Submission Preflight (gec-submission)

The last check before pressing submit through Elsevier's online submission system. GEC is double-anonymized, so a common avoidable failure is an under-anonymized manuscript; the others are missing Highlights and a missing Data Availability Statement. Facts below were refreshed from the official Guide for Authors on 2026-06-20; re-check live pages before filing.

When to trigger

• "Submitting tomorrow" — last pass before upload
• Unsure which files/metadata Elsevier's submission system expects
• Confirming caps are met and the manuscript is properly anonymized

Process facts (verified 2026-06-20; re-confirm volatile items on the official page)

• Publisher: Elsevier (ISSN 0959-3780 print / 1872-9495 online).
• Portal: Elsevier's online submission system.
• Review model: double-anonymized — submit a title page and anonymized manuscript as separate files.
• Article length: Research Articles up to 8,000 words (including main text and table/figure captions, excluding references); Perspectives up to 3,000 words (excluding references).
• Abstract: <=250 words.
• Keywords: 1-7 English keywords for indexing.
• Highlights: required, 3-5 bullets, <=85 characters each including spaces, as a separate editable file.
• References: any internally consistent style at submission; the journal style is applied after acceptance at proof.
• Data: Elsevier Option C applies: deposit/cite/link research data, or explain why it cannot be shared; prepare a Data Availability Statement.
• Publishing fee: subscription route has no author publication fee; gold OA APC is USD 6,120 excluding taxes (verified 2026-06-22; re-check the live ScienceDirect figure before submission).

Preflight checklist

Format & length

• Article type chosen and its word cap met (Research Article 8,000 words; Perspective 3,000 words)
• Abstract <=250 words; states problem + approach + finding + significance
• 1-7 English keywords chosen
• Highlights: 3-5 bullets, <=85 chars each, separate editable file

Anonymity (double-anonymized)

• No author names, affiliations, or acknowledgments in the manuscript
• Self-citations neutralized; no obvious self-references
• Identifying file metadata stripped (document properties, comments)
• Separate (non-anonymous) title page prepared as a distinct file

Format & metadata

• Elsevier formatting and reference style applied consistently
• Corresponding-author ORCID ready (Elsevier requirement)
• Figures/tables self-contained and accessible (see gec-figures-and-tables)

Compliance & files

• Declaration of competing interests and any funding statement included
• Ethics / IRB / human-subjects compliance and consent where applicable
• Option C data plan: deposit/cite/link research data, or explain why sharing is restricted
• Data Availability Statement + clean replication materials staged where sharing is possible
• Suggested reviewers (if requested) span the relevant disciplines

Anti-patterns

• Leaving author identifiers in the text, acknowledgments, or file metadata (breaks double-anonymized review)
• Abstract over the cap; missing or off-spec Highlights
• No Data Availability Statement; a results section the archive cannot reproduce
• Budgeting an APC when the subscription route is free to the author
• Sending a natural-science-only paper (see gec-review-process scope screen)

Output format

【Article type】Research Article / Perspective / other (caps met? Y/N)
【Anonymized】text + self-refs + file metadata clean? [Y/N]
【Abstract / keywords】<=250 words + 1-7 English keywords? [Y/N]
【Highlights】3-5 bullets, <=85 chars each? [Y/N]
【Option C data plan + Data Availability Statement】[Y/N]
【Declarations + ORCID】[Y/N]
【Next】await decision → gec-revision-and-rebuttal on revision

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — reference managers, anonymization, and repository tooling
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official GEC URLs behind every fact in this pack