Guide for authors

Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia is the official peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Brazilian Society of Dermatology (Sociedade Brasileira de Dermatologia - SBD) and publishes articles related to Dermatology and associated specialties. Founded in 1925, the journal has been uninterruptedly published since then. ABD follows the Ethical Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics; the Code of Ethics of the American Educational Research Association; the Code of Good Scientific Practices of FAPESP; and the guidelines of the Council of Science Editors.

The journal is divided into the following sections: Continuing Medical Education, Original Article, Review, Letter (subdivided into Tropical/Infectious and Parasitic Dermatology, Dermatopathology, Therapy, Clinical, and Research) and Correspondence.

Contributions can be sent to our electronic submission system: https://www.editorialmanager.com/abd/, in accordance with the Guidelines and Specifications described below.

Manuscripts must be submitted through the online submission system, according to instructions.

The font used should be Times New Roman, size 12.

The journal publishes articles classified into the following categories:

• Continuing Medical Education

  Articles written by invitation, aiming at updating the readers' knowledge. Uninvited authors who are interested in collaborating with this section should contact the Editorial Team before submitting their work, to discuss interest, feasibility and to receive detailed information about this type of article.

  The manuscript must have a maximum of 6,000 words and 12 illustrations. It is mandatory to provide updated bibliographic references, and a maximum of 100 references is suggested. It is recommended to divide the manuscript into sections, for instance: Introduction, Background; Epidemiology; Etiopathogenesis; Clinical Aspects; Classification; Clinical, Laboratory and Differential Diagnosis; Evolution; Prognosis; Treatment. The abstract must have a maximum of 250 words.

• Original article

  The following types of articles, not previously published, will be considered for this section: randomized clinical trials; cohort studies; case-control studies; cross-sectional studies; prevalence, incidence; accuracy; cost-effectiveness studies; series of cases (minimum number depending on the disease under study); studies on the pathophysiology of diseases and/or nosologic associations, studies on diagnostic and prognostic tests, basic research in dermatology (translational research) and systematic reviews with or without meta-analysis.

  The manuscript must have a maximum of 6,000 words, 40 references and 10 illustrations. The article must be structured into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion. The abstract must be structured into the following sections: Background (current state of knowledge); Objective; Methods; Results; Study limitations and Conclusions (with a precise level of clinical statistics significance, to prevent speculations). The abstract must have a maximum of 250 words.

  The articles must follow the specific recommendations for each type of study:

  - Randomized clinical trials: CONSORT;

  - Systematic review with or without meta-analysis: PRISMA;

  - Observational studies: STROBE;

  - Case series report: CARE.

  Specifications for different types of studies not described above are available at the EQUATOR Network website.

  Clinical trials must be registered in a public database, of which options are listed on the website of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Examples are: Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials (Registro Brasileiro de Ensaios Clinicos ReBEC and ClinicalTrials.gov. The registration number must be informed in the submission archives.

  Systematic reviews must also be registered with the international Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews PROSPERO or similar database. The registration number must also be informed in the submission archives.

• Review

  This article is written by invitation, by professionals with acknowledged experience. It aims to perform an in-depth analysis of the current state of knowledge on topics of clinical relevance, with emphasis on aspects such as the cause and prevention of dermatological diseases, their diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. It should preferably include critical analyses of the literature.

  The article must have a maximum of 6,000 words and 10 illustrations. A maximum of 100 references are suggested, which must be recent. The abstract must have a maximum of 250 words.

• Letters

  This section is destined to a faster publication of brief communications, and it is divided into the following categories:

  a) Letter - Tropical/Infectious and Parasitic Dermatology. Including but not limited to, Hansen's disease, fungal and parasitic infections, AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases. The manuscript must have a maximum of 700 words, 10 references, and 4 illustrations.

  b) Letter - Dermatopathology. Reports that highlight relevant dematopathological aspects. The manuscript must have a maximum of 700 words, 10 references, and 4 illustrations.

  c) Letter - Therapy. Reports that highlight therapeutic outcomes or new adverse drug reactions. The manuscript must have a maximum of 700 words, 10 references, and 4 illustrations.

  d) Letter - Clinical. Case reports of undeniable interest and well-documented. The manuscript must have a maximum of 700 words, 10 references, and 4 illustrations.

  e) Letter - Research. Less complex investigation studies, such as a small series of cases, disclosure of preliminary results from original research, and initial reports of therapeutic trials. The manuscript must have a maximum of 1,000 words, 10 references, and 4 illustrations.

  All letters must not be divided into sections nor include an abstract and keywords.

• Correspondence

  This section admits questions and objective suggestions related to articles published in this journal, up to two previous numbers, whose text must be continuous and not exceed 400 words. Maximum of 5 references and 2 illustrations.

  Must not be divided into sections nor include an abstract and keywords.

• Special Article

  Articles written by invitation only, on specific topics, such as: guidelines, consensuses, protocols and similar; issues related to scientific publications; epidemiology and biostatistics applied to dermatology; photographic or imaging technique approach; memory with a historical approach to topics of dermatological interest, such as celebration of important events in the development of medicine or dermatology; biographies; obituaries and, tributes to relevant personalities of national and international dermatology.

  The specifications of the manuscript, such as structure and number of authors, will be defined according to the type of article, upon the invitation.

The journal welcomes submissions in English or Portuguese.

All authors must inform their substantial contribution on the Title Page according to the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT). Here are the options: (1) the study concept and design; (2) data collection, or analysis and interpretation of data; (3) statistical analysis; (4) writing of the manuscript or critical review of important intellectual content; (5) data collection, analysis and interpretation; (6) effective participation in the research guidance; (7) intellectual participation in the propaedeutic and/or therapeutic conduct of the studied cases; (8) critical review of the literature; (9) final approval of the final version of the manuscript.

Number of authors according to sections:

- Original Articles and Letter - Research - no limit on the number of authors.

- Continuing Medical Education, Review Articles and all Letters, except Letter - Research - maximum of 6 authors.

- Correspondence - maximum of 4 authors.

- Special Articles - discussion and definition according to the type of article, upon invitation.

Each illustration may be composed of 2 images maximum. Histopathological, immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy, dermatoscopy, confocal and radiological illustrations may be composed of 4 images each.

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details and also this Box that recaps all information on the article types and mandatory submission items.

Ensure that the following items are present:

One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:

• E-mail address

• Full postal address.

All mandatory submission documents templates, including the Conflict of Interest Statement, the Copyright Transfer Agreement Form, the Consent for Publication of Patient Images, can be found at the journal website

All documents must be signed by all the authors and uploaded to the submission system, following the submission process.

The Consent for Publication of Patient Images is needed solely for images that may identify the patient.

Please check if all needed information has been submitted, as described in the Box

For further information, visit our Support Center.

The ABD journal adopts the principles of publication ethics included in the ABD code of conduct of the Committe on Publication Ethics COPE. Studies on patients or volunteers require the Informed Consent form and approval from the institution's Research Ethics Committee or relevant. The number of the research approval protocol by the Research Ethics Committee must be documented in the paper.

Appropriate consents, permissions and releases must be obtained whenever an author wishes to include case details, personal information or images of patients and any other individuals in an Elsevier publication. Written consent must be retained by the author but not be sent to the journal. When there is a photograph revealing the face and allowing the patient's identification, it is necessary to send the patient's consent document, when submitting the article, establishing the use of the photograph for scientific purposes. The author must provide copies of the consents or evidence that such consents were obtained only if specifically requested by the journal in exceptional circumstances (for instance, if a legal issue arises). For more information, see the Elsevier Policy on the Use of Images or Personal Information of Patients or Other Individuals (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/patient-consent). Unless you have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, from close relatives), any patient's personal information included in any part of the article and in any supplementary material (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before being sent.

If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. 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.

The author should ensure that the manuscript contains 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). This statement should contain the date and reference number of the ethical approval(s) obtained. Authors should also 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.

The 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 authors must provide sufficient evidence that they were procured in line with WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation. The source of the organs or tissues used in clinical research must be transparent and traceable. Authors of manuscripts describing organ transplantation must additionally declare within the manuscript:

1. that autonomous consent free from coercion was obtained from the donor(s) or their next of kin; and

2. that organs/tissues were not sourced from executed prisoners or prisoners of conscience.

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 Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals 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.

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. Please also indicate if the study received any funding.

More information.

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process.

Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans, as outlined in Elsevier's AI policy for authors.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Disclosure instructions

Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled 'Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process'

Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME 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 publication

This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis, see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information), 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 in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

The ABD use the similarity checker software iThenticate of the CrossRef platform, available in the ABD Editorial Manager submission system by Elsevier.

The manuscripts are analyzed to verify similarity as soon as they are submitted to the journal. When extensive modifications are made in the manuscript evaluation process, the article may undergo a new similarity check.

The ABD journal accepts the submission of preprints.

Please note that preprints can be shared anywhere at any time in accordance with Elsevier sharing policy.

Sharing your preprints (e.g. on a preprint server) will not count as pre-publication (for more information, see "Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publications".

A reliable preprint server must have a transparent moderation policy, offer DOI to the submitted preprints, allow changes to the preprint version, community comments and evaluation with researcher endorsement, and interoperability with other services and platforms. Only submissions of work that were previously deposited on public server platforms that meet these characteristics of reliability and transparency will be accepted. The following public platforms are recommended: Preprints, SciELO Preprints and EmeRI for open discussion before approval and publication in the journal.

In case of acceptance and publication of the article at ABD, it is the authors' responsibility to update the record on the preprint server, informing the complete reference of the publication in the journal.

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. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Reporting guidance

For research involving or pertaining to humans, animals or eukaryotic cells, investigators should integrate sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA) into their research design according to funder/sponsor requirements and best practices within a field. Authors should address the sex and/or gender dimensions of their research in their article. In cases where they cannot, they should discuss this as a limitation to their research's generalizability. Importantly, authors should explicitly state what definitions of sex and/or gender they are applying to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of their research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer (see Definitions section below). Authors can refer to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist. These offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting and research interpretation - however, please note there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender.

Definitions

Sex generally refers to a set of biological attributes that are associated with physical and physiological features (e.g., chromosomal genotype, hormonal levels, internal and external anatomy). A binary sex categorization (male/female) is usually designated at birth ("sex assigned at birth"), most often based solely on the visible external anatomy of a newborn. 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. Sex and gender are often incorrectly portrayed as binary (female/male or woman/man) and unchanging whereas these constructs actually exist along a spectrum and include additional sex categorizations and gender identities such as people who are intersex/have differences of sex development (DSD) or identify as non-binary. Moreover, the terms "sex" and "gender" can be ambiguous--thus it is important for authors to define the manner in which they are used. In addition to this definition guidance and the SAGER guidelines, the resources on this page offer further insight around sex and gender in research studies.

Each author is required to declare their individual contribution to the article on the Title Page. All authors must have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should be described. The statement that all authors have approved the final article should be true and included in the disclosure. More info can be found in the section "Authorship".

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, 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.

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. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

Registration in a public trials registry is a condition for publication of clinical trials in this journal in accordance with International Committee of Medical Journal Editors recommendations. Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrolment. The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end of the abstract of the article. 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 (for example drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioural 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. Purely observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) will not require registration.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (see more information on this) to assign to Brazilian Society of Dermatology (Sociedade Brasileira de Dermatologia - SBD) the copyright in the manuscript and any tables, illustrations or other material submitted for publication as part of the manuscript (the "Article") in all forms and media (whether now known or later developed), throughout the world, in all languages, for the full term of copyright, effective when the Article is accepted for publication. 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.

Author rights

As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. More information.

Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals.

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, it is recommended to state this.

Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal.

This journal does not charge a publication fee (also known as article processing charge or APC). The journal uses the license CC-BY of the Creative Commons System. The permitted (re)use by third parties is defined by the license as follows:

Creative Commons (CC BY)

Allows others to distribute and copy the article; create extracts, summaries and other revised versions, adapted or derived works of an article (such as a translation); include the article in a collective work (such as an anthology); mine the text or data of the article, even to commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author(s), do not indicate that the author(s) endorse(s) the adaptation and do not modify the article in a way that would harm the honor or reputation of the author(s).The open access fee for this journal is financed by the Brazilian Society of Dermatology.

Researcher Academy is a free e-learning platform designed to support early and mid-career researchers throughout their research journey. The "Learn" environment at Researcher Academy offers several interactive modules, webinars, downloadable guides and resources to guide you through the process of writing for research and going through peer review. Feel free to use these free resources to improve your submission and navigate the publication process with ease.

Our online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your article 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 e-mail.

Please submit your article via https://www.editorialmanager.com/abd

This journal uses double-blind review, which means the identities of the authors are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa. More information is available on our website. To facilitate this, please include the following separately:

Title page (with author details): This should include the title, authors' names, affiliations, ORCID iDs, individual contribution of each author, acknowledgements and any Declaration of Interest statement and financial support, and a complete address for the corresponding author including an e-mail address.

Blinded manuscript (no author details): The main body of the paper (including the references, figures, tables and any acknowledgements) should not include any identifying information, such as the authors' names or affiliations. If there is any mention to the institution or place where the study was conducted in the manuscript, it must be replaced by "XXX".

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.

Please check the "Types of paper" section for more information on the structure of each article type published by Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia.

Divide your article into clearly defined sections. Each subsection is given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line. Subsections should be used as much as possible when cross-referencing text: refer to the subsection by heading as opposed to simply 'the text'.

• Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.

• Author names and affiliations, including ORCID iD. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. You can add your name between parentheses in your own script behind the English transliteration. List each author affiliation followed by city, state and country. Author's positions/roles in their institutes will not be published. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author listing 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. The e-mail address and ORCID iD of each one of the authors must be inserted in the submission system. If an author does not have an ORCID iD, it can be registered at https://orcid.org/register.

• Please inform, on the Title Page, whether there is any conflict of interests or financial support. The name of the institution where the study was conduct should also be presented on Title Page (including city, state and country).

• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are 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.

• Author’s contributions. Each author must inform an accurate and detailed description of their diverse contributions to the published work. Please check the Authorship section.

A structured abstract, by means of appropriate headings, should provide the context or background for the research and should state its purpose, basic procedures (selection of study subjects or laboratory animals, observational and analytical methods), main findings (giving specific effect sizes and their statistical significance, if possible), and principal conclusions. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations. Please check the "Types of paper" section for more information on abstract's parameters for each article type. The abstract must be sent alongside the manuscript without mentioning the institution where the study was conducted.

Immediately after the abstract, provide a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 7 keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). These keywords will be used for indexing purposes. Please choose keywords that are included in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), of Index Medicus, available at www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh or in the Descriptors in Health Sciences (DeCS), of Bireme, available at the URL http://decs.bvs.br.

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. Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible.

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.). You will need to send a document of agreement signed by the acknowledged person.

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 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.

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other units are mentioned, please give their equivalent in SI.

This section describes the artwork for this journal.

Whilst it is accepted that authors sometimes need to manipulate images for clarity, manipulation for purposes of deception or fraud will be seen as scientific ethical abuse and will be dealt with accordingly. For graphical images, this journal is applying the following policy: no specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original image. Nonlinear adjustments (e.g. changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend.

General points

• Aim to use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, or Symbol.

• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.

• Inform, on the figure caption of histopathological images, the color and magnification.

• Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the published version.

• Submit each illustration 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

If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply 'as is' in the native document format.

Tables must be sent as Word files, using Times New Roman font, size 12, double space. Clinical images may be sent in Power Point format.

Regardless of the application used other than Microsoft Office, when your electronic artwork is finalized, 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):

TIFF (or JPEG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones), keep to a minimum of 300 dpi.

TIFF (or JPEG): Bitmapped (pure black & white pixels) line drawings, keep to a minimum of 1,000 dpi.

TIFF (or JPEG): Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale), keep to a minimum of 500 dpi

Please do not:

• Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., 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.

Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF (or JPEG), EPS (or PDF) 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. Further information on the preparation of electronic artwork.

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.

Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables can be placed on separate page(s) at the end. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells.

This section describes the references for this journal.

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.

Increased discoverability of research and high quality peer review are ensured by online links to the sources cited. In order to allow us to create links to abstracting and indexing services, such as Scopus, Crossref and PubMed, please ensure that data provided in the references are correct. Please note that incorrect surnames, journal/book titles, publication year and pagination may prevent link creation. When copying references, please be careful as they may already contain errors.

As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given.

This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, the formal publication should be used as the reference. If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but are not yet formally published, these may be referenced. Preprints should be clearly marked as such, for example by including the word preprint, or the name of the preprint server, as part of the reference. The preprint DOI should also be provided.

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.

Most Elsevier journals have their reference template available in many of the most popular reference management software products. These include all products that support Citation Style Language styles, such as Mendeley. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal's style. If no template is yet available for this journal, please follow the format of the sample references and citations as shown in this Guide. If you use reference management software, please ensure that you remove all field codes before submitting the electronic manuscript. More information on how to remove field codes from different reference management software.

Text: Indicate references by superscript numbers in the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given.

List: Number the references in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.

Examples:

Book chapter:

3. Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.

Dissertations or theses:

4. Borkowski MM. Infant sleep and feeding: a telephone survey of Hispanic Americans [dissertation]. Mount Pleasant (MI): Central Michigan University; 2002.

Homepage or Website:

5. eatright.org [Internet]. Chicago: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics; c2016 [cited 2016 Dec 27]. Available from: https://www.eatright.org/.

Preprints and in press:

6. Tian D, Araki H, Stahl E, Bergelson J, Kreitman M. Signature of balancing selection in Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. Forthcoming 2002.

7. Alvarez R. Near optimal neural network estimator for spectral x-ray photon counting data with pileup. arXiv:1702.01006v1 [Preprint]. 2017 [cited 2017 Feb 9]: [11 p.]. Available from: https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.01006

Author listing:

When there are more than 6 authors, please list the first 6, followed by "et al". More info can be found at: "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" (J Am Med Assoc 1997;277:927 -34).

Journal names should be abbreviated according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations.

Elsevier accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit with their article are strongly encouraged to include links to these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the file in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 150 MB per file, 1 GB in total. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages. Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.

Include interactive data visualizations in your publication and let your readers interact and engage more closely with your research. Follow the instructions here to find out about available data visualization options and how to include them with your article.

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

This journal encourages you to share data that supports your research publication in an appropriate data repository, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. If you are sharing data, you are encouraged to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation.

Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings. To facilitate reproducibility and data reuse, this journal also encourages you to share your software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.

For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.

If you have made your research data available in a data repository, you can link your article directly to the dataset. Elsevier collaborates with a number of repositories to link articles on ScienceDirect with relevant repositories, giving readers access to underlying data that gives them a better understanding of the research described.

There are different ways to link your datasets to your article. When available, you can directly link your dataset to your article by providing the relevant information in the submission system. For more information, visit the database linking page.

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

In addition, you can link to relevant data or entities through identifiers within the text of your manuscript, using the following format: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).

To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect. For more information, visit the Data Statement page.

To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors.

If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF.

We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. 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. 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.

Visit the Elsevier Support Center to find the answers you need.  Here you will find everything from Frequently Asked Questions to ways to get in touch.

You can also check the status of your submitted article or find out when your accepted article will be published.