Prepare a manuscript

Articles for SPIE Reviews are generally invited by the Editorial Board. However, the journal will also consider proposals from prospective authors. Interested authors should contact the Editor before writing and submitting a review paper.

Authors are also invited to read the material on what constitutes a good review paper.

Permissions

Prior to the publication of a journal article in SPIE Reviews, the author must obtain any necessary permissions for the reprinting of figures, text, or other derived material from both the original publisher and at least one author of each original work. We recommend that you keep track of the origin of all copyrighted material WHILE you are writing your manuscript, and that you begin seeking permissions early in the process.

Guidelines and sample letters for requesting permission from authors and publishers to reproduce tables and figures are provided below.

Information on how to obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted material (PDF)

Sample letter to request permission from authors (in .doc format)

Sample letter to request permission from publishers (in .doc format)

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.

Manuscript Format

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.

The following file formats are accepted:

Text:
Microsoft Word or LaTeX.

Note: Word 2007 and the new .docx format should not be used, due to the incompatibilities of this format with existing production systems. If Word 2007 is unavoidable, back-save to the .doc format. However, please note that you must use MathType or Equation Editor 3.0 and not the more easily accessible Microsoft Math Editor. When equations built with Microsoft Math Editor are back-saved, they are converted to low-resolution graphics and will not be usable for composition.

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.

Manuscripts must contain the following:

• Title page listing 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) 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.
• Subject terms or keywords are required, maximum of eight.
• Text should be typed double-spaced, in a single column using 12-point type.
• Equations should be created using MathType or Equation Editor 3.0. Avoid using Microsoft Math Editor (equations built with Microsoft Math Editor are converted to low-resolution graphics when back-saved to .doc format and become unusable for composition).
• 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.

Use the following reference formats:

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).

Proceedings: Author(s), paper title in quotes, proceedings title in italic, publisher/sponsor (if not already part of title), volume number or paper number (if applicable), page(s), and year published.

Example:  I. Abramov et al., "Real time synthetic aperture radar image formation utilizing an electro-optic spatial light modulator," in Proc. NASA Spaceborne Image Radar Symp., Jet Propulsion Lab., Publication 83-11, p. 107 (1983).

Internet reference: Author(s), title of document in quotes, title of complete work (if relevant), date of publication or last revision, URL (in angle brackets), and date of access, if known.

Example:  N. Myhrvold, “Confessions of a cybershaman,” Slate, 12 June 1997, <http://www.slate.com/CriticalMass/97-06-12/CriticalMass.asp> (19 October 1997).

• Footnotes should be used only when necessary to present important documentary or explanatory material whose inclusion in the text would be distracting.
• Figures may be submitted as part of the manuscript file for peer review. Upon acceptance, authors will be required to submit individual figure files in PS, EPS, TIFF, or PDF format. We cannot accept application files for production, 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 the following instructions be followed precisely for the graphics files to be utilized in the journal production process.
  
  

1. Size your illustrations according to the journal's specifications for column widths. Figures 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.
2. Avoid submitting illustrations containing small axes with oversized labels.
3. 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.
4. The graphic should be sent with the correct orientation.
5. Set the graphic for 600 dpi resolution for line art, 264 dpi for halftones, and 600 dpi for combinations (line art + halftone).
6. Save line art as black/white bitmap; not grayscale.
7. Save halftones and combinations as grayscale, not black/white bitmap.
8. Submit color files at 300 dpi TIFF, PS, or EPS format. If selecting a file mode, use CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) or RGB (Red, Green, Blue).
9. Set the bounding box to image to avoid excess white space around the image.
10. Submit ALL illustrations for each article, including line art.
11. 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.
12. 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 are typeset with the manuscript and should be typed double-spaced after the references.
• Biographies and photographs of authors are published with each accepted paper. Send a brief professional biography not to exceed 150 words and a head-and-shoulders photograph in TIFF, EPS, PostScript, or PDF format. Both black-and-white and color photos are acceptable. The size of the photo in the journal will be 1 and 1/16ths inches wide by 1 and 5/16ths inches high; we will resize the photo if necessary, but please try to prepare a photo as close to this size as possible. Make sure that the resolution is at least 300 dpi.
• Multimedia (video and audio) files are accepted. Please refer to the multimedia guidelines below for specific submission guidelines and requirements.

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 for video include QuickTime nonstreaming video (.qt or .mov), MPEG (.mpg), and DV (.dv). The preferred formats are .mov and .mpg. Detailed specifications about each of these file formats are given below. Please note that AVI files are no longer a recommended file format, because the wide variety of AVI codecs cannot be reliably archived. Authors must also provide a separate representative still image (or frame) taken from the video. This still image is not intended to convey meaning about the content of the video; rather it will be used as a static representation of the video file, which will be inserted into the paper as a figure and linked by the publisher to the actual video file 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.

Audio Submissions: Acceptable file formats for audio include PCM (.pcm), WAV (.wav), AIFF (.aif), and MP3 (.mp3) at 128 Kbs or greater. Detailed specifications are given below.

General Guidelines for All Multimedia Submissions: Authors are strongly encouraged to adhere to the following guidelines when preparing multimedia files:

• 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. For video submissions, fonts, lines, and image details should be of sufficient size and weight to be visible when played at half size.
• Attention should be paid to the file size to make download time reasonable since streaming formats are not acceptable for submission at this time.
• A recommended maximum size for each multimedia file is 3-5 MB.
• Authors are encouraged to use one of the accepted compression codecs to minimize file sizes. Animations must be formatted into a standard video file.
• A caption or description of the content of the media file is required (similar to a typical figure caption). The multimedia file type (e.g., QuickTime, MPEG, etc.) and file size should be included in parentheses at the end of the caption, e.g., (MPEG, 2.5 MB). Number all multimedia files in the order in which they are referred to in the text (similar to figures). Video and audio files should be named Video 1, Video 2, etc., and Audio 1, Audio 2, etc., respectively. Representative still images for video files should be named in the same manner.
  

Detailed Multimedia Specifications:

Acceptable Video File Formats:

• QuickTime nonstreaming (.qt or .mov): 24 bit (millions) color; video compressor/codec: uncompressed/none, animation, Motion JPEG (MJPEG), DV NTSC, DV PAL; audio: 48,000 samples per second, 16 bit, uncompressed/PCM, stereo or mono.
  
• MPEG: video compressor/codec: MPEG2 (.mpg), MPEG4 (.mpg or .mp4); video data rate 6 MB or greater; audio: 48,000 samples per second, 16 bit, uncompressed (PCM) or MPEG audio at 224 KB or greater.
  
• DV (.dv): DV NTSC, DV PAL.
  
• NTSC Video Parameters:
  Image size: (H:V) 720:480 pixels
  Frame rate: 29.97 frames per second
  
• PAL Video Parameters:
  Image size: (H:V) 720:576 pixels
  Frame rate: 25 frames per second 
  

Acceptable Audio File Formats:

PCM, WAV, AIFF, MP3 (at 128 KB or greater); audio parameters: 44,100 or 48,000 samples per second, 16 bit, stereo or mono.

Manuscript Submission:

For submission instructions, please contact the Managing Editor at journals@spie.org.