Submission Instructions for Authors

Note: More details can be found on the Synthetic Metals website

This journal is an international medium for the rapid publication of original research papers, short communications and subject reviews dealing with research on and applications of electronic polymers and electronic molecular materials including novel carbon architectures. These functional materials have the properties of metals, semiconductors or magnets and are distinguishable from elemental and alloy/binary metals, semiconductors and magnets.

Materials considered to be within the purview of this journal include:
•low-dimensional conductors and superconductors such as organic charge-transfer compounds and metal chain compounds
•conducting and semiconducting polymers and molecular materials
•fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and related novel carbon architectures
•supramolecular conjugated architectures
•nanoscale electronic molecular and electronic polymer materials
•molecule- and polymer-based magnets.

Experimental, theoretical and application papers on the chemistry, physics and engineering of these materials are encouraged for submission. Original manuscripts on their chemical, electrochemical, electrical, photonic and magnetic properties will be considered for publication. Papers on electronic, electroluminescent, lasing, solar cell, anticorrosion, sensor, actuator, biological and other potential device applications of these materials are encouraged.

Submitting by mail: Your Package:
Authors should submit three copies of their manuscript, along with a cover letter to the Editor-in-Chief or Regional Editor. On the envelope include the title, “Editor in Chief”, or “Regional Editor” along with the Editor’s name. A disk copy is optional for the initial version and required for subsequent versions. Including a set of original figures is optional. Do so if they would be superior quality to the manuscript copies, or if the figures on the copies are very small.

Submitting by email:
Authors should email the editor asking if electronic submission is acceptable. Some do not wish to absorb the cost of printing out three copies themselves. Some editors, however, are willing to do this but may have limits such as number of files for each manuscript.

Your Cover Letter:
Submission of an article must be accompanied by a statement that the article is original and unpublished, is being submitted only to this editor and is not being considered for publication at any other journal. In addition to this statement, it is strongly recommended that a list of up to four potential referees be included in your cover letter. The letter should include the corresponding author’s email address, fax, telephone, and complete mailing address.

Manuscript:
Follow instructions on the website for formatting. Note, the paper should be formatted in one column format with the figures at the end. Papers will be published in English. Authors' manuscripts must be consistent in style, spelling and syntax. A maximum of six keywords should be indicated below the abstract to describe the contents of the manuscript. Leave a blank line between each paragraph and between each entry in the list of bibliographic references. Tables should preferably be placed in the same electronic file as the text. Authors should consult a recent issue of the Journal for table layout. For a rough estimate of the final length of their printed article, authors should count 850 words per full two-column page and four illustrations per page. See Guide for Authors for more formatting instructions. There is no need to spend time formatting your article so that the printout is visually attractive (e.g. by making headings bold or creating a page layout with figures), as most formatting instructions will be removed upon processing.

Review Process:
The article, if the editor determines the subject matter is of interest to the Synthetic Metal’s audience, will be anonymously reviewed by one or more reviewers. This process sometimes is delayed if reviewers decline to review the manuscript, or if they take longer than the two weeks provided requested. Once the reviews have been received and the editor has checked them, the reviews will be sent back to the author with instructions from the editor. The instructions usually include sending an itemized note addressing all of the reviewer’s points, and returning a highlighted copy indicating what text and figures were changed in the revision. A disk is also required.

Acceptance of article:
Upon acceptance of an article by the Journal, the author(s) will be asked to transfer the copyright of the article to the publisher. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. Authors are reminded that delays in publication may occur if the instructions for submission and disk and manuscript preparation are not strictly followed. Authors are strongly recommended to submit disks to aid rapid processing. To facilitate communication, authors are requested to provide their current e-mail address, telephone and fax number.

Author Questions:
For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission), the status of accepted manuscripts through our Online Article Status Information System (OASIS), author Frequently Asked Questions and any other enquiries relating to Elsevier Science, please consult http://www.elsevier.com/locate/authors/ For specific enquires on the preparation of electronic artwork, consult http://www.elsevier.com/locate/authorartwork/. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided when an article is accepted for publication.

Proofs:
Authors will receive proofs, which they are requested to correct and return as soon as possible. No new material may be inserted in the text at the time of proof-reading. A Note added in proof must be dated and the author must have requested and received the Editor's approval.

Offprints:
Twenty-five offprints are supplied to authors free of charge. Additional offprints may be ordered at prices shown on the offprint order form which will accompany the proofs. This order form should be returned promptly since the price of offprints ordered after publication is substantially higher.

More details on Disk & Illustrations

Disk Instructions:
For preparation of manuscripts on disk, articles prepared using any of the more popular word-processing packages are acceptable. Submissions should be made on a double-density or high-density 3.5" disk. The disk format, word-processor format, file name(s) and the title and authors of the article must be indicated on the disk. The disk must always be accompanied by a hard-copy version of the article, and the content of the two must be identical. The disk text must be the same as that of the final refereed, revised manuscript. Disks formatted for IBM PC compatibles are preferred, though those formatted for Apple Macintosh are acceptable. The article must be saved in the native format of the word processor used, e.g. WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, etc. Although most popular word processor file formats are acceptable, we cannot guarantee the usability of all formats. If the disk proves to be unusable, we will publish your article from the hard copy. Please do not send ASCII files, as relevant data may be lost. There is no need to spend time formatting your article so that the printout is visually attractive, as most formatting instructions will be removed upon processing. Leave a blank line between each paragraph and between each entry in the list of bibliographic references. Tables should be placed in the same electronic file as the text. Authors should consult a recent issue of the Journal for table layout.

Illustrations:
Both scanned and computer-generated illustrations, either in color or black and white are acceptable. Since we cannot a priori guarantee the usability of your graphic file(s), hard copies of all illustrations should accompany the accepted printout of the manuscript in all cases. One set should be in a publishable condition. Files should preferably be submitted on disk, either IBM or Macintosh. Submission via e-mail is not recommended for large files. TIFF or EPS files are preferred. TIFF files should preferably be compressed, but only LZW (Macintosh) compression is acceptable. Please note that corrections in EPS figures are only possible if they have been prepared with Adobe Illustrator 3.0 or higher versions. The usability of other formats is dependent on the information you supply us with concerning the soft- and hardware used. It is a good idea to put the relevant information in the header of the file. Drawings made with Adobe Illustrator, Aldus Freehand (Macintosh), and CorelDraw (IBM/DOS) generally give good results. Drawings made in WordPerfect or Word generally have too low resolution; only if made at a much higher resolution (1016 dpi) can they be used. Files of scanned line drawings are acceptable if done at a minimum of 1016 dpi. For scanned halftone figures, a resolution of 300 dpi is sufficient. Scanned figures compressed with JPEG usually give no problems. Please note that scanned figures cannot be enlarged, only reduced. Illustrations can be printed in color when judged by the Editor to be essential to the presentation. The publisher and author will each bear part of the extra costs involved.




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