Notes for contributors - Materials Research Innovations

See below for details of file requirements:

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

Click here to download a .bst file to format LaTeX bibliographies.

CONDITIONS OF SUBMISSION

By submitting to Materials Research Innovations, 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 to Materials Research Innovations.

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

4. That the paper contains, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no libellous or unlawful statements.

Authors will be required to sign a declaration to this effect.

COPYRIGHT

Authors will be required, before publication, to transfer copyright of their article to Maney Publishing (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. Materials Research Innovations must be cited as the original source of publication and a link to www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/mri included with any listing. Please note that content will only be available when the first issue from Maney has been published. 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 PROCEDURE AND FILE REQUIREMENTS

All submissions or proposals should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief: Professor Rustum Roy, Materials Research Innovations, 103 Materials Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA, fax +1 814-863-7040, email matresinnov@psu.edu. 

Submission by email is preferred.

The initial submission (in PDF or Word format) must conform to the guidelines laid out below and must include:

* a complete manuscript of the paper, which must include a paragraph specifically indicating how the literature was searched and, in the light of that, what is distinctively ‘innovative’ or new about the contents

* a structured extended abstract (1300–1800 words)

* a bibliography listing the published work of a principal author (the benchmark for scientists in academia is 30 papers; fewer for those in industry).

Incomplete submissions will not be considered. 

On acceptance of a contribution for publication, authors must provide text files suitable for typesetting and high resolution image files. Page proofs will be emailed to authors in PDF format and should be corrected and returned as quickly as possible. 

FULL PAPER

The full manuscript must conform to the presentation, formatting and style guidelines laid out below. The guide length is 3500 words, excluding tables and figures, but may be varied with the agreement of the Editor. There is no restriction in the use of colour in illustrations.

STRUCTURED EXTENDED ABSTRACT

The extended abstract must be between 1300 and 1800 words in length. One or two small figures (regarded as equivalent to 250 words each) may be included if space permits. It is important, especially for indexing services, that the abstract be intelligible independently of the article. It should be presumed that the reader has some knowledge of the subject but has not read the paper.

The abstract must be structured under the headings: 

* Keywords

* Objective, including a description of the innovative aspects of the work

* Methods and materials

* Results

* Discussion

* Conclusions

There is no obligation to include references but a few key citations may be included as footnotes. Figures will be reproduced in monochrome unless the author is prepared to contribute towards the additional cost of colour reproduction. Authors must ensure that the figures supplied are clear and legible when reproduced in black and white.

FORMATTING AND STYLE GUIDELINES 

Formatting of manuscript

In preparing the manuscript as a Word or rtf file, there is no need to format the article to a specific template, but please include italic or bold type where necessary. 

Use hard returns at the end of paragraphs only; switch autohyphenation off; and do not justify text. 

Consistency in spacing, punctuation, and spelling is essential. The journal uses UK and 'ise' spellings, e.g. 'characterise' rather than 'characterize'.

Tables should be included within the manuscript file, not provided as separate files. Use Word Table mode, not tabs or spaces between columns. Do not provide tables as image files.

Equations should be produced using Word Equation Editor.

Structure of submission 

The submitted manuscript must contain: 

* a title page giving full contact details 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 

* up to 10 keywords to be used for indexing purposes

* list of symbols (if appropriate)

* text: section and subsection headings should be clearly differentiated, using a structured numbering system if necessary (note that this numbering is to guide typesetting and will not appear in the printed version): typically a paper will include, as a minimum, an Introduction (including Relation to previous work); Experimental methods and materials; Results and discussion; and Conclusions

* appendices (if any)

* acknowledgements (if any)

* references (see below)

* a 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

* tables

* figures.

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 (together with high resolution digital image files, as described below). Failure to conform to these requirements may delay typesetting and publication of the paper.

Style guidelines

Use of SI units is mandatory. Journal style is to use the form S m–1, A m–2, W m–1 K–1, not S/m, A/m2, W/m.K 

The full form of any abbreviation or acronym should be given in the text when the term is first used. Do not use full points within abbreviations (e.g. SEM, XRD).

Be careful not to use the same symbol to represent more than one variable. 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 clearly 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 complete list at the end of the paper, numbered according to their appearance in the text, not positioned as footnotes. 

All references given must be complete, including all authors where known, and should be verified at source. 

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

G. Gogotsi: Mater. Res. Innov., 2006, 10, (2), 179–186.

D. Zhong, B. Mishra, J. J. Moore and A. Madan: Surf. Eng., 2004, 20, 196–204.

R. Sinclair, M. Preuss and P. J. Withers: Mater. Sci. Technol., 2005, 21, 27–34.

M. M. Stack: Int. Mater. Rev., 2005, 50, 1–18.

If the abbreviation is not known, the journal title should be given in full. Where 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.

H. K. D. H. Bhadeshia: 'Bainite in steels', 2nd edn, 240; 2001, London, IoM Communications.

J. V. Wood: in 'Future developments of metals and ceramics', (ed. J. A. Charles et al.), Vol.1, 235–239; 1992, London, The Institute of Materials.

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

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

M. H. 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.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Authors must provide high resolution digital files of all figures to the specification laid out below. Where applicable, separate versions of the figures are required for the full paper and extended abstract.

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.

Conversion of colour figures for greyscale reproduction

Graphs with coloured lines and keys, contour maps, model outputs, etc. will not reproduce adequately if converted direct to greyscale. In particular, red and blue convert to similar grey levels and will not be distinguishable. Suitable labelling or reformatting must be used to ensure clarity. 

Colour photographs will in general convert to greyscale satisfactorily but optimisation for greyscale reproduction may improve the final result. 

Figure size and legibility

* Check that all labels are correct and free of spelling or numerical errors.

* In general, figures will be reproduced to single column width (80mm) or page width (168mm).

* Crop any unwanted white space from around the figure before sizing.

* Authors must ensure that the labelling on figures will be legible when reduced to final size. Lettering should be approximately 8pt in size (equivalent to 2mm in height for capital letters) at final width (i.e. figures that are wider before reproduction generally require larger type sizes). Keys must be legible when the figure is reduced to final size. 

* 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 be of the form:

Stress, MPa

Velocity (v), m s-1

log(l, nm)

Image file formats and resolution

Each figure must be supplied in digital form as a separate, clearly named file. 

Acceptable file formats are TIFF, JPEG and EPS. If supplying EPS files, ensure that all fonts are attached. Figures embedded in Word documents are not generally suitable for reproduction.

Photographic images should be saved at a resolution of at least 300 dpi at final size (dpi=dots or pixels per inch; 300dpi=120 dots/cm).

Graphs and line drawings should be saved at a resolution of at least 600 dpi (240 dots/cm) at final size. Do not save at the default resolution (72dpi).

* Line drawings or diagrams should be scanned as line art or produced to the appropriate resolution using a standard package such as PhotoShop.

* Monochrome photographs, diagrams with shaded or toned areas, or line/tone figures should be submitted as greyscale images. 

* Colour figures should be provided in CMYK format. 

FOLLOWING ACCEPTANCE

Following typesetting, you will receive by email PDF proofs for checking together with a copyright transfer form. It is imperative that authors check proofs carefully, particularly numerical data and equations. All corrections should be returned together within three days of receipt, by email, fax or first class post/airmail. Corrections should be kept to a minimum and authors may be asked to bear the cost of excessive changes, other than typesetting errors.

Authors will receive a PDF file of the final version of the paper on publication and will be sent details on how to order hard copy reprints with their proofs. 

FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information or clarification contact matresinnov@psu.edu.