An International Journal for Rapid Communication

Journal: SpectroscopyLetters

An International Journal for Rapid Communication

ISSN 0038-7010

2016 Impact Factor: 0.794

Ranking: 32/41 (Spectroscopy)
2016 5-Year Impact Factor: 0.763
Ranking: 32/41 (Spectroscopy)
©2017 Clarivate Analytics,2017

release of the Journal Citation Reports®

Instructions for authors

Thank you for choosing to submit your paper to us. These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly. Please take the time to read and follow them as closely as possible, as doing so will ensure your paper matches the journal's requirements. For general guidance on the publication process at Taylor & Francis please visit ourAuthor Services website.

This journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts (previously Manuscript Central) to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read theguide for ScholarOne authorsbefore making a submission. Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.

Aims and Scope:This international journal provides vital coverage of fundamental developments, new or improved instrumentation, spectroscopic diagnostics, and applications of spectroscopy across all disciplines where spectroscopy is used. The journal offers communications about original experimental and theoretical work on such methods as NMR, ESR, microwave, NIR, Raman and UV spectroscopy, together with atomic emission, absorption, and fluorescence, X-ray spectroscopy, all forms of organic and inorganic mass spectrometry, laser spectroscopy, electron microscopy, molecular fluorescence and molecular phosphorescence. Manuscripts are welcome from all disciplines of biology, chemistry, physics and instrumentation science. Articles can be submitted as full papers, or as short papers of a preliminary nature (letters). Letters may include instrumental developments that may be useful for other spectroscopists. Also, one special sub-category of papers may be submitted: Spectroscopy Education Letters, which covers accounts of research done by undergraduates, new experiments for teaching, and other new pedagogical materials or approaches to the teaching of spectroscopy at any level. However, Spectroscopy Letters does not publish reviews, so reviews of topics in spectroscopy will be referred to our sister journal,Applied Spectroscopy Reviews.

Please note thatSpectroscopy LettersusesCrossCheck™software to screen papers for unoriginal material. By submitting your paper toSpectroscopy Lettersyou are agreeing to any necessary originality checks your paper may have to undergo during the peer review and production processes.

Submission of manuscripts:Spectroscopy Lettersreceives all manuscript submissions electronically via their ScholarOne Manuscripts website located at: ScholarOne Manuscripts allows for rapid submission of original and revised manuscripts, as well as facilitating the review process and internal communication between authors, editors and reviewers via a web-based platform. For ScholarOne Manuscripts technical support, you may contact them by e-mail or phone support via Questions for the Editor-in-Chief may be sent to:.

Electronic document page setup:All parts of the manuscript should be double-spaced, with margins of at least one inch on all sides. Number manuscript pages consecutively throughout the paper. Also authors should supply a shortened version of the title suitable for the running head, not exceeding 50 characters and spaces.

Abstract:Each article should be summarized in an abstract of not more than 300 words. In the abstract, avoid acronyms, abbreviations, diagrams, and reference to the text.

Acronyms:Please remove all acronyms from the title, abstract, headings, and figure/table titles and captions. If you must use acronyms in the body of the manuscript, please define them there at first use. If you must use acronyms in the captions please define them again there. The definition of an acronyms includes chemical symbols used as acronyms, mathematical symbols used as acronyms, instrumental techniques identified with acronyms, and compounds identified with acronyms instead of their IUPAC English names. If mathematical terms must be used in axes of graphs, the terms must be defined in caption for every figure in which they are used. In the text, acronyms should not be used gratuitously, for example to replace one word as a form of shorthand. Acronyms are usually used to replace multiple words that are repeated often in the body of the manuscript, and are usually accepted “state-of-the-art” terms commonly used in the literature. The international union of pure and applied chemistry (IUPAC) defines some acceptable acronyms in its references materials, as do other scientific bodies.

File Names:Each file should be assigned a descriptive name, for example, text.doc, figure1.tif, scheme1.tif, text.pdf, copyright.pdf. etc., although the title of the manuscript does not need to be built into the file name. Please use separate files for each of the body of the article, tables, and figures. Please ensure that the extension ‘‘.doc’’ is appended to the end of Word filenames, .pdf for Acrobat documents, etc.

Mathematical equations:Math equations may be done in a recent version of MathType, version 4 or higher, if there are no suitable keyboard characters. Mathematical equations, should not be embedded in the middle of a paragraph; they should be keyed between paragraphs.

Chemical Structures:Structures should be produced with a chemical drawing program, preferably ChemDraw 4.5 or higher, and submitted in .tif, .eps, or .psd format.

References:References to cited literature should be identified by numbered list at the end of the paper in order of appearance. Please cite references in the text by a superscripted number enclosed in parentheses. Double-spaced typing must be used throughout. References should be styled and punctuated according to the following examples:

Journal Article:Pimentel, D. Insect population responses to environmental stress and pollutants. Environmental Reviews 1994, 2(1), 1–15.

Book:New, T.R. Insects as Predators; New South Wales Univ. Press: Kensington, Australia, 1991; 178 pp.

Chapter within Book:Pimentel, D.; Kirby, C; Schroff, A. The Relationship Between ‘‘Cosmetic’’ Standards for Foods and Pesticide Use. In The Pesticide Question: Environment, Economics, and Ethics; Pimentel, D., Ed.; Chapman and Hall: New York, 1993, 85–105.

Proceedings:Garrone, E.; Ugliengo, O. In Structure and Reactivity of Surfaces, Proceedings of the European Conference, Trieste, Italy, Sept. 13–20, 1988; Zecchina, A., Costa, G., Mortem, C., Eds.; Elsevier: Amsterdam, 1988, 126–128.

Software packages should not be referenced in the citations list, but should be treated like equipment and materials, which are usually referenced in the text of the experimental section of the manuscript. This means that the name and city of the manufacturer should be placed in parenthesis after the name and version of the software.

Tables and Figures:Tables should be numbered with Arabic numbers in order of their mention in the text, and should appear after the references in the .doc file at the end of the manuscript. A short descriptive title should appear above each table with a clear legend and any footnotes should be suitably identified below. All units must be included. Abbreviations should be defined in a footnote at the end of the table or as part of the table’s caption.

Both figures and tables should have a title and a caption. A title on its own is not acceptable. Captions should be detailed enough that the significance of the figure/table can be understood largely without reference to the text. A general title, without a caption, that could apply to almost any figure or table is not acceptable. Captions should contain experimental conditions, as well as definitions of any acronyms, and chemical, mathematical or physical symbols used in each table, figure or its axes, and other details necessary to an understanding of the figure or table without substantial reference to the text. Captions should not be extensively or extemporaneously written, but should be abbreviated, nevertheless containing the details necessary for an understanding of the figure or table.

Figures (illustrations) should not be embedded in the text, but should be included as separate files. Please provide all figures in a graphics format, not a .doc file. Figures should fill the page, and be of 300 dots per inch (dpi) resolution. The font sizes throughout the figure should be the same, and large enough to allow proper scaling of the figure in the final version of the document. In other words, to provide a high quality figure, it is usually optimal to fill the page with the figure, but ensure that, when it is reduced to the width of a column, the font size is about the same as the text in the journal. Hence, a portrait format figure would fit a 8.5” x 10” or similar page size, with margins of an inch or so, 300 dpi, and have fonts such that when the figure is reduced to fit in a column of about half that width the final font size would in the 10-14 point range. A landscape format figure might cover either one or two columns and the font size should be appropriate for its likely reduction to fit the journal. It is not possible to improve the resolution of a figure or other artwork by interpolation in a graphics program. Such an approach merely adds duplicative pixels or reduces the size of a figure. The original low-resolution information will still be obvious in the figure and will not be of acceptable quality. This will be immediately obvious be inspection of fonts and line widths. The fonts will still be pixelated, and lines will be too thin. Figures should be drawn at page size with 300 dpi from the very start.

Artwork may be created in various applications but must be submitted to conform to the standards and file formats outlined below in order to ensure that art can be promptly processed and published at quality levels suitable for publication both on the web and in print. A list of captions should be provided, double-spaced, and should be included at the end of the text.doc, after the references and any tables. Illustrations submitted (line drawings, halftones, photos, photomicrographs, etc.) should be digital files. For highestquality reproduction, files shouldfollowthese guidelines:

EPS, TIFF, or PSD format only
300 dpi or higher
Sized to fit on the journal page

Images embedded in Microsoft Word .doc format are not acceptable as a substitute for the provision of separate image files in the correct format, although, if the author insists, embedded images may be provided in addition to the separate files.

Business graphics, such as histograms, can usually be summarized in a table or in the text, and should not be used, unless a very specific case can be made for such graphics.

Axes of graphs should be labeled with English words, not with symbols or acronyms, and should have units included. Units should be indicated in parentheses, not after a “divide by” sign (/). Note that the measurement of “Absorbance” has no units, as it is a ratio, and the acronym “a.u.” has no meaning. If you mean “a.u.” to indicate arbitrary units, then please write “arbitrary units” in parentheses in English and do not use the acronym in the figure. The word “intensity” is not an acceptable IUPAC label for an axis. Use the word “signal” instead, and modify it with the appropriate description, such as “fluorescence signal, or Raman signal, or emission signal, mass spectrometric signal” etc., etc., etc. If several graphs are indicated on an axis, state the offset in the caption. Mathematical symbols used in graphical axes should be given a name, or carefully defined in the caption. For example, if a plot of the Stern-Volmer relationship is given, then the parameters should be defined in the caption.

Colors should not be used as the sole means of distinguishing between graphs or other features in figures. If there is a way to label graphs, etc., without relying on color, using symbols or other labeling, then this should be used in preference or in addition. In other words, colors can be used, but not as the sole means of labeling. A good test is to print the figure in black and white, and inspect it to ensure it can be understood without the colors. Do not use solid colors, or solid black, or shaded blocks in schematic figures, as they do not print well in black and white. Use suitably labeled open rectangles, circles and other shapes instead. Use traditional dotted and dashed lines with arrows for ray diagrams.

It is not acceptable to provide the direct printout from commercial instrumentation as a figure for the journal. It is often the case that the font sizes, and line widths of such printouts are too small. Also, they often have improperly labeled axes, with experimental conditions in tabular forms that are inconsistent with other figures, while logos of instrument manufacturers may well be inappropriately included in the figure. The material in such printouts can be edited in a variety of software to remove unwanted components and to re-label axes. The title can then be tailored for the manuscript, and the caption used to indicate experimental conditions and other details essential to the understanding of the figure.

Significance of the Research:Please write the significance of the results of your work into the conclusion section, being careful to ensure that the significance is discussed in the context of the existing literature of your topic. An important criterion for publication of a manuscript is the novelty of the work. Such can only be shown by a cogent discussion of the results and conclusions in the context of the literature already published in the scientific area of the manuscript. Such discussion should clearly point out the novel part of the work done by the authors, and its relationship with work done before by the authors and by others. Without this information the reader is unlikely to understand the significance of the research. It is the authors’ responsibility to ensure this understanding.

Color Reproduction: Color art will be reproduced in color in the online publication at no additional cost to the author. Color illustrations will also be considered for print publication; however, the author will be required to bear the full cost involved in color art reproduction. Please note that color reprints can only be ordered if print reproduction costs are paid. Print Rates: $400 per figure for the first four figures; $75 per figure for five or more figures. Art not supplied at a minimum of 300 dpi will not be considered for print.

Copyright:Each manuscript must be accompanied by a statement that it has not been published elsewhere and that it has not been submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material from other sources and are required to sign an agreement for the transfer of copyright to the publisher. The copyright release form, available on the Taylor & Francis web site, must be signed, scanned, in .pdf format, and on file with the editorial office of Spectroscopy Letters before a manuscript can be considered for review. It is recognized that government employees may not be authorized to release the copyright of their article.

Review process:All manuscripts published in Spectroscopy Letters are peer-reviewed and copyedited. As a result of the technical review process, a manuscript may be accepted without change, recommended for modification and further review, or rejected. Publication is contingent upon response by the author to reviewer comments and copyeditor queries. Please proofread content for accuracy. Revised manuscripts must be resubmitted within six months of the date of receiving the Editor’s report. Please direct questions about the technical review process to the Editor of Spectroscopy Letters, Robert G. Michel,.

If you wish to act as a reviewer for the journal, please create an account at the URL quoted at the beginning of these instructions. It is most important to enter keywords into your account that accurately describe the scientific topics you feel qualified to review. In the first instance, it is these keywords that are used to select reviewers of a manuscript.

Coauthors’ information:The names, email addresses, and affiliations of all co-authors are required for validation of their willingness to publish their contribution to the manuscript. It is not sufficient to enter only the name of the corresponding author into the ScholarOne web site.