Information for Contributors contains instructions for manuscript preparation and is published in the first two issues of each volume and includes information about:
Information about this journal and other APS journals is
available on the APS research-journals World Wide Web
server at the URL http://publish.aps.org/. Much information is also
available via ftp
to aps.org in the
subdirectories /jrnls, /pacs, /revtex, etc., of the /pub directory. Most
filenames include as an extension a suffix (beginning with a
period), which indicates the nature of the file: .asc (plain ASCII),
.pdf (portable document file, usable with Acrobat), .ps (PostScript),
or .tex (TeX). Most files exist in two or three versions,
distinguished by the suffix. Some specific files are cited where
pertinent below.
Manuscripts may be submitted by a variety of electronic
modes (including via e-print servers, direct Web upload, and email),
or by conventional mail,
but not by fax.
Interactive submission forms, available on our Web server, are an
integral part of the submission process for the e-print and Web
modes, and are strongly recommended for email and conventional-mail
submission. These forms aid authors in supplying all the information
needed in a structured format which furthers efficient processing; they
also provide a location for additional ``free form'' information. [For
authors without Web browsers which support forms, noninteractive versions
of the submission forms are available via ftp to aps.org in the /pub/jrnls
directory as the sub_prd files (include filename suffix.asc, .tex, or .ps),
or by request to the Editorial Office.]
Please specify
the author to whom correspondence should be addressed, and give all
available communications information for this individual (postal and
email addresses, phone and fax numbers), since in various circumstances
they may all be useful. Please specify journal and section to which the
paper is submitted, and give
PACS (Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme)
index categories if possible. (The scheme is available
on our Web server, and also
via ftp to
aps.org as the file pacs_99.asc in the /pub/pacs directory.)
If an important subject of
your paper cannot be appropriately classified in the PACS
scheme, please give an appropriate keyword or phrase, and
indicate approximately where in the scheme this topic would be
best placed.
A signed APS copyright-transfer form (available in
plain text,
PostScript, or
TeX format here)
should be included
with the submission, and will be required before publication.
While the transfer of copyright takes effect only upon acceptance
of the paper for publication in an APS journal, supplying
the form initially can prevent unnecessary delays. The form
appears at the end of the 18 October 1999
issue of Physical Review Letters
and is available from the Editorial Office, on the World Wide Web
via the URL http://publish.aps.org/ or via ftp to aps.org
in the /pub/jrnls directory as the copy_trnsfr files (include
filename suffix .asc, .ps, or .tex). Be sure to use the latest (1/96 or
later) version of the form.
Manuscripts and figures are not routinely returned to authors.
Authors should indicate (preferably on initial sumittal) if they
want the manuscript and/or figures returned when correspondence is
sent during the editorial process, and/or after a final
decision has been made.
For detailed information about electronic submissions,
see
http://publish.aps.org/ESUB/. Properly prepared electronic submissions are
exempt from publication charges. Those that use APS macro packages may
qualify for the compuscript production program, under which author-supplied
files are converted directly to production format and coding, rather than being
rekeyed for publication. Receipt of an electronic submission will be
acknowledged by email within 24 hours. Copies of the manuscript should not
be sent by conventional mail unless the electronic transmission has not been
successful. Figures for an electronic submission
must be received in at least
review-quality form before editorial processing can begin. The figures may be
sent electronically (preferred) or by overnight mail, or review-quality figures
may be sent by fax while the "originals" are sent by conventional or overnight
mail as soon as possible. Refer to the online documentation for more detailed
instructions.
Manuscripts sent by conventional mail should be submit
ted in
triplicate to the Editors, Physical Review, 1 Research Road,
Box 9000, Ridge, NY 11961-9000. The manuscript, including the
abstract, references, and captions, should be neatly printed in
English, on good letter-size (e.g., 8½×11 in. or A4) white paper
with ample margins. (The first copy, used for production purposes
if the paper is accepted for publication, must be printed on
one side of the paper only; additional copies, used for review
purposes, may be printed on both sides of the paper.) The type
size and line spacing should be sufficient to accommodate
editorial markings and should be legible to our keyboarders (no
more than three lines per inch and no more than 88 characters
per 6 inches). It should be carefully proofread by the author.
Poor reproductions are unacceptable, as are unclear or excessive
handwritten insertions.
When a manuscript is resubmitted, please include a summary
of changes made
and a brief response to all recommendations and criticisms. The interactive
resubmission forms available on our Web server may be used for electronic-
mail, Web-upload, and hard-copy transmission of modified manuscripts and
figures. These forms should also be used when a manuscript previously
submitted to one APS journal is resubmitted to another.
When resubmitting
electronically, send the complete file for the text if there have been any
changes. Please refer to the online documentation
for more detailed instructions.
If the resubmission is by conventional mail, send three copies of the revised
manuscript (with figures) and include the resubmission form or equivalent
information. For any resubmission, please state whether or not the figures have
been modified, and supply new PostScript-formatted figures or scanner-
reproducible figures if there have been such changes. It is only necessary to
resend the "original" figures if the previous versions are no
longer valid. Please
update any other information (e.g., address and communication information) that
has changed or will change since initial submission.
For general format and style consult
recent issues of this journal and the Physical Review Style
and Notation Guide, available via ftp
to aps.org in the /pub/jrnls
directory as the style_guidefiles (include filename suffix.pdf,
.ps, or .tex). Additional style guidelines can be found in the
Fourth Edition of the AIP Style Manual, which may be obtained
for $10.00 (prepaid) from Springer-Verlag, P.O. Box 2485,
Secaucus, NJ 07096-2485.
The title should be concise but informative enough to facilitate
information retrieval. The abstract should be self-contained
(contain no footnotes). It should be adequate as an index
(giving all subjects, major and minor, about which new information
is given) and as a summary (giving the conclusions and
all results of general interest in the article). It should be about
5% of the length of the article, but less than 500 words.
Notation should be clear, compact, and consistent with standard
usage. Equations
should be neatly formatted, punctuated, and
aligned to bring out their structure, and numbered on the right.
(a) Diacritical marks (tildes, etc.) can be put over any symbol,
including indices. (b) Three-vectors are generally set
in roman boldface type.
More general vectors, matrices, etc., are
usually set in lightface italic type, although boldface may alternatively be
used.
(c) Be careful when using the solidus (/) in fractions. For example,
1/2a,
means 1/(2a), not (1/2)a. Use appropriate bracketing
if needed to ensure clarity.
References and footnotes to text material are usually combined
in a single list, numbered consecutively in their order of first
appearance in the paper, and placed in a double-spaced list at
the end of the text material. They should be designated and
cited in text by on-line Arabic numerals in square brackets. As
an option, footnotes may appear separately from references and
be placed at the bottom of the page on which they are cited.
They should be designated by superscript numbers and numbered
consecutively throughout the paper. Footnotes within
tables should be designated by lower-case letter superscripts
and given at the end of the table.
For the proper form for
references, see the Physical Review Style and Notation Guide and
recent issues of this journal. The names of all authors of works
cited should be given in the references, unless the number of
authors is greater than three; in this case, the first author's name
followed by et al. is allowed. When reference is made to internal
reports or other items not available in the open literature, it is the
responsibility of the author to provide sufficient information to
enable the reader to obtain a copy of the referenced material.
References to classified reports or other documents with restricted
circulation should be avoided.
It is important to confirm the accuracy of bibliographic information
in references. This has become more important now that the journal is
online. Hyperlinks will be programmed to enable readers to ``click''
on references and jump directly to the material cited. If your
reference citations are incorrect or incomplete (e.g., missing author
name, or an incorrect volume number or page), the associated hyperlinks
may fail, and the usefulness of your paper in the online environment
may be diminished. Since at the present time such links work only from
the reference section, work cited anywhere in the paper, including in
figure and table captions and in ``Note(s) added,'' should be included
in the reference section.
Footnotes to an author's name or
address should be limited to those useful for location of,
or communication with, an author. Footnotes giving electronic
addresses (e.g., email, fax. or Web) of a corresponding author
are encouraged.
All information concerning research support should
appear in the acknowledgments.
Separate tables (numbered in the order of their first appearance)
should be used for all but the simplest tabular material; they must
have captions, which should make the tables intelligible without
reference to the text. The structure should be clear, with simple
column headings giving all units.
The decision on whether results should be published in long tables
depends on the precision of the data, i.e., whether they can be read
accurately enough from a figure, and on how many readers are
likely to use the numbers relative to the space needed in the
journal.
Material more extensive than is appropriate for the journal
article, or of special
types (e.g., color figures, multimedia, program files) may be deposited in the
Electronic Physics Auxiliary Publication Service (EPAPS) of the American
Institute of Physics; information regarding EPAPS is available on our Web
server.
If additional numerical data can be obtained from a data
center, from the author, or from another source either as tables or
on tape, indicate how and in what format they can be obtained.
Figures
Figures should be planned for the column width (8.6 cm or 3 3/8 in.) of the
journal. If the detail shown requires it, 1.5 or 2 columns may be used.
A note should be left on or with such figures.
Final-journal-size originals or prints are
preferable to oversized originals. Authors are encouraged to submit all figures
electronically, even if the text of the manuscript is not
submitted electronically;
refer to the online instructions for more details. Figures submitted on paper
should be of high quality and suitable for digital scanning,
which is done at 600
or 1200 dpi depending on the level of detail; original ink drawings or glossy
prints are acceptable. Be advised that the scanner reproduces all imperfections
(e.g., correction fluid, tape, smudges, writing on the back
of the figure, etc.).
All figures must be prepared so that the details can be seen after reproduction.
They must have a clear background and unbroken lines with as much black-
white contrast as possible. The symbol width and lettering height
on the journal
page should be at least 2 mm. Avoid small open symbols that tend to fill in,
small dots and decimal points, and shading or cross-hatching that is not coarse
enough to withstand reproduction. Curves should be smooth; curves and lines
should have consistent line widths of sufficient weight [final weight
of at least
0.18 mm (0.5 point)]. The resolution of the drawing software and output device
should be set as high as possible (preferably 600 dpi or higher).
Figures should be numbered in the order in which they are referred to in the
text. They should be identified on the front (outside the image area) by the
number, the name of the first author, and the journal. An indication, e.g.,
"TOP," of the intended orientation of a figure is helpful, especially in
ambiguous cases. Each figure must have a caption that makes the figure
intelligible without reference to the text; list captions on a separate sheet.
Text should be placed in the caption, not on the figure. Groups
of figures that share a (single) caption must be labeled
"(a), (b)," etc. The figure itself should have
properly labeled axes with correctly abbreviated units enclosed in parentheses.
Use consistent lettering and style as in the body of the text (use correct
capitalization, unslashed zeros, proper exponential notation, superscripts and
subscripts, decimal points instead of commas, etc.). Use the form
R (10³ Omega),
not R×10³ Omega. Use half spacing within compound
units, not hyphens or periods.
Avoid ambiguous usage of the solidus ("/"), e.g., (mb/MeV sr), not
(mb/MeV/sr). When possible, integer numbers should be used on the axis scales
of figures, e.g., 1, 2, 3, or 0, 5, 10, not 1.58, 3.16, 4.75.
Decimal points must
be on the line (not above it); do not use commas instead. Use the same number
of digits to the right of the decimal point for all numbers on
the axis scales. A
number must be both before and behind the decimal point,
e.g., 0.2, not .2. For
complete instructions see the Physical Review Style and Notation Guide
or the AIP Style Manual.
Avoid submitting prescreened prints of photographic material or laser-printed
renditions of continuous-tone data; reproduction of such figures is seldom
satisfactory and there is a risk of moiré patterns appearing
in the final product.
If PostScript files are not available, supply glossy
or matte-finish photographs or
laser prints at the highest resolution possible and in the final published size.