Submission of a manuscript

Submission

The manuscript submission supposes that:

  • the work presented has not been published before
  • the work is not being considered for publication elsewhere
  • the work has been approved by all co-authors
  • the work has been accepted and approved (explicitly or implicitly) by the relevant services of the institution where the work has been performed
  • the work has not been rejected by the Journal

    The publisher is not legally liable for any third-party compensation claims related to the manuscript content.

    Access

    Authors who are going to include drawings, tables or fragments of texts that have already been published in other articles must get permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format, as well as guarantee that such permission has been obtained in submitting the manuscript. The material submitted without such a permission or guarantee will be considered as received from the authors.

    In preparing your manuscript, proceed according to the following procedure:

    1. Please read the submission guidelines for the Open Journal System (OJS) and register yourself as an author if you are not already registered there.
    2. Prior to submitting the manuscript, make sure that the manuscript and all the documents to be enclosed meet the recommendations for authors as per Authors instructions below.
    3. Complete and sign the Copyright Transfer Agreement Form. In case the manuscript is not accepted, this agreement will not take effect.
    4. Submit the manuscript and follow its status in OJS.
    5. Upon being accepted for publication, your manuscript will be assigned to one of the Journal issues. The Journal Editor will inform you about the issue number and expected time of publication.
    6. Peer review: This journal adheres to a single-blind peer review procedure.
    7. Prior to publication, the Publisher will send to you proofs as well as the final version of your paper in the PDF format.
  • Authors instructions

    Title page

    Ensure that in the title page the following data is presented:

    Title

    The title should be concise and informative.

    Author information

  • Names of authors.
  • Authors' affiliations: institution, department, city, postal code, country. Footnotes to the list of authors should be made in superscript lower-case italic characters.
  • E-mail addresses of the corresponding author.
  • The 16-digit ORCIDs of all the authors (if available).

    Information on the addresses is not required.

    Abstract

    The Abstract should contain 150 to 250 words. No undefined abbreviations or references should be in the Abstract.

    Keywords

    Please present 4 to 6 keywords suitable for indexing.

    Text formatting

    Only conventional fonts should be used: 12-point Times New Roman for text, Symbol for Greek characters, MathematicalPi2 for handwritten and Gothic characters.

    Make indents by using the tab key rather than the space bar.

    End lines using Enter only in the case of the end of a paragraph.

    Widely use the text editor functions, namely, creating footnotes, enabling and disabling automatic hyphenation, list formatting, indentation, and so on. Never use the field functions.

    To create tables, use the special table functions. Never create tables manually so that they consist of multiple spaces or tabs and contain no cells.

    Physical quantities and measurement units should be presented in the International System of Units (SI); for chemical compounds use the IUPAC nomenclature.

    In decimals, use points rather than commas (correct: 0.25, incorrect: 0,25).

    Type symbols like ±, *, ', single Greek letters, single italic or bold characters, single variables or variables with superscript or subscript letters, measurement units, numbers, and simple mathematical or chemical formulas as text but not as embedded objects. Do not use MathType or other similar tools.

    Present dates in the mm.dd.yyyy format.

    The manuscript title, authors list, affiliations, keywords, section and subsection headings, table titles, and most measurement units should not be separated by periods.

    You should italicize variables and physical quantities, but not abbreviations in superscript and subscript indices.

    The files should be saved in the docx format (Word 2007 or later) or in the doc format (older versions of Word).

    Headings

    Use maximum three levels of headers:

    FIRST LEVEL HEADER (center)
    Second Level Title (Center)
    Third-level header (Beginning of paragraph)

    Formulas

    Mathematical expressions typed with MathType are to be arranged in one frame. Never combine in mathematical expressions multiple MathType objects, MathType objects and text, tables, or nested pictures.

    The MathType formulas should be typed in standard fonts. The font settings should be the same for all the formula components.

    Formulas that cannot get into a standard line are to be placed in separate lines; alternatively, a simpler format should be used (for instance, a/b is more preferable than a conventional fraction with the numerator above the line and denominator below the line.

    Abbreviations

    Word abbreviations, as well as contractions, should not be used unless it is absolutely necessary. If used, they should be defined at the first mention and used consistently whenever later.

    Measurement units

    Physical quantities and units should be represented in the International System of Units (SI).

    The measurement unit should be separated from the number with a space, except for such cases as 10°, 10°C, 100%.

    Measurement units should be expressed in a consistent manner throughout the entire manuscript. Only the final measurement unit should be used in presenting ranges and series (e.g., 10 – 20 mg, 30, 60 and 90C), except for the degree indicating an angle.

    Measurement units for quantities under the log sign will be placed in square brackets, e.g., ln t [min].

    Footnotes

    Footnotes may be used for providing extra information, for instance, citation of a reference presented in the list of references. The reference citation is not the only permissible content of the footnote; however, it should not contain bibliographic details of the reference, as well as figures or tables.

    The footnotes should be numbered sequentially. Footnotes to tables should be made with superscript lowercase characters or asterisks for certain significant values).

    Footnotes are preferred over endnotes.

    Statements and Declarations

    In preparing the manuscript, include in it the following sections:

  • Acknowledgements. Any information on the help obtained in performing the work and preparing the manuscript.
  • Financial Support. Data on grants and other sources of funding.
  • Ethical Standard.
  • Conflict of Interests. Mention of possible conflicts of interest for each author.
  • Open Access. If the article is published in the Open Access mode, this section should be included. In this case, requisites of the Creative Commons License should be presented.
  • Authors’ Contributions. Here the contribution of each author to the study may be optionally described.
  • Supplementary Information. This section informs on the availability of additional materials.
  • Extra Information. Anything the authors want to specify but cannot include it in other sections.

    References

    Citation

    The references should be given in the text as numbers in square brackets.

    Reference list

    The list of references should consist of only those works that are cited in the text and have been already published or accepted for publication. Private messages and unpublished information should be mentioned in the text.

    All the references are to be numbered consistently with their appearance in the text. Each reference should indicate only one literature source.

    The reference list numbering should be strictly sequential.

    DOIs (if available) should be presented in the form of a full link (e.g. https://doi.org/abc).

    The standard abbreviation of the journal name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations should be used (see ISSN.org LTWA or CASSI). In case of any doubt, the full name of the journal should be used.

    Tables

    Use Arabic numerals to number the tables.

    Throughout the text, refer to the tables strictly according to the order of numbering.

    Each table should be provided with a title reflecting its content.

    Any earlier published material should be indicated as a reference at the end of the table title.

    Express the footnotes used in tables in lowercase superscript letters (or asterisks) given below the table body.

    Never use spreadsheets in creating tables; use special table functions. Never create tables manually so that they consist of multiple spaces or tabs and comprise no cells.

    Guidelines for preparing illustrations

    General requirements

    All figures should be submitted electronically.

    Specify the graphics program used to create the illustrations.

    Place all the illustrations below the text together with their captions. In case a figure consists of more than one part, arrange them one below another under a common caption. Never group the illustrations in table cells (or similarly). Jointly with the manuscript, original files of illustration should be presented.

    Those files should be named with letters "Fig" with the relevant number, for instance, Fig1.eps. Each file should contain only one figure. If an illustration consists of several parts, it should be presented as a whole in one file with proper arrangement of the parts.

    Present vector illustrations in the format of the graphical editor in which the illustrations have been prepared. The EPS format is also acceptable.

    For presenting illustrations of all other types, format TIFF is preferable, but any graphical format is permissible.

    If the Editors fail to accept and transfer high-quality illustration files, it is possible to send such illustrations directly to the Publisher by e-mail either as attachment or by indicating the relevant file-sharing site. The Journal title, issue number and the first author should be indicated, as well as the reason for which the files are sent separately. In the absence of this information, the illustrations cannot be utilized.

    The illustration dimensions should meet either single-column or two-column layout.

    Photographs are to be presented in two versions: with and without text and inscriptions. In other illustrations, the inscriptions should not be in contact with any parts of the illustrations;

    The inscriptions are to be executed in standard TrueType fonts;

    Do not add shading and grids to the graph backgrounds.

    Line art

    In preparing graphs and diagrams, use vector graphics editors;

    The vector picture resolution should be no worse than 600 dpi;

    Line widths should be minimum 0.5 pt;

    Vector illustrations should be free of patterns filled with dots, such as Noise, Black and White Noise, or Top Noise;

    All the fonts are to be embedded in the file.

    Halftone art

    The resolution of halftone illustrations should be no worse than 300 dpi.

    Combined Halftone/Line drawings

    Resolution of such illustrations should be no worse than 600 dpi.

    Color art

    Use vector graphics editors in preparing graphs and diagrams.

    Our journals are printed in black and white; color pictures may be presented in the online version. In the print version, color illustrations may be published for a fee under a special agreement with the Editorial Board.

    Color pictures may be published in the Journal online version free of charge provided the relevant requirements are satisfied.

    Otherwise, the fee for publishing color pictures will be assigned individually depending on the journal and pictures quality, and compliance with technical requirements.

    Extra requirements for color illustrations:

    • 8 bit/channel mode;
    • CMYK color space.

    If the authors decide to publish their color illustrations in black and white without additional editing, they should observe the following conditions:

    Colors of lines, inscriptions and objects should be selected so as to exclude the loss of information in converting the picture to the black-and-white mode. The authors are recommended to print the color illustrations with a black/white printer to make sure that all information in the figure remains clear. Do not refer to curve colors in the captions;

    Mark the colored lines in figures with characters, symbols or numbers. Alternatively, the line styles should be different;

    Colored areas should be marked with different letters and symbols rather than by differently colored letters and symbols;

    If the picture contains areas of different colors but of the same brightness, it is better to emphasize their interface with a thin line;

    If the figure contains a few colored areas almost similar in color tones, these areas are to be marked additionally with symbols or hatching;

    All inscriptions should be preferably black or white, depending on the background.

    Fonts

    Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts) is best for letters to figures.

    Keep the letter sizes consistent throughout the entire final picture.

    The differences between the type sizes within the illustration should be minimal.

    Some effects should be avoided, e.g., shading, outline letters, and so on.

    Headings and captions should not be included in the artworks.

    Figure numbering

    Use only Arabic numerals to number the figures.

    Figures numbering should be sequential throughout the text. Always refer to the figures strictly according to their numbering.

    Separate panels of one figure should be marked with lowercase letters (a, b, etc.)

    In any appendix to the text (if available), number the figures it contains (if any) following the numbering order in the main text. In online appendices, figures should be numbered separately [Supplementary Information (SI)] .

    Captions

    Each figure should be provided with a short but informative caption accurately describing the picture content. Captions will be included in the manuscript text file but not in the figure file.

    At the beginning of the caption there should be character "Fig." typed bold, followed by the figure number also typed bold.

    There should be no any punctuation both after the figure number and at the end of the caption.

    All the elements of the figure and figure caption should be properly identified; to represent the graph coordinate points, use squares, circles, etc.

    If any previously published information is given in the figure, it should be indicated as a reference at the end of the caption.

    Permissions

    If any of the figures you present in your manuscript in either print or online version have already been published elsewhere, it is necessary to get an appropriate permission from the copyright owners. Please take into account that not all the publishers are ready to render electronic rights for free, and it is possible that your Publisher will not be able to compensate the expenditures on getting such a permission. Please note that in this case you may address other sources.

    Accessibility

    To make the content of your illustrations accessible to people of different abilities and disabilities, ensure that all the figures are provided with clear and informative captions allowing blinds to read them by using appropriate software or hardware.

    To transmit information, use templates in addition to colors in order to make it possible for color-blinds to distinguish the figure elements.

  • Publisher:

    Ioffe Institute

    Institute Officers:

    Director: Sergei V. Ivanov

    Contact us:

    26 Polytekhnicheskaya, Saint Petersburg 194021, Russian Federation
    Fax: +7 (812) 297 1017
    Phone: +7 (812) 297 2245
    E-mail: post@mail.ioffe.ru