Camera-Ready Copy for Papers to be Published in Applied Spectroscopy: An Alternative Opinion

Scott R. Goode Department of Chemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208

Standards for preparation of camera-ready copy for arti- cles submitted to Applied Spectroscopy need not follow exactly the stylistic conventions used by the journal. A simpler set of guidelines that can be easily implemented on most microcomputers is proposed.

Index Headings: Camera-ready copy; Author information; Electronic publishing.

Submitted May 2 1990. Furnished as camera-ready copy.

INTRODUCTION

Developments in word processing and printing technol- ogy have motivated research scientists to submit their manuscripts as camera-ready copy to reduce publication time and expenses. The preparation of camera-ready copy can achieve both these goals and will clearly play an impor- tant role in the future of Applied Spectroscopy. But excel- lent spectroscopists may not be excellent typesetters, and it is reasonable to ask whether Applied Spectroscopy couldn't change to a simpler format rather than require its authors to follow the traditional design.

This article has been formatted on a relatively simple hardware system and has far fewer design elements than does the regular Applied Spectroscopy format. This article is designed to be read in concert with that of Scheeline et al., 1 which follows the format of Applied Spectroscopy to a far greater degree. We will leave the readers to decide whether the format used here conveys information with equal effectiveness.

EXPERIMENTAL

This paper was written with Microsoft Word (Microsoft Corp, Redmond, WA) on an IBM-PC clone, the AT&T PC6300, and printed on a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II (Hewlett-Packard 2686A, Boise, ID) with a 55-font car- tridge (Super Cartridge I, IQ Engineering, Sunnyvale, CA.) The printer and cartridge combination is supported by a large number of word processors. The number of typefaces and paragraph styles has been limited to simplify the for- matting process.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Nearly all popular word processors and laser printers can be used to generate high-quality output. It is interesting t 9 note that three of the five authors of the preceding paper ~ have used character-based (PC or compatible) systems; two have chosen a graphics-based (Macintosh) system. These numbers are probably indicative of the popularity of the different systems among chemists. Since the graphics-based systems can easily emulate a character-based system, it is clear that we need to devote our efforts to designing stan- dards that can be readily used by the character-based sys- tems.

The attributes of several design elements are given in Table 1. Most measurements are presented in units of inches (2.54 cm), but the use of "points" (1 pt = 1/12 in.) is still common.

Table 1. Paragraph design elements.

Element Description

Standard

Title

Author's name

Address

Date

Abstract

Index Headings

Heading # i

Heading # 2

Heading # 3

left and right justified; first line indented 0.15 in.; 10-pt normal type; ll-pt line spacing.

left justified, first letters upper case (except prepositions, conjunctions, etc); 14-pt bold; line height: 16-pt; space after: 1 line.

10-pt bold; left justified; indented 0.87 in.; space after: 1 line; line height 14 pt.

10-pt italic; left justified; indented 0.87 in.; space after: 1.5 line.

10-pt italic; left justified; indented 0.87 in.; space after: 1 line.

10-pt bold.

10-pt bold; run into following terms.

10-pt bold, uppercase; left justified; i line after.

10-pt bold; run into following text.

10-pt italic; run into following text.

Specialized points. The original Hewlett-Packard Laser- Jet is limited in the number of typefaces that can appear on a page. An absolute maximum of eight typefaces (each size and weight counts as a separate typeface) can appear on a page, depending on limitations of the word processor and the skills of the programmer who is writing the driver. Under certain conditions, only four typefaces will be prop- erly recognized, so minimizing the number of different typefaces has been a goal. (The LaserJet II and its successors can print up to 16 typefaces per page.)

Table 2 indicates some of the other stylistic conventions of this paper.

Volume 44, Number 7, 1990 0003-7028/90/4407-110152.00/0 APPLIED SPECTROSCOPY 1 101 © 1990 Society for Applied Spectroscopy

Type font. The Times Roman font has been chosen-it is the most widely available font, and one that is similar to the Century Schoolbook used by Applied Spectroscopy. The font was originally used by the Times of London, whose owners asked a typefoundry to design a font that allowed for high density (more characters per page) and high readability. An informal comparison indicates that the 10- point Times Roman requires about 3.5% less space than 10- point Century Schoolbook.

Table 2. Manuscript design elements.

Element Description

Paper

Margins

Layout

References

Gutter margins

Tables

Figures

8.5 in. x 11 in.

left: 0.6 in.; right: 0.6 in.; top: 0.75 in.; bottom: 0.75 in.

two columns; 0.3 in. between columns.

At end of document; 0.2-in. hanging indent; 10-pt normal typeface; ll-pt line height.

None, see below.

10-pt normal typeface, ruled top and bot- tom; see text for additional details.

10-pt normal typeface; see text for addi- tional details.

Acknowledg- Heading # 1. merits

References Heading # 1.

References. References are printed in a 10-point font, rather than the 8-point font currently used. Very few char- acter-based laser printers have 8-point bold and italic, so underlining would have to be used to designate italics, for example.

Gutter margins. Gutter margins specify the amount of white space, added to the left of odd-numbered pages and to the right of even-numbered pages. Gutter margins are needed due to cutting losses in binding. Since the authors do not know whether their manuscript will start on an odd- or even-numbered page, gutters are not useful.

Tables. The same style used for figures should be used for tables. The current style uses roman numerals for table numbers, refers to tables in the running text with normal density type, but uses bold for the table caption. All tables need captions. Inclusion of tables cannot be completely automated since the word processor will keep the table from being split across a column or page boundary, at the expense of leaving white space at the bottom of a page. Authors need to keep these splits in mind when formatting the manuscript. This manuscript also places the date of submission following the index heading, to avoid problems

with positioning the information exactly at the bottom of the first column.

Figures. Figures should be numbered with arabic numerals and referenced as Fig. 1, for example, both in the caption and in the running text. The current Applied Spectroscopy convention uses a mixture of large and small upper case letters, like FIG. 1, in the caption, but not in the running text. All figures need captions.

0.24

0.22

0.2

0 .16

0 .16

0.14

0 .12

0.1

0 .08

0 .06

0,04

0.02

0

Exomple 16.3.1 A

"YV ll lt

11Vl [Idl II l.,IJ ~rll~ ~|~k,~ II h,I , , ,

'" '" 11 IWJIM] AI,I dL, i

, ~, !"IIII

0 0.002 0.004

Time, ms

Fig. 1. This is an example of a figure caption. Above it is a figure that was generated by a spreadsheet, saved to disk, and imported into this manuscript at print time.

Equations. Equations have right-justified equation num- bers, in brackets. Most character-based programs will have to import equations as graphic images, like figures, so the type font may not match that of the running text.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper presents a simplified style for articles in Applied Spectroscopy. The number of type sizes and weights are minimized. The manuscript can be printed with char- acter-based systems, thereby providing more impetus for authors to consider preparation of camera-ready copy.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to thank Alex Scheeline and Sandy O'Neil for encouragement, for free reins, and for tight reins.

REFERENCES

1. A. Scheeline, P. W. Bohn, S. R. Goode, D. M. Coleman, and J. de Haseth, Appl. Spectrosc. 44(7)(1990).

1 102 Volume 44, Number 7, 1990