Author Instructions Page for Submitting LaTeX Based Submissions to UMB

Author Instructions updated March 2011.

Please review the general instructions applicable to all UMB submissions while creating your LaTeX formatted manuscript. The specific instructions provided below for LaTeX composed manuscripts are intended to aid the creation of a properly formatted manuscript. The authors are responsible for ensuring that the final build matches the criteria listed for UMB submissions.

Files Required to Create a LaTeX Submission

The following files are needed for the creation of a LaTeX submission:

• Document class file: elsarticle.cls
• UMB LaTeX template: UMB-elsarticle-template-harv.tex
• Bibliography style file: UMB-elsarticle-harvbib.bst
• Generic instructions for the elsarticle document class: elsdoc.pdf

Descriptions Concerning Necessary Files

elsdoc.pdf: Elsevier provides a help file that can answer many questions concerning the use of LaTeX with submission to Elsevier journals (details specific to UMB will be provided below). Authors should thoroughly review this document before drafting your LaTeX submission. Authors wishing to use additional packages than those listed in the template should review the Elsevier provided instructions for their acceptability.

elsarticle.cls: This class file should be placed in your TeX folder path. Often, placing this class file in the same folder that contains your .tex file is sufficient. More experienced LaTeX users, however, may wish to place this class file elsewhere. Additional class files accepted by the Elsevier Editorial System may not conform to UMB specific requirements, and their use is not encouraged for UMB submissions.

elsarticle-harv.bst: This .bst file should be used for formatting citations and references.

UMB-elsarticle-template-harv.tex: This .tex file should be used as a template. The following document class options must be used for online submissions: 'review', 'authoryear', and '12pt'. However, other class options listed in the Elsevier LaTeX help document may be used during composition only. Comments within the .tex file provide further details and descriptions of the various components of the file. Please review these comments carefully.

Helpful Points to Remember for LaTeX Submissions

The following points are all addressed within the UMB LaTeX template.

• No numbering should be used for sections. Use a '*' to eliminate numbering for section, subsection, and subsubsection headings (ex: \section*{Materials and Methods}).
• Figure environments should not be used in the in the submitted version of your .tex file. Use the '%' command to comment out any lines associated with figure environments that you may temporarily be including while creating your manuscript. Note that this means you will not be able to use the \label and \ref commands to autonumber your figure and table references.
• The title/abstract page, references page, figure captions page, and tables page all need to start on a separate page. Page break commands have been included in the template to achieve this. Please do not remove them.
• If long equations are used in the document, authors should use a two-column format during composition to make sure that the equations have appropriate line breaks. To do this, replace the class option 'review' with the following two class options '3p' and 'twocolumn'. Keep in mind that the column width produced in '3p' is slightly narrower than the final published version. Once the appropriate line breaks have been inserted, change the class options '3p' and 'twocolumn' back to 'review' before submitting.
• Citations should be placed in the text using the \citep{} and \citet{} commands.
• All bibliography information should be included in a 'thebibliography' environment. Most authors will find it easiest to create a .bbl file and then copy and paste the contents of the .bbl file into the .tex file after the acknowledgements section and before the figure captions section. Remember to use the \pagebreak command before and after the 'thebibliography' environment so that the references appear on separate pages in the submitted document.

For Further Assistance

Additional help may be found on the Elsevier Customer Support website. Bugs and problems with elsarticle.cls may be reported to the developers of the class via [email protected]. For all other technical enquiries please contact Elsevier author support at [email protected].

In case there is a problem with the final document build when uploading, it is suggested that descriptive file names be used to assist technical support. Descriptive filenames might be: AuthorName_Manuscript.tex, fig1.pdf, fig2.pdf, etc.