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, and can be easily discovered via an Internet search..
For details of manuscript preparation, see the topics below.
Acceptable File Formats
Components of a Manuscript
Color Figures
Multimedia
The following file formats are accepted:
Text: Microsoft Word and LaTeX/REVTeX. Templates or style files are not currently available for either file type. Formatting will be handled by the production process after conversion to XML and should not be the focus of significant author effort. If possible, use macros to "tag" the main structural elements of the article (e.g., title, headings, etc.).
Figures: TIFF, PostScript, EPS, or PDF (minimum 300 dpi resolution). See additional requirements below.
Multimedia: QuickTime nonstreaming video (.qt or .mov), or MPEG (.mpg). See additional requirements below.
Top
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. Keywords are not required for JEI.
-
Text: Type manuscript double-spaced, in a single column, using a readable font size (for example, 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.
-
Biographies and photographs: Bios and photos of authors are printed 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. JBO does not print author biographies or photographs.
-
Multimedia: Video and audio files are accepted. Please refer to the multimedia guidelines below for specific submission guidelines and requirements.
Top
Color Figures
Color printing: Authors or their sponsors must bear the cost of color printing. 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 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.
Top
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.
A recommended maximum size for each video file is 10-12 MB.
Video files should be labeled as videos and numbered in the order in which they are referred to in the text, e.g., Video 1, Video 2, etc. The media file type (QuickTime or MPEG) and file size should be included in parentheses at the end of the caption; e.g., (MPEG, 2.5 MB). Videos should either be associated with a figure or submitted as a stand-alone still image, allowing for some static representation of the multimedia file.
If videos are included as part of an existing figure, they should be described and identified within the figure caption. For example:
Fig. 1 Confocal microscopic images of red blood cells in (a) an isotonic buffer (Video 1) and (b) a hypertonic buffer (Video 2) in three different viewing projections (Video 1, MPEG, 3.1 MB; Video 2, MPEG, 4.2 MB).
Stand-alone videos should be accompanied by a representative still image. A caption describing the content of the video file is required, similar to a typical figure caption. For example:
Video 1 Photodynamic therapy response of the targeted region (QuickTime, 5 MB).
Video and Audio Paper Introductions (JNP Only)
After your paper has been accepted to the Journal of Nanophotonics, we invite you to record a video or audio introduction to your paper as part of the SPIE Journals Podcast series. JNP-related podcasts can also be found on iTunes.
Video introductions to your paper can be recorded using your computer's built-in video camera or an auxiliary digital recording device. Video introductions should include a cursory overview of the research presented, including visual illustrations and/or animations. Video introductions should be kept to a maximum of 3 minutes in duration.
If video recording equipment is not available to you, we encourage you to create a digital audio recording of the abstract of your paper as an alternative. If you need audio recording software, please follow these instructions (PDF) to use the open-source recording software from Audacity. Podcast recordings should be saved in one of the following file formats:
Video:
- QuickTime nonstreaming video (.qt or .mov)
- MPEG (.mpg)
Audio:
-
WAV (.wav)
-
AIFF (.aif)
-
MP3 (.mp3)
-
WMA (.wma)
Audio and video introductions should be compressed to <15 MB and sent to journals@spie.org after acceptance. Files larger than 15 MB will need to make special arrangements for file transfer.
Top
