PREPARATION

Manuscript Preparation

General:

Authors must follow guide for authors strictly, failing which the manuscripts would be rejected without review. Editors reserve the right to adjust the style to certain standards of uniformity.

Structure:

Follow this order when typing manuscripts: Title, Authors, Affiliations, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, References, Figure Captions, Tables and Figures. The corresponding author should be identified with an asterisk and footnote. All other footnotes (except for table footnotes) should be avoided. Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article and do not include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise.

Text Layout:

Use double spacing and wide (3 cm) margins on white paper. (Avoid full justification, i.e., do not use a constant right-hand margin.) Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. Present tables and figure legends on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. The text must be of 12 pt font size with standard fonts.

Page length:

Maximum page length should be within 15 pages for Original article and 5 pages for Short Communication and 20 pages for review paper, including text, references, tables and figures. Each figure and table must be put separately on a single page. To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor.

Article structure

Subdivision-numbered sections

Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Material and methods

Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.

Theory/calculation

A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already explained within the introduction and provide the foundation for further work. In contrast, a calculation section represents a practical development from a theoretical basis.

Results and Discussion

Results should be clear and concise, and be part of a single section, discussing the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. Extensive citation and discussion of the published literature should be avoided.

Conclusions

The main conclusions drawn from results should be presented in a short Conclusions section (maximum 100 words).

Appendices

If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

Essential title page information

• Title. The title should be Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that phone numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.
• Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required. Each paper should be provided with an abstract of about 100-150 words. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Graphical abstract

A Graphical abstract is optional and should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership online. Authors must provide images that clearly represent the work described in the article. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in the online submission system. Image size: Please provide an image with a minimum of 531 x 1328 pixels (h x w) or proportionally more. The image should be readable at a size of 5 x >/

Highlights

Highlights are mandatory for this journal. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings of the article and should be submitted in a separate file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point).

Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 5 keywords to be included in an article, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, "and", "of"). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations

Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Acknowledgements

Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

Units

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other units are mentioned, please give their equivalent in SI.

Math formulae

Present simple formulae in the line of normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

Table footnotes

Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.

Keywords

Electronic artwork General points.

• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Embed the used fonts if the application provides that option.
• Aim to use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, Symbol, or use fonts that looks similar.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the printed version.
• Submit each illustration as a separate file.

References

Maximum 20, 35 and 75 references for short communication, original research paper/case study and review papers, respectively.

Web references

As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

Reference

Should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order). Identify references in text, tables and legends by Arabic numerals in brackets. References-cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication: Aroulmoji,V ., Mathlouthi,V., Feruglio, F., Murano, E., Grassi, M., 2012. Hydration Properties and Proton Exchange in Aqueous Sugar Solutions Studied by Time Domain Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Food Chemistry, 132, 1644-1650.

Reference to a book:

Bakshi, U.A., Bakshi, M.V., 2011. Electrical Machines-I, second ed. Technical Publications, India, pp. 281-304.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

Roge, B., Aroulmoji, V., Mathlouthi, M. 2006. FT-IR study of the hydration of caffeine, sucrose and their mixtures in Water. Maria del Pilar Buera, Taylor & Francis (Eds), Water properties of food, pharmaceutical and biological materials, pp. 281-304.

Submission checklist

The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.

Ensure that the following items are present:

One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:

• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Phone numbers

All necessary files have been uploaded, and contain:

• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes) Further considerations
• Manuscript has been 'spell-checked' and 'grammar-checked'
• References are in the correct format for this journal
• All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)
• Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color reproduction on the Web and in print, or to be reproduced in color on the Web and in black-and-white in print
• If only color on the Web is required, black-and-white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes.