Manuscript preparation guidelines
A. Méndez Vilas*,1,2 and J. A. Mesa González1
1 FORMATEX Research Center, Zurbarán 1, 2-Office 1, 06002 Badajoz, Spain
2 Department of Applied Physics, University of Extremadura, Avda. Elvas s/n, 06071 Badajoz, Spain
This document contains a short summary about how to prepare manuscripts before their submission to the book titled: “Polymer science: research advances, practical applications and educational aspects”. Manuscripts have to be formatted according to the current layout and page size. Each manuscript requires an abstract with a maximum length of about ten lines.
Keywords: keyword; keyword
1. General remarks
Submissions to “Polymer science: research advances, practical applications and educational aspects” should be written in correct English. Please consult a native speaker or a knowledgeable colleague for help, if necessary.
Please submit your manuscript exclusively as one single Word document including the entire text as well as all tables and figures. Please note that manuscripts must be restricted to a total of 8 or 12 pages for educational-oriented original research papers, and mini-reviews, respectively. Large numbers of figures should be avoided.
Deadline for chapter submission: 9 March 2016
2. Title information
The manuscript should begin with the title of the paper in lower case letters except for proper nouns, certain abbreviations, physical quantities etc. It is followed by the names of all authors (with first name initials or full names) and the corresponding institutions (from the smallest to the largest unit, e.g. group, department, and university) with addresses. Countries should be written in English.
Keywords must be provided separated by semicolon.
3. Manuscript layout
3.1 File formats and templates
Please prepare your manuscript electronically using Microsoft Word (or compatible formats like RTF). All textual material of the paper (including tables, captions, etc.) should be in a single file. It is essential that you use the provided template. Please use the predefined styles for title, authors, abstract, body etc. Please use Times New Roman, Times or Symbol fonts as much as possible. Some other fonts (e.g., Asian or Russian character fonts) may cause problems and should be avoided.
Section headings on all (preferably not more than three levels) should be consecutively numbered by decimal numbers as 1, 1.1, 1.1.1 etc.
3.2 Figures and tables
Figures must be carefully prepared and submitted ready for reproduction. Lettering and symbols should be clear and large enough in the final figure size. Avoid small open symbols, small dots, small decimal points, and hairlines, close-dotted or short-dashed lines. Draw a closed axes frame in diagrams with the axis titles (quantity followed by the unit in brackets) parallel to the corresponding axis, outside the frame. For numbers, use a decimal point instead of a comma. For symbols and units, avoid writing alpha, Ohm, deg; use Greek and special characters instead: α, Ω, °.
Table 1 Tables will appear left-aligned (with a 0,5cm left indent) or center-aligned, unless it is very wide and requires the whole page width.
Year / Random data / Random data / Random data2015 / 23 / 89 / 788
2014 / 64 / 73 / 733
Fig. 1 Figures and tables will appear left-aligned (with a 0,5cm left indent) or center-aligned. Please note that the final phrase of the caption ends with a period.
Figures and tables including captions will be embedded in the manuscript file, in order to indicate their appropriate position and required space. Figures and tables will appear left-aligned (with a 0,5cm left indent) or center-aligned. Possible arrangements are shown in this document (Figs. 1–3, see also Table 1). Please make sure to use only standard fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, Symbol) or include the fonts in the figure file. When composing a figure, avoid using separate drawing elements in Word such as arrows, symbols or letters, since these are often lost if a figure must be extracted from the Word file during typesetting. All elements of a figure should be grouped together as one graphics object.
In the text, the figures or tables are referred to as “... in Fig. /Table 1” or as “Figure/Table 1 shows ...” at the beginning of a sentence.
Figures and images will appear in black and white (grayscale) in the paperback format and in color in the ebook format. If some author is interested in color reproduction in print, please contact the publisher at (color reproduction could have extra costs)
3.3 Quantities, units, and equations
All physical quantities and constants should be given in italic, vectors in bold italic letters. Care should be taken to distinguish subscripts, superscripts, and special symbols. Units should be written in upright letters (not in italics) with a short space to the number before. SI units should be used throughout. Mathematical functions which are tabulated (e.g. sin, cos, exp, e, etc.) should be given in upright letters (not in italics).
Equations may be numbered sequentially. Except for small in-line equations, they should appear on separate lines, such as
fx=a0+n=1∞ancosnπxL+bnsinnπxL (1)
a) b)
Fig. 2 Two parts of a figure side-by-side. They should be labelled a) and b) either in the figure or adjacent to it. Two figures of similar size with consecutive numbers may be arranged in the same way, with separate captions underneath each figure.
In the text, equations may be r eferred to by writing “... in Eq. (1)”. At the beginning of a sentence, use the full form “Equation (1) shows ...”.
3.4 Formatting of references
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in square brackets.
References should follow the standards summarized in the NLM’s webpage International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals: Sample References.
Some examples about citation of journal articles, books and websites are shown below.
Acknowledgements The support by XXX is gratefully acknowledged.
References
[1] Hess ST, Girirajan TP, Mason MD. Ultra-high resolution imaging by fluorescence photoactivation localization microscopy. Biophysical Journal. 2006; 91:4258-72.
[2] Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.
[3] Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.
[4] Harnden P, Joffe JK, Jones WG, editors. Germ cell tumours V. Proceedings of the 5th Germ Cell Tumour Conference; 2001 Sep 13-15; Leeds, UK. New York: Springer; 2002.
...
[10]Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2012 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074029/html/.