journal article word template

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This page will contain a collection of MS word templates for journals, proceedings, abstract books, monographs, books, thesis, preprints, etc. published by AIJR. Though it is not mandatory to use this word template, the author may follow the author guidelines carefully for formatting the manuscript. However, many authors feel more comfortable to use the word template to follow author guidelines. Even using the template seems more convenient, still, all authors are suggested to read author guidelines of the journal/publication to avoid any confusion.

Please look for the appropriate journal/publication and use the most appropriate template (.dotx for latest ms word or .dot for word 97-2003) as per the version of Microsoft Word you are using.

Note: If you are using the latest Microsoft Word (.docx) then download Latest Word Template (.dotx). If you are using word 97-2003 version (.doc) then download word 97-2003 template (.dot)

This Template can be used for any of the following journals.

• Journal of Modern Materials
• Journal of Modeling and Simulation of Materials
• Advanced Nano Research
• International Annals of Science
• International Journal of Methodology
• Extensive Reviews

This MS Word Template can be used for our specific journal Advanced Journal of Graduate Research

This MS Word Template can be used for our sociology journal Advanced Journal of Social Science

This MS Word Template can be used for AIJR Preprints

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IEEE Article Templates

IEEE article templates let you quickly format your article and prepare a draft for peer review. Templates help with the placement of specific elements, such as the author list. They also provide guidance on stylistic elements such as abbreviations and acronyms.

Use the interactive IEEE Template Selector to find the template you need by following a few easy prompts and then downloading your template.

Writing your journal article

Before writing your journal article for submission to one of our journals please read this guidance first. It may save you time formatting your article and improve your chances of being published.

What we look for in your article

If you are an early career researcher you may find our  PDF guides  (available in both English and Chinese) helpful.

You can also watch our guide on How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper

IOP Publishing (IOP) considers for publication in our journals articles that:

Report original science and add significantly to research already published

Are of interest to the community

Are scientifically rigorous

Have sound motivation and purpose

Have not been published previously in the peer reviewed literature

Are not under consideration for publication in any other peer reviewed journal or book available through a library or by purchase

Comply with our preprint pre-publication policy (see below), and

Comply with our ethical policy.

It is particularly important for you to consider whether you have enough new results before starting to plan and write a paper for submission to an IOP journal. Reporting incremental steps forward from previous work is usually not sufficient.

Articles based on theses for higher degrees may be submitted. You should take care to ensure that such articles are prepared in the format of a research paper, which is more concise than is appropriate for a thesis.

Articles reporting work that was originally presented at a conference may be submitted, provided these articles do not appear in substantially the same form in a conference proceeding and provided that the journal paper would add some new contribution. Again, you should ensure the format of a research paper is used. The article length should also be appropriate to the content. In case of doubt, please enquire with the relevant journal.

Reports that are not available to the general public are not regarded by IOP as prior publications. Many journals published by IOP consider a range of different article types in addition to regular research papers, including special issue articles, topical reviews, comments and replies. However, please check via the journal homepage that your article is of an acceptable article type and suitable scope before submission.

All articles are judged solely on their scientific merits. Unbiased consideration is given to all manuscripts offered for publication, regardless of whether or not the authors request publication on a gold open access basis and regardless of the race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, political philosophy, sexual orientation, age or reputation of the authors.

IOP Publishing reserves the right to refuse to publish any content that, in its opinion, could be deemed distasteful or illegal including, but not limited to, libellous, defamatory, offensive or hate speech.

We treat all submitted articles as confidential until they are published and they will only be shared with those reviewers, board members, editors and IOP staff who are directly involved in the peer review of the article. (An exception to this would be if it is felt necessary to share the article with additional external parties in order to investigate a possible breach of the ethical policy .)

Can I submit an article that has been posted as a Preprint?

IOP’s Preprint pre-publication policy allows authors to share a Preprint of their article anywhere at any time, subject to two restrictions.

This means that IOP will consider articles which have already been posted as a Preprint anywhere online, provided that (i) you did not and do not transfer (assign) ownership of its copyright, and (ii) you did not and do not grant an exclusive licence to it.

Additionally, IOP will also consider articles that have been included as a preprint in a thesis or dissertation, provided (i) you did not and do not transfer (assign) ownership of its copyright, and (ii) you did not and do not grant an exclusive licence to it.

All papers should be written in English.

Articles should be clearly and concisely written, and be accessible to an international audience. It is important to avoid colloquial terms and sayings that may not be widely understood. Short sentences and paragraphs make for easier reading. You should aim for consistency within your article in matters such as hyphenation and spelling. All acronyms and abbreviations should be clearly explained when they first appear in the text. Introduce any ideas that may be unfamiliar to readers early in the paper so that your results can be easily understood. IOP Publishing follows  Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication  to ensure that journal articles use bias-free and culturally sensitive communication. We ask authors to please follow these guidelines in their manuscript submissions.

On completion of the first draft, carefully re-read your paper and make any amendments that will improve the content. When complete, send the paper to colleagues and co-authors, and use their feedback to improve the clarity of the text. When all co-authors are satisfied that the draft is ready to be submitted to a journal, carry out one final spelling and grammar check before submission.

IOP Editing Services , in partnership with Editage, provides editorial support if you need it. We also have support for authors based in China with our China IOP Editing Services .

You can choose from a range of options, including:

• English-language editing
• Translation services
• Plagiarism checking
• Technical review.

Visit our language editing service to find out more.

Article types

When you submit to a journal you will be asked to select an article type for your manuscript. The most common article types are

Article format and templates

You can format your paper in the way that you choose! It is not necessary to try to produce pages that look like published journal pages, as the detailed design (typesetting) work will be undertaken by IOP as part of the production process.

If you would prefer to work from a template, we do provide this for both LaTeX and Word.

LaTeX template Word template

When submitting a new article, we only require you to upload a single PDF file (and any relevant supplementary data). Check the peer review model for the journal you are submitting to. If the peer review model is single-anonymous then your PDF will need to contain the names and institutes of authors at the start of the text. Figures and tables also need to be included within the text.  If double-anonymous then you will need to anonymise your manuscript .

We do ask that you consider the readability for reviewers when formatting your manuscript. For example, please use a reasonable font size (at least 12 point) and line spacing. There is no need for you to include line numbers in your manuscript as these will automatically be added on submission. Figures and tables should be embedded at the appropriate point within the text, rather than placed at the end of the manuscript. Papers must be written in English.

Need help formatting your paper?

IOP Editing Services , in partnership with Editage, also provides formatting and artwork services if you would like help preparing your paper for submission.

Article length

Some of our journals have guidelines for the maximum recommended length for each different type of article (see the ‘About the journal’ section of the Journal you are submitting to on IOPscience).

If there is a maximum article length then it is important that you follow this guidance when preparing your submission. Articles that are longer than the length limit may still be considered for publication, provided the length is clearly justified by the scientific content.

Article structure

You should consider the best way to structure your article before you begin writing. If you wish to use a LaTeX template to format your manuscript (this is optional, you are not obliged to do so) then the files are available in zipped format and Unix tar gzipped format here . Your article should follow the Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion system, and usually consist of the following sections:

The title should be concise, informative and meaningful to the whole readership of the journal. It should include key terms, to help make it more discoverable when people search online. Please avoid the use of long systemic names and non-standard or obscure abbreviations, acronyms or symbols.

Check the peer review model for the journal you are submitting to when preparing the PDF version of your manuscript. If double-anonymous  then you will need to anonymise your manuscript . If single-anonymous then you need to list all authors’ full names and institutions. Authors in all IOP journals have the option to include names in Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters in addition to the English name. The names will be displayed in parentheses after the English name. During the submission process, we recommend you supply ORCID identifiers for all authors to avoid ambiguity. If an author’s current address is different from the address where the work was carried out, this should be explained in a footnote or acknowledgement. We encourage authors to make specific attributions of contribution and responsibility in the acknowledgements of the article, otherwise all co-authors will be taken to share full responsibility for all of the paper. Authors may wish to use a taxonomy such as CRediT to describe the contributions of each author. More guidance on authorship, including the responsibilities of the corresponding author, can be found here .

When you submit an article, you will be asked to supply some keywords relevant to your work. If your article is accepted for publication, we will display these keywords on the published article, and they will be used to index your article, helping to make it more discoverable. When choosing keywords, think about the kinds of terms you would use when searching online for related articles.

Your abstract should give readers a brief summary of your article. It should concisely describe the contents of your article, and include key terms (especially in the first two sentences, to increase search engine discoverability). It should be informative, accessible and not only indicate the general aims and scope of the article, but also state the methodology used, main results obtained and conclusions drawn. The abstract should be complete in itself; it should not contain undefined acronyms/abbreviations and no table numbers, figure numbers, references or equations should be referred to. Articles relying on clinical trials should quote the trial registration number at the end of the abstract. The abstract should be suitable for direct inclusion in abstracting services and should not normally be more than 300 words. If you submit an article with an abstract longer than 300 words, we may rescind the manuscript and ask you to re-write it. Some journals ask for abstracts to follow a particular structure. Check the instructions for specific journals to see if you need to submit a structured abstract.

Introduction

This should be concise and describe the nature of the problem under investigation and its background. It should also set your work in the context of previous research, citing relevant references. Introductions should expand on highly specialised terms and abbreviations used in the article to make it accessible for readers.

This section should provide sufficient details of the experiment, simulation, statistical test or analysis carried out to generate the results such that the method can be repeated by another researcher and the results reproduced.

The results section should detail the main findings and outcomes of your study. You should use tables only to improve conciseness or where the information cannot be given satisfactorily in other ways such as histograms or graphs. Tables should be numbered serially and referred to in the text by number (table 1, etc.). Each table should have an explanatory caption which should be as concise as possible.

This should discuss the significance of the results and compare them with previous work using relevant references.

This section should be used to highlight the novelty and significance of the work, and any plans for future relevant work.

Acknowledgements

Check the peer review model for the journal you are submitting to when preparing the PDF version of your manuscript. If double-anonymous  then do not include any author names or institution information in the Acknowledgements section of your manuscript. Author names and Funding information should be removed and can be re-added later in the peer review process. For single-anonymous please include an acknowledgements section before the References section in your PDF manuscript.

During the submission process all authors and co-authors are required to disclose any potential conflict(s) of interest when submitting an article (e.g. employment, consulting fees, research contracts, stock ownership, patent licences, honoraria, advisory affiliations, etc). This information should be included in an acknowledgements section at the end of the manuscript (before the references section). All sources of financial support for the project must also be disclosed in the acknowledgements section. The name of the funding agency and the grant number should be given, for example: This work was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through a National Cancer Institute grant R21CA141833. When completing the online submission form, we also ask you to select funders and provide grant numbers in order to help you meet your funder requirements. We encourage authors to use the acknowledgements section of the article to make specific attributions of author contribution and responsibility, otherwise all co-authors will be taken to share full responsibility for all of the paper.

Ethical statement

Some articles will require an ethical statement , particularly those that are reporting research involving humans or animals. This should state if the research was approved by any ethical committee, and which national or international standards were complied with.

This section should be used to list all relevant work. More information on referencing . However, check the peer review model for the journal you are submitting to. If double-anonymous then when referring to thesis/unpublished work, please avoid identifying information. You should include non-identifiable information e.g. journal name, year etc. ..

If you need more information or guidance about any of the above then please contact the journal to which you are submitting.

LaTeX template for journal articles

Latex guidelines and class file.

The text of articles may be submitted in any common variant of TeX including LaTeX2e, REVTeX, AmSTeX, AmSLaTeX and plain TeX (including pdfTeX/pdfLaTeX). A LaTeX2e class file together with full documentation is available to help authors prepare articles for consideration by IOP journals, but it is not essential to format your paper in this way or to use this class file. Any common variant of TeX is acceptable. Note that there is an incompatibility between amsmath.sty and iopart.cls. If your article relies on commands in amsmath.sty that are not available in iopart.cls, you may wish to consider using a different class file.

The files are available in zipped format and Unix tar gzipped format:

ioplatexguidelines

ioplatexguidelines.tar

Need help preparing your LaTeX file?

IOP Editing Services , in partnership with Editage, provides high quality language editing for LaTeX documents, performed by our certified language editors. This service ensures that your research document is error free, concise, and professional. Our editors review your writing, giving you the confidence that you are submitting your very best work. Reap the benefits of producing an academic document in LaTeX, and let our experts handle the challenges.

Our professional LaTeX editors will improve your writing by:

• Ensuring correct spelling, punctuation and grammar
• Enhancing academic tone and language
• Suggesting improvements and clarity
• Improving flow and structure, while preserving your unique voice
• Retaining your markup

For more information (including pricing), please visit IOP Editing .

Word templates for journal articles

Though it is not necessary to use this file, using these Word templates for journal articles may help to speed the publication of accepted articles.

Check the peer review model for the journal you are submitting to when preparing the Word version of your manuscript. You can find out the peer review model for our journals on the “About the Journal” section of our journal homepages.

View Journals

Double-anonymous

Use our double-anonymous template

We also have a double-anonymous checklist , so you can be sure you’ve fully anonymised your paper before submission.

Single-anonymous

Use our single-anonymous template

Carefully chosen and well-prepared figures, such as diagrams and photographs, can greatly enhance your article. You are encouraged to prepare figures that are clear, easy to read and of the best possible quality and resolution.

To make your figures accessible to as many readers as possible, try to avoid using colour as the only means of conveying information. For example, in charts and graphs use different line styles and symbols. Where colours are used try to ensure that:

• there is good contrast between adjacent colours;
• colours are distinguishable if the figure is converted to greyscale;
• different line styles, fill styles, symbols or labels are used in addition to different colours.

We accept that it is not always possible to follow these guidelines, for example with figures that use colour gradient scales to convey information, or for photographic images. As with all figures, it is important to use the figure caption to describe the information conveyed by the figure. See below for further details.

Figures are converted and sized to the journal template as part of the production process for accepted articles, but they are not normally edited further. It is your responsibility to ensure that the figures you supply are legible and technically correct. Characters should appear as they would be set in the main body of the article. Aim for text sizes of 8 to 12 pt at the final figure size: typically 8.5cm for a small/single-column figure and 15cm for a large/double-column figure. Micrographs should include a scale bar of appropriate size, e.g. 1 μm. Figures should be numbered in the order in which they are referred to in the text, using sequential numerals (e.g. figure 1, figure 2, etc.).

If there is more than one part to a figure (e.g. figure 1(a), figure 1(b), etc.), the parts should be identified by a lower-case letter in parentheses close to or within the area of the figure.

For articles prepared using LaTeX2e, please make sure that your figures are all supplied as vector Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) and linked to your main TeX files using appropriate figure inclusion commands such as \includegraphics. For articles prepared using Word, where possible please also supply all figures as separate graphics files (in addition to being embedded in the text). Our preferred graphics format is EPS. These files can be used directly to give high-quality results, and file sizes are small in comparison with most bitmap forms. If you are unable to send us images in EPS, we can also accept:

• PDF (and images embedded within PDF files)
• Images/drawings coded using TeX/LaTeX package
• Images/figures embedded in MS Word, Excel or PowerPoint
• Graphics application source files (Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDraw).

Vector formats

The advantage of vector graphics is that they give the best possible quality at all output resolutions. In order to get the best possible results, please note the following important points:

• Fonts used should be restricted to the standard font families (Times, Helvetica, Courier or Symbol).
• Certain proprietary vector graphics formats such as Origin, Kaleidagraph, Cricket Graph and Gnu Plot should not be sent in their native format. If you use these applications to create your figures, please export them as EPS.

Permissions

Note that it is also your responsibility to obtain written permission from the copyright holder for any figures you have reused from elsewhere. This will also include any figures that you created yourself but have previously been published by another publisher, unless that publisher allows you to reuse them without permission under their author rights policy. Check individual publisher’s policies for details. Many scientific, technical and medical publishers use RightsLink to grant permission. Information on how to request permission can usually be found on the website of each publisher. For further information about permissions and when permission is required, please see the Permissions section .

Inappropriate images

Please carefully consider both the subject matter and provenance of images included in your work before submitting to the journal. If the submitted images could be potentially offensive to the journal’s readership, IOP Publishing reserves the right to request that authors seek alternative images or other means to express the same results before the final version is published.

IOP Publishing will not consider submissions which feature the Lena/Lenna image (a crop of an image of Lena Söderberg from a 1972 issue of Playboy magazine), as the image and its history conflicts with our commitment to inclusivity in science . Alternatives to the Lena image are widely available, see https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09500340.2016.1270881 for examples.

Figure captions

Captions should be included in the text and not in the graphics files. Figure captions should contain relevant key terms and be self-contained (avoiding acronyms) so that a reader can understand the figure without having to refer to the text. To make your figures accessible to as many readers as possible, include the main points that the figure demonstrates in the caption. We provide further information and examples on this page .

Figure captions should also reference the source of the figure if the figure has been reused from elsewhere, including any permission statement required.

Need help with your figures?

IOP Editing Services , in partnership with Editage, can help to check and refine all technical aspects of your artwork to adhere to journal requirements, including resolution, colour and image and file size. Find out more about our figure preparation services .

Article multimedia

IOPscience allows inline presentation of multimedia files within journal articles, with videos, animations or sound files that are supplied by authors as part of the main article treated as figures. Multimedia figures are represented in the PDF by a static image with appropriate caption. In the HTML the same image and caption are displayed, readers can click/tap the image to play the multimedia file inline.

If a figure has more than one multimedia file, there must be a separate image for each file (e.g. parts a and b for a figure with two videos). This is necessary so that the files both display in the HTML.

Please note that multimedia files must not include any music.

To make multimedia files accessible to as many readers as possible, the caption accompanying the file must include a description of the key points demonstrated by the video/audio. If the time duration of a video is long enough, we encourage authors to add a voiceover describing the key points illustrated. If the video already has audio, try to record your description in spaces where the original audio is not crucial to the information in the file.

Technical specifications

We strongly recommend video files be delivered in the MPEG-4 container, encoded with the H264 codec. Other formats may be provided, but using MPEG-4 will provide the most faithful rendering of your video in the HTML journal article.

Video files should be a maximum of 10 MB file size each. Exceptions can be made in cases where larger files are essential for the science being presented.

Recommended settings:

• Frame rate: 15 frames s -1
• Frame size: 480 x 360 pixels
• Data rate: 150 kB s -1

Interactive figures

Authors may prepare interactive models to enhance the communication of their research. These models are treated as figures in the article. Each model is represented in the PDF by a static image with an appropriate caption. The HTML in IOPscience displays the figure and caption with a ‘Start interaction’ button which loads the interactive model within the flow of the article.

To make interactive figures accessible to as many readers as possible, the caption accompanying the figure must include a description of the key points demonstrated by the interactivity.

Example images:

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/0004-637X/818/2/115 figures 2 and 3

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/0004-637X/819/2/113 figures 1 and 5

Interactive models should use the X3D standard. This is an open-source, XML-based format curated by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO). By using the X3DOM javascript/CSS combination, X3D models can be incorporated directly into HTML without the need for browser plug-ins. This can be downloaded at https://www.x3dom.org .

We strongly recommend the use of X3D/X3DOM but stand-alone interactive figures produced using alternative packages (such as Plotly https://plot.ly/ or Bokeh http://bokeh.pydata.org/ ) are also accepted.

Authors interested in using this functionality need to create and supply the interactive model and an HTML file that presents the model, along with all .JS and .CSS files used.

Research reporting guidelines

IOP Publishing expects complete and accurate reporting of research to enable readers to fully understand and evaluate the work. We encourage authors to include information about their research design to further enhance the reproducibility of their research.

Many fields of research have established common reporting guidelines. IOP Publishing encourages the use of whichever guidelines are most appropriate to the study, and we encourage peer reviewers to consider and comment on whether the most appropriate guidelines have been followed.

Some reporting guidelines that authors may find relevant include:

• ARRIVE : Reporting any area of bioscience research using laboratory animals
• CONSIDER : Reporting of health research involving Indigenous peoples
• CONSORT : Parallel group randomised trials
• PRISMA : Systematic reviews and meta-analyses
• SAGER : Reporting of sex and gender information in study design, data analyses, results and interpretation of findings

The  EQUATOR Network  provides a useful database of a variety of reporting guidelines and tools.

Some IOP Publishing journals may mandate the use of a specific set of reporting guidelines, for example, authors writing for Physical Measurement must follow the SAGER guidelines. For more information, please check the  journal instructions .

Research data policy

IOP Publishing supports the principles of transparency and openness in scientific research, with the reproducibility of research facilitated by the availability of data, code and research materials underpinning research articles.

Many research funders now require authors to make all data related to their research available in an online repository. Funder policies can be viewed at the Sherpa Juliet database.

All IOP Publishing journals have a policy on research data and this will be listed in the ‘about the journal’ section of their website. IOP Publishing journals and several journals published in partnership with other organisations will follow one of the following policies on research data:

• Standard data policy
• IOP Publishing research data policy

Some journals that IOP Publishing publishes on behalf of another society or organisation may have its own custom policy on research data. Please check their specific journal guidelines before submitting your article.

Supplementary material and data in journal articles

IOP Publishing encourages authors to submit supplementary material at submission that will enhance the online version of a published research article and aid its discoverability. Supplementary material typically includes relevant material that does not form part of the main article, which may include additional data such as computer code, large tables, additional figures or appendices. It may also include multimedia files, such as video clips, animations or sound files. Please note that multimedia files must not include any music. Also note the accessibility considerations for multimedia files detailed above. Supplementary material can include primary datasets where they fall within the file size limits outlined below. If the material is integral to the article then it should be submitted as part of the article rather than as supplementary material.

Supplementary material is not included in the PDF of the article or in any print version and does not form part of the Version of Record. As it is not considered integral to the article it is not subject to peer review and cannot be formally cited. Supplementary material is hosted for free with an article on IOPscience, in the format supplied by the author , and is accessible to the whole readership. Supplementary material is not formatted or edited by our production team, and so proofs are not provided to authors.

Files for supplementary material can be up to a maximum of 10 MB each. Authors wishing to associate larger amounts of supplementary material with their article are recommended make use of a data repository.

Authors should ensure the necessary permissions are obtained before including any third party supplementary material with their submission.

It is vitally important that you fully acknowledge all relevant work. You should also consult the IOP ethical policy for journals for general guidance on compiling your reference list. You can find information on how to structure and format your references in the style guide for journal articles . Please note it is not necessary to format your references in the ways shown in the guidelines, however we find some authors like to have a style to work to. We will ensure your references adhere to house style during the production process, whatever format you submit them in.

A reference should give your reader enough information to locate the article concerned, and you should take particular care to ensure that the information is correct so that links to referenced articles can be made successfully.

Please also note the following:

• Material that is really a footnote to the text should not be included in the reference list.
• Copies of cited publications not yet available publicly should be submitted for the benefit of the reviewers.
• Unpublished results and lectures should be cited for exceptional reasons only.
• Please reference and link to the original Version of Record (where it was first published) rather than to other versions of an article and/or a link to a repository or third party database.
• We discourage the referencing of online material hosted at web addresses that have no guarantee of perpetuity. Permanent or persistent web links should be used, as these are intended to remain unchanged for many years into the future, yielding hyperlinks that are less susceptible to ‘link rot’. Examples of acceptable links include: Digital Object Identifier (DOI) , PubMed identifier (PMID) , PubMed Central reference number (PMCID) , SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) Bibliographic Code , and arXiv e-print number. If you have any questions regarding what constitutes an acceptable web link then please email the journal .
• Before submitting your article, please ensure you have conducted a literature search to check for any relevant references you may have missed.

Be sure to check the ‘About the journal’ page for the journal your submitting to see if you need to list page numbers, article titles or a particular reference style in your submission.

Reference labelling systems

There are two main systems for labelling references.

In the Vancouver numerical system, references are numbered sequentially through the text. The numbers should be given in square brackets, e.g. [1], [4-7] etc., and one number can be used to refer to several instances of the same reference. The reference list at the end of the article then lists the references in numerical order, not alphabetically.

Alternatively, in the Harvard alphabetical system, the name of the author appears in the text together with the year of publication, e.g. (Smith 2001) or Smith (2001) (as appropriate). Where there are only two authors, both names should be given in the text, e.g. (Smith and Jones 2001) or Smith and Jones (2001). However, if there are more than two authors only the first name should appear followed by et al : (Smith et al 2001) or Smith et al (2001). If you refer to different works by one author or group of authors in the same year they should be differentiated by including a, b, etc, after the date (e.g. 2001a). If you refer to different pages of the same article, the page number may be given in the text, e.g. Smith (2001, p 39). The reference list at the end of your article using this system should be in alphabetical order.

Please use a single referencing system consistently throughout your article. You may use either of these two systems for your references (unless you are submitting to Fluid Dynamics Research , Physics in Medicine and Biology or Physiological Measurement , which require all references to be written using the Harvard alphabetical style, or Nuclear Fusion , which requires all references to be written using the Vancouver numerical system).

Preparing your source files for journal articles

The guidelines below provide the essential information you need to prepare your article source files (i.e. the files that you use to create your complete PDF).

Naming your files

Please name all your files according to the following guidelines:.

Use only characters from the set a to z, A to Z, 0 to 9 and underscore (_)

Do not use spaces in file names

Include an extension to indicate the file type (for example, .doc, .txt, .eps, etc)

Do not use any accented characters (for example, à, ê, ñ, ö, ý, etc) because these can cause difficulties when processing your files.

In addition to the above points, please give figure files names indicating the numbers of the figures they contain; for example, figure1.eps, figure2.tif, figure2a.gif, etc. If a figure file contains a figure with multiple parts, for example figure 2(a) to 2(e), give it a name such as figure2a_2e.jpg, and so forth.

Article text files

Tex and latex.

The text of articles may be submitted in any common variant of TeX including LaTeX2e, REVTeX, AmSTeX, AmSLaTeX and plain TeX (including pdfTeX/pdfLaTeX).

A LaTeX2e class file is available to help authors prepare articles for consideration by IOP Journals, should you wish to use it. The files are available in zipped format and Unix tar gzipped format:

Note that there is an incompatibility between amsmath.sty and iopart.cls which cannot be completely worked around. If your article relies on commands in amsmath.sty that are not available in iopart.cls, you may wish to consider using a different class file.

Microsoft Word

• Articles can be prepared using Microsoft Word for Windows or Mac
• Fonts used should be restricted to the standard font families (Times, Helvetica, Courier or Symbol)
• If special symbols are needed (e.g. Greek characters, accented characters or mathematical symbols), these should be typed using the appropriate TrueType font. Do not use the Symbol facility on the ‘Insert’ menu as this often results in font conversion problems
• Equations must be prepared using Microsoft Word Equation Editor or the full commercial MathType package.

Figure files

For articles prepared using LaTeX2e, please make sure that your figures are all supplied as vector Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) and linked to your main TeX files using appropriate figure inclusion commands such as \includegraphics. For articles prepared using Word, where possible please also supply all figures as separate graphics files (in addition to being embedded in the text). Our preferred graphics format is EPS. These files can be used directly to give high-quality results, and file sizes are small in comparison with most bitmap forms.

The advantage of vector graphics is that they give the best possible quality at all output resolutions.

In order to get the best possible results, please note the following important points:

• Certain proprietary vector graphics formats such as Origin, Kaleidagraph, Cricket Graph and Gnu Plot should not be sent in their native format. If you do use these applications to create your figures, please export them as EPS.

Archive and compress your files

You may combine all your files (article text, graphics files and, if applicable, the readme.txt file) into a single compressed archive file for ease of handling and to save you time and space. Please archive your files into a zip file. To upload this file type, choose the ‘source files’ designation when you submit. If you have any difficulty archiving or submitting files, please contact us for assistance.

Which journals these guidelines apply to

Our guidelines are applicable to the journals listed below. For guidelines specific to other partner journals, including the American Astronomical Society titles, please consult those journals’ respective homepages. Journal homepages can be accessed from here .

• 2D Materials
• Biofabrication
• Bioinspiration and Biomimetics
• Biomedical Materials
• Biomedical Physics and Engineering Express
• Classical and Quantum Gravity
• Engineering Research Express
• Electronic Structure
• Environmental Research Communications
• Environmental Research Letters
• Environmental Research: Climate
• Environmental Research: Health
• Environmental Research: Ecology
• Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability
• European Journal of Physics
• Flexible & Printed Electronics
• Inverse Problems
• Journal of Breath Research
• Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
• Journal of Neural Engineering
• Journal of Optics
• Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical
• Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
• Journal of Physics Communications
• Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
• Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics
• Journal of Physics: Complexity
• Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
• Journal of Physics: Energy
• Journal of Physics: Materials
• Journal of Physics: Photonics
• Journal of Radiological Protection
• Machine Learning: Science and Technology
• Materials for Quantum Technology
• Materials Research Express
• Measurement Science and Technology
• Methods and Applications in Fluorescence
• Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering
• Multifunctional Materials
• Nanotechnology
• Nano Express
• NanoFutures
• Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering
• New Journal of Physics
• Nonlinearity
• Nuclear Fusion
• Physica Scripta
• Physical Biology
• Physics Education
• Physics in Medicine and Biology
• Physiological Measurement
• Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
• Plasma Research Express
• Plasma Sources Science and Technology
• Progress in Biomedical Engineering
• Progress in Energy
• Quantum Science & Technology
• Reports on Progress in Physics
• Semiconductor Science and Technology
• Smart Materials and Structures
• Superconductor Science and Technology
• Surface Topography: Metrology and Properties

Writing and formatting

In this section:

• NEW! Featured Author Support
• Language editing services
• Reproducing third party illustrative materials
• Suggesting reviewers
• Writing a cover letter
• Video abstracts
• Video: How to submit your article

Formatting your paper

These are general formatting guidelines across BMJ, please always refer to journal-specific instructions for authors for article type specifications. You can browse the titles on our  Journals website. If you are looking to submit to The BMJ , please visit this section .

If you are unable to find the answer to your question, our editorial team will be on hand to offer assistance throughout the submission process. Contact details for the editorial team are on the journal’s Contact Us page.

You can also refer to our formatting checklist to make sure you have covered everything on submission.

Submission prefill tool

Authors and institutions, manuscript format, figures and illustrations, colour images, multimedia files, acknowledgements, supplemental material.

BMJ has introduced a submission prefill tool to help authors populate various fields on submission of their manuscript to ScholarOne. When authors start their submission they will have the option, when prompted, to upload their manuscript enabling the system to automatically extract and populate the following submission fields if available in the main manuscript document: Title, Abstract, Authors, Institutions, Funders. This tool typically reduces the time taken to submit a manuscript by 25%

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Keywords are specific terms that define what your paper is about. Keywords are important for search engine optimisation and enhance the discoverability of your work and its impact. They also help editors to identify peer reviewers for your manuscript.

We ask authors to use Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) descriptors as keywords to optimise discoverability. MeSH provides two tools to help authors select MeSH descriptors as keywords :

• MeSH on Demand – input text from an abstract to automatically identify related terms
• MeSH Browser – search for related terms and descriptors using an existing list of keywords

You can start to type in a term and select from a list of suggested matches or search the full list of keywords. If your required MeSH descriptor is not available in the keyword list please contact the editorial office who will arrange for it to be added. You will be able to include this at revision.

On submission of your article through our submission system you will be asked to provide a name, email address and institutional affiliation for all contributing authors. In the final published article author names, institutions and addresses will be taken from these completed fields and not from the submitted Word document. Refer to the BMJ policy on authorship for more information.

The manuscript must be submitted as a Word document ( BMJ Case Reports request that authors submit using a template which should also be in Word format). PDF is not accepted.

The manuscript should be presented in the following order:

• Abstract, or a summary for case reports (Note: references should not be included in abstracts or summaries)
• Main text separated under appropriate headings and subheadings using the following hierarchy: BOLD CAPS, bold lower case, Plain text, Italics
• Tables should be in Word format and placed in the main text where the table is first cited. Tables should also be cited in numerical order
• Acknowledgments, Competing Interests, Funding and all other required statements
• References. All references should be cited in the main text in numerical order

BMJ has introduced a submission prefill tool to help authors populate various fields on submission of their manuscript to ScholarOne. When authors start their submission they will have the option, when prompted, to upload their manuscript enabling the system to automatically extract and populate the following submission fields if available in the main manuscript document: Title, Abstract, Authors, Institutions, Funders. This tool typically reduces the time taken to submit a manuscript by 25%.

Figures must be uploaded as separate files (view further details under the Figures/illustrations section). All figures must be cited within the main text in numerical order and legends should be provided at the end of the manuscript.

Online Supplementary materials should be uploaded using the File Designation “Supplementary File” on the submission site and cited in the main text.

Please remove any hidden text headers or footers from your file before submission.

Acronyms and abbreviations should be used sparingly and fully explained when first used. Abbreviations and symbols must be standard. SI units should be used throughout, except for blood pressure values which should be reported in mm Hg.

Whenever possible, drugs should be given their approved generic name. Where a proprietary (brand) name is used, it should begin with a capital letter.

To ensure a consistent approach, submitted articles should not include Trademark or Registered trademark symbols in the main text, tables or figures.

Authors should upload any images and figures in the highest resolution possible, and these should be uploaded as separate files. Any cleaning or image enhancement should be clearly described in the submission and in the figure legend. All images must be cited within the main text in numerical order and legends must be provided (ideally at the end of the manuscript). Video: How to improve your graphs and tables .

For certain journals, authors of unsolicited manuscripts that wish to publish colour figures in print will be charged a fee to cover the cost of printing. Refer to the specific journal’s instructions for authors for more information.

Alternatively, authors are encouraged to supply colour illustrations for online publication and black and white versions for print publication. Colour publication online is offered at no charge, but the figure legend must not refer to the use of colours. Detailed guidance on figure preparation

Figures should be submitted in TIFF, EPS, JPEG or PDF formats. Please note, figures submitted in TIFF formats should be a single-layered flat file; we can not accept TIFF files which contain multiple pages. In EPS files, text (if present) should be outlined. For non-vector files (eg TIFF, JPEG) a minimum resolution of 300 dpi is required, except for line art which should be 1200 dpi. Histograms should be presented in a simple, two-dimensional format, with no background grid.

For figures consisting of multiple images/parts, please ensure these are submitted as a single composite file for processing. We are unable to accept figures that are submitted as multiple files.

Figures are checked using automated quality control and if they are below the minimum standard you will be alerted and asked to resupply them.

Please ensure that any specific patient/hospital details are removed or blacked out (e.g. X-rays, MRI scans, etc). Figures that use a black bar to obscure a patient’s identity are not accepted.

Tables should be in Word format and placed in the main text where the table is first cited. Tables must be cited in the main text in numerical order. Please note that tables embedded as Excel files within the manuscript are NOT accepted. Tables in Excel should be copied and pasted into the manuscript Word file.

Tables should be self-explanatory and the data they contain must not be duplicated in the text or figures. Any tables submitted that are longer/larger than 2 pages will be published as online only supplementary material. Video: How to improve your graphs and tables

You may submit multimedia files to enhance your article. Video files are preferred in .WMF or .AVI formats, but can also be supplied as .FLV, .Mov, and .MP4. When submitting, please ensure you upload them using the File Designation “Supplementary File – Video”.

BMJ reference style BMJ formats references using Vancouver style; references are sequentially numbered within the text of the main document and match the reference list at the end of the article. The first three authors are listed by last name and initials, with additional authors acknowledged by the use of ‘et al’ if applicable.

Depending on the type of reference, we may also include: the publication name, date of publication, volume and page numbers, chapter, DOI, URL, PubMed ID, access date, and any other necessary information.

Exception: Medical Humanities uses Chicago author-date referencing which is more commonly used in social sciences; references are listed by author and date within the text of the main document with the an alphabetical reference list at the end of the article. Please see the online style manual for details and this published article for examples.

Preparing references

• Authors are asked to follow these guidelines when formatting their references:
• References should be cited in numerical order (i.e. 1,2,3) in the text and be listed numerically in the reference list at the end of the article
• The reference list should be included as part of the main text document
• Do not include references as footnotes by using the Footnotes and/or Endnotes function and/or Citations & Bibliography function in Word or by using EndNote
• References cited in the text should be presented in square brackets [6] or superscripts. Parentheses (6) should be used for in-line lists
• Multiple reference citations should be separated by commas [6, 9, 12] or by hyphens if numbers are sequential [12-15]
• Reference citations within figures and tables (or their legends/footnotes) should be listed in the reference list
• References in the reference list should include:
• author names in any format
• article title
• DOI or PubMed ID

Example references

• Print journal article: Koziol-Mclain J, Brand D, Morgan D, et al. Measuring injury risk factors: question reliability in a statewide sample. Inj Prev 2000;6:148–50.
• Online only journal article: Dark P, Dunn G, Chadwick P, et alThe clinical diagnostic accuracy of rapid detection of healthcare-associated bloodstream infection in intensive care using multipathogen real-time PCR technology. BMJ Open 2011;1:e000181. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000181
• Supplement article: Mugosa A, Cizmovic M, Lakovic T, et alAccelerating progress on effective tobacco tax policies in Montenegro. Tobacco Control 2020;29:s293-s299
• Abstract article: Bricca A, Swithenbank Z, Scott N, et al21 Predictors of recruitment in randomised controlled trials of smoking cessation: meta-regression analyses from the IC-SMOKE systematic review project. Abstract competing for the ‘doug altman scholarship’. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine 2019;24:A52-A53.
• Rapid response to an article: Krishnamoorthy KM, Dash PK. Novel approach to transseptal puncture. Heart Online [Rapid response] 18 September 2001. http://heart.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/86/5/e11#EL1

Databases and websites:

• Preprints: Rostami A, Sepidarkish M, Leeflang M, et al. First snap-shot meta-analysis to estimate the prevalence of serum antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in humans. MedRxiv 20185017 [Preprint]. September 02, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.31.20185017.
• Data citations: Wang G, Zhu Z, Cui S, at al. Glucocorticoid induces incoordination between glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons in the amygdala. Dryad Digital Repository [dataset]. August 11, 2017. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.k9q7h.
• Electronic citations: Moore A. Paracetamol: widely used and largely ineffective [online]. 2018. http://uk.cochrane.org/news/paracetamol-widely-used-and-largely-ineffective (accessed 23 May 2018).

Books and Legal:

• Book: Howland J. Preventing Automobile Injury: New Findings From Evaluative Research. Dover, MA: Auburn House Publishing Company 1988:163–96.
• Chapter in a book: Nagin D. General deterrence: a review of the empirical evidence. In: Blumstein A, Cohen J, Nagin D, eds. Deterrence and Incapacitation: Estimating the Effects of Criminal Sanctions on Crime Rates. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences 1978:95–139.
• Legal material: Toxic substances Contro Act: Hearing on S776 Before the Subcommittee of the Environment of the Senate Comm. on Commerce, 94th Congress 1st September (1975).
• Law references: The two main series of law reports, Weekly Law Reports (WLR) and All England Law Reports (All ER) have three volumes a year e.g. Robertson v Post Office [1974] 1 WLR 1176

Authors whose research has been presented at a scientific meeting are of course still able to publish in any of our journals, but we ask that prior presentation of the work at a conference should be acknowledged in the manuscript and any published conference abstract(s) should be cited

Additional information such as figures, tables, raw data and methodology statements, may be submitted and published alongside your manuscript as ‘supplemental material’.  Supplemental material shall only be accepted subject to the following criteria:

• Content: Supplemental material should be used to support and enhance the content of your manuscript. Content should be directly relevant to the content of your manuscript.
• Publication: Supplemental material will be published online only.  This content may or may not be peer-reviewed, depending on the requirements of the relevant publication’s editorial office.
• Citation: The use of any supplemental material should be cited within the main text of the manuscript.
• Formatting: Supplemental material will only be published on an ‘as supplied’ basis, without checking for accuracy, copyediting, typesetting or proofing.  You are responsible for proofing the content and for ensuring that the style and formatting of your content is consistent with the corresponding manuscript.  
• File submission: Supplemental material may be submitted in PDF file format.  Files should not exceed 350MB and should be uploaded using the file designation “Supplemental Material [Description]”.
• Translated Abstract: Where a translated version of the abstract in the author’s local language is submitted, this file should be uploaded using the file designation “Abstract in local language”.
• Restrictions: Supplemental material hosted on a third party website or platform will not be accepted.
• Liability Disclaimer: The relevant publication’s Author Licence will apply in respect of any supplemental materials submitted.  You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of that content. A disclaimer of BMJ’s liability will appear on the published supplemental material.

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Formatting guide

This guide describes how to prepare contributions for submission. We recommend you read this in full if you have not previously submitted a contribution to Nature . We also recommend that, before submission, you familiarize yourself with Nature ’s style and content by reading the journal, either in print or online, particularly if you have not submitted to the journal recently.

Formats for Nature contributions

Articles are the main format for original research contributions to Nature . In addition, Nature publishes other submitted material as detailed below.

Articles are original reports whose conclusions represent a substantial advance in understanding of an important problem and have immediate, far-reaching implications. In print, physical sciences papers do not normally exceed 6 pages on average, and biological, clinical and social-sciences papers do not normally exceed 8 pages on average. However, the final print length is at the editor’s discretion.

Articles start with a fully referenced summary paragraph, ideally of no more than 200 words, which is separate from the main text and avoids numbers, abbreviations, acronyms or measurements unless essential. It is aimed at readers outside the discipline. This summary paragraph should be structured as follows: 2-3 sentences of basic-level introduction to the field; a brief account of the background and rationale of the work; a statement of the main conclusions (introduced by the phrase 'Here we show' or its equivalent); and finally, 2-3 sentences putting the main findings into general context so it is clear how the results described in the paper have moved the field forwards. Please refer to our annotated example   to see how the summary paragraph should be constructed.

The typical length of a 6-page article with 4 modest display items (figures and tables) is 2500 words (summary paragraph plus body text). The typical length of an 8-page article with 5-6 modest display items is 4300 words. A ‘modest’ display item is one that, with its legend, occupies about a quarter of a page (equivalent to ~270 words). If a composite figure (with several panels) needs to occupy at least half a page in order for all the elements to be visible, the text length may need to be reduced accordingly to accommodate such figures. Keep in mind that essential but technical details can be moved into the Methods or Supplementary Information.

As a guideline, articles typically have no more than 50 references. (There is no such constraint on any additional references associated with Methods or Supplementary Information.)

Sections are separated with subheadings to aid navigation. Subheadings may be up to 40 characters (including spaces).

Word counts refer to the text of the paper. Title, author list, acknowledgements and references are not included in total word counts.

Matters Arising and Corrections

Matters Arising are exceptionally interesting or important comments and clarifications on original research papers or other peer-reviewed material published within the past 18 months in Nature . They are published online but not in print.

For further details of and instructions for how to submit such comments on peer-reviewed material published in Nature — or to notify editors of the potential need for a correction — please consult our Matters Arising page.

Other contributions to Nature

Please access the other submitted material pages for further details on any of the contribution types below:

News and Comment

Correspondence

Books & Arts

News & Views

Insights, Reviews and Perspectives

Technology Features

The editorial process

See this section for an explanation of Nature 's editorial criteria for publication, refereeing policy and how editors handle papers after submission. Submission to a Nature journal is taken by the journal to mean that all the listed authors have agreed to all of the contents. See authorship policy for more details.

Presubmission enquiries

If you wish to enquire whether your Article might be suitable for consideration by Nature , please use our online presubmission enquiry service . All presubmission enquiries must include a cover paragraph to the editor stating the interest to a broad scientific readership, a fully referenced summary paragraph, and a reference list.

Readability

Nature is an international journal covering all the sciences. Contributions should therefore be written clearly and simply so that they are accessible to readers in other disciplines and to readers for whom English is not their first language. Thus, technical jargon should be avoided as far as possible and clearly explained where its use is unavoidable. Abbreviations, particularly those that are not standard, should also be kept to a minimum. The background, rationale and main conclusions of the study should be clearly explained. Titles and abstracts in particular should be written in language that will be readily intelligible to any scientist. Essential but specialized terms should be explained concisely but not didactically.

For gene, protein and other specialized names authors can use their preferred terminology so long as it is in current use by the community, but they must give all known names for the entity at first use in the paper. Nature prefers authors to use internationally agreed nomenclature. Papers containing new or revised formal taxonomic nomenclature for animals, whether living or extinct, are accepted conditional on the provision of LSIDs (Life Science Identifiers) by means of registration of such nomenclature with ZooBank, the proposed online registration system for the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN).

Even though no paper will be rejected because of poor language, non–native English speakers occasionally receive feedback from editors and reviewers regarding language and grammar usage in their manuscripts. You may wish to consider asking colleagues to read your manuscript and/or to use a professional editing service such as those provided by our affiliates Nature Research Editing Service or American Journal Experts . You can also get a fast, free grammar check of your manuscript that takes into account all aspects of readability in English. Please note that the use of a language editing service is not a requirement for publication in Nature .

Nature 's editors provide detailed advice about the expected print length when asking for the final version of the manuscript. Nature 's editors often suggest revised titles and rewrite the summary paragraphs of Articles so the conclusions are clear to a broad readership.

After acceptance, Nature 's subeditors (copyeditors) ensure that the text and figures are readable and clear to those outside the field, and edit papers into Nature 's house style. They pay particular attention to summary paragraphs, overall clarity, figures, figure legends and titles.

Proofs are sent before publication; authors are welcome to discuss proposed changes with Nature 's subeditors, but Nature reserves the right to make the final decision about matters of style and the size of figures.

A useful set of articles providing general advice about writing and submitting scientific papers can be found on the SciDev.Net website.

Format of Articles

Contributions should be double-spaced and written in English (spellings as in the Oxford English Dictionary ).

Contributions should be organized in the sequence: title, authors, affiliations (plus present addresses), bold first paragraph, main text, main references, tables, figure legends, methods (including separate data and code availability statements), methods references, acknowledgements, author contributions, competing interest declaration, additional information (containing supplementary information line (if any) and corresponding author line), extended data figure/table legends. In order to facilitate the review process, for initial submissions we encourage authors to present the manuscript text and figures together in a single file (Microsoft Word or PDF, up to 30 MB in size). The figures may be inserted within the text at the appropriate positions or grouped at the end, and each figure legend should be presented together with its figure. Also, please include line numbers within the text.

Titles do not exceed two lines in print. This equates to 75 characters (including spaces). Titles do not normally include numbers, acronyms, abbreviations or punctuation. They should include sufficient detail for indexing purposes but be general enough for readers outside the field to appreciate what the paper is about.

An uninterrupted page of text contains about 1250 words.

A typical 6-page Article contains about 2,500 words of text and, additionally, 4 modest display items (figures and/or tables) with brief legends, reference list and online-only methods section if applicable. A composite figure (with several panels) usually needs to take about half a page, equivalent to about 600 words, in order for all the elements to be visible (see section 5.9 for instructions on sizing figures).

A typical 8-page Article contains about 4300 words of text and, additionally, 5-6 modest display items (figures and/or tables) with brief legends, reference list and online-only methods section if applicable. A composite figure (with several panels) usually needs to take about half a page, equivalent to about 600 words, in order for all the elements to be visible (see section 5.9 for instructions on sizing figures).

Authors of contributions that significantly exceed the limits stated here (or as specified by the editor) will have to shorten their papers before acceptance, inevitably delaying publication.

Nature requires authors to specify the contribution made by their co-authors in the end notes of the paper (see section 5.5). If authors regard it as essential to indicate that two or more co-authors are equal in status, they may be identified by an asterisk symbol with the caption ‘These authors contributed equally to this work’ immediately under the address list. If more than three co-authors are equal in status, this should be indicated in the author contributions statement. Present addresses appear immediately below the author list (below the footnote rule at the bottom of the first page) and may be identified by a dagger symbol; all other essential author-related explanation is placed in the acknowledgements.

Our preferred format for text is Microsoft Word, with the style tags removed.

TeX/LaTeX: If you have prepared your paper using TeX/LaTeX, we will need to convert this to Word after acceptance, before your paper can be typeset. All textual material of the paper (including references, tables, figure captions, online methods, etc.) should be included as a single .tex file.

We prefer the use of a ‘standard’ font, preferably 12-point Times New Roman. For mathematical symbols, Greek letters and other special characters, use normal text or Symbol font. Word Equation Editor/MathType should be used only for formulae that cannot be produced using normal text or Symbol font.

The ‘Methods’ section is in the main text file, following the figure legends. This Methods section will appear in the PDF and in the full-text (HTML) version of the paper online, but will not appear in the printed issue. The Methods section should be written as concisely as possible but should contain all elements necessary to allow interpretation and replication of the results. As a guideline, the Methods section does not typically exceed 3,000 words. To increase reproducibility, authors are encouraged to deposit a detailed description of protocols used in their study in a protocol sharing platform of their choice. Nature Portfolio’s Protocol Exchange is a free and open service designed to help researchers share experimental know-how. Protocols deposited by the authors in Protocol Exchange will be linked to the online Methods section upon publication.

Detailed descriptions of methods already published should be avoided; a reference number can be provided to save space, with any new addition or variation stated.

The Methods section should be subdivided by short bold headings referring to methods used and we encourage the inclusion of specific subsections for statistics, reagents and animal models. If further references are included in this section their numbering should continue from the end of the last reference number in the rest of the paper and they are listed after the Methods section.

Please provide separate Data Availability and Code Availability statements after the main text statements and before the Extended Data legends; detailed guidance can be found in our data availability and data citations policy . Certain data types must be deposited in an appropriate public structured data depository (details are available here ), and the accession number(s) provided in the manuscript. Full access is required at the time of publication. Should full access to data be required for peer review, authors must provide it.

The Methods section cannot contain figures or tables (essential display items should be included in the Extended Data or exceptionally in the Supplementary Information).

References are each numbered, ordered sequentially as they appear in the text, tables, boxes, figure legends, Methods, Extended Data tables and Extended Data figure legends.

When cited in the text, reference numbers are superscript, not in brackets unless they are likely to be confused with a superscript number.

Do not use linked fields (produced by EndNote and similar programs). Please use the one-click button provided by EndNote to remove EndNote codes before saving your file.

As a guideline, Articles allow up to 50 references in the main text if needed and within the average page budget. Only one publication can be listed for each number. Additional references for Methods or Supplementary Information are not included in this count.

Only articles that have been published or accepted by a named publication, or that have been uploaded to a recognized preprint server (for example, arXiv, bioRxiv), should be in the reference list; papers in preparation should be mentioned in the text with a list of authors (or initials if any of the authors are co-authors of the present contribution).

Published conference abstracts, numbered patents, preprints on recognized servers, papers in press, and research datasets that have been assigned a digital object identifier may be included in reference lists, but text, grant details and acknowledgements may not. (An exception is the highlighted references which we ask authors of Reviews, Perspectives and Insights articles to provide.)

All authors should be included in reference lists unless there are more than five, in which case only the first author should be given, followed by ‘et al.’.

Please follow the style below in the published edition of Nature in preparing reference lists.

Authors should be listed surname first, followed by a comma and initials of given names.

Titles of all cited articles are required. Titles of articles cited in reference lists should be in upright, not italic text; the first word of the title is capitalized, the title written exactly as it appears in the work cited, ending with a full stop. Book titles are italic with all main words capitalized. Journal titles are italic and abbreviated according to common usage. Volume numbers are bold. The publisher and city of publication are required for books cited. (Refer to published papers in Nature for details.)

Research datasets may be cited in the reference list if they have been assigned digital object identifiers (DOIs) and include authors, title, publisher (repository name), identifier (DOI expressed as a URL). Example: Hao, Z., AghaKouchak, A., Nakhjiri, N. & Farahmand, A. Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System (GIDMaPS) data sets. figshare http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.853801 (2014).

Recognized preprints may be cited in the reference list. Example: Babichev, S. A., Ries, J. & Lvovsky, A. I. Quantum scissors: teleportation of single-mode optical states by means of a nonlocal single photon. Preprint at http://arXiv.org/quant-ph/0208066 (2002).

References to web-only journals should give authors, article title and journal name as above, followed by URL in full - or DOI if known - and the year of publication in parentheses.

References to websites should give authors if known, title of cited page, URL in full, and year of posting in parentheses.

End notes are brief and follow the Methods (or Methods References, if any).

Acknowledgements should be brief, and should not include thanks to anonymous referees and editors, inessential words, or effusive comments. A person can be thanked for assistance, not “excellent” assistance, or for comments, not “insightful” comments, for example. Acknowledgements can contain grant and contribution numbers.

Author Contributions: Authors are required to include a statement to specify the contributions of each co-author. The statement can be up to several sentences long, describing the tasks of individual authors referred to by their initials. See the authorship policy page for further explanation and examples.

Competing interests  statement.

Additional Information: Authors should include a set of statements at the end of the paper, in the following order:

Papers containing Supplementary Information contain the statement: “Supplementary Information is available for this paper.”

A sentence reading "Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to XX.” Nature expects this identified author to respond to readers’ enquiries and requests for materials, and to coordinate the handling of any other matters arising from the published contribution, including corrections complaints. The author named as corresponding author is not necessarily the senior author, and publication of this author’s name does not imply seniority. Authors may include more than one e-mail address if essential, in which event Nature will communicate with the first-listed address for any post-publication matters, and expect that author to coordinate with the other co-authors.

Peer review information includes the names of reviewers who agree to be cited and is completed by Nature staff during proofing.

A sentence reading “Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints.”

Life sciences and behavioural & social sciences reporting guidelines

To improve the transparency of reporting and the reproducibility of published results, authors of life sciences and behavioural & social sciences Articles must provide a completed Reporting Summary that will be made available to editors and reviewers during manuscript assessment. The Reporting Summary will be published with all accepted manuscripts.

Please note: because of the advanced features used in these forms, you must use Adobe Reader to open the documents and fill them out.

Guidance and resources related to the use and reporting of statistics are available here .

Tables should each be presented on a separate page, portrait (not landscape) orientation, and upright on the page, not sideways.

Tables have a short, one-line title in bold text. Tables should be as small as possible. Bear in mind the size of a Nature page as a limiting factor when compiling a table.

Symbols and abbreviations are defined immediately below the table, followed by essential descriptive material as briefly as possible, all in double-spaced text.

Standard table formats are available for submissions of cryo-EM , NMR and X-ray crystallography data . Authors providing these data must use these standard tables and include them as Extended Data.

Figure legends

For initial submissions, we encourage authors to present the manuscript text and figures together in a single Word doc or PDF file, and for each figure legend to be presented together with its figure. However, when preparing the final paper to be accepted, we require figure legends to be listed one after the other, as part of the text document, separate from the figure files, and after the main reference list.

Each figure legend should begin with a brief title for the whole figure and continue with a short description of each panel and the symbols used. If the paper contains a Methods section, legends should not contain any details of methods. Legends should be fewer than 300 words each.

All error bars and statistics must be defined in the figure legend, as discussed above.

Nature requires figures in electronic format. Please ensure that all digital images comply with the Nature journals’ policy on image integrity .

Figures should be as small and simple as is compatible with clarity. The goal is for figures to be comprehensible to readers in other or related disciplines, and to assist their understanding of the paper. Unnecessary figures and parts (panels) of figures should be avoided: data presented in small tables or histograms, for instance, can generally be stated briefly in the text instead. Avoid unnecessary complexity, colouring and excessive detail.

Figures should not contain more than one panel unless the parts are logically connected; each panel of a multipart figure should be sized so that the whole figure can be reduced by the same amount and reproduced on the printed page at the smallest size at which essential details are visible. For guidance, Nature ’s standard figure sizes are 90 mm (single column) and 180 mm (double column) and the full depth of the page is 170 mm.

Amino-acid sequences should be printed in Courier (or other monospaced) font using the one-letter code in lines of 50 or 100 characters.

Authors describing chemical structures should use the Nature Research Chemical Structures style guide .

Some brief guidance for figure preparation:

Lettering in figures (labelling of axes and so on) should be in lower-case type, with the first letter capitalized and no full stop.

Units should have a single space between the number and the unit, and follow SI nomenclature or the nomenclature common to a particular field. Thousands should be separated by commas (1,000). Unusual units or abbreviations are defined in the legend.

Scale bars should be used rather than magnification factors.

Layering type directly over shaded or textured areas and using reversed type (white lettering on a coloured background) should be avoided where possible.

Where possible, text, including keys to symbols, should be provided in the legend rather than on the figure itself.

Figure quality

At initial submission, figures should be at good enough quality to be assessed by referees, preferably incorporated into the manuscript text in a single Word doc or PDF, although figures can be supplied separately as JPEGs if authors are unable to include them with the text. Authors are advised to follow the initial and revised submissions guidelines with respect to sizing, resolution and labelling.

Please note that print-publication quality figures are large and it is not helpful to upload them at the submission stage. Authors will be asked for high-quality figures when they are asked to submit the final version of their article for publication.At that stage, please prepare figures according to these guidelines .

Third party rights

Nature discourages the use or adaptation of previously published display items (for example, figures, tables, images, videos or text boxes). However, we recognize that to illustrate some concepts the use of published data is required and the reuse of previously published display items may be necessary. Please note that in these instances we might not be able to obtain the necessary rights for some images to be reused (as is, or adapted versions) in our articles. In such cases, we will contact you to discuss the sourcing of alternative material.

Figure costs

In order to help cover some of the additional cost of four-colour reproduction, Nature Portfolio charges our authors a fee for the printing of their colour figures. Please contact our offices for exact pricing and details. Inability to pay this charge will not prevent publication of colour figures judged essential by the editors, but this must be agreed with the editor prior to acceptance.

Production-quality figures

When a manuscript is accepted in principle for publication, the editor will ask for high-resolution figures. Do not submit publication-quality figures until asked to do so by an editor. At that stage, please prepare figures according to these guidelines .

Extended Data

Extended Data figures and tables are online-only (appearing in the online PDF and full-text HTML version of the paper), peer-reviewed display items that provide essential background to the Article but are not included in the printed version of the paper due to space constraints or being of interest only to a few specialists. A maximum of ten Extended Data display items (figures and tables) is typically permitted. See Composition of a Nature research paper .

Extended Data tables should be formatted along similar lines to tables appearing in print (see section 5.7) but the main body (excluding title and legend, which should be included at the end of the Word file) should be submitted separately as an image rather than as an editable format in Word, as Extended Data tables are not edited by Nature’s subediting department. Small tables may also be included as sub-panels within Extended Data figures. See Extended Data Formatting Guide .

Extended Data figures should be prepared along slightly different guidelines compared to figures appearing in print, and may be multi-panelled as long as they fit to size rules (see Extended Data Formatting Guide ). Extended Data figures are not edited or styled by Nature’s art department; for this reason, authors are requested to follow Nature style as closely as possible when preparing these figures. The legends for Extended Data figures should be prepared as for print figures and should be listed one after the other at the end of the Word file.

If space allows, Nature encourages authors to include a simple schematic, as a panel in an Extended Data figure, that summarizes the main finding of the paper, where appropriate (for example, to assist understanding of complex detail in cell, structural and molecular biology disciplines).

If a manuscript has Extended Data figures or tables, authors are asked to refer to discrete items at an appropriate place in the main text (for example, Extended Data Fig. 1 and Extended Data Table 1).

If further references are included in the Extended Data tables and Extended Data figure legends, the numbering should continue from the end of the last reference number in the main paper (or from the last reference number in the additional Methods section if present) and the list should be added to the end of the list accompanying the additional Methods section, if present, or added below the Extended Data legends if no additional Methods section is present.

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (SI) is online-only, peer-reviewed material that is essential background to the Article (for example, large data sets, methods, calculations), but which is too large or impractical, or of interest only to a few specialists, to justify inclusion in the printed version of the paper. See the Supplementary Information page for further details.

Supplementary Information should not contain figures (any figures additional to those appearing in print should be formatted as Extended Data figures). Tables may be included in Supplementary Information, but only if they are unsuitable for formatting as Extended Data tables (for example, tables containing large data sets or raw data that are best suited to Excel files).

If a manuscript has accompanying SI, either at submission or in response to an editor’s letter that requests it, authors are asked to refer to discrete items of the SI (for example, videos, tables) at an appropriate point in the main manuscript.

Chemical structures and characterization of chemical materials

For guidelines describing Nature ’s standards for experimental methods and the characterization of new compounds, please see the information sheet on the characterization of chemical materials .

We aim to produce chemical structures in a consistent format throughout our articles. Please use the Nature Portfolio Chemical Structures Guide and ChemDraw template to ensure that you prepare your figures in a format that will require minimal changes by our art and production teams. Submit final files at 100% as .cdx files.

Registered Reports

Registered Reports are empirical articles testing confirmatory hypotheses in which the methods and proposed analyses are pre-registered and peer reviewed prior to research being conducted. For further details about Registered Reports and instructions for how to submit such articles to Nature please consult our Registered Reports page.

All contributions should be submitted online , unless otherwise instructed by the editors. Please be sure to read the information on what to include in your cover letter as well as several important content-related issues when putting a submission together.

Before submitting, all contributors must agree to all of Nature's publication policies .

Nature authors must make data and materials publicly available upon publication. This includes deposition of data into the relevant databases and arranging for them to be publicly released by the online publication date (not after). A description of our initiative to improve the transparency and the reproducibility of published results is available here . A full description of Nature’s publication policies is at the Nature Portfolio Authors and Referees website .

Other Nature Research journals

An account of the relationship between all the Nature journals is provided at the Nature family page . 

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TAPS: Preparing Your Article with Microsoft Word

Introduction.

The ACM article template allows authors to use LaTeX or Microsoft Word to prepare high-quality articles for publication in the ACM Digital Library. This document provides authors with instructions on how to use the article template to prepare their work and submit it to TAPS, the ACM article production system.

The introduction of the ACM article template in 2017 was an important building block for the future of the ACM Digital Library, as it made more consistent the underlying metadata that is a part of an author's source material - the LaTeX commands and Word styles an author uses in the preparation of their article defines the various parts of their article: the title, the authors, the section headings, and so on.

An important concept for authors to understand is the separation of content and style. The input format - whether Word or LaTeX - is intentionally simple in appearance, making creation and editing simpler, as well as reviewing. Authors provide metadata - through LaTeX commands - \title{}, \section{} and so on - and associating styles with content in a Word document - "this is a paragraph, this is a subtitle," and so on. TAPS takes Word or LaTeX documents as input, and produces well-formatted, high-quality PDF and HTML5 documents for publication. More information on TAPS can be found in this document: TAPS: The ACM Production System .

• Prepare your source material using Word or LaTeX, starting with the Word submission template or a LaTeX document that uses the "acmart" document class. The submission version is one column, with minimal styling of content.
• Submit your article for review to a conference or journal.
• If your article is accepted for publication, you will be asked to complete the ACM rights form, then prepare a final version of your article and submit the source to TAPS for processing.
• Review the PDF and HTML versions of your article generated by TAPS, correct errors necessary and, once the proceedings production editor has reviewed the material and deemed it acceptable for publication, approve your article in TAPS.

Communication between the author and ACM regarding your rights form is done via e-mail; please make sure you add "[email protected]" to your e-mail "whitelist" so that you don't miss any communication from ACM.

This document explains how to use Microsoft Word to prepare your ACM article for submission, and for publication. If you are using LaTeX to prepare your ACM article, you should review this document instead. The same topics are covered, and the emphasis there is on using LaTeX to accomplish the task.

Back to Top

THE ACM ARTICLE TEMPLATE: USING MICROSOFT WORD

Authors who use Microsoft Word to prepare their articles can obtain the required Word documents - the "submission template" that contains style information used to tag the elements of your article, and the "master template" that contains macros for citation, reference, figure and image cross-linking, and manuscript validation, from this link .

Please note: You must use Microsoft Word, not LibreOffice, OpenOffice, Google Docs or other alternatives.

Windows and Macintosh users will start with the same submission template Word document, adding their content to it and applying styles to each of the major elements - title, paragraph, figure, and so on - to it. This template Word document can be found at this link.

There are separate versions of the "master template" for Microsoft Word for Windows , Macintosh Office 2011 , and Macintosh Office 2016 - please download the version appropriate for your operating system and Microsoft Word version. (The Macintosh Office 2016 version also works with the Microsoft Office 365 version of Microsoft Word for Macintosh.)

Attaching the "master template" to your existing Word document is done in slightly different ways, dependent on your computer's operating system.

• select "Templates and Add-Ins" from the "Tools" menu.
• select the "Attach..." button and then select the master template file.
• select "Options" from the "File" menu.
• select "Add-Ins" from the "Word Options" dialog box.
• select "Templates" from the "Manage" option menu, and then select the master template file.
• (If you get a security warning about disabled macros, please select the "Enable Content" button.)

ONE COLUMN OR TWO?

Your article should be prepared in a one-column format. The Microsoft Word submission template prepares your content in a single column by default. TAPS will convert the one-column Word document to the familiar two-column article format - a PDF document - when the Word document is processed, as well as a responsive HTML5 version. Both will be made available in the ACM Digital Library.

An example will illustrate this more clearly. This Word document - a simple example with two images, one spanning both columns, and numbered citations and references - can be viewed in Microsoft Word, in both "Draft" and "Print Layout" mode, to show the two images and all of the styles which have been applied to the various parts of the document. When this Word document is sent to TAPS, and the file is processed, one of the generated files is this PDF document. If you are interested in seeing the samples with author year citations and references, the Word document and PDF document are also available.

The Word Count and Page Count section, below, provides rough correspondences between word count and formatted-PDF page count.

WORKING IN DRAFT MODE

When preparing an article using Microsoft Word, you should be working in "Draft" mode (and not "Print Layout" mode) and have set up Word so that the applied styles are clearly visible on the left side of your document.

• select "Draft" from the "View" menu.
• select "Preferences" from the Word menu, select "View" and set "Style area width" to 1.5 inches.
• select "Options" from the "File" menu
• select the "Advanced" tab from the "Word Options" dialog box
• in the "Display" section, set the value of "Style area pane width in Draft and Outline views" to 1.5 inches.

Figures will not show up in "Draft" mode, and it's fine to switch between "Print Layout" and "Draft" mode while you are working on your document.

REVIEW VERSION AND FINAL DOCUMENT VERSIONS: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

When preparing an article for submission to an event or journal for REVIEW, the amount of tagging - applying styles to discrete elements of your article - which must be done is smaller. The emphasis at this point is on the content you are presenting. Your article should have figures and images, and citations and references, and the text of your presentation.

If and when your article is accepted for publication, you will need to perform additional work in order to make your article ready to submit to TAPS. Adding alt-text to figures, tables, and images, cross-linking citations and references, and validation of your article are all required at this part of the process.

Please note that you do NOT need to add any rights information to your Word document. This will be automatically added to the PDF and HTML5 versions of your article when they are generated by TAPS. (At present, the generated version of your completed rights form that is sent to you when you complete the rights form instructs you to add this information to your Word document, and this inconsistency between instruction and implementation is being addressed by ACM personnel at this time.)

WHICH TEMPLATE STYLE TO USE?

Authors who use Microsoft Word to prepare their articles do not need to set the template style; the appropriate template - set by the organizers of the event or journal - will be used by TAPS in the preparation of the PDF and HTML5 versions of your article.

WORD COUNT AND PAGE COUNT

Sponsored events and journal publications often use page counts to segregate articles into several classes - "long papers," "short papers," "abstracts" and the like. The simplified input format of Word documents may make it difficult to determine a correspondence between "word count" and the "page count" of a well-formatted PDF document.

The following table illustrates - in general terms - a correspondence between word count and page count. The sample documents contained no figures, tables, or other elements typically found in an article, and this was exclusive of references or appendices.

AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS

• Authors' full names - "Donald E. Knuth" - should be used, without abbreviation - "D. E. Knuth" and "D. Knuth" are not acceptable alternatives. (This is true of references as well; authors' full names are easier to clearly identify for citation linking.)
• Each author must have an institution, country, and e-mail address.
• Authors must define each author and affiliation separately, even when authors share an affiliation, and apply the "Authors" and "Affiliation" tag to each author and affiliation.

CITATIONS AND REFERENCES

References should be prepared in the ACM reference format. The default citation format for ACM publications is the "numbered" format. Articles presented at conferences sponsored by ACM SIGGRAPH and ACM SIGPLAN use the "author year" format.

Authors who use Microsoft Word should choose the first - "1" - option when cross-linking their citations and references for the numbered format, and the second - "2" - option for the "author year" format.

Additional information on the preparation of citations and references in Microsoft Word can be found in this document: TAPS: Citations and References in Word .

CCS CONCEPTS AND KEYWORDS

ACM's Computing Classification System (CCS) is a taxonomy for the computing field. Authors are expected to select one or more descriptors (or "concepts") from the CCS and add them to your document.

A list of CCS descriptors can be built for your article from https://dl.acm.org/ccs/ccs.cfm . Authors can select one or more descriptors and assign a priority to them.

• select the formatted list of concept(s) from the Web interface - here's an example: • Computer systems organization~Real-time operating systems - paste it into your document, and style with the "CCSDescription" tag.
• select "Properties" from the "File" menu
• select the "Summary" tab
• paste the XML into the "Comments" area
• select "Advanced Properties"

Users may augment the ACM taxonomy with user-defined keywords. The Keywords section is a comma-separated list of keywords, each styled with the "Keyword" tag.

Your article should begin with a short - one or two paragraphs - abstract, providing an overview of the work to be presented. Style the abstract with the "Abstract" tag.

There are four different sectioning levels available to authors, with the "Head1" through "Head4" styles. A top-level section would be styled with the "Head1" tag, a subsection would use the "Head2" style, and so on.

Please use these sectioning tags / styles, and do not produce your own for a different look than what is provided.

Paragraphs must be styled with the "Para" tag. The exception to this is when an equation, table, or other element is placed within the paragraph. In this case, the remainder of the current paragraph is styled with the "ParaContinue" tag so that no indentation of the text occurs.

Equations can be added with the built-in Equation Editor or a third-party application such as MathType. Use the "DisplayFormula" (for equations with an equation number) or "DisplayFormulaUnnum" (for equations with no equation number) styles as appropriate.

When equations occur in the middle of a paragraph of text, please use the "ParaContinue" style on the part of the paragraph that occurs after the equation.

When an algorithm is included in an article, the declaration of the algorithm starts the algorithm, and is styled with the "AlgorithmCaption" tag. The algorithm itself follows, and all of its lines are styled with the "Algorithm" tag.

FIGURES AND TABLES

Figures and tables are "float elements" which should be inserted in the Word document after their first occurrence.

When working in "draft" mode, figures are not visible - there will be a blank space where the figure occurs. Switching to "Print Mode" will reveal the figure.

The "Image" style should be applied to the figure, and the "FigureCaption" style to its caption. Figure captions go below the figure, and captions are required elements.

Images that occupy a single column should be sized to fit within the column - 3 inches (7.62 cm) wide is a reasonable value. (In general, you should scale images to the size they will occupy in the finished two-column PDF output.)

If you wish to have an image or figure that spans multiple columns OR wish to have multiple images in a single figure, this should be done only after your article has been accepted for publication and you are preparing your article for TAPS.

Figures with multiple images - three smaller images in the same figure, for example, or a three by three grid of images in the same figure - are accomplished by creating a table with the necessary number of rows and columns, and inserting an image into each of the table's cells. These kinds of figures must have the caption styled with the "TableCaption" tag.

• right-clicking on the figure, and selecting the "Edit Alt Text" option (Macintosh) or selecting "Format Picture," then the "Layout & Properties" icon, and the "Alt Text" option from there. (Windows)
• adding one or two sentences that describe the figure.

If you are embedding copyright information in the figures in your article, please do so using an image-editing application (Photoshop, GIMP, etc.) and do not use a "text box" to do so.

Please use Word's built-in table editor to create tables in your Word document.

The table's head row should be selected and styled with the "TableHead" tag, found under "Body Elements."

The "TableCaption" style should be applied to the table's caption. Table captions go above the table, and is a required element.

Column-spanning Tables and Figures

Figures and Tables that should span both columns of your formatted article need additional styling applied to them, so that TAPS will properly format them.

After the appropriate figure and/or table styles have been applied to the figure or table which will span multiple columns, select both the figure or table AND its caption, and style them with the "Large Float" tag, found under "Body Elements."

Cross-linking Tables and Figures

Providing links to figures and tables from elsewhere in your article is straightforward. This is done after the "master template" has been added to your Word document.

• each figure and table should have a consistent label at the start of its caption: "Figure 2" or "Table 1" or similar.
• the link to a figure or table should use the same language: "...as seen in Figure 2,"

Cross-linking the citations and the figures and tables is accomplished by selecting "Reference and Cross Linking" -> "Cross-referencing" -> "Floats and Bibliography" and allowing Word to run that macro. If successful, both the label in the figure or table, and the citation to the figure or table should now be active links and colored, rather than plain text.

The "Floats and Bibliography" macro is the same one used to link references and citations in your article.

Lists - numbered, bullets, etc. - can be created using the standard Word list commands, and should be styled with the "List Paragraph" tag when complete.

HEADINGS AND THEIR STYLES

• Title_document - the style for your article's title
• Subtitle - the style for your article's subtitle if it has one
• AbsHead - the "Abstract" heading
• AckHead - the "Acknowledgments" heading
• CCSHead - the "CCS Concepts" heading
• KeyWordHead - the "Keywords" heading
• ReferenceHead - the "References" heading

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgments are placed before the references, and should include any required or desired mention of support, sponsorship, or funding. The "GrantSponser" and "GrantNumber" tags should be used to style the grant sponsor and grant number information, respectively.

Appendices should follow the references. There are three - "AppendixH1," "AppendixH2," and "AppendixH3" - section heading styles for use in an appendix, analogous to the "Head1," "Head2," and "Head3" styles used in the body of your article. All other styles can and should be used in the appendix in the same manner as they are used in the body of your article.

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Style Guides and Templates for Optica Publishing Group Journals

Optica Publishing Group accepts manuscripts submitted in MS Word or LaTeX. Please use the appropriate templates and style guides provided below.

• New visual design including new margins.
• New Funding section to separate funding information from the Acknowledgements section.

You may find it helpful to use our optional Paperpal manuscript readiness check and language polishing service .

Manuscript Preparation Templates (1 SEPTEMBER 2023)

Length check template.

Authors of Letters and Memoranda should use the Length Check Template

Citation Style Files

• opgjnl.ens (EndNote)
• Optica-Publishing-Group.csl (Zotero, Mendeley)
• opticajnl.bst (BibTeX)

Instructions for LaTeX Submissions

• Use standard LaTeX coding wherever possible and avoid use of custom macros.
• Include just one .tex file. Using \include and multiple .tex files will not work.
• Ensure that file names and file callouts use the same case: If figure1 .pdf is lowercase, \includegraphics{ figure1 } must be lowercase as well.
• Include any non-Optica Publishing Group or nonstandard style files with your submission.
• Package your files at the root level in a .zip , .tar , or .tgz archive. Use of subfolders within a directory is okay; however, do not include an archive package within another archive package: For example, do not place a .tar within another .tar file.

Optica Publishing Group is now using Overleaf to process LaTeX submissions to Prism. Please follow the instructions below to ensure that your submission will be processed correctly. An Overleaf FAQ is provided below.

Overleaf Frequently Asked Questions

What is Overleaf?

Overleaf is a cloud-based system for writing, compiling, and sharing LaTeX projects. Optica Publishing Group is now using the Overleaf service instead of an internal TeX system to process LaTeX submissions to Prism. We are using Overleaf as a more reliable means of compiling LaTeX and because it provides authors with an easy method of troubleshooting errors and recompiling LaTeX.

Do I have to use Overleaf?

All manuscripts submitted to Prism will be compiled with Overleaf. Authors are not required to use Overleaf to prepare their manuscripts, but many will find Overleaf to be an excellent authoring tool with new opportunities for online collaboration and improved troubleshooting.

Is Overleaf free to use?

There is no charge to authors for Overleaf compilation when submitting manuscripts through Prism. However, use of Overleaf as an authoring tool requires an account. Overleaf offers free accounts as well as fee-based accounts with additional features.

What packages does Overleaf support?

Overleaf runs TeX Live on their servers, which provides about 4000 packages. To find out more, please visit https://www.overleaf.com/help/30-what-packages-do-you-support

Do I need to include the template files with my submission?

You can either include the template files in your upload, or we will add them automatically when the files are sent to Overleaf to be compiled.

My Prism submission failed. What do I do?

If a Prism submission fails, on the submission confirmation page you will find an error message and a link to the error log generated in submission. If possible, use the error message and log to identify and resolve the problem. If desired, open your submission directly in Overleaf (an Overleaf account is required) or in your local TeX system. Do not hesitate to contact Overleaf or Optica Publishing Group directly for assistance (see below).

Who can I contact for help?

• For general inquiries about LaTeX coding issues or Overleaf specifically, see https://www.overleaf.com/contact or contact Overleaf at [email protected] .
• For questions about our policy or journal-specific issues, contact the appropriate resource from Contact Us or direct your question to [email protected] .

Where do I find the template files if I prefer to compile locally?

Choose the journal-specific "Access on Overleaf" link above and open Overleaf. Click on the "Open As Template" button. In the template, at the left there is a dropdown arrow next to "Download as Zip". Choose the "For Submission (with .bbl)" option and download the template package.

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Find professional templates for formatting and writing important letters, from custom letterheads to recommendation and reference letter requests.

Certificates

From gift certificates to employee of the month awards, find easily customizable certificate templates designed to highlight achievements.

Start with the best Word templates

A hassle-free way to create custom, beautiful Word documents

Create useful and inviting templates for resumes, cover letters, cards, flyers, brochures, letters, certificates, and more with no design experience needed. Here's how:

1. Find your perfect Word template

2. Customize your creation

3. Show it off

Let's create something in word, frequently asked questions, what can i use word document templates for.

You can use Word document templates to design resumes , create business invoices , customize annual calendars , and more. There are also templates that you can use throughout your business's internal operations. Use Word document templates to create a business plan , design and share your org chart, and make printable letter head .

How do I create or customize templates for Word?

You can make your own Word document templates from scratch. Create documents that fit your exact needs since the options are limitless when using Word. If you don't know how to begin, you can also edit existing templates and customize them so that their content, colors, fonts, and media are curated for you.

Where do I find Word templates?

You can find Word templates by using the search bar. When you search "Word," a variety of templates will come up in the results. You can customize their colors, text, media, and more.

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