Author Guidelines

Journal of Forensic, Toxicology and Medicolegal Analysis (JFTM)

 

Scope of the Journal of Forensic, Toxicology and Medicolegal Analysis

Journal of Forensic, Toxicology and Medicolegal Analysis (JFTM) publishes original and interesting case reports that contribute significantly to Toxicology, Medicolegal and Forensic Literature.

The subjects that the Journal intends to cover is forensic or toxicology cases from across a variety of spectrum including Forensic Medicine, Toxicology, Forensic Explosives, Forensic Medicocriminal Etymology, Forensic Anthropology, Forensic Archaeology, Forensic Biology, Forensic Botany and Geology, Crime Scenes, Forensic Firearms, Forensics in Court, Forensic Pathology, Laboratory techniques, Forensic Odontology, Forensic Psychology, Forensic science history, Forensic engineering, Computer forensics, Crime Scene & Accident Scene Reconstruction, Forensic art, Crime scene photography and Forensic document analysis. Although these specialities and subspecialties are mentioned in individual at times a single case study may involve a components of many of these. The final document should be a based on corroborating existing scientific literature and findings that stress upon the uniqueness of the case.

 

Manuscripts must meet one of the following criteria in any of the specialities listed above:

• • Unexpected or unusual presentations of a case
  • Case Series, Prospective analysis, randomised trials
  • New associations or variations in forensic or toxicology processes
  • Presentations, diagnoses and/or outcome of a unique case
  • An unexpected association established based on single case
  • An unexpected event in the course of observing or investigating a forensic, medicolegal or toxicology case
  • New technique or modification of original technique related to forensic or medicolegal, or toxicology science
  • Findings that shed new light on the possible pathogenesis of a disease or an adverse effect
  • A small series of cases with unusual outcome.
  • A technical note demonstrated on a single case that has relevance to forensic, medicolegal or toxicology literature

If the Authors feel the readers of the Journal can learn something new and unique from their case, they are welcome to submit the case for editorial review

Authors should submit their manuscripts online using the online electronic submission system ‘Scripture’ developed for this journal by IARG.

 

SUBMISSION FORMATS

JFTM will accept following formats of articles

• Case Reports
• Case Series
• Prospective trials
• randomised drug trials
• Technical Notes
• Case Image
• Innovative Techniques
• Forensic Court Cases
• Criminal Forensic Investigation
• Crime Scene Investigation
•  Short Communication
• Case Insight
• Case Approach
• Clinical Perspective
• Letter to Editor
• Expert Correspondence

 

Authors should submit their manuscripts online using the online electronic submission system ‘Scripture’ developed for this journal by IARG.

Article Charges: Since the Journal is Open access, the cost of publication is shared by the author and the Journal equally. For every submission that is accepted for publication, the article processing charges will be 3000 INR (for papers from India) and 150 USD (for foreign articles). Open access will allow us to make your article free to access and download by everyone and will invite better citation and wide outreach. The article processing charges are lowest in the world as here both author and journal share the charges for each article. There are no charges for submitting the manuscript or for peer review and decision on the manuscript. Authors will usually receive a decision on their manuscript within 8-12 weeks.

 

All manuscripts are to be submitted via the Journal submission software on the website. Any other query regarding article formatting for submission process can also be mailed to editor.ftmjournal@gmail.com

SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT

Copyright Agreement and Submission letter

A copyright agreement signed by all authors and containing the following paragraph must accompany each manuscript: “The undersigned author(s) transfer(s) all copyright ownership of the article entitled to the Journal of Toxicology and Forensic Cases in the event the work is published. The undersigned author(s) warrant(s) that the article is original, is not under consideration by another journal, and has not been published previously. We sign for and accept responsibility for releasing this material.”

In case a paper has previously been presented or published as a poster in a national or international conference, the author(s) must make a full disclosure to the editor about it. Such papers are still eligible for publication in the journal provided the author(s) disclose this during their submission.

Download Copyright form here

 

Conflict-of-interest Statement

All authors are expected to disclose any commercial affiliations as well as consultancies, stock ownership, or patent-licensing arrangements that could be considered to pose a conflict of interest regarding the submitted article. A conflict-of-interest statement will be forwarded to the corresponding author for signature upon acceptance of the manuscript. The signature of all authors is required. No article will be published until return of the completed form to the journal office.

Download Conflict of Interest form:

[Please don’t open the COI form in browser. Download the from and open in the folder using adobe reader.]

Conflict of Interest forms are according to Guidelines by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and Each Authors details have to filled separately and submitted with the manuscript. Plagiarism is not permitted and Journal will check every article for plagiarism using ‘Plagtracker’ and google search.

Article submission Charges: None

Article Publishing charges: 3500INR or 150$ (for international article). The publishing charges has to paid only on acceptance of the article]

 

Instructions for Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts should be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English should seek the assistance of a colleague who is a native English speaker and familiar with the field of the work. Authors are advised to follow the recommendations in the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication” proposed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org). Manuscripts must be typed double-spaced with wide margins on A4 paper. The manuscript parts should be in the following order, with each section beginning on a new page: title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, references, tables, figure legends, and figures. Number all lines in a continuous manner and number all pages in the bottom right corner beginning with the title page. For reports on randomized control studies, authors should refer to the CONSORT statement (www.consort-statement.org). Standard abbreviations and SI units should be used. Define abbreviations at first appearance in the text, figure legends, and tables, and avoid their use in the title and abstract. Use generic names of drugs and chemicals.

SUBMISSION FORMATS

 

JFTM will accept following formats of articles

Case Reports

Case Series

Technical Notes

Case Image

Innovative Techniques

Forensic Court Cases

Criminal Forensic Investigation

Crime Scene Investigation

Short Communication

Case Insight

Case Approach

Clinical Perspective

Letter to Editor

Expert Correspondence

 

Authors should submit their manuscripts online using the online electronic submission system ‘Scripture’ developed for this journal by IARG.

 

Case Reports: Scope of Case Report has been detailed above. The formatting is detailed below and all the remaining formats follow similar guidelines as case reports

Case Series: A case series of similar cases will also be acceptable in JFTM for publication

Case Image: is description of a single Image which has a unique learning point

Technical Note: detailed description of a new technique or improvisation of an old technique

Case Study: This new format combines the level V evidence with Clinical Decision Making (CDM). It focuses on getting the thought process of the Forensic Investigation when dealing with a complex/complicated case

Adverse Drug Reaction: A very important aspect of clinical Toxicology and a special format is dedicated to this. Mention the adverse drug reaction in detail and is this a new ADR. Provide a brief literature review and probable cause of ADR

Case Approach: This is a new but invited only section. We will invite an expert to describe to his approach to a particular case scenario with literature and rationale behind the approach

Clinical Perspective: this special section will publish specific learning points or experiences which the authors can share with the readers. The only essential point is that this perspective should be relevant and rationally acceptable. This need not be with details of management or follow up of the case. The idea is to provide a platform for publication of these important and clinically relevant learning points. A single page write up of less than 1000 words will be accepted.

Letter to Editor: on articles in JFTM. Letters should be typed double-spaced and limited to 1000 words. A copy of the letter will be sent to the previous article’s author(s) to invite a response.

Letter to Experts: JFTM will soon be creating an Expert panel of Toxicology and Forensic Experts. Readers of JFTM can ask queries regarding complicated cases to our Experts. These queries will be answered by experts and the Academic Research Group will add literature review to this expert opinion and article will be peer reviewed and published in 15 days.

 

Following files will be essential for submission of an article

 

–      Cover letter

–      Title page

–      Blinded manuscript

–      Tables

–      Figures

–      Copyright form

–       Conflict of Interest form

 

The details of formatting these files are provided below.

 

Accepted format for case report articles

The Journal follows the Uniform requirements for manuscript as laid down by the International committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html)

Manuscripts submitted to JFTM must be submitted in the format described below. Articles that do not meet the journal’s style will not be peer reviewed or considered for publication. All articles should be no more than 2000 words long with a maximum of 15 references and 10 figures. Manuscripts should also contain an abstract of up to 350 words. Case reports will only be accepted for peer review in the following format:

 

• Title page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Case presentation(s)
• Discussion
• Conclusions
• Clinical Message
• References
• Illustrations and figures
• Figure legends (if any)
• Additional data files (if any)
• List of abbreviations used (if any)
• Competing interests
• Authors’ contributions
• Acknowledgements and Funding
• Copyright Form
• Conflict of Interest form

 

 

 

 

Guidelines to Authors

 

Manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word Document format

Cover Letter: This is the official letter written to editors by the author, where they can inform the editorial board about significance of their study. They can also inform regarding special situations like shared data with another study or long term follow up of already published article. This also provides the chance to authors to interact directly with editorial board and put up any specific point for considerations like more number of authors, manuscript exceeding word count or figure count.

Title Page

The title should be concise and informative to make electronic retrieval of the manuscript both effective and specific. Include important information such as the study design, i.e., clinical or basic, and in particular indicate if the study is a randomized control trial. A running title not exceeding 35 letters and spaces should be provided.

Example of Title Page

The first page of the manuscript should be a dedicated title page, including the title of the article. The title should include the study design, i.e. Case report. For example

Authors Names should appear in sequence that will be final, with superscript numbers mentioning author’s affiliations

Author Name A1, Author Name B2, Author Name C3*

Address: 1 Full designation, degree and postal address of author A; 2 Full designation, degree and postal address of author B; 3 Full designation, degree and postal address of author C

* Corresponding author should be indicated with an asterisk.

 

The full names, institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors must be included on the title page. No other information should be included on this page.

The page should contain the article title, the full names of the authors including only major qualification such as M.D. or Ph.D., and the complete postal address of the department and institution where the work was done. Designate one author as a correspondent and supply his or her complete postal address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address. If the name or address for offprint requests is different, this should be stated. Every person listed as an author should have materially participated in the design, execution, and analysis of the study and should verify the accuracy of the entire manuscript before its submission. No more than 6 authors can be included in the title page. Lesser contributors may be noted in an acknowledgment section at the end of the manuscript.

Authorship criteria are as per the ICMJE Guidelines and include Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions:

• To conception and design or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data
• Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content
• Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship
• General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship
• Order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors

For an original article the number of contributors should not exceed six; for case reports, letter to the Editor and review articles, the number of contributors should not exceed four. A justification should be included, if the number of contributors exceeds these limits.

Only those who have done substantial work in a particular field can write a review article. A short summary of the work done in the field of review should accompany the manuscript.

Example to state Author’s Contributions

We suggest the following kind of format (please use initials to refer to each author’s contribution):

“FC analyzed and interpreted the patient data regarding the fracture disease and the stiffness.  RH performed the histological examination of the callus, and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance or a department chair who provided only general support.

 

Blinded Submission

Author information should not be included in the main document. Authors should submit the title page, the main document, and the Pictures separately. To ensure blinding, authors should not include in the abstract or text the name or initials of the authors or the institution at which the study was performed. Refer to your own published work in the third person. Use “In the previous work of Author name et al.”, not “In our previous work.” The blinded manuscript should contain title, abstract, keywords, main article with references, tables and figure legends

 

 

Abstract

This should start on page 2 of the manuscript. The abstract must not exceed 350 words. Do  not use abbreviations or references in the abstract.  The abstract should be structured into three sections and should make clear how the case report adds to the Toxicology and Forensic literature:

• Introduction: An introduction about why this case is important and needs to be reported. Please include information on whether this is the first report of this kind in the literature.
• Case presentation: Brief details of what the patient presented with, including the patient’s age, sex and ethnic background.
• Conclusion: A brief conclusion of what the reader should learn from the case report and what the clinical impact will be. Is it an original case report of interest to a particular clinical speciality of medicine or will it have a broader clinical impact across medicine? Please include information on how it will significantly advance our knowledge of a particular disease etiology or drug mechanism.

Keywords: Add 3 to 5 keywords at the end of abstract. MESH terms will be preferable

 

Blinded Manuscript: The length of the text and references should not exceed 8 pages of double-spaced type. The number of figures and tables together should not exceed 10. Do not repeat in the text all data that appear in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. A conclusion should be included in the summary paragraph of the Discussion. The blinded manuscript should not contain names of author or their institute. References should be numbered in order of appearance and should be placed in square brackets [1]. Manuscript is usually, but not necessarily, divided into sections with the headings Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, Conclusion and Clinical Relevance. Case Series may need section subheadings like Material and Methods and Results to clarify their content.

 

Introduction

The introduction section should explain the background of the case, including the disorder, usual presentation and progression and an explanation of the presentation if it is a new disease. If it is a case discussing an adverse drug interaction the introduction should give details of the drug’s common use and any previously reported side effects. It should also include a brief literature review.

 

Case presentation

This should present all relevant details concerning the case. The case presentation should contain a description of the patient’s relevant demographic information (without adding any details that could lead to the identification of the patient); any relevant medical history of the patient; the patient’s symptoms and signs; any tests that were carried out and a description of any treatment or intervention. This section may be broken into subsections with appropriate subheadings. If it is a case series, then details must be included for all patients in form of separate material and methods and Result sections.

[For Case Series Only: Material & Methods should be sufficiently detailed to allow easy understanding and reproduction of the study. Details of study design, outcome measures, outcome assessors and statistical methods have to be provided here. Appropriate Clinical course and treatment should be described in details with photographs and videos [videos can be uploaded on you tube and link to be submitted to us]

Results: Keep results very succinct and to the point. Write all data in mean ± SD [Range] with appropriate standard units. Mention p values till third decimal points. Use tables to display the numerical data. Do not interpret the results in this section. Provide details of complication events and their individual follow ups]

 

Discussion:

This section should discuss the peculiarities of the case in detail with reference to literature. A detailed literature review at least of the Medline using Pubmed should be given here along with keywords. A literature review table of most recent 10 similar cases reported in literature should be included [if available] with details of their demography, symptomatology, clinical course, management and results. The discussion should then logically concluded into the conclusion from the case report

 

Conclusion

This should state clearly what can be concluded from the case report, and give a clear explanation of the importance and relevance of the case. Is it an original case report of interest to a particular clinical speciality of medicine or will it have a broader clinical impact across medicine? Please include information on how it will significantly advance our knowledge of a particular disease aetiology or clinical decision making or pathology.

Clinical relevance: of the study should be mentioned in three or four sentences

 

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

Abbreviations (if any)

If abbreviations are used in the text they should either be defined in the text where first used, or a list of abbreviations can be provided.

 

Consent

This section is compulsory. It should provide a statement to confirm that the patient has given their informed consent for the case report to be published. You do not need to send the form to us on submission, but we may request to see a copy at any stage (including after publication

 

Competing interests

Please declare whether competing interest exists. A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Where an author gives no competing interests, the listing must read: “The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests”. Download Conflict of Interest form [Click Here]

Acknowledgements

Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the study by making substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, but who does not meet the criteria for authorship.

 

References: Authors are responsible for verifying the accuracy and completeness of the references. The number of references should not exceed 50. The style of the references should follow the MEDLINE/ PubMed Journal Article Citation Format found at the National Center for Bibliography Information [NCBI] Website where specific reference citations can be searched for. Abbreviations of journal names must conform to those used in MEDLINE/PubMed. Avoid using abstracts as references. In the references, do not list personal communications and unpublished material (including oral and poster presentations and manuscripts not yet accepted for publication).

All references must be numbered consecutively, in square brackets, in the order in which they are cited in the text, followed by any in tables or legends. The must be no more than 50 references listed, e.g.

For an article within a journal:

Bentolila V, Nizard R, Bizot P, Sedel L. Complete traumatic brachial plexus palsy. Treatment and outcome after repair. J Bone Joint Surg Am 1999;81:20-8.

For a book chapter, or article within a book

Songcharoen P. Neurotization in the treatment of brachial plexus injury. In: Omer G, Spinner M, van Beek A, editors. Management of peripheral nerve problems. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders; 1998. p. 459-64.

If a non-English-language reference is listed, the original language should be indicated, as shown in the following sample:

Journal article not in English

Otani T, Hayashi S, Ueno Y, Hayashi H, Kato T, Tamegai H, Fujii K. Long-term radiographic evaluation of muscle release operation for arthritis of the hip: comparison study between the results of muscle release and the natural history of osteoarthritis. Rinshou Seikeigeka (Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery) 2004;39:921–6 (in Japanese).

 

Tables: to be added to the blinded manuscript after the references. Tables should be given a brief, informative title and numbered consecutively in the order of their citation in the text. Type each table double spaced on a separate page. Use the table function in MICROSOFT WORD, not spreadsheets, to make tables. Tables must be no larger than a single sheet of A4 paper. The table number and title should appear above the table, and the definition of all abbreviations, levels of statistical significance, and additional information should appear below the table.

 

Preparing tables: Each table should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3 etc.). Tables should also have a title that summarizes the whole table, maximum 15 words. Detailed legends may then follow, but should be concise.

Smaller tables considered to be integral to the manuscript can be pasted into the document text file. Such tables should be formatted using the ‘Table object’ in a word processing program to ensure that columns of data are kept aligned when the file is sent electronically for review.

Tabular data provided as additional files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls) or comma separated values (.csv). As with all files, please use the standard file extensions.

 

Figures: Figures should be provided separately and should be uploaded in scripture as additional files. Figure legend has to be included in the blinded manuscript after tables. Please site figures in the text in rounded brackets (Fig 1A). Include an internal scale in any micrographs or provide the magnification in the caption (wherever appropriate). Professionally produced arrows should be used to highlight the photograph’s message and the illustration should be of a professional standard. If photographs of persons are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable or the subject’s or guardian’s written permission to use the photograph must accompany the manuscript.

 

Preparing illustrations and figures:

Please note that JFTM can only publish ten figures in each article. If you have more than ten figures and feel that all are essential to the understanding, please make this clear in your covering letter, explaining why the figures are needed. Figures and tables should be sequentially referenced. Authors should include all relevant supporting data with each article.

Figures should be provided as separate files and should not be included in the main text of the submitted manuscript or include within them the figure legend. Each figure should comprise only a single file. There is no charge for the use of color.  Authors should make every effort to preserve the anonymity of the patient be removing or concealing any identifiable features, including birthmarks and tattoos. Please take extra care with images of the head and face, ensuring that only the relevant features are shown. Publication of facial images will be subject to approval by the Editor-in-Chief.

 

Formats:

The following file formats can be accepted:

EPS (preferred format for diagrams)

PNG (preferred format for photos or images)

TIFF

JPEG

HIGH RESOLUTION PICTURES ARE NECESSARY

Figure legends: No more than 10 figures per article is accepted. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals – i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3 etc); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend, up to 300 words. Figures should be provided as separate files. The legends should be included in the main manuscript text file rather than being a part of the figure file. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals – i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3 etc); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend, up to 300 words. The legend should include a brief description of the exact location of image on the patient, the type of image (e.g. micrograph/x-ray), and time in relation to progression e.g. one week after surgery. There must be no abbreviations unless they are expanded (excluding common abbreviations such as antibodies).

Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.

 

Ethics: It is the responsibility of the authors to assure that all clinical investigations detailed in manuscripts submitted to the journal are conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html). All case reports must include a statement indicating that informed consent has been obtained from the patient or appropriate persons for publication, including any necessary photographs. An example of such a statement would be “The patients and/or their families were informed that data from the case would be submitted for publication, and gave their consent.” Do not use patients’ names, initials, institutional ID numbers, or other identifying information. Articles, including their study design, originating from a particular institution are assumed to be submitted with the approval of the requisite authority on ethical issues. Articles describing research involving human subjects must include a statement in the Materials and methods section indicating that approval was given by the institutional review board (IRB) or Ethics committee of the institution and that informed consent was obtained from each patient or candidate. Manuscripts reporting animal experiments must include a statement in the Materials and methods section indicating that approval was obtained from the institutional review board and that animal care complied with the guidelines of the authors’ institution or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals.

 

After Acceptance

Upon acceptance of your article, your article will be processed and you will receive the proofs. You will also receive a separate e-mail for ordering off prints and printing of figures in colour.

Offprints

Offprints can be ordered by the corresponding author.

Colour Illustrations

Online publication of colour illustrations is free of charge. Please note that, in such cases, it is the authors’ responsibility to prepare figures to be illustrative enough to convey the necessary information even after they are converted into black and white.

Proofreading

The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables, and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title, and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor. After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.

Online First

The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and page numbers.

 

Style and language

General: Currently, JFTM can only accept manuscripts written in English. Spelling should be US English or British English, but not a mixture.

 

It is essential that submitted manuscripts have a high standard of written English. Manuscripts that are poorly written will be returned to authors for revision prior to peer review. Authors are advised to write clearly and simply, and to have their article checked by colleagues before submission. Non-native speakers of English may choose to make use of a copyediting service before submission.

JFTM will copy edit accepted manuscripts before they are published. The editing is designed only to correct such things as misused words, spelling errors, missing references or incomplete citation information.

 

Typography

-Please use double line spacing.

-Type the text justified, without hyphenating words at line breaks.

-Abbreviations spelt out in full for the first time

-Numerals from 1 to 10 spelt out

-Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelt out

– Use hard returns only to end headings and paragraphs, not to rearrange lines.

-Capitalize only the first word, and proper nouns, in the title.

-All pages should be numbered.

-Use the JFTM reference format.

-Footnotes to text should not be used.

-Greek and other special characters may be included. If you are unable to reproduce a particular special character, please type out the name of the symbol in full.

-Gene names should be in italic, but protein products should be in plain type.

-Please ensure that all special characters used are embedded in the text, otherwise they will be lost during manuscript processing.

-Genes, mutations, genotypes, and alleles should be indicated in italics, and authors are required to use approved gene symbols, names, and formatting. Protein products should be in plain type.

 

Units

SI Units should be used throughout (liter and molar are permitted, however).

 

 

Artwork Guidelines

Electronic figure submission

• Supply all figures electronically.
• Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.
• For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format. MS Office files are also acceptable.
• Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
• Name your figure files with “Fig” and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.

Line art

• Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.
• Do not use faint lines and/or lettering, and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.
• All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
• Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.
• Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.

Halftone art

• Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.
• If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves.
• Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Combination art

• Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line drawing, extensive lettering, colour diagrams, etc.
• Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.

Colour art

• Colour art is free of charge for online publication.
• If black and white will be shown in the print version, make sure that the main information will still be visible. Many colours are not distinguishable from one another when converted to black and white. A simple way to check this is to make a xerographic copy to see if the necessary distinctions between the different colours are still apparent.
• If the figures will be printed in black and white, do not refer to colour in the captions.
• Colour illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per channel).

Figure lettering

• To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans-serif fonts).
• Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 2–3 mm (8–12 pt).
• Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.
• Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.
• Do not include titles or captions in your illustrations.

Figure numbering

• All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
• Figures should always be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order.
• Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).
• If an appendix appears in your article/chapter and it contains one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures, “A1, A2, A3, etc.” Figures in online appendices (Electronic supplementary material) should, however, be numbered separately.

Figure captions

• Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.
• Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
• No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.
• Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
• Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

Figure placement and size

• When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.
• For most journals the figures should be 39 mm, 84 mm, 129 mm, or 174 mm wide and not higher than 234 mm.

The publisher reserves the right to reduce or enlarge figures.

 

Permissions

If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format. Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that Springer will not be able to refund any costs that may have occurred to receive these permissions.

In such cases, material from other sources should be used.

 

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission’s compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

 

• The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
• The submission file is in Microsoft Word document file format.
• Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
• The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed at the end of the text
• The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
• If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.