Submissions
Before submitting, please read the detailed instructions below.
Then submit your manuscript to laurac@waterjournal.org. Please attach your manuscript as a MS Word doc and also as a PDF. In each of your two attachments, please include Tables and Figures. Please also suggest (and provide contact information for) three or four reviewers who would be qualified to review your manuscript. Remember to include keywords and to list your affiliations, university or otherwise.
AUTHOR STYLE & CONTENT INSTRUCTIONS
GENERAL
WATER publishes original research papers, reviews, and tutorials. A research paper deals with the results of experimental studies on some aspect of water. A review paper includes an extended literature review with complete bibliography (including authors’ own work). It may also emphasize the authors’ new unpublished findings, and an extended discussion that puts the topic into proper perspective. A review can also be based on a complete bibliography of an author’s own recent work in relation to others. A tutorial paper contains an organized, comprehensive review of all relevant published material, as for a teaching lecture.
As WATER is an exclusively online journal, style issues are important to follow. Two copies of the manuscript should be submitted: one as a MS Word document and the other as a PDF exported from the MS Word doc. Each copy should contain all relevant figures and tables, etc. Please DO NOT submit as a .DOCX file.
There are no practical limitations concerning illustrations; monochrome or color are equally acceptable. Figures should be prepared in a digital format, .JPG, minimum 300 dpi. This will insure the highest rate of conversion. Do not send us your images as .TIFF files, or as anything other than .JPG files.
If using figures that are already published elsewhere, it is the authors’ responsibility and not the Journal’s to request copyright, as WATER does not hold copyright to any published manuscripts in its journal. The copyright then remains with the authors.
Short video sequences may be included as appendices: please email laurac@waterjournal.org in such cases.
Please follow the detailed stylistic instructions given below. If the format does not conform to these instructions, papers will be returned unread.
All communication will normally be by email.
We hope to notify authors of our decision within four to six weeks of submission.
REVIEWING
Each manuscript will be sent to an Associate Editor. The Associate Editor will review the manuscript, choose two suitable reviewers, and construct the overall review. Then the editors will send a decision to the authors.
In addition to reviewing the manuscript critically, reviewers will submit relevant questions, such as those that may arise at a conference in which the content of this paper is presented. Particularly welcome are questions that bring out additional information, or questions that challenge the authors’ approach, findings, or conclusions. While some of these questions may be addressed with textual changes, most questions and authors’ replies will ordinarily be published with the paper in the “Discussion with Reviewers” section. It will be the authors’ responsibility to construct this section.
The Associate Editor will check the final re-submitted manuscript to verify that the reviewers’ comments and questions have been addressed. The “Discussion with Reviewers” will be placed at the end of the paper. Reviewers submitting questions will be identified by name unless they have requested specifically that their name be withheld.
Once a paper has been accepted for publication and has entered the final editorial stages, no changes can be made except those involving typographical corrections. Further, the authors must agree not to submit the same material to another journal. An exception is allowed if the published material is to appear as a part of a review article, in which case the original paper in WATER must be acknowledged.
PUBLICATION
Each paper will have its own Web page with title, authors, and addresses listed. Abstract and key words will be included. From this page the reader will be able to download a PDF file of the paper using Adobe Acrobat 6.0 or later. No paper version of the journal will be printed. Readers and authors may print copies of the PDF files and distribute them as they wish.
Reproduction of figures appearing in WATER requires permission from the paper’s senior author and the following acknowledgement: “With kind permission from WATER.”
VOLUME NUMBERS
Volume numbers commence with number 1 and proceed onward. Each volume will be open-ended and available from the beginning of the publication period. Papers will be added as they become available, i.e., they will be added as soon as possible after acceptance. Page numbering will start at the beginning of each volume. Each volume will have its own web page, which will contain a hyperlinked full-contents list.
From time to time, we may also publish special supplements. These will be numbered consecutively, with “Suppl.” following the volume number. The volume number used will be the one appropriate to the time of publication, e.g., Vol.1, Suppl.1; Vol.1, Suppl.2; and so on. Supplements containing only conference abstracts are not peer reviewed by the journal, but may already have been reviewed by the conference itself. The content of other supplements will be reviewed in standard fashion.
REPRINTS
As there will be no paper version of the journal, authors may refer readers to visit the WATER website, to download the papers and read readers’ comments.
READERS’ COMMENTS
Readers’ comments are encouraged. They should be submitted here. We will check for spam and then insert reasonable comments onto the website immediately following the paper. Authors’ responses will be welcome, turning this into a conversation.
INSTRUCTIONS ON STYLE
The language of the journal is English.
General: Please submit your manuscript both as a MS Word doc and as a PDF. Avoid using .docx.
Line Numbering: Include continuous line numbering to assist the editors. This will be removed in publication.
Title: The title should contain no more than twenty words (including subtitle, if any). Do not use abbreviations in the title.
Running Title: An informative running title, of no more than 50 characters, must be provided.
Authors: Use initials and family names of all authors with no punctuation except commas between authors (e.g., Smith HR, Jones GH, Circuit RC, Bacon AC). Do not add titles (e.g., Prof., Dr., PhD, etc.).) Different affiliations should be indicated with superscripts (1, 2, etc.). Please designate the corresponding author by an asterisk (*) and include both postal address and e-mail address. Names and addresses of all authors must be included on the cover page of the manuscript.
Keywords: Provide a minimum of four and a maximum of ten key words or phrases. Do not use abbreviations for key words.
Abstract: The abstract should contain no more than 250 words. It should describe the purpose of the work, the methods used, as well as the main results and conclusions. Please use no phrases such as “will be described” or “will be discussed” or “are presented,” etc. Abbreviations may be used, but should be defined in parentheses the first time they appear, e.g., “…scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to…..” Please limit abbreviations, as they can sometimes inhibit comprehension. References should not be included.
Introduction: This must be a clear and concise statement of the purpose of the paper and the relationship of this paper to what is already in the literature (along with relevant references). Shorter introductions are preferred over longer ones.
Methods: This section must have complete methodological information, even if already published, so that others can attempt to repeat the work.
For review papers or tutorials, the section above may not apply.
Text: Use 12 pt. Times New Roman font. No attempt should be made to arrange the text into columns, or to apply other formatting. This also applies for supplements. Where symbols other than standard Greek letters are used, please indicate the font set in which they can be found. All paragraphs should be flush left, with no indenting.
Headings: Do not number headings. Major headings, such as Methods, Results, etc., should be typed in bold upper and lower case, and centered.
Subheadings: Use bold print and align text flush left, with no indenting.
Sub-subheadings: Place at the start of a new paragraph, i.e., align text flush left on a separate line, highlight in bold, and continue text on the same line.
Equations: Each equation must be consecutively numbered and centered on a separate line with space before and after. Equation numbers, in parentheses, should be flush with the right margin. Preferably, equations should be prepared using MS Equation Editor. Otherwise, they may be prepared as bitmaps, with DPI values of 300 or better.
Symbols and Abbreviations: Define each symbol or abbreviation in parentheses the first time it is used, even if it has already been defined in the Abstract. Multiple symbols or abbreviations are discouraged. For more than five symbols or abbreviations, include a separate table in the text defining each one (with units, as applicable).
Units: Use SI or metric units. Note that kilovolt is abbreviated kV. Use nm rather than Ångstrom.
Figures: Please embed the figures and captions in the places you’d like them to appear. If figures have multiple panels, please use lower case a, b, etc.
Tables: Please number the tables and embed them in the same way as the figures.
Size: Line drawings should be suitable for display at a final one- or two-column width. Micrographs should be of a size suitable for display at their final size (digital resolution of 600 dpi). Please advise your preference of grouping of photographs, if any, in your cover letter. Alternatively you may compile plates and supply them as single .JPG bitmaps to a final size resolution of 600 dpi.
Captions: Each figure must have a separate caption. The caption should include: Figure X (in bold), followed by the caption text, which should provide a comprehensive description of the figure.
REFERENCES
References should be made ONLY to published works that are readily available, and to papers in press. Unpublished results, submitted manuscripts, and personal communications should not be listed, but can be acknowledged in the text (in parentheses). Important: Please be sure that all references cited in the paper, and the spelling of names, match those in References.
Reference may be made to websites. These must be listed separately, in a list entitled ‘Web References,’ following the usual ‘References’ list. Web references should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text. They should be referred to in the text as ‘(Web ref. 1)’,'(Web ref. 2)’ etc. Details of each Web reference should include the FULL Uniform Resource Locator (URL), followed by the date accessed in square brackets, i.e., [mm-dd-yyyy].
References must be organized in alphabetical order by the first author’s last name. For several references with the same first author, the following order should be used: [a] one-author references, ordered by year [e.g., Jones (1989); Jones (1991)]; [b] two-author references, ordered first according to second author’s last name, then ordered by year [Jones and Brown (1990); Jones and Smith (1988)]; and [c] three (and more)-author references, ordered by year [Jones et al. (1983); Jones et al. (1993a); Jones et al. (1993b)].
Use the following style in the text:
Jones (1989) or (Jones, 1989) or Jones and Smith (1988). If there are three or more authors, use the form Jones et al. (1993). If more than one paper is published by the same author(s) in the same year, use the form Jones (1986a). http://dx.doi.org/10.1010/
In the Reference-list section, proceed as follows:
Begin each reference on a separate line, with line space in between references.
For papers in journals: last names and initials of all authors (not “et al.”), year (in parentheses), full title of paper, name of journal italicized (use standard abbreviations), volume number (in bold), and first and last pages. Do not use any punctuation (or “and ” or “&” preceding last author’s name), except for commas between authors’ names and a period at the end of the title. Example: Smith ER, Jones JM, Park SB (2008). Studies on the origin of life. J Exc Res 48: 123-129.
Titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. The list can be obtained from the following web page: http://www.docstyles.com/archive/aimcore.pdf
For a book, include name(s) and initials of author(s), year, and title of book (in upper and lower case), name and city of publisher, range of pages or chapter cited. Do not refer to an entire book!
For a multi-author book, or Proceedings, please include the names of all editors, name and city of publisher; or, alternatively, include full availability information. Abstracts should be clearly identified as such.
For internal or contract reports, or Master’s and Doctoral theses, provide relevant inclusive pages, full availability information, with identification numbers and complete address.
DISCUSSION WITH REVIEWERS
The Discussion with Reviewers (DWR) section is an important part of WATER and should be prepared with great care. Improper, careless or non-responsive answers will require revision and will thus delay publication. No length limit is imposed; therefore, please provide complete answers, but keep them concise.
The DWR section appears immediately after References. Consider ‘Discussion with Reviewers’ to be an important aspect of publishing your paper in WATER. Leave one line of space and start with the first question. Deal with each of the reviewers’ questions separately. Extra figures and references can be included, when necessary. After constructing DWR, send it to laurac@waterjournal.org.
All accepted manuscripts will be proofread for grammar, clarity, etc. The authors will then have an opportunity to approve changes and respond to queries. Then send your manuscript to laurac@waterjournal.org. Please attach your manuscript as a MS Word doc, and also as a PDF. In each of your two attachments, please include Tables and Figures. Please also suggest (and provide contact information for) three or four reviewers who would be qualified to review your manuscript. Remember to include key words and to list your affiliations, university or otherwise.