Notes for contributors - Materials Technology: Advanced Performance              Materials

Editors: Professor F H (Sam) Froes, IMAP, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA

Professor Paul Hogg, Nanoforce, Queen Mary, University of London, UK

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.

SCOPE AND TYPES OF CONTRIBUTION

Materials Technology: Advanced Performance Materials is dedicated to bridging the gap between innovation and application of cutting-edge technologies and science through succinct, accurate, and current reporting of developments worldwide in the synthesis and processing of advanced materials and their applications. Increasing emphasis is being placed on the ability to manufacture structural and functional components of ever smaller feature size, by both top-down and bottom-up approaches, and to manipulate and characterise structures down to the nanoscale.

Materials Technology focuses on leading R&D in industrial, university and national laboratories. All information is generated from primary sources and approved by the source prior to publication. By providing information in a variety of tailored formats - concise reviews on key topics, reports of original research, technology overviews and assessments, and noteworthy developments in science and technology - Materials Technology maintains a strong emphasis on communicating information of practical and commercial value to its readers.

Types of contribution include:

        Technology papers -peer-reviewed descriptions of a materials technology related item of research, development or exploitation. Should include a description of the materials studied, processing methods, test methods and data, structural and/or cost data analysis (if appropriate), and indicate the exploitation status (e.g. pure research, process capable, product development, market ready or in production), with examples as appropriate. Guide length 3500 words in length plus figures and tables (~6 pages). 

       Technology reviews or perspectives - concise, peer-reviewed review articles on a state-of-the-art topic of key importance for the application and commercialisation of materials-related technologies. Reviews should survey their subject in a broad perspective, examining the current position critically and comprehensively. Perspectives are more personal contributions with an emphasis on the future direction of a technology and the developments required to facilitate progress. Guide length 4000-5000 words plus figures and tables, and well referenced 7-8 pages). 

        Technology management reports - aimed primarily at managers and senior academics. Comprise: a general overview of the topic area including some background and brief description of the technology; key research establishments and leading researchers; funding sources and levels; commercialisation and exploitation issues; IPR and industrial leadership (as appropriate); and conclude with a view of the future potentials for R&D and/or commercial exploitation. Subject to modified review process. Guide length 2500 words plus figures, tables and references (~4 pages).

        Materials industrial analysis - global surveys of a particular class of advanced materials, sources, production/synthesis, properties and applications. Normally includes information on world markets, production volumes and prices with some indication of future trends. Guide length 3000 words plus tables and illustrations (~5 pages)

       Conference reports - brief descriptions of the proceedings of important materials technology based meetings. Summaries of key papers and the views expressed by leading researchers and industrial users in the field. Guide length 3000 words plus illustrations (~5 pages).

        Noteworthy section - short items reporting strategic and technical developments in the materials industry or materials research; announcements and reviews of recent publications; or forthcoming events.

Offers of contributions in any of these categories are welcomed. Prospective authors of reviews or perspectives should ideally approach the Editor with an abstract for consideration and comment before submitting a full manuscript. Submit technology papers, reviews and perspectives (in the format laid out below), by email direct to the Editor (see below). 

Reports and material for the Noteworthy section should be emailed to the Managing Editor, Mark Hull. 

CONDITIONS OF SUBMISSION

By submitting to Materials Technology, 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 Technology.

        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 Technology must be cited as the original source of publication and a link to www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/mte 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, with appropriate acknowledgement of source and copyright, posted 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

Submissions or enquiries relating to technology papers, reviews and perspectives should be emailed in Word or PDF format to:

Professor F. H. (Sam) Froes, Editor - Materials Technology, Institute for Materials & Advanced Processes, University of Idaho, ID 83844-3206, USA

Reports and material for the Noteworthy section should be emailed to the Managing Editor, Mark Hull.

Authors will be asked to submit their work according to the requirements of the journal.

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 six 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 an Introduction; Experimental Procedures; 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.

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 Mark Hull at the Editorial office. Failure to conform to these requirements may delay typesetting and publication of the paper. Authors are also strongly encouraged to provide high resolution electronic versions of figures (see below).

Style guidelines

Use of SI units is mandatory. Journal style is to use the form S m-1, A m-2, W m-1K-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.

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

I. S. Cole, D. Lau, F. Chan and D. A. Patterson: Corros. Eng. Sci. Technol., 2004, 39, 333-339.

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. 

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.

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).

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 suitable for reproduction.

Images should be saved at a resolution of at least 600 dpi at final size (dpi=dots or pixels per inch; 600dpi=240 dots per centimetre). Do not save at the default resolution (72dpi).

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

Halftones (photographs) should be supplied as greyscale images.

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

Diagrams with shaded or toned areas or line/tone figures should be submitted as greyscale images. 

Colour figures for printing should be provided in CMYK format. 

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

Supplementary material such as videos, animations, models or datasets will be accessed via a hyperlink from the online version of the paper. There is not therefore a requirement to use specified file or software formats but be aware of the need to use commonly available platforms and to minimise file size for ease of downloading.

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 Mark Hull.