INSTRUCTIONS FOR MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
The 'paper' should contain the following: Title block:
The paper title should be capitalized (please see this Capitalization article). Use a brief title;
Introduction: Introduction should include a description of the background and aims of the work and what has been accomplished to date. Materials and Methods: Include full descriptions of all numerical, analytical, or experimental procedures. Results:Results should be clearly stated and supported by figures, tables or graphical representations of the findings. Discussion: The discussion should address the importance of the major findings of the work, expanding upon the results. Conclusions: A summary of important findings and their implications to the area of research that is the paper's focus. Acknowledgements: Should be brief. References: References should be listed alphabetically followed by references from tables or figure legends. Examples of the normal and electronic reference styles are given below:
Do not number the sections and subsections; these divisions should be obvious if you follow the standard heading styles. Do not over-format. Avoid the temptation of embellishments such as colors. First Name First and other conventions: The first name is what your mother calls you :) The last name is also known as the family name or surname. Normally, the first name is written first, and the last name last. Sometimes the order is reversed, as in the reference list example above; in this case, a comma should be placed after the last name (to indicate the reversal). The reason for reversal is to make it easier for the reader to locate a reference in the list, which is alphabetized for the same reason. There is no reason at all to reverse the name order for the second and other co-authors. Any references to papers that appeared earlier in EJGE or another electronic journal, should include a standard HTML link as shown above.It is a good idea to put all the references in a separate file in a larger paper, because html links can be used in the main paper with anchors pointing to each entry in the list. The standard format for articles is given in the following Sample Paper Format in HTML. An alternative format using the frames feature of newer browsers has been considered, and an example is given in the web page (link deleted): Paper Format with frames, but this format is found objectionable by many, therefore it is not recommended unless there is a good reason for using it. FIGURES In the sample paper file, there are examples of reference anchors and a link to a figure. Smaller figures, in the form of image files, as well as equation image files, should be left in-line (with <img src="filename.gif"> tags) with the text. Larger figure files should be referred to by an anchor (link). The figures and tables should be placed close to the places in the paper text where they are mentioned. DO NOT LUMP THEM ALL AT THE END.
Please note that in order to facilitate rapid review and approval of your article, your HTML documents should conform closely to the format given. Copy the HTML source from the above examples or from a published paper, then insert your paper into the code, deleting the previous text. The authors will also supply an Author's Information Page. For the format and required information in this file, please see Williams' Info Page. Save this file to your computer, then insert your own information and picture into the existing code.
File FormatsDOC/DOCX FormatThis is Microsoft's word processor 'Microsoft Word's native (binary) format. It gives you any feature you may ever want in a document, from equations to drawings. It is not particularly efficient, though. An EJGE paper that takes 20k text and 50k graphics may take 200k in DOC format. Recently ('07) Microsoft made up a new file format (extension .DOCX) based on the established PKZIP algorithms of file compression. The files become much smaller. EJGE has recently switched to this, more efficient format. Word also has an 'html export' function that lets you create an equivalent html file (and bunch of gif files). The export is particularly inefficient: the file can easily become two or three times as big as the original DOC file! Those who use Microsoft Word can employ the template provided by the EJGE for formatting the journal papers; it's available in both the most recent docx format, as well as the more popular doc format. Right-Click these links to download and save in your computer, and simply enter your papers in them. HTML FormatThe native language of the Web, HyperText Markup Language, is the the standard coding of Web pages, including the Abstacts (summaries) of EJGE papers. Browsers, such as Netscape and Internet-Explorer, understand files encoded by html and display the file for you very quickly. PDF FormatThe file format created by the font and graphics software company Adobe is named Portable Document Format. It is a binary format, which can only be understood by programs developed by Adobe, since the format is a company secret. To push this format, Adobe makes their Reader program freely available. The readers of EJGE do not need to pay anything. In order to create (or edit) PDF files, however, you need one of Adobe's programs such as Acrobat. Which Format to Use? (for submitting your manuscript)Authors can submit their paper in any format. The DOC (or DOCX) format is preferred since it is the easiest one to edit and, everything being in one file, easiest to send as an e-mail attachment. The fact that the DOC format is controlled by one company, Microsoft, is undesirable, but tolerable, since other word-processing programs can also write (export, convert to) this format. The least desirable format to submit is PDF. This is not only because it is also controlled by one company, Adobe, excessive formatting that this leads the authors to do (such as lots of colors), is simply lost. The file is usually converted back to Word DOC format, edited, and then a pdf file is re-generated by EJGE. Losses (and even mistakes) can happen in all those file format conversions. Spelling and PunctuationSpellingAmerican-English (sometimes called "us-english") spelling is preferred, unless it is the name of a publication in British-English, which we treat as a proper name. We respect the preferences of the authors, but mixing different spelling customs in one paper is considered bad taste. PunctuationSome people believe that engineers do not care about punctuation. That is not true; engineers are keenly aware of the importance of accurate communication. Punctuation is a significant factor because it can cause misunderstanding, or simply irritate people. EJGE, like all serious publications, uses the ISO (International Standards Organization) rules. For example "m" is for meter; never abbreviated as "M"---why is it important? Because "M" is short for "mega" in units (means million). There is no such thing as "KN" or "KPA"; the correct abbreviations are "kN" and "kPa"----why? Because the "k" is for "kilo" (meaning: thousand), "N" and "Pa", on the other hand, are always capitalized, out of respect, because they come from the names of the great men who defined the concepts of force and pressure, Newton and Pascal. Common MistakestheOne of the common mistakes is the usage of the word the, because there is no equivalent word in many other languages. It means "you know what I am talking about" it is something defined at this point in my speech. As in "have you seen the book I was reading?" The word in this example signifies that you are talking about that specific book, not just any book. The opposite of this meaning is "any" (not defined which one). This is expressed with the word "a/an" (if plural, without an article). et al.et al. simply means and others made up from Latin language. "al." is an abbreviation, not because it is a very long word, but it is the same for all genders (alla, allo, alli), -a indicates female, as in Maria, -o indicates male, as in Romeo, and -i as in... etc.etc. (et cetera) means "and other things" (not people).
|
