Guide for Authors

  • Guide for Authors



    INTRODUCTION


    Types of Paper

    Contributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: full-length articles/research papers, review articles, short communications, editorials and short reviews. 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

    Please see our information on Ethics in publishing.
    Regional Sustainability (electronic ISSN 2666-660X) and its Publisher, Elsevier, are dedicated to following best practices on ethical matters, errors, and retractions. The prevention of publication malpractice is one of the important responsibilities of the Editorial Board. Any kind of unethical behavior is not acceptable, and the Editorial Board of this journal does not tolerate plagiarism in any form. Authors submitting articles to the Regional Sustainability affirm that manuscript contents are original.
    The Editors and Editor-in-Chief evaluate submitted manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic merit (importance, originality, studies validity, clarity) and its relevance to the journal's scope, without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, religious belief, political philosophy or institutional affiliation. Decisions to edit and publish are not determined by the policies of governments or any other agencies outside of the journal itself. The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over the entire editorial content of the journal and the timing of publication of that content.
    Editors, authors, and reviewers will also adhere to the Regional Sustainability submission guideline policies:
    Duties of Editors
    1. Publication Decisions: Based on the review report, the Editors have complete responsibility and authority to accept, reject or request modifications to the manuscript.
    2. Review of Manuscripts: Each Editor must ensure that each manuscript is initially evaluated by the Editors and Editor-in-Chief for originality, making use of appropriate software to do so. Those manuscripts that meet the criteria for peer review are passed on to one of the Associate Editors to invite at least 2 expert reviewers to blind peer review the manuscripts.
    3. Fair Review: The Editors must ensure that each manuscript submitted to the Regional Sustainability is reviewed for its intellectual content without regard to sex, gender, race, religion, citizenship, etc. of the authors.
    4. Confidentiality: The Editors must ensure that information regarding manuscripts submitted by the authors is kept confidential.
    5. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: The Editors of Regional Sustainability shall not use unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript for his/her own research without the written consent of the author.
    6. Errata Information: The Editors must publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
    7. Ethical Guidelines: The Editors shall ensure that all research materials they publish conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines.
    8. Proof of Misconduct: The Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions, but they should have proof of misconduct.
    9. Accountability: Editors should attend four annual meetings through video conferences or virtual communications and make suggestion on journal policy and scope, including suggest ideas, new initiatives and programs if necessary. They may review submitted manuscripts, identify topics for special issues or attract new authors and submissions if necessary.


    MORE ON ETHICS IN PUBLISHING


    Submissions to KeAi journals are automatically screened using iThenticate's CrossCheck within the editorial system to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Details can be found here.
    Ethics approval and consent to participate
    Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must:

    • Include a statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived)
    • Include the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the committee's reference number if appropriate


    All materials must adhere to high ethical and animal welfare standards. 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.
    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.



    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. More information.


    SUBMISSION DECLARATION AND VERIFICATION

    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 or as an electronic preprint,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. To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originality detection service CrossCheck.


    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.

    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.
    Permission of the society is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult regsus@ms.xjb.ac.cn). 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

    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

    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.


    Open Access

    Every peer-reviewed research article appearing in this journal will be published open access. This means that the article is universally and freely accessible via the internet in perpetuity, in an easily readable format immediately after publication. The journal is currently free to the authors and readers. The author does not have any publication charges for open access. Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences http://english.egi.cas.cn will pay to make the article open access currently. Authors who require more information, please contact the editorial office [e-mail: regsus@ms.xjb.ac.cn].
    A CC user license manages the reuse of the article (see https://www.elsevier.com/openaccesslicenses). All articles will be published under the following license:

    Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

    For non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, and to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter or modify the article.

    Language (usage and editing services)

    Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to use the English Language Editing service available from Elsevier's Author Services.


    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/regional-sustainability/) 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 [e-mail: regsus@ms.xjb.ac.cn; telephone: 0991-7827334; or fax: 0991-7827335].

    Additional Information

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


    PREPARATION


    Queries

    For questions about the editorial process (including the status of manuscripts under review) or for technical support on submissions, please visit our Support Center.


    Editorial Policies

    For information on Editorial Policies for journal publication refer to http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/authors-and-editors/editorial-policies/.


    Peer review

    This journal operates a double blind review process. All contributions are sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Executive Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Executive Editor-in-Chief's decision is final. For more information on the types of peer review, please visit: https://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/peer-review.

    1. All manuscripts would be first reviewed by editorial office. Any papers fail to meet the basic standard of the journal would be desk rejected for reasons like out of scope, ethical conflicts, high similarities, lack of originality, flaws in research design or methods, etc. Then, editorial office would reassign selected papers to editor-in-chief. 
    2. Editor-in-chief would invite multiple reviewers to review this paper or assign an editorial board member to invite reviewers to review this paper. 
    3. After at least 2 reviewers give their reviews and comments, Editor-in-chief (or the assigned editor) would provide feedbacks based on review comments to the authors including his own review comments. 
    4. When author submits the revised manuscript, the assigned editor and editor-in-chief would collaborate to make final decision 
    5. For submissions from Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, Guest Editor(s), other journal Board members, and authors who have conflicts of interest with them, we ensure that the paper is handled confidentially by a different team member. 
    6. For submissions to Special Issues, if there are conflicts of interest between the Guest Editor(s) and authors, the submissions will be handled by another Editor from Editorial Board who will manage the peer review process and make the decision whether to accept or reject the paper after peer review.  
    The practice of peer review is to ensure that only good science is published. It is an objective process at the heart of good scholarly publishing and is carried out by all reputable journals. Our reviewers therefore play a vital role in maintaining the high standards of Regional Sustainability and all published manuscripts are peer reviewed following the procedure outlined below.
    Initial manuscript evaluation
    The Editors screen all new submissions and submit the editorial comments to the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief further evaluate all submissions before deciding if they should be rejected or assigned to an Associate Editor for peer review. Those that rejected at this stage are insufficiently original, have serious scientific flaws, have poor grammar or English language, or are outside the aims and scope of the journal. Those that meet the criteria for peer review are passed on to one of the Associate Editors to invite at least two expert reviewers to review the manuscripts. Authors of manuscripts rejected at this stage will normally be informed within one week, latest within two weeks of receipt.
    Type of Peer Review
    The Regional Sustainability employs double-blind review, where both the reviewers and the author remain anonymous throughout the process.
    The peer review process
    Reviewers are matched to the manuscript according to their country, methodological and contents area expertise. Our reviewer database contains reviewer contact details together with their subject areas of interest, and this is constantly being updated. We welcome suggestions for reviewers from authors, though these recommendations may not necessarily be used.
    Reviewer reports
    Reviewers are asked to evaluate a manuscript for:

    originality and significance of contribution
    adequacy and logicality of methodology and analysis
    readability (clear, concise, and completeness)
    interesting results that are clearly presented and support the conclusions
    correctly references previous relevant work.


    1. Reviewers are asked to provide both comments to the editor as well as anonymous comments/recommendations to the author.
    2. Reviewers are not expected to correct or copy edit manuscripts. Language correction is not part of the peer review process.
    How long does the peer review process take?
    Typically, the manuscript will be reviewed within 3-8 weeks from submission date. Should the reviewers' reports contradict one another or a report is unnecessarily delayed a further expert opinion will be sought. Revised manuscripts are usually returned to the journal within 4 weeks and the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors may request further advice from the reviewers at this time. The Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors may request more than one revision of a manuscript.
    The decision
    The Associate Editors will make recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief based on the reviewers' comments, and the Editor-in-Chief will do the final decision: accept, reject, or revision. This decision will be sent to the author along with any recommendations made by the reviewers.
    Resubmission
    If the author is invited to resubmit after a major revision, the revised version should be submitted within 4 weeks. If necessary, revised manuscripts may be returned to the initial review


    Becoming a Reviewer for the Regional Sustainability

    If you are not currently a reviewer for the Regional Sustainability but would like to be considered as a reviewer for this Journal, please contact the editorial office by e-mail at regsus@ms.xjb.ac.cn, and provide your contact details. If your request is approved and you are added to the online reviewer database, you will receive a confirmatory email, asking you to add details on your field of expertise, in the format of subject classifications.

    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.


    Latex

    If the LaTeX file is suitable, proofs will be produced without rekeying the text. The article should preferably be written using Elsevier's document class "elsarticle", or alternatively any of the other recognized classes and formats supported in Elsevier's electronic submissions system.
    The Elsevier "elsarticle" LaTeX style file package (including detailed instructions for LaTeX preparation) can be obtained from the Quickguide: https://www.elsevier.com/latex. It consists of the file: elsarticle.cls, complete user documentation for the class file, bibliographic style files in various styles, and template files for a quick start.


    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.

    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 details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be summarized, and indicated by a reference. If quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and also cite the source. Any modifications to existing methods should also 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

    Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. S1, Eq. S2, and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table S1, Fig. S1 etc.


    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. You can add your name between parentheses in your own script behind the English transliteration. 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. 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.

    Abstract

    A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.


    Keywords

    Immediately after the Abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

    Abbreviations

    Abbreviations must be defined at their first mention. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

    Acknowledgements

    Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

    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. You are urged to consult IUGS: Nomenclature for geological time scales/rock names for further information.

    Math formulae

    Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images. Present simple formulae in line with 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. Many word processors can build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Otherwise, please indicate the position of footnotes in the text and list the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

    Artwork

    Electronic artwork

    General points

     Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
     Embed the used fonts if the application provides that option.
     Aim to use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, Symbol, or use fonts that look similar.
     Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
     Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
     Provide captions to illustrations separately.
     Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the published version.
     Submit each illustration as a separate file.
     Ensure that color images are accessible to all, including those with impaired color vision.
    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.
    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):
    EPS (or PDF): Vector drawings, embed all used fonts.
    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 1000 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); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colors;
    • 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 (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. For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for color: in print or online only. Further information on the preparation of electronic artwork.

    Figure captions

    Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.


    Tables

    Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables can be placed either next to the relevant text in the article, or 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.


    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.

    Web references

    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. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

    Preprint references

    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.

    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

    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.

    Reference Style

    Text: All citations in the text should refer to:
    1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
    2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;
    3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by "et al." and the year of publication.

    Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.
    Examples: "as demonstrated (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1995). Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...."

    List: References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.

    Examples:
    Reference to a journal publication:
    Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2000. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51-59.

    Reference to a book:
    Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 1979. The Elements of Style (3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan.

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

    Reference to a Conference Proceeding:
    Yang, Q.S., 1994. Further study on the geographical distribution and conservation of snow leopard in Qinghai. In: Fox J. Proceedings of the 7th International Snow Leopard Symposium. Seattle: International Snow Leopard Trust, 72-77.

    Reference to a website:
    Blumenberg, E., Taylor, B., Smart, M., et al., 2012. What's Youth Got to Do with It? Exploring the Travel Behavior of Teens and Young Adults. [2021-04-01]. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9c14p6d5.

    Reference to a dataset:
    Oguro, M., Imahiro, S., Saito, S., et al., 2015. Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions.
    Mendeley Data, V1, doi: 10.17632/xwj98nb39r.1.

    Reference to a PhD Dissertation:
    Fang, X.Z., 2016. Research on the model for assessment and evolution of regional sustainable development. PhD Dissertation. Wuhan: Wuhan University of Technology.

    Reference to an MSc Thesis:
    Wei, H., 2004. Study of water resources carrying capacity in Minqin Basin. MSc Thesis. Lanzhou: Lanzhou University.

    Journal abbreviations source

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


    Supplementary material

    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.


    Research data

    This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. 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.

    Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. If you are sharing data in one of these ways, 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. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.

    Data linking

    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).


    AFTER ACCEPTANCE


    Online proof correction

    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.


    Offprints

    The corresponding author will, at no cost, receive a customized Share Link providing 50 days free access to the final published version of the article on ScienceDirect. The Share Link can be used for sharing the article via any communication channel, including email and social media. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Both corresponding and co-authors may order offprints at any time via Elsevier's Author Services. Corresponding authors who have published their article gold open access do not receive a Share Link as their final published version of the article is available open access on ScienceDirect and can be shared through the article DOI link.


    AUTHOR INQUIRIES

    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.


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