ISSN 0258-3127

Download the instructions to authors as a pdf file.

The editors of European Science Editing welcome contributions related to the editing and management of publications in the sciences. Submissions in the following categories are accepted: Articles, Review articles, Viewpoints, Editing around the world, Correspondence, brief Reports of meetings (see suggestions for reports at the end of these instructions), short news items, and notes or suggestions about articles, books or websites of interest to editors of scientific journals or books.

Contributions

Contributions should be sent to the appropriate section editor named on the Editors’ Desks page of the journal and listed below. A copy may also be sent to the Chief Editor, Moira Johnson-Vekony (moiravekony@dunascripts.com), when appropriate. Contributions should be sent by email (see "File format and text style" below).

Duplicate publication (publication of items that overlap substantially with any already published) is to be avoided. All material is subject to editing/copy-editing.

Authors are asked to consult the Chief Editor if the same or very similar work has been published elsewhere, mainly for work in a language other than English.

Data contained in contributions are assumed not to have been falsified. Current codes of ethics in appropriate professional fields apply.

Copyright in contributions belongs to the author.

Journal sections

Editorials are usually commissioned but spontaneous submissions are welcome.

All original articles will be subject to peer review. Final acceptance or rejection is decided by the Publications Committee. Articles should be up to 2000 words long and should include an abstract of up to 200 words. If they report research data, they should follow the IMRaD format (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) and include a structured abstract with four headings: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.

Original articles should be submitted to Moira Johnson-Vekony (moiravekony@dunascripts.com)

Review articles should be sent to Moira Johnson-Vekony (moiravekony@dunascripts.com).

Viewpoints represent the opinions or personal experiences of the author rather than research (send to Moira Johnson-Vekony at moiravekony@dunascripts.com). Viewpoints should include an informative abstract.

The Editing around the world series focuses on specific aspects of editing in a particular country. Suggestions for contributions should be sent to Dario Sambunjak (dario.sambunjak@mef.hr).

Correspondence is welcomed on items that have appeared in recent issues of the bulletin and matters related to the editing and management of publications (send to Margaret Cooter, mcooter@bmj.com).

From the literature is prepared by Liz Wager (liz@sideview.demon. co.uk), who will be glad to receive suggestions for suitable subjects.

Reports of meetings are coordinated by Jane Sykes (j.sykes@ wxs.nl) and should be planned before the meeting. All proposals for such reports are welcome.

The EASE-Forum Digest is compiled by Elise Langdon-Neuner (langdoe@ baxter.com). The objective is to summarize the discussions of recent months. The compiler may ask initiators of some discussions to provide a concise summary or rewrite their contributions for other sections of European Science Editing.

Books for review should be sent to Moira Johnson-Vekony, who normally commissions reviews and coordinates the review process. Reviewers should email their reviews to her at moiravekony@dunascripts.com.

The News Notes section is compiled by Richard Hurley (rhurley@bmj.com), who will be glad to receive short news items related to editing, publishing and managing journals, including items from non-English-speaking countries.

News from editing societies is under the editorship of Jane Sykes (j.sykes@ wxs.nl).

Forthcoming meetings and courses: information for inclusion in this list should be sent to Margaret Cooter (mcooter@bmj.com)

The Editor’s Bookshelf is compiled by Paola de Castro, Colin Batchelor and Penny Hubbard, and details of suitable articles or books should be sent to Paola de Castro (paola.decastro@iss.it). Details of publications in European languages other than English are welcome.

The Editor's WebWatch, an occasional section, is prepared by Paola de Castro (paola.decastro@iss.it), Colin Batchelor and Penny Hubbard, who welcome news of sites and trends applicable to editing.

Work in progress to be published in the Bookshelf, News Notes and WebWatch sections of the journal can be viewed online in the EASE Journal Blog. If you would like to contribute to the blog please contact the section coordinators, Paola de Castro (paola.decastro@iss.it), Colin Batchelor and Penny Hubbard, who will be glad to receive details of articles, books or websites of interest to editors.

File format and text style

Longer items such as articles should be sent as email attachments; other items may be sent either as attachments or in ordinary email messages. All files must be checked for viruses before being submitted.

Text should preferably be sent in Microsoft Word (.doc extension) in 10-point Palatino Linotype or Times New Roman. Do not use any special styles.

With Word, accents and any text in italics or bold lettering will be recognized by the desktop publishing software. Remove any running heads, page numbers or page divisions before saving the final version of the file.

Headings other than the main title of a contribution should be title case (initial capital, caps elsewhere only if needed, and lower-case), with one blank line above each heading. Use bold type for a level 1 heading and italics for a level 2 heading. Avoid level 3 headings.

Tables should be sent in a separate file from the text.

Figures should be professionally prepared and of high resolution (scanned at 300 dpi). Each figure should be sent in a separate file saved in .tif or .jpg format.

Style

Use the spelling of the Oxford English Dictionary (Concise or Shorter), including -ize, -ization where appropriate. Use inclusive language (non-sexist, non-racist). Avoid footnotes and abbreviations other than SI units and any others that are widely accepted and understood. Explain all other abbreviations when they are first mentioned. Write numbers one to nine in full in the text, except when they are attached to units of measure. Use double quotation marks, with single quotation marks only for quotations within quotations.

Citations in the text
For citations in the text, use either name(s)/year ("as Adam & Eve (1997) reported", or "(Adam & Eve 1997)") or numbers in square brackets on the line ("[1]"). Accuracy of references is the responsibility of the author(s).

Reference list style
Journal titles should be written in full. The year should appear after the authors' names and before the article title in both name/year and numbered references, as below:

Adam A, Eve Z. 1997. Eating apples can be dangerous. Journal of Food Information 8(1):51–59.
or
1. Adam A, Eve Z. 1997. Eating apples can be dangerous.
Journal of Food Information 8(1):51–59.

References to electronic contributions should include the web address and the date the reference was accessed:

Adam A, Eve Z. 1997. Eating apples can be dangerous.
Journal of Food Information 8(1):51–59. www.jfi.org.il/volume8(1)/Adam/apple.pdf. (Accessed 2005 January 1).

Deadlines and proofs

Deadline dates for contributions other than articles, review articles and viewpoints are December 15, March 15, June 15 and September 15, for the February, May, August and November issues, respectively. Articles, review articles and viewpoints should be submitted one month earlier than those dates.

Proofs (PDF files) will be sent to authors of articles and viewpoints. Other contributions may be sent if authors ask for them or if there are queries.

Meeting reports: suggestions for presentation

A report should probably be between 100 and 800 words, depending on the length of the meeting and the novelty of the material.

Describe only those presentations and other contributions that you believe will interest ESE readers.

Concentrate on new information rather than opinion. If you quote numbers, please check them. If you can supply references, so much the better, but please limit these to about five.

If discussion of a paper reaches a consensus, record it.

Give the names and brief institutional addresses of contributors whose presentations you report.

Be prepared for your report to be edited for length and style; the organizational delights and downfalls of conferences are particularly vulnerable. You may be sent an edited text, but time constraints may limit consultation about changes.

Write up your contribution as soon as the meeting ends, to capitalize on its impact.

Send your report to Jane Sykes (j.sykes@wxs.nl).

We look forward to seeing your contributions.

Section editors, European Science Editing

Chief editor: Moira Johnson-Vekony, Oxford, UK
(moiravekony@dunascripts.com)

Articles editor: Moira Johnson-Vekony, Oxford, UK
(moiravekony@dunascripts.com)

Review articles: Moira Johnson-Vekony, Oxford, UK (moiravekony@dunascripts.com)

Editing around the world: Dario Sambunjak, Croatia (dario.sambunjak@mef.hr)

Viewpoints: Moira Johnson-Vekony, Oxford, UK
(moiravekony@dunascripts.com)

Reports of meetings: Jane Sykes, The Netherlands (j.sykes@wxs.nl)