatory, and the data from the figures should not be repeated the information from tables and the manuscript’s text. The figure provided by the author should preferably be a source file, and it is recommended to use professional drawing software (e.g. Origin) to produce figures, and the lines should be clear, uniform and accurate. For functions and spectra, please provide black-and-white vector diagrams (i.e. diagrams with constant clarity when zoomed in and out, such as molecular formulae in ChemWindow and diagrams made in Origin). Chromatograms, especially the total ion current chromatograms, should be labeled with peak numbers that correspond to the peak numbers in the table.

The photos should be clearly legible to a reader (a minimum resolution of 300 dpi before digital manipulation), and the relevant textual information (e.g. magnification of the images created using an microscope or electron microscope) attached to the photos should be complete and clear. The signal bands (like those in an electropherogram or chromatogram) should be clearly distinguished from the background/background signal, and the data derived from each band should correspond to each other nicely.

Tables

Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Tables should be in the format of a three-horizontalline table (auxiliary lines can be added if necessary), with sufficient spacing between columns and rows. 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.

References in a special issue

Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.

Reference management software

Using citation plug-ins from word processing packages, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, and the list of references and their in-text citations will be formatted according to the journal’s style (which is described below).

Reference style

All citations in the text should be done as follows:

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.
Example: “..... as demonstrated^[3,6]…”, “Barnaby and Jones^[8] obtained a different result ....”

Reference to a journal publication:
[1] L.B. Sun, Z.Y. Zhang, G. Xin, et al., Advances in umami taste and aroma of edible mushrooms, Trends Food Sci. Technol. 96 (2020) 176-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2019.12.018.

Reference to a book:
[2] W. Strunk Jr., E.B. White, The Elements of Style, third ed., Macmillan, New York, 1979.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] G.R. Mettam, L.B. Adams, How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: B.S. Jones, R.Z. Smith (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age, E-Publishing Inc., New York, 1999, pp. 281–304.

Journal abbreviations source

Journal names should be abbreviated according to the
Index Medicus journal abbreviations: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of TitleWord Abbreviations: http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service): http://www.cas.org/sent.html.

Submission checklist

The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal 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

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 https://service.elsevier.com.

After acceptance

Use of the Digital Object Identifier

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. A DOI as a unique and never-changing digital identifier (an alphanumeric string consisting of two parts: <prefix>/<local name>) that is assigned to a document by the publisher when your article is initially made available electronically. 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.2010.09.059 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 or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that the 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://get.adobe.com/reader. 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/reader/systemreqs. 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. 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. To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within 48 hours. It is important to ensure that all 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.

Author inquiries

Author Inquiries

For inquiries relating to the submission of articles, please visit this journal's homepage. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher. You can track the status of accepted articles at https://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. You can also find the answers to frequently asked question at our Author FAQs (https://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ) and/or contact Customer Support via https://service.elsevier.com.