Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • Cover letter

    Submission of a manuscript should be accompanied by a cover letter explicitly stating that the work described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

  • Anonymised file with the manuscript

    The file with the manuscript should not contain any reference to authors’ names and affiliation should be removed. 

    The first page of the manuscript should indicate the title, abstract and keywords.

  • Abstract

    Please provide an abstract no longer than 200 words. The abstract should clearly describe the topic of the paper, methods and results. Abstracts should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references. Italian authors should also provide an Italian version of the abstract, which should be submitted as a ‘supplementary file’. In this case, the authors are at liberty of producing a longer (Italian) abstract, up to 800 words.

  • Keywords

    Please provide up to eight keywords, which can be used for indexing purposes. Keywords should be arranged in alphabetic order and separated by a comma.

  • Figures, graphs & tables

    For the best quality final product, authors are required to submit tables, graphs, photographs, line drawings, etc. in an electronic format separately form the file of the manuscript and in the formats specified below. Such files will then be produced to the highest standards with the greatest accuracy to detail. The published work will directly reflect the quality of the provided files. Tables are assigned Roman numerals and figures Arabic numerals.

    Tables and figures will be printed as a single column (7,6 cm or 2.99") or over the full width of the page (16 cm or 6.3"). Figures will be reduced where possible.

    Figures

    Photographs, diagrams, graphs, maps and drawings are considered as figures.

    They should be submitted individually using the original format, e.g. jpg, tiff, eps, xls, etc.

    If a figure has been published previously, the original source should be acknowledged after written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material has been received.

    Each figure should be formatted so that it occupies no more space than is necessary to convey critical information; no margins or borders should appear around figures.

    Scale bar or magnification information should be included for all micrographs.  

    Vector graphics may be created with Illustrator®, FreeHand®, Corel Draw™, Inkscape (open source) and should be saved/exported as EPS file at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

    Raster graphics can originate from scanned figures, digital photos, electron microscope, etc. or they can be create with Photoshop®, GIMP (open source), or similar, and should be saved as PSD, TIF, JPG or PNG file at a minimum resolution of 600 dpi. PSD files should be with open levels. When saving files as TIF, always use LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression to reduce file size and to ensure no data is lost.

    Graphs 

    Graphs should be created using Microsoft Excel®. Data used to create the graph must be included in the file in which the figure is presented. The editor should be able to make changes to the colour, text, background fill, etc. 

    Tables

    Each table should be numbered consecutively (I, II, III) according to the order of citation in the text.

    Numbers within tables should be rounded to the nearest whole number or significant digit. Numbers smaller than 1 should include a zero to the left of the decimal point.

    Tables should be as simple as possible and be composed entirely of text characters. Large or complex tables or tables that include graphics should be submitted as figures. If in doubt, please contact the journal for advice. 

  • Reviewers

    Authors are kindly invited to name up to three international experts, whom the scientific board may invite to review the manuscript. Please, note that the scientific board may as well disregard the authors' suggestions. The suggestion for the possible referees may be sent both using the window 'Comments to the Editor' during the first step of the submission process and by emailing the associate editors.

Author Guidelines

Submission of a manuscript should be accompanied by a cover letter explicitly stating that the work described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation. Manuscript are anonymously peer-reviewed by at least two experts appointed by the editor-in-chief or by one of the scientific editors collaborating with the journal.

Authors are required to register and to follow the submission procedure. The file with the manuscript should be completely anonymised, any reference to authors’ names and affiliation should be removed. A separate file for each figure (.jpeg), graphs (.xlsx) and table should also be submitted as specified in the section ‘Table and Figures’.

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Authors are kindly invited to name up to three international experts, whom the scientific board may invite to review the manuscript. Please, note that the scientific board may as well disregard the authors' suggestions. The suggestion for the possible referees may be sent both using the window 'Comments to the Editor' during the first step of the submission process and by emailing the associate editors.