The Elsevier publishing process
The task of writing a research article can be daunting. The purpose of this section is to give authors an overview of how to get their article published in an Elsevier journal as quickly and as smoothly as possible.

The first step is finding the right journal for your paper. Among the thousands of journals and books published by Elsevier are some of the world's most prominent and respected medical, scientific and technological publications. These include The Lancet, Cell, Tetrahedron Letters and a host of others. Below is a step-by-step guide to how to get your paper published in one of our journals:




Each journal has its own aims & scope as well as requirements for publication, so it is important you select a journal and download the Guide for Authors for that journal to prepare your paper.

Once you have prepared your paper according to the Guide for Authors you will be ready to submit online. Nearly all of Elsevier’s journals use the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) for managing the submission and peer-review process. EES allows authors to submit their manuscripts, reviewers to referee and editors to manage the peer-review process online, providing a seamless flow from article submission, all the way through to publication.

Once your paper has been submitted, you can check the status throughout the peer-review process or track your accepted article throughout the journal production process.




Benefits to authors
At Elsevier, we're dedicated to protecting your rights as an author, and ensuring that any and all legal information and copyright regulations are addressed. As a journal author, you retain rights for a large range of author uses of your article, including use by your employing institute or company. Please click here for full author rights.

We also provide many author benefits, such as free PDFs for most journals, a liberal copyright policy, special discounts on Elsevier publications and much more. Please click here for more information on our author services.

Content innovation
Elsevier is continuously working on publishing innovations that help authors enrich their articles and researchers gain deeper insights and draw conclusions more quickly.

Some of the content innovations we have been adding to our journals include   article-based publishing,   graphical abstracts,   highlights and   Google Maps. Read more about content innovation and the Elsevier   Article of the Future.

Find a journal
Elsevier publishes around 2,000 journals in Health Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences. Each journal has its own aims and scope as well as a Guide for Authors which contains all the information you need to prepare your paper.

Some tips for selecting the right journal:
- Search through Elsevier journals using the journal finder below or search through articles using SciVerse Scirus
- Check the aims and scope of the journal to see if your article is a good fit
- Check if the journal is invitation only. Please be aware that some journals will only accept invited articles
- Submit to only one journal at a time
- Check the Guide for Authors which will include information on the type of articles accepted, editorial team contacts, graphics specification, acceptable language and article length




Some tools to find a journal for your paper:

Search through Elsevier journals alphabetically, by editor or by subject. You can also type journal names / keywords into the 'Locate a journal now' field:





  Search through articles on SciVerse Scirus. Enter a few keywords that describe your paper and identify the Elsevier journals that publish papers on your topic:

Preparing your paper using the Journal's Guide for Authors
Each journal has its own requirements for publication which are specified in the journal's Guide for Authors, which can be found on the journal's homepage.



The Guide for Authors contains information to be considered before you begin such as ethics, conflicts of interest, changes to authorship, copyright and funding body agreements relevant for that journal. It also contains information pertinent to the preparation of your paper such as article structure, abstract, highlights, keywords, video data and artwork. It is essential you consult and follow the instructions in your journal's Guide for Authors.

Further resources
Our series of bite-sized webcasts contain some useful tips and tricks to help you to improve your research paper (each webcast runs for up to 10 minutes). Choose from:

#01 Preparing your Manuscript #02 Using Proper Manuscript Language #03 Structuring an Article

Author language and artwork services

Some basic language and artwork guides to get your started
Elsevier has created a   language editing checklist to help authors avoid some of the more common errors and grammatical mistakes found in papers. We also provide basic author   artwork and multimedia instructions.

Language and illustration services
The Elsevier Author WebShop offers   language editing and quality services which ensure that your manuscript is free of grammatical and spelling errors within five business days.

Our   illustration services offer you world-class artistic support for your professional research and images. You can easily upload your drafted illustrations, sketches, or just an idea, and we will send you a free time and cost proposal within 24 business hours. Following acceptance and payment, the illustration will be delivered within a couple of days. Illustrations are offered in four categories: Medical, Technical, Scientific, and Graphs, Charts and Tables.

Content innovation
Elsevier is developing a number of publishing innovations which may be available for your journal of choice. 'How to' instructions will be included in the journal's Guide for Authors if the features below are available for your journal:

  Article-based publishing: Articles will be published as soon as possible without waiting for an issue to be compiled; they will appear in an “Issue in Progress".

  Graphical abstracts: A graphical abstract captures the content of the paper for readers at a single glance.

  Highlights: Highlights are a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings and provide readers with a quick textual overview of the article.

  Google Maps: Enriches an article with research data that is visualized on an interactive map.

Find out more about content innovation and the Elsevier   Article of the Future.

Elsevier Editorial System and peer review
Elsevier is committed to improving services for authors, editors and reviewers by migrating its journal publication process to an online workflow from beginning to end. For initial submission of your article for peer review, most Elsevier journals now use the online   Elsevier Editorial System (EES). There are many benefits to registering with EES, including increased review and publication speed, article tracking and receiving e-mail alerts.

Each journal has a homepage with a Submit an Article link which will take you to that journal's EES page. Log in to EES to be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. EES automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process.

For journals not using the Elsevier Editorial System (EES)
For journals not yet using EES, e-mail submission, or submission of a disk or printed copy will be accepted. Please see your journal's individual Guide for Authors on the journal homepage for further information.




Peer review
Our primary research journals are peer-reviewed and independently edited by acknowledged experts in their fields. Reviewers are appointed by the journal editor.

Peer review has two key functions:
- To act as a filter and determine the validity, significance and originality of the work to ensure only good research is published.
- To improve the quality of research submitted for publication by giving reviewers the opportunity to suggest improvements.

Read more about   peer review.

Publish your research with Open Access

We understand that some researchers want to make their research easily available and downloadable beyond the academic community. To meet this need, we offer researchers a number of open access publishing choices. Click here for more information on our open access articles and open archive options. Furthermore, we have arrangements with the major funding bodies to allow researchers to continue to publish in Elsevier journals and comply with their manuscript archiving requirements.

Check status of your submitted paper or accepted article

Check the status of your submitted paper
You can follow the status of your submitted paper in the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) using a reference number that you will receive by e-mail. The status of your paper will change during the peer-review process from With Editor to Under Review to Review Completed to Decision in Process to Accepted.



Check the status of your accepted article
Accepted articles will be published online on SciVerse ScienceDirect as an article in press and assigned an issue at a later date. You can   track your article and citations throughout this process. Once your article is accepted you will be able to check its status in our production tracking system.




Offprints
PDF e-offprints will be e-mailed within 24 hours of an article appearing online on SciVerse ScienceDirect. If printed offprints are ordered in place of e-offprints, these are actually dispatched within 6-8 weeks of issue publication. You can check the dispatch date using the article tracking facility. Please note that delivery times depend on the destination.

During the time between your article's acceptance and its final printing we will ask you to:
- Complete a Journal Publishing Agreement
- If printed offprints are required, complete an offprint order form
- Review a proof copy to check for errors or add missing details

Proofreading
As soon as your article has been typeset, a page proof in the form of a PDF file will be sent to the corresponding author. This usually happens 4-5 weeks after we receive your completed article.

Accurate proofreading and clear marking of corrections are essential for the production of a quality article. Please note that careful proofreading is solely your responsibility. Please mark any necessary corrections in a distinct manner. Elsevier will do everything it can to have your article corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication.

  How to annotate PDFs.