Preparation of manuscripts
PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Stylebooks for the JOURNAL OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS are the American Medical Association’s AMA Manual of Style and the University of Chicago Press's A Manual of Style. Authors whose papers include figures should follow the section below on figure preparation.
The responsibility for good grammar and correct sentence structure rests with the author.
Organization should be thoughtful and not necessarily chronological. Unfamiliar or rare terms should be explained to make their meanings clear to all readers, especially those who are not well-versed in the language of the publication. Avoid all colloquialisms, jargon, and unusual abbreviations, and be as clear and brief as possible in the manuscript.
If you are not a native English speaker, we strongly recommend that you have your manuscript professionally edited before submission. Professional editing will mean that reviewers are better able to read and assess your manuscript.
Major revision or retyping of manuscripts cannot be undertaken by the Editor; these must be done by the author or his designated colleague. The suggestions that follow are intended to reduce the number of revisions and exchanges of correspondence needed prior to the publication of an article. Authors who follow these instructions closely will see their articles reviewed and published in the shortest possible time.
1. General Format: Manuscripts must be submitted electronically in Microsoft Office Word. Figures should be supplied digitally as either a Word file, pdf, TIFF, jpeg, or similar format. The title page of the manuscript should include the same name, address (including zip code) and affiliation of each author, as well as the title and date of the meeting where it was presented, if any. Please designate the corresponding author and provide a current email address for all correspondence.
2. Synopsis: Each article should be preceded by a brief but informative synopsis of 100 to 200 words. The synopsis should state the objective of the research, the experimental approach used, the principal findings, and the major conclusions. Follow the form used by Chemical Abstracts in preparing the synopsis.
3. Units of Measure: The SI (System International) metric units are preferred, following the trend in the scientific community. Where English or cgs units must be used, they should be converted to SI and placed following in parentheses. Abbreviations such as m/s, ml, rpm, and ug are used without periods. It is requested that authors avoid all unusual notations, e.g., milligram per cent (mg %) or ppm are better expressed as mg/100g or mg/kg.
4. Abbreviations: Any abbreviation that will not be immediately understood by a non-expert reader should be defined in parentheses following its first appearance in the text. In most cases, both clipped words and acronyms are unpunctuated. Chemical names and formulae should be unambiguously clear to the editor. Some prefixes before names of organic compounds must be italicized, e.g., cis-, p-. tert-, etc. Consult the list of commonly used abbreviations in the ACS Handbook.
5. Trade Names: A trade name must be followed by the sign "®," All common cosmetic ingredients should be referred to by their GENERIC names, as indicated in the latest edition of International Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary and Handbook (PCPC’s), the United States Pharmacopeia (U.S.P.), and the National Formulary (N.F.). Manufacturer's designation may be included in parentheses. If a material is not listed, then the proprietary or trademarked name can be used, with the chemical composition and name and address of the manufacturer given in parentheses or footnote.
6. Structural Formulae: Structural formulae should be used only if absolutely necessary and if the chemical in question is not known to the reader. They should be numbered and referred to in the text by Arabic numerals.
7. Tables: Tables should be numbered consecutively, using Roman numerals. Appropriate captions should also be included.
8. Figures: To publish the figures in your article with the highest quality, it is important to submit digital art that conforms to the appropriate resolution, size, color mode, and file format. Doing so will help to avoid delays in publication and maximize the quality of images.
Color photographs, where they are essential to the content of the paper, may be acceptable at the Editor’s discretion, and at an extra cost to the author. Authors are responsible for the cost incurred for the printing of color photographs, figures. If authors do not want to pay the cost for color, figures will be printed in shades of gray.
Sizing and preparation: Submit figures at their final publication size; do not scale figures.
All panels of a multipart figure should be provided in the same file. If symbols are not explained on the face of the figure, only standard print characters may be used. Include figure titles in the legend and not on the figure itself.
Labeling and Font Usage: Please use the same font for all figures in your manuscript, and use a standard font such as Arial, Helvetica, Times, Symbol, Mathematical Pi, and European Pi. Do not use varying letter type sizes within a single figure; use the same size or similar sizes throughout. The preferred font size is 8 points; the minimum font size is 6 points.
Resolution and Raster Images: Low-resolution images are one of the leading causes of art resubmission and schedule delays. Submitted raster (i.e. pixel-based) images must meet the minimum resolution requirements:
Monochrome (1-bit) images (line-art): Common examples are graphs and charts made of solid black and white, with no gray values. The suggested minimum resolution for this type of image is 1000 ppi at publication size.
Combination Halftones: Common examples are color or grayscale figures containing halftone and line art elements. The suggested minimum resolution for this type of image is 600 ppi at publication size.
Halftones: Common examples are color or grayscale figures containing pictures only, with no text or thin lines. The suggested minimum resolution for this type of image is 300 ppi at publication size.
Raster images should be supplied in TIF format. PDF and JPG are also acceptable.
Vector Images: Vector images are typically generated using drawing or illustration programs (e.g., Adobe Illustrator) and are composed of mathematically defined geometric shapes—lines, objects, and fills. Vector graphics are resolution independent and can be enlarged to any size without quality loss.
Vector images should be supplied in EPS format, with all fonts embedded or converted to outlines, and graph lines at least 0.25 points thick. PDF is also acceptable.
Authors who do not comply with these guidelines will be asked to resubmit their figures in a print-quality format, which may delay publication.
9. References: References should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text and should be listed in numerical order at the end of the article under "References". Citations in the text should be on line and parenthesized, e.g., (6) or (11-13). The references to journal articles must appear in the following form:
(a) The initials and surname of each author.
(b) The full title of the paper (first word capitalized).
(c) The name of the journal in italics. Use standard abbreviations as in Chemical Abstracts.
(d) The volume number in bold face type.
(e) The first and last pages of the article separated by a hyphen.
(f) Year of publication of the article (in parentheses); the month must be included for journals that do not use continuous pagination.
The following is an example of a correctly prepared journal reference; note all spacing and punctuation:
L. E. Gaul and G. B. Underwood, Relation of dew point and barometric pressure to chapping of normal skin,). J. Invest Dermatol, 19, 9-19 (1952).
Book references are handled similarly and should include pertinent page numbers:
S. Rothman, Physiology and Biochemistry of the Skin (The University of Chicago Press,Chicago, 1954), pp. 494-560.
References to books containing contributions from authors appear as follows:
S. D. Gershon, M. A. Goldberg, and M. M. Rieger, "Permanent Waving," in
Cosmetics, Science and Technology, 2nd ed., M. S. Balsam and E. Sagarin. Eds. (Wiley Interscience, New York, 1972), Vol. 2, pp. 167-250.
