Manuscripts should be submitted in English, and the presentation should be as succinct as comprehension will permit. Manuscripts are reviewed and refereed. Those accepted for publication are edited for conformance to the journal's style. Metric units should be used unless to do so is not feasible or would result in a serious loss of clarity.
For peer review, manuscripts should be submitted with the figures/tables and their captions incorporated into the same file as the manuscript text. However, upon acceptance, authors will be required to submit individual figure files and a properly formatted manuscript for use in production.
English-Language Editing Services: Authors (particularly non-native English speakers) who would like assistance in improving the quality of English in their manuscripts prior to submission may wish to consider using an English-language editing service. Several commercial vendors provide such services, including American Journal Experts, SPi Professional Editing Services, and Nature Publishing Group. Please note that SPIE has no connection with any of these services and cannot provide an endorsement of their work. These services are mentioned for informational purposes only.
For details of manuscript preparation, see the topics below.
Types of manuscripts:
Letter: A short technical communication of significant interest intended for rapid publication in the JBO Letters section of the journal. The manuscript length may not exceed three printed journal pages. Further details below.
JBO Letters: The purpose of this section of the Journal of Biomedical Optics is to provide rapid publication of short technical communications of significant interest. Submissions should be prepared in the same manner as a regular paper, except that there are no author biographies. The manuscript length may not exceed three printed journal pages. This corresponds to approximately 3000 words (excluding title, abstract, and author information); figures will further reduce the maximum word content. A brief cover letter setting forth the significance of the paper must accompany the manuscript. If accepted, letters will be scheduled for publication in the next available issue of the Journal of Biomedical Optics. Letters will be open access in the online journal and will also be part of the SPIE Letters Virtual Journal. Regular page charges apply to letters.
Regular Paper: A full-length manuscript presenting original work intended as a regular contribution to the journal.
Special Section Paper: A full-length manuscript presenting original work intended for submission to a special topical section organized by a guest editor.
Review Paper: An article reviewing a particular topic or field. Review papers are typically invited papers written by a highly regarded expert in the field.
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The following file formats are accepted:
Text: Microsoft Word, LaTeX/REVTeX, PDF, or PostScript. (Note: a REVTeX toolkit is available at the AIP website. Word 2007 and the new .docx format should not be used, due to problems that this format causes in many existing production routines. If Word 2007 is unavoidable, back-save to the .doc format. Word 2007 users should read the guidelines at the AIP website for further instructions.)
Figures: TIFF, PostScript, EPS, or PDF (minimum 300 dpi resolution). See additional requirements below.
Multimedia: QuickTime nonstreaming video (.qt or .mov), MPEG, DV, PCM, WAV, AIFF, and MP3 at 128 Kbs or greater. See additional requirements below.
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Manuscripts must conform to the following:
Title page: List the paper title; the name(s) of the author(s); and the affiliation, complete mailing address, phone number, fax number, and E-mail address (if available) of each author. List sponsorship information in an acknowledgment section at the end of the paper.
Abstract: (200 words maximum) It should be a summary of the paper and not an introduction. Because the abstract may be used in abstracting journals, it should be self-contained (i.e., no numerical references) and substantive in nature, presenting concisely the objectives, methodology used, results obtained, and their significance. For further guidelines, please read the brief article titled "How to Write an Abstract (PDF)," by Philip Koopman. (Courtesy of Philip Koopman, Carnegie Mellon University.)
Subject terms or keywords: A maximum of eight are required.
Text: Type manuscript double-spaced, in a single column, using 12-point type.
Equations: Create equations using MathType or Equation Editor 3.0. If using Word 2007, do NOT use the more easily accessible Microsoft Math Editor. When equations built with Microsoft’s Editor are back-saved to the .doc format, they are converted to low-resolution graphics and will not be usable for composition. To use MathType or the old Equation Editor 3.0, you will need to select Object on the Text section of the Insert tab and then select MathType/Equation Editor in the drop-down menu.
References: References to published literature must be typed double-spaced and numbered consecutively in the order of their citation in the text. Private communications or unpublished reports should be treated as references. Click here for sample book and journal references.
Books: Author(s) (list first and middle initials, then last name), book title in italic, publisher, city, and year published. (When citing a paper chapter in a book, list the chapter title in quotes, and the book title in italic, plus the page numbers.) Example: J. A. Hall, "Imaging tubes," Chap. 13 in The Infrared Handbook, W. W. Wolfe, G. J. Zissis, Eds., pp. 132-176, ERIM, Ann Arbor, MI (1978).
Journals: Author(s) (list first and middle initials, then last name), paper title in quotes, journal name in italic (abbreviate only well-known journals), volume and issue numbers, inclusive page numbers, and year published. Example: N. Bluzer and A. S. Jensen, "Current readout of infrared detectors," Opt. Eng.26(3), 241-248 (1987).
Footnotes: Use textual footnotes only when necessary to present important documentary or explanatory material whose inclusion in the text would be distracting.
Figures: must be submitted electronically in PS, EPS, TIFF, or PDF format. We cannot accept application files, i.e., Corel Draw, Microsoft Word, etc. Number all figures in the order that they appear in the text. All figure parts must be labeled (a), (b), etc. It is important that these instructions be followed precisely for the graphics files to be utilized in the journal production process.
- Size your illustrations according to the journal's specifications for column widths. Illustrations are generally reduced to either one-column width (3 & 5/16th inches) or two-column width (7 inches) or smaller. Submit each illustration at the final size in which you would like it to appear in the journal. Each illustration should be prepared for 100% reproduction.
- Avoid submitting illustrations containing small axes with oversized labels.
- Ensure that line weights will be 0.5 points or greater in the final published size. Line weights below 0.5 points will reproduce poorly.
- The graphic should be sent with the correct orientation. When using Photoshop, remove the "alpha channel" and flatten the image to one layer.
- Set the graphic for 600 dpi resolution for line art, 264 dpi for halftones, and 600 dpi for combinations (line art + halftone).
- Save line art as black/white bitmap; not grayscale.
- Save halftones and combinations as grayscale, not black/white bitmap.
- Submit color files at 300dpi TIFF, PS, or EPS format. If selecting a file mode, use CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) or RGB (Red, Green, Blue).
- Set the bounding box to image to avoid excess white space around the image.
- Submit ALL illustrations for each article, including line art.
- Make sure there is only ONE figure per file. Each figure file should contain all parts of the figure. For example, if Figure 1 contains three parts (a, b, c), then all of the labeled parts should be combined in a single file for Figure 1. 8 pt. labels are preferable.
- Check files for extraneous information. Edit out any figure captions or e-mail headers. The only data in the file should be the figure itself.
Figure and table captions: Type double-spaced after the references to be typeset with the manuscript.
Multimedia: Video and audio files are accepted. Please refer to the multimedia guidelines below for specific submission guidelines and requirements.
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Color Figures
Color printing: Authors or their sponsors must bear the cost of printing in color. The cost is $600 for the first color figure and $300 for each additional color figure. Authors who would like figures printed in color must complete and return a Color Authorization Form (PDF) upon acceptance of their manuscript.
Color online only: All figures submitted electronically in color will be published in color online without charge, provided the figures are submitted in the proper format. Authors who wish to have color figures published in the print journal will continue to incur color printing charges. Figures must be submitted electronically in TIFF, PostScript, or EPS. (We cannot accept JPEG, GIF, or any other file formats for production of figures.) Authors should submit a single color version of the figure. The black-and-white figure for print will be derived from the color file submitted by the author. Authors who choose to submit color figures are responsible for ensuring that the captions and descriptions in the text are suitable for both the color online and black-and-white print versions of the journal, and that the figure itself will be readable in both versions. Figures must be prepared according to the journal guidelines. The journal reserves the right to publish figures in black and white online if the electronic figures are unusable or are received too late in the production process. If the electronic files are utilized, authors will see the color figures in the PDF proof of their article.
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Multimedia Guidelines
Multimedia files must be submitted as an integral part of the paper. Supplemental multimedia material is not accepted.
Video Submissions:
Acceptable file formats include:
- QuickTime nonstreaming video (.qt or .mov)
- MPEG (.mpg)
The acceptable file formats outlined above are playable using standard media players such as QuickTime and Windows Media Player. Media players should be used to check file properties and image/sound quality prior to submission.
Authors must create a representative "still" image taken from the video and submit it as an individual figure file. This still image will be used as a static representation of the video file, which will be linked by the publisher after acceptance. Care should be taken to extract an image from the video which has reasonable clarity of fine lines and details. Acceptable file formats for still images are TIFF, EPS, PS, or PDF.
A caption or description of the content of the video file is required, similar to a typical figure caption. Number all multimedia files in the order in which they are referred to in the text, e.g., Video 1, Video 2, etc. The multimedia file type (e.g., QuickTime, MPEG, etc.) and file size should be included in parentheses at the end of hte caption, e.g., (MPEG, 2.5 MB).
A recommended maximum size for each video file is 10-12 MB.
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