Formatting files for submission to journals: Part 1
Most researchers, if they notice formatting at all, do so only when they are annoyed by such instructions to authors by their journal as “Type the title of the table on a line separate from the line that carries the table number” and “Do not end a figure caption with a period”. Yet, journals continue to publish such instructions, and there may be something to it after all.
My advice to early-career researchers is that they should comply with such instructions instead of being irritated or annoyed by them: simply regard the instructions as part of research, perhaps on par with counting the number of seeds in dozens of 10-gram samples or patiently dusting flower after flower with pollen or waiting for a program to finish crunching the numbers. Tedious but essential, and certainly not rocket science.
Defining formatting
A workable definition of formatting is any tweaking of text to change the appearance of text that does not involve any addition or deletion of characters, whether letters, numbers, punctuation marks, or other symbols. For example, making a heading bold or centring it is formatting; making it shorter by rephrasing it is not. I will further qualify the definition by adding that such formatting excludes changes that affect the appearance of an entire article: splitting it into multiple columns or changing the typeface (font) of the entire article from Calibri to Times New Roman or, to get a bit more technical, making every paragraph start with a first-line indent.
What to format
The overall aim is to make the manuscript look almost like its finished published version, except on two counts: (1) the text in most ‘finished’ versions is fully justified, with the right-hand margin as straight as the left-hand margin, whereas you should use left justification for your submission and (2) the text is set in a typeface chosen by the journal, and that typeface is rarely something as bland as Times New Roman or Calibri, whereas you would do well to use a typeface that is easier on the eyes, such as Georgia or Sitka (typefaces especially designed for reading off screens or monitors).
For careful formatting, examine articles from a recent issue of your target journal (the journal to which you intend to submit your manuscript) and note how each component part of a typical paper appears. For instance, take the title of the paper: observe its (1) alignment: whether the title is left aligned, centred, or even right aligned; (2) capitalization: whether it follows sentence-style capitalization (only the first word and proper nouns capitalized), headline-style capitalization (all major words capitalized), or whether the entire title is set in capital letters; and (3) weight and posture: whether the title is in bold or in italics or both or neither.
Continue your examination, taking in the names of authors, their affiliations, the abstract, keywords, major headings (introduction, materials and methos, results, and discussion), and so on. You will have to focus on details that are trivial. Take keywords, for example: journals do not even agree whether it should be one word (keywords) or two (key words); also check whether it is Keywords or KEYWORDS or Keywords—or any of the several other choices. And, while it is not strictly formatting, note how the keywords themselves are (1) arranged, whether in alphabetical order or not; (2) capitalized, whether all the keywords or only the first keyword; and (3) separated, whether with commas, semicolons, raised dots, or whatever.
Similarly, for headings and subheadings, note how the hierarchy is signalled using a combination of alignment, font size, weight (bold or normal), posture (italics or upright), and case (title case or lowercase).
Conclusion
Are you already reeling with these mind-numbing details? That is why we have chosen to present this topic in two parts. Be patient, and remember that correct formatting may mean speedier publication, ahead of other papers in the queue, simply because you have made the additional step of formatting easier.
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