Journal of The Oughtred Society (JOS)
Guidelines for Authors
January 2011
1. Introduction:
The JOS is a technical journal, with a wide audience of various backgrounds. The JOS is written in English, but read by a large number of people for whom English is a second language. Therefore, for accuracy and clarity a number of formatting and grammatical suggestions are within these guidelines.
2. General Procedure:
a. Review past JOS articles by using the searchable JOS Index on the OS website at http://www.oughtred.org/journal.shtml to learn what has been previously published on your subject. Some of the previous articles may contain applicable references for your article.
b. Submit your article to:
i. If you are in Europe or the United Kingdom, please send your article in Word (*.doc or *.docx) format attached to an e-mail to Otto van Poelje at .
ii. If you are in the USA or other country, please send your article in Word (*.doc or *.docx) format attached to an e-mail to David Sweetman at .
c. Editorial Review: We will review, proof, and edit your article enabling the Word option “Track Changes”.
d. Your approval: We will return the Word version of your article with “Track Changes” enabled for you to see the recommended changes and make any further changes. If there are any questions about the reasoning for the edits, please ask the editor.
e. Corrections: Send us a revised version with “Track Changes” enabled with all your updates.
f. If you request, we will send you a *.pdf file of the typeset version for a final review, prior to printing. Please send a list of any corrections, noting the location of each change.
3. Electronic Format, Text, and Graphics:
a. File Format: Microsoft Word (*.doc) is preferred for your article. Please discuss other formats with us if you have problems.
b. Headings: Place headings in the line above the paragraph, at left margin.
c. Graphics and Tables:
i. Send all graphics (e.g., photos, drawings) as separate *.jpg files. Photos need to be 300 ppi (pixels per inch) in *.jpg format, in full color (RGB), not black white or grayscale. Please make sure that pictures are in focus and clear, otherwise the pictures cannot be used. In many cases, a detailed photo of the area of interest is of more use than a picture of the entire item.
ii. You should insert Tables into your Word document or very large tables may be sent separately.
iii. Include a caption for each graphic and table. (Example: Figure 1. Aristo 0973 Superlog).
iv. If you do not insert your graphics into your article, please identify the preferred location of your graphics in your text by inserting the Figure or Table numbers and captions as markers between paragraphs.
d. Endnotes: Please do not use Word’s automatic endnote or footnote numbering system. Our typesetting program cannot reproduce the numbering. Use a superscript number to identify the endnote or reference in the text, and then list the endnotes and references, by number, at the end of the draft.
4. References, Bibliography, and Endnotes:
a. List your references and endnotes as text at the end of your article. Please do not use Word’s automatic list formatting system.
b. We use the following format for references and bibliographies:
i. Books: Cajori, Florian, A History of the Logarithmic Slide Rule, Astragal Press, New Jersey, 1994.
ii. Articles: Feazel, Bobby, Palmer’s Computing Scale, Journal of the Oughtred Society, 3:1, 1994.
5. Summary:
Please remember that these Guidelines are not fixed rules. There certainly may be exceptions. These Guidelines are to help us to help you prepare an article for the Journal. The intent is for your article to be understandable by a wide audience, with varying degrees of knowledge about your topic, so your writing should follow the grammatical guidelines in the following example. We need your article to be formatted so the article can be typeset and organized into a Journal issue in a timely manner.
The Oughtred Society should be enjoyable for you as a member. If you have a question, or if you have suggestions for improvement or submitting or writing articles, please e-mail David Sweetman at or Otto van Poelje at .
Four of the editors are fellow members of The Oughtred Society, who volunteer our time to publish the Journal. Editing and typesetting is a complex and lengthy process. When you follow these guidelines, our job will be easier, faster, and more accurate; thus, your article will appear more professional in print.
Thank you for your interest in the Journal. We look forward to working with you.
Bob Koppany, Editor
Otto van Poelje, Associate Editor
Ted Hume, Associate Editor
David Sweetman, Associate Editor
Don Black, Associate Editor
The following is an example of article format incorporating the guidelines.
Preparing an Article for the Journal of the Oughtred Society
The Editors
Introduction
Submission of articles is quite easy, when adhering to the following guidelines. Please read the following suggestions before you start writing your article. This will help both you and the editors publish an excellent article.
Subject
You should review a summary of all past articles on the Oughtred Society website. We suggest that your subject relate to slide rules or other calculating instruments, including their use, construction, mathematical basis, or related matters.
Microsoft Word
We prefer your article to be prepared in Microsoft Word (i.e., *.doc or *.docx format). Please us Times New Roman font in 12 point size, with no bold or underlined words. The Journal contains primarily technical articles written for a wide variety of audiences; therefore, clarity and good grammar are encouraged. Some grammatical suggestions include:
- Use only standard abbreviations and symbols. Spell out acronyms at first usage.
- Leave a space between a number and its units.
- Use a single space between sentences. Use two spaces after a colon.
- Lists containing three or more items should be separated by commas, meaning there should be a comma before the conjunction ending the list. A use of a comma to separate two items in a list is permissible if each item is a complete sentence.
- Avoid the use of contractions, idioms, and colloquialisms.
- The indefinite pronoun “it” should only be used when the reference is clear and unambiguous and to avoid redundancy.
Formatting
Formatting details will help us to process your article quickly and accurately:
- Endnotes: Please do not use Word’s automatic endnote or footnote system. Just enter the reference number as a superscript.1
- References: Please do not use Word’s automatic list formatting system.
- Paragraphs: Indicate paragraphs by a single blank line between paragraphs.
- Images: Please send all images as separate (*.jpg) files.
- Image format: *.jpg, 300 dpi, full color (RGB), not black & white or grayscale.
- Long text: Please separate long expanses of text with headings or graphics.
Captions
Please caption all your graphics (images and tables). Please show us in your text where your graphics are located by including between paragraphs the Figure or Table number and captions.
Figure 1.
Slide Rule Display
Table 1.
Slide Rule Prices
1936 / $15.00 / $1.00 / $2.501937
1938 / $18.00 / $1.25 / $3.00
1939 / $18.00 / $1.25 / $3.00
1940
1941 / $21.00
References
Please use bracketed numbers [2] for literature references. See Item 3 above.
Use endnotes1 for other details, personal comments, or non-literature related items.
Endnotes
1. Rechenschieber is the German word for slide rule. The literal translation is “slide”.
References
1. Cajori, Florian, A History of the Logarithmic Slide Rule, Astragal Press, New Jersey, 1994.
2. Feazel, Bobby, Palmer’s Computing Scale, Journal of the Oughtred Society, 3:1,
1994.