Write for the journal

Guidelines for manuscript preparation

To facilitate the editing and production of your manuscript your compliance with the following guidelines would be appreciated.

  1. Manuscripts should be typed on A4 pages with 2.5 cm margins at top, bottom, left and right.
  2. The preferred font is Times New Roman, with a line spacing of 1.5 and a single space between sentences.
  3. Each manuscript should have the title, author’s name, author’s affiliation, and author’s email address at the top of the first page.
  4. References should use the APA style (see APA style guide), and be collected at the end of the text. Inclusive pagination is preferred.
  5. If explanatory notes are necessary, these should be identified in the text as sequential superscript numbers, and collected after the references as endnotes. Do not use ‘EndNote’ or similar proprietary software to compile your references, as this is not compatible with the production process for the journal.
  6. It may be appropriate for small amounts of more technical information to be presented separately from the main text. These should be provided at the end of the main text, with an indication of where they ‘belong’.
  7. Chemical structures/schemes/charts: These should be drawn using ChemDraw with the ACS setting except for embolden compound numbers, 1, 2, etc, and bold italic Scheme/Chart numerators which are 12 pt Times New Roman. Reagents located above or below arrows to be in 9 pt. To fit a single column, use an A4 page of portrait format with a width not more than 13.4 cm. To fit a full page width use an A4 page of landscape format with a width of not more than 27.5 cm. When transferring schematics to the manuscript re-size them to 60%, viz., 60% of 13.4 cm = 8.04 cm = column width; 60% of 27.5 cm = 16.5 cm = page width.
  8. Tables should be designed to fit either a column or page width. They should be in 10 pt, and each submitted as a separate file. Each table should have a caption above the tabulated data in the form: Table 1 Participant characteristics.
  9. Figures should fit column or page width; each should be submitted as a separate file. A short caption should be provided (which will appear below the figure in 10 pt) in the form: Fig. 1: Characteristics of spectra.
  10. Photographs should be submitted as high quality JPEG (or equivalent) files (min 200 kB), with each photograph as a separate file. Photographs within the journal will normally be printed in black and white.
  11. Occasionally, a photograph from a submitted article may be used on the cover of the journal, in which case it will be printed in colour. Such use of a photograph will be subject to specific agreement between the editor and the author.
  12. Authors must ensure that they have permission from copyright holders of images they wish to use that are obtained from other publications or websites, and should provide a copy of such authorisation(s) with their submission.