IMPROVING YOUR INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS: GET WHAT YOU WANT THE FIRST TIME

Ashley Smith, PhD, Academic IllustratorKurt Spurlock, Quality Manager

WHY DO OUR MANUSCRIPT AND FIGURE FORMATTING SERVICES EXIST?• Any impediment to publication can frustrate everyone

involved, including authors and journal editors. • Saving time and ensuring confidence in submission:

– Authors want the process to be easy so they can get back to doing research

– For non-native English speakers, sifting through long blocks of text can also pose a challenge, and some wording poses an issue (e.g., “50 characters or fewer”)

– Journal staff’s time is valuable

GOALS OF AUTHOR GUIDELINES

• Create standardization and predictability for everyone who will see the paper once it’s submitted

• Audience is researchers, who want the whole submission process to be as easy as possible. They see author guidelines as a reference to consult.

WHAT MAKES GUIDELINES EASY TO FOLLOW?• Organization of information into tables, easily identifiable sections with headings• Checklist of required elements• Example citations and references• All guidelines on one page (best) or a central page with links to all guidelines

pages• Guidelines internally consistent• Guidelines up-to-date• Be clear about what you want and what you don’t care about (avoid vague

language)• State what you need vs. referring to style manual or publisher’s guidelines• Archives of Disease in Childhood: provides Chinese translation

EXAMPLE – ORGANIZATION IN TABLES

*The manuscript word limit excludes the abstract, references, figure legends, tables, and supplemental data.**500 words of text may be substituted for one ¼-page figure.

EXAMPLE – ORGANIZATION IN TABLES

EXAMPLES – BEFORE

xxJournalxx uses standard xxPublisherxx referencing style. All authors should be included in reference lists unless there are six or more, in which case only the first author should be given, followed by 'et al.'. Authors should be listed last name first, followed by a comma and initials (followed by full stops) of given names. Article titles should be in Roman text, only the first word of the title should have an initial capital and the title should be written exactly as it appears in the work cited, ending with a full stop. Book titles should be given in italics and all words in the title should have initial capitals. Journal names are italicized and abbreviated (with full stops) according to common usage. Volume numbers and the subsequent comma appear in bold. The full page range should be given, where appropriate.

EXAMPLE – AFTERArticle type Example

Journal article Smith, J. A., Chen, D., & Santos, S. 2001. How to write journal guidelines. Res. Sci. Commun. 34, 17-24.

Journal article, 6 or more authors

Smith J. A., et al. 2002. How to write even more journal guidelines: now with six or more authors. Res. Sci. Commun. 38, 21-34.

Book Smith, J. A. 2003. How to Write Journal Guidelines: The Book. Bouncer: New York.

Chapter in a book Smith, J. A. 2004. How to write journal guidelines. In: Brown, M.A. (Ed.) . How to Write Journal Guidelines: The Book, 2nd ed. Bouncer: New York, pp. 34-53.

These are the most common article types, but providing examples of conference proceedings, websites, theses, etc. (if accepted) can reduce author time in interpreting how these should look and reduce journal staff time in ensuring they match journal preferences.

HOW DO YOU FIGURE?

• Areas of author confusion

• Guiding authors through your guidelines

AREAS OF AUTHOR CONFUSION

• Terminology - Line Art - Vector

• Procedure - File type conversion - Resolution adjustment - Size adjustment

LOOKS GOOD ON SCREEN ≠ LOOKS GOOD IN PRINT

TERMINOLOGY• Esoteric terms - Show EXAMPLES!!! - Define - Avoid

Vector objects can be edited directly; in vector-based documents, text, lines, and graphics can all be altered independently. Vector graphics can besized up and down without loss of quality (Ex. Eps, Pdf)

PROCEDURE

• Provide brief instructions for saving/exporting preferred file types

• Remind authors that resolution is “set” once an image is captured

• Designate ideal dimensions

GUIDING AUTHORS THROUGH YOUR GUIDELINES• Journal specialty: Let your content be your guide - Focus mainly on aspects prioritized by your journal’s specialty

• Instructions - Break down into separate categories - Use lists or tables instead of full paragraphs - Examples, EXAMPLES, EXAMPLES!!!

• Color usage - CMYK or RGB - Mention specific color palettes if applicable *(avoid yellow) - Consider color blindness - Supply information on charges

LET YOUR CONTENT BE YOUR GUIDE: IMAGE-BASED• Medical journals mostly focus on images

- Resolution: 300 dpi (plain) -600 dpi (labeled) - Minimum width: 3-5 inches (ensures appropriate number of pixels for clear printing)

- File types: Tiff (preferred for its lossless compression )

LET YOUR CONTENT BE YOUR GUIDE: LINE ART/COMBINATION-BASED• Basic science journals mostly focus on graphs, flowcharts, and

diagrams (line art) or combination figures

- Resolution: 1200 dpi (line art) or 600 dpi for combination figures (line art with images) - File types: Tiff, native (Excel, Prism, etc…), or vector formats (Eps, Pdf) allow for limitless resolution and editability

INSTRUCTIONS: RESOLUTION• Break down into categories••

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

INSTRUCTIONS: DESIGNATE DIMENSIONS • Common figure dimensions - 1 Column: 85 mm - 1.5 Column: 135 mm - 2 Column: 175 mm**Max height: 234 mm

• If images are the main focus, set dimensions using pixels

UNLESS YOU WANT JUNK DON’T ASK FOR JPEGS!

Uncompressed Tiff Compressed Jpeg

IF YOU WANT QUALITY, DON’T ASK FOR POWERPOINT OR WORD DOC FILES EITHER

COLOR

IMPACT OF COLOR DEFICIENCY ON FIGURES

DichromacyNormal vision

GET SPECIFIC ONLY WHEN NECESSARY• If consistency is important, supply details - Font (size and style) - Line weight - Panel labels*SHOW EXAMPLES

A+ GUIDELINES: CATEGORIESSpringer•

A+ GUIDELINES: CHECKLIST• Elsevier

A+ GUIDELINES: EXAMPLESJCI•

QUESTIONS??