Guide for Reformat Authors
Welcome to World Scientific. This guide takes you through the basics of how to prepare your manuscript, what to submit and finally how to submit.
Contents
Overview
Your Editorial Contact
Submission
Copyediting
Permissions
Style Guide
Book Layout
Figures and Tables
References
Numbering
Language
Italics
Abbreviations and acronyms
Punctuation
Dates
Hyphens, en-dashes and em-dashes
Quotations
Permissions Request Form
Manuscript Checklist...... 8
Overview
Your Editorial Contact
Your main point of contact up until submission should be with your London-based editor, who will be introduced to you by your commissioning editor. Throughout the writing process please keep in touch with them. And similarly, they will be in touch with you at regular intervals.
Submission
When your book is ready for submission, please submit it to your World Scientific contact along with the manuscript checklist. A copy of the checklist is shown at the end of this document, however, your World Scientific contact will provide you with a stand-alone version when you’re close to submitting the manuscript to make it easier to complete.
If your chapter has been prepared in LaTeX, please send all the source files as well as a PDF of the chapter.
Submissions in Word should also include a PDF of each chapter.
Copyediting
After submission to World Scientific, the whole manuscript will be checked and copyedited.
Please note that the text is copyedited only for grammar, language and consistency as well as conformity to house style. The sense of the writing and any equations will remain unchanged.
The scientific and factual integrity of the content is your responsibility.
After copyediting, any resulting author queries (AQs) will be sent to you to be answered.
Permissions
You are obliged to seek permission from the copyright owner and/or the original author for any figures and tables used in the text. To this end, a blank Permissions Request Form has been included in this guide on page 6 and 7. Please contact your World Scientific contact for a separate copy of this form.
- If a figure/table or any other artefact you wish to reproduce has been published previously (either by World Scientific or another house), please acknowledge its source.
- If there are any associated permission fees these must be paid for in full by the author.
- Permissions can be requested through the Copyright Clearance Center, which many (but not all) publishers use to streamline the process. Sometimes you can minimise costs by approaching publishers directly. A permissions request form template that can be used for this purpose is provided at the end of this document. Please feel free to adapt it.
- Please note that permissions must be obtained for the item to be reproduced commercially in electronic and print format, with global distribution.
- Please note that any images, figures and text acquired ‘from the internet’ is still covered by copyright laws (including Google images / any other search engines). You will need to get permission to use these, unless they are specifically released under a creative commons license.
- As it can sometimes take quite a while to get permission for everything, we advise you to start the process as early as possible.
Style Guide
Book Layout
- Please number your chapters clearly.
- Sections generally should follow the style “chapter number.section number” e.g 1.1., 1.1.1., 1.1.1.1. for all headings and subheadings. The exception is if the intended audience of the book is a very broad, public audience and you feel this system is too formal.
- A consistent style of numbering must also be used for numbering figures, tables, equations, prepositions, and anything else you think it is of benefit to number in case you wish to refer to it later on e.g., Fig. 1.1., Table 1.1, Eq. 1.1.
Figures and Tables
All figures and tables must be cited in the main text and must carry captions to explain clearly what they are.
Figures and tables may be embedded in the chapter or you may submit them separately. If you submit separately, please make it clear in the text where the figures should be positioned.
Recommended resolution for images:
- 300 dpi for colour images (CMYK format) and grey-scale images
- 600 dpi for line drawings
We understand that in certain circumstances high resolution images will not be available. If this applies in any way to your manuscript, please inform your editor.
Our recommended file type for images is either (1) .pdf, (2) .eps or (3) .tif.
Please note:
- You must ensure all labels/annotations are sharp and clear for reproduction.
- If you are creating your own figures, please use Times New Roman as your font for any labels in the text.
- All figures must be consecutively numbered if they are being numbered.
- For medical books: in any photograph with the eyes of a patient visible the eyes must be covered with a rectangular black bar to obscure identity. Otherwise, the permission of the patient must be obtained.
Captions for figures should be set below the image. For tables, captions should be set above the table. Tables and figures should be numbered separately from each other.
References
We will accept any academically recognised style of referencing as long as it has been used consistently in your book.
- All references cited in text must have a bibliographic entry in the text. If a reference is given in the bibliography but not in the text, please include this in a recommended/further reading etc. type section instead of a reference list or bibliography.
- All web references must include the date the website was accessed as well as the URL.
- References for edited volumes should include the book editor’s name as well as the chapter author names.
- With any numbered style, where three or more sequential superscript references are used these should be elided with an en-dash.
- In the reference list or bibliography, page numbers should be separated with an en-dash (advice on hyphens and en-dashes is given below).
Numbering
In prose please spell out numbers one to ten and thereafter use figures. This is not applicable in MathType.
Use numerals with per cent (%), with units (cm, m, km), in statistical passages, in tables, etc. There should always be a space between a numeral and cm, m, km etc.
Numbers should be spelt out at the beginning of a sentence.
Use commas in thousands and above, e.g. 1,000 in prose only. Where figures are being used in a mathematical context, do not use commas.
If using imperial measurements, please provide metric equivalents in brackets: imperial (metric), 6’ (1.83m).
22 °C (Celsius) or 72 °F (Fahrenheit). Please note the capitalisation.
Please make use of the degree sign in angles and temperatures, using the ° from the symbols section and not a superscript zero.
Language
- We will accept either British, Oxford or US English but the language must be consistent throughout the book.
- Please keep capitalisation to a minimum. Use capital letters for proper nouns.
- Keep an eye out for vague phrases that may date the book, for example, ‘over the last few decades’, ‘in recent years’ etc.
- If providing quotes for prices of goods or services, please provide the year that this price was given.
Italics
Italicise book titles, names of ships, films, plays, works of art and poems with long titles.
Latin and other foreign words are italicised, for example et al., a priori, in situ, ibid. Please note that the following should not be italicised: e.g., i.e., etc.
Abbreviations and acronyms
- The first use of any term you wish to abbreviate should be spelt out in full with the abbreviated term or acronym given after in brackets. There is sometimes an exception to this rule if the term is better known in its short form and only very rarely ever used in full.
- If you choose to abbreviate “Figure” to “Fig.” please note that where the word “Figure” begins a sentence, it should be spelt out in full. “Equation” follows the same rule, i.e. “Eq.” and “Eqs”. “Table” is never abbreviated.
Punctuation
Dates
Please consistently use either the 1960s or the sixties, not 1960's or Sixties or '60s. Also please be consistent when mentioning centuries, e.g. 20th century (superscript th), 20th century (no superscript) or even twentieth century.
Hyphens, en-dashes and em-dashes
Selection of which dash to use to indicate parenthesis will depend on your style of English. Generally the en-dash is used for British and Oxford styles of English, and the em-dash for US English. A hyphen should never be used for this. In either case, the key is to ensure your use of this punctuation is consistent in the text.
Double-barrelled names contain a hyphen: Dr Haynes-Bennett.
However, ‘Stern–Gerlach Theory’ (i.e. two individual academics, Stern and Gerlach) contains a closed en-dash.
Page numbers: p. 00 and pp. 00–00 (elided with en-dash).
Number ranges: please elide with an en-dash.
Quotations
As a general guide any quotation longer than 30 words should be indented as part of the text.
British English: please use single quote marks, with double quote marks within quoted material.
US English: please use double quote marks, with single quote marks within quoted material.
Permissions Request Form
NAME AND ADDRESS OF REQUESTOR
NAME AND ADDRESS OF COPYRIGHT HOLDER
Saturday, 18 May 2019
Dear Sir/Madam,
RE: Request for Permission
I am writing a book entitled ______(TITLE)______
to be published in ______(DATE)______by World Scientific (London, UK).
I would be very grateful if you would kindly allow me to reproduce material in print and electronic form, without charge, which you have published in ______(TITLE)______.
The items in question are:
- ______
- ______
- ______
- ______
- ______
- ______
Please let me know who to contact if you do not hold these rights in their entirety, so that they may be contacted for permission approval.
I will give a full reference to the source in my book by way of acknowledgement. I can confirm that I will not be using the material in any way other than reproduction in the work named above.
I hope you will kindly agree to the use of this material from your title. Please acknowledge your approval by filling in the attached form and returning it to me at the address provided.
Yours faithfully,
Saturday, 18 May 2019
Dear ______,
I/We confirm that we hold the copyright for the material referred to above, and hereby grant permission for its use as requested herewith.
______
NAMEDATE
Address: ______
Tel: ______
Email: ______
Manuscript Checklist
Please complete the following and return it to your editor when you submit your manuscript.
The following gives a brief overview of what needs to be provided to us pre-submission as well as some general guidelines on how and what to submit.
Pre-submission
☐ Has your promotional questionnaire (PQ) been completed and returned to your editor?
☐Have you checked that the manuscript submission extent is within the contracted length?
Before submitting your manuscript, please consider the following:
General
☐Have you included a table of contents?
☐Are all author affiliations up-to-date and consistent across the manuscript?
Figures and Tables
☐Are all figures of printable quality where possible? (Recommended: 300 dpi for colour images (CMYK format) and grey-scale images, 600 dpi for line drawings.) We understand that in certain circumstances high resolution images will not be available. If this applies in any way to your manuscript, inform your editor.
☐Have figure and table captions been included in the text if appropriate?
☐If figures are not embedded in the text, is it clear where they should be positioned?
☐Are all figures and tables cited in the text?
☐The number of pages (if any) due to be printed in colour in your manuscript is included in your contract. Please provide in the table below a list of any figure that needs to be printed in colour. If two figures are due to be on the same page, please let us know.
Permissions
☐Have permissions been sought and obtained in writing where necessary?
☐If the original copyright holder has requested a statement in the text regarding use of their content, has this been included? Please inform your editor if the copyright holder has asked for this, and if so, what the terms of use are.
References
☐Is the referencing system consistent across the manuscript? In-text and in anybibliography?
☐Have all references listed in the bibliography been cited in the text?
☐Have all references cited in text been given an appropriate bibliographic note? Footnotes/endnotes systems are perfectly acceptable. Bibliographies may also be given at the end of the chapter or at the end of the book as appropriate but must be consistent across the manuscript.
What to submit
- You may submit your manuscript in Word or LaTeX. In both instances, please provide a PDF of the final files along with any supporting source files.
How to submit your manuscript
- Electronically: by email, FTP (including Dropbox etc.) or any file sharing site you’re familiar with.
OR
- Send the files by mail if preferred on a CD or USB stick etc.
Please contact your editor if you’re in any way unsure how to submit and they will be happy to discuss what the best option is for you.
We do not require a full printout of your manuscript, the electronic files are all that you need to submit.
Additional information for your editor
If you have notes on any of the above, please provide those in the space below:
Manuscript submitted on:
Click here to enter a date.
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