Information for Contributors contains instructions for manuscript preparation and is published in the first issue of each volume and includes information about:
Manuscripts may be submitted by a variety of electronic
modes (including via e-print servers, direct Web upload, and e-mail), 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 e-mail 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_pra 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 e-mail 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 7 June 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 submittal) 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 produciton 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 submitted in
quadruplicate to the Editors, Physical Review, 1 Research Road,
Box 9000, Ridge, NY 11961-9000. The manuscript, including the
abstract, references, and captions, should be printed in
English, on good letter size (e.g., 8½ x 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 resubmittted
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 four 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.
Readability of the journal is an important consideration. Authors
are urged to take special care in assuring that their manuscripts are
well-organized and clearly written in good scientific English.
Accessibility of papers is a matter of
significant concern,
and at least the abstract and introduction of each article
should be written so as to be understandable by a broad spectrum
of readers.
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 must be 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 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 (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 pro
duct.
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