Notes for Contributors - Transactions of the Institute of Metal Finishing

See below for details of file requirements:

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SCOPE AND TYPE OF CONTRIBUTION

Transactions of the Institute of Metal Finishing provides international peer reviewed coverage of all aspects of surface finishing and surface engineering, from fundamental research to in-service applications.

Types of contribution include:

- papers reporting research and practice, typically 3500 words in length plus figures and tables

- short communications (letters), providing a rapid publication route for preliminary  announcements of the results of current work, or short accounts of new techniques, typically     1000-1500 words in length with, at most, four figures and/or tables

- case studies, reporting relevant practical experience, also 1000-1500 words in length with, at most, four figures and/or tables

- critical assessments/reviews, dealing with their subject in broad perspective, examining the current position critically and comprehensively; these are typically 4000-5000 words in length plus figures and tables, and well referenced

Prospective authors of critical assessments or reviews should, in the first instance, submit an abstract to the Editor for consideration and comment.

CONDITIONS OF SUBMISSION

By submitting to Transactions of the Institute of Metal Finishing, authors acknowledge and accept that papers are considered for publication on the basis:

1. that the paper presents original work that is not being considered or reviewed by any other publication, and has not been published elsewhere in the same or a similar form

2. that all authors are aware of, and have consented to, the submission of the paper to Transactions of the Institute of Metal Finishing

3. that due regard has been paid to ethical considerations relating to the work reported

4. that the paper contains no libellous or unlawful statements.

COPYRIGHT

Authors will be required, before publication, to transfer copyright of their article to the Institute of Metal Finishing (this condition may be waived if Crown (or equivalent) copyright is involved and a licence to publish given). Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any material or illustrations for which they do not hold the copyright. Under Maney’s standard agreement, authors reserve: (1) all proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent rights; (2) the rights to use all or part of the article in future works of their own.

Under Maney's open access policy, authors will receive a PDF file of the published version of their paper. This PDF may be forwarded to co-authors without separate permission being required from the publisher. The PDF cannot be used for commercial purposes. Transactions of the Institute of Metal Finishing must be cited as the original source of publication and a link to www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/imf  included with any listing. This PDF may be posted, with appropriate acknowledgement of source and copyright, on authors' individual websites or that of their institution. Authors are entitled to make copies of the article for reasonable personal use only.

SUBMISSION

Manuscripts are considered on the understanding that they present original work that has not been submitted elsewhere or previously published in the same or essentially similar form. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any material or illustrations for which they do not hold copyright.

Contributions should be sent to: Dr Sheelagh Campbell, Hon. Editor, Transactions of the Institute of Metal Finishing, Exeter House, 48 Holloway Head, Birmingham B1 1NQ, UK, email exeterhouse@instituteofmetalfinishing.org. Email submissions in PDF or Word format are encouraged, but submission of two copies of manuscripts by post is also acceptable.

The submitted manuscript must contain: 

- a title page giving full contact details, including email addresses, for all authors. Pages should be numbered consecutively with the title page as page 1

- an abstract of no more than 150 words, giving a concise summary of the aims, content, and      conclusions of the paper

- up to six keywords to be used for indexing purposes

- text: section and subsection headings should be clearly differentiated, using a structured  numbering system if necessary

- appendices (if any)

- acknowledgements

- references (see below)

- (optionally) brief biographical notes of the authors

- tables and list of figure captions. Each figure should have a caption that is intelligible without    reference to the text; discussion of figures should appear in the text of the paper, not the caption. Where appropriate, scales or magnifications must be provided.

- use of SI units is mandatory. Journal style is to use the form Sm-1, Am-2, Wm-1K-1, not S/m, A/m2, W/m.K 

FOLLOWING ACCEPTANCE FOR PUBLICATION

On acceptance, authors must supply an electronic version of the final text in Word or a compatible word processor format, to the specification below. This can be emailed to the Editor at the address above. Failure to conform to these requirements may delay typesetting and publication of the paper. Authors are also strongly encouraged to provide electronic versions of figures (see below).

In preparing the electronic version, there is no need to format the article, but please include italic or bold type where necessary. Use hard returns only at the end of paragraphs; switch auto hyphenation off; and do not justify text. Consistency in spacing, punctuation, and spelling is essential.

Tables should be produced in Word Table mode, not using a tab between columns or the space bar. 

The full form of any abbreviation or acronym should be given in the text when the term is first used.

Do not use the same symbol to represent more than one variable: please ensure that Greek symbols are clear and that similar characters, e.g. the letter 'el' and the number 'one' and the letter 'oh' and the number 'zero', are distinguished and used consistently. A list of symbols should be provided if helpful to the reader.

Figures should be cited in a single sequence throughout the text as 'Fig.1', 'Fig.2', …

Equations and tables should also be numbered in sequence and referred to in the text as, for example, 'equation (1)' and 'Table 1' respectively. 

Reference and notes should be numbered serially in a single sequence. Citations in the text should be as superior characters, thus,1,2, 4-6 outside any punctuation marks. References cited for the first time in a table or figure caption should be numbered as if they appeared in the text where the table or figure is first mentioned. References should be set out in a list, numbered according to their appearance in the text.

Click here to download an Endnotes style file for this journal.

All references given must be complete, and should be verified at source. 

Journal abbreviations in references follow the ISO system, e.g.

B. Guenther: Trans. IMF, 2000, 78, 143-146.

H. Dahms and I. M. Croll: J. Electrochem. Soc., 1965, 112, 771-776.

If the abbreviation is not known, the journal title should be given in full. Where the pagination is not consecutive through the volume, it is essential to give the month or part number.

Book references should give full bibliographic details, e.g.

M. Pourbaix: Atlas of Electrochemical Equilibria in Aqueous Systems, 2nd edn, 240; 1986, Oxford, Pergamon.

J. V. Wood: in Future Developments of Metals and Ceramics, (ed. J. A. Charles), Vol.1, 235-239; 1992, London, Institute of Materials.

S. A. Campbell and H. J. Lewerenz (eds.): Semiconductor Micromachining, Vol. 2, 'Techniques and industrial applications'; 1998, Chichester, John Wiley.

Standard texts should not be cited in their entirety: the appropriate page or section should be indicated.

Conference references must include the date, location, and organiser or publisher of the meeting, e.g.

M. Loretto: Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. on 'Research and development in net shape manufacturing', Birmingham, UK, March 1999, University of Birmingham, Paper 23.

Reports, theses, etc. should be presented in the form:

R. D. Niel: 'Interfacial structures in intermetallic/steel joints after high temperature service', Report 1131, AVS plc, Huntingdon, UK, 2000.

C. Kerr: 'Electrochemical porosity testing of electroless nickel coatings on mild steel substrates', PhD thesis, University of Portsmouth, UK, 1997.

J. Smith: 'Method for electroplating complex items composed of copper or its alloys', UK Patent 123 870, 1950.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Policy on colour

Barring the exceptions below, all illustrations must be suitable for reproduction in black and white. Limited use of colour in the printed journal may be possible at the Editors’ discretion: otherwise colour is available in print only if the author is prepared to pay the additional cost of colour reproduction. 

Colour illustrations will carried free in the online version of the journal, where this enhances the information being presented, provided the figures involved are supplied in the correct electronic format (see below). For these figures, two separate files must be supplied, optimised for black and white and colour reproduction respectively.

Electronic figure files

Authors are strongly encouraged to submit electronic versions of figures to the specification given below. Each figure must be supplied as a separate file and hard copies or a PDF file of all figures should also be provided to confirm identity.

Halftones

Halftones (photographs) should be supplied as greyscale tiff or jpeg files and must have a resolution of at least 480 pixels/cm (300 pixels/inch, or dots per inch (dpi)) at final size: do not save at the default resolution (72dpi). Figures embedded in Word documents are not suitable for reproduction.

Line drawings

Line drawings or diagrams with shaded or toned areas should be submitted as tiff or eps files of at least 480 pixels/cm resolution at final size. If supplying eps files ensure that all fonts are attached.

Colour figures

Colour figures, where the author has agreed to contribute towards the additional cost of reproduction, should be provided as CMYK tiff or jpeg files to resolutions of 120 pixels/cm for photographs and 480 pixels/cm for line art at final size.

Hard copy figures

Where electronic versions are not available, glossy prints or high quality printouts should be provided of any photographs. Montages of images should be supplied in a form suitable for scanning without reassembly. Line drawings should be provided as high quality printouts, large enough to allow reduction to 80mm (single column width) or 168mm (page width) for printing. 

Lettering and legibility of figures

Authors must ensure that the labelling on figures will be legible when reduced to final size. Lettering should be 2mm in height (for capital letters) at final size (i.e. wider figures generally require larger type sizes), and keys must be legible when reduced. Generally figures will be reproduced at 80mm (single column width) or 168mm (page width)

Ensure that curves on multiple plots are clear, in particular that any symbols used on graphs can be distinguished following reduction. Labelling of individual curves may be preferable to keys in these circumstances

Axis labels should follow the format: CuSO4 concentration/mol dm-3, Voltage V/mV(SCE), etc.

FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information regarding submission format, contact the Managing Editor at Maney Publishing: Mark Hull. All editorial enquiries should be addressed to the Editor at the address above.