Advances in Space Research Manuscript Preparation and Submission Guidelines

M. A. Shea^a, D. F. Smart^a, J. Laštovička^b, and B. Paul^c

^aEmeritus, Air Force Research Laboratory (VSBX), 29 Randolph Road, Hanscom AFB, Bedford, MA  01731, USA
^bInstitute of Atmospheric Physics, Acad. Sciences Czech Republic, Bocni II, 141 31 Prague 4, Czech Republic
^cRaman Research Institute, Sadashivnagar, C.V. Raman Avenue, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560080, India

 Abstract

This document provides guidelines for preparing manuscripts from the 36th COSPAR assembly (in Beijing, China) for publication in Advances in Space Research (ASR).  These instructions are similar to the standard Elsevier manuscript preparation instructions, which can be downloaded from the Elsevier author gateway http://authors.elsevier.com/.  The general instructions are to prepare files that can be submitted electronically to the Elsevier ASR Editorial Office.  If you prepare your manuscript using these guidelines, it will be typeset with a minimum of difficulty.

Prepare your manuscript in the standard format of the word processor system you are using.  Keep the layout simple without any special formatting.  Organize the manuscript by numbered sections and subsections.  The first line of each paragraph is indented.  Do not center or right justify paragraphs or hyphenate words.  The length of each contribution should be appropriate for the material presented. 

The manuscript preparation instructions are in section 2 of these guidelines.  Section 7 provides guidelines for on-line submission of ASR manuscripts.  You must first register before you can use the on-line system; see section 7.1. 

For submissions not associated with the COSPAR Beijing Assembly, please contact the Editor-in-Chief, M.A. Shea (E-mail: sssrc@msn.com) for instructions.

1.  General guidelines

1.1.  General

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published in this form previously (except as an abstract, as part of a published lecture, academic thesis, or technical report), and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.  Manuscripts must be approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was conducted.  If the article is accepted for publication it must not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of COSPAR.  Advances in Space Research (ASR) accepts several types of articles including the following: original research, review articles, space experiment descriptions, and space program descriptions.  Book reviews and comments on previously published articles (and appropriate replies) are also considered.  All submissions are refereed.

Write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted).  If you are not fluent in English, please have your manuscript reviewed by a colleague fluent in English before you submit it. 
Do not use italics for expressions of Latin origin.  For numbers, use commas to space numbers larger than one thousand, and decimal points for numbers that have accuracy greater than one.  For example: 10,000 and 3.14159.  Exponents may also be used: 6.024 x 10^-22.

Once an article is submitted, the author will receive a confirming message of its receipt and may receive additional messages regarding the acceptability of the submitted article.  Major problems such as incomplete articles (i.e. drafts), poor quality figures or incomplete references will be identified and the author may be requested to resubmit his/her manuscript prior to review.

2.  Preparation of manuscript

2.1.  Manuscript title, author’s affiliation and abstract

2.1.1.  Title

The title should be concise and informative.  Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.  Use bold type.

2.1.2.  Author names and affiliations

List the given name (or initials) followed by the family name (e.g. John K. Doe, U. R. Wise).  Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly.  The authors’ affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) is listed below the names and in italics.  If there are multiple authors with different affiliations, indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author’s name and in front of the appropriate address.  Provide the full postal address for each affiliation, including the mail code, country, and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.  It is essential to provide the e-mail address of the corresponding author so that he/she may be contacted whenever necessary during the publication process.

If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a ‘Present address’ (or ‘Permanent address’) may be indicated as a footnote to that author’s name.  The address at which the author actually did the work should be retained as the main affiliation address.  Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

2.1.3.  Abstract

The abstract is identified by the word Abstract.  Leave one line space below the word Abstract.  A concise and factual abstract is required, the text of which is started on the next line.  The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions.  Abstracts are extracted for abstracting services, and thus each abstract must summarize the content of the article.  References should therefore be avoided, but if essential, they must be cited in full within the abstract, without reference to the reference list.  Write out abbreviations: (e.g. Solar Maximum Mission instead of SMM; interplanetary magnetic field instead of IMF).  It is recommended that you have a separate file containing only the abstract.  The on-line submission procedure will ask for a file containing only the abstract.  (See Section 7.)

2.2.1.  Subdivision of the article

Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections.  Subsections should be numbered, such as 2.2 (then 2.2.1, 2.2.2 for subheadings).  The abstract is not included in section numbering.  Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to ‘the text.’  All subsections should have a brief heading. 

2.2.2.  Tables, figure legends and figures

Assemble the tables, figure legends and figures in this order at the end of the text (after the references).  If you are working with LaTeX and have such features embedded in the text, these can be left, but such embedding need not be done specifically for manuscript submission. 
Number tables consecutively using Arabic numbers.  Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters.  Avoid vertical rules. 
Provide a caption for each figure after the references and tables.
Graphic files must be provided separately.  Section 6 gives instructions and guidelines for figure preparation and submission.

2.2.3.  Equations

Number equations sequentially with the equation number typed near the right margin and within parenthesis.  When reference to an equation is embedded in the text, the equation number is preceded by the abbreviation Eq. followed by the equation number within parenthesis.  Thus the equation

E = mc²,                                                    (1)

would be referred to as Eq. (1) in the text.

2.2.4.  Appendices 

Appendices are identified by capital letters: Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.  Formulae, equations and figures in appendices should be given separate numbering: (Eq. A1; Eq. A2, Fig. A1); in a subsequent appendix, (Eq. B1, Fig. B1, Fig. B2), etc.  References in appendices are listed at the end of the main text with all other reference citations.

3.  Electronic format requirements for accepted articles

3.1.  General points

The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts.  Most word processing systems are acceptable, but LaTeX, or word processor systems such as MSWord, or WordPerfect are preferred.  Always keep a backup copy of the electronic file for reference and safety. 

The Elsevier LaTeX package (including detailed instructions for LaTeX preparation) can be obtained from the Elsevier Author Gateway: http://authors.elsevier.com/.  Click on the “Guide to Publishing with Elsevier”, and then click on the “LaTeX file guidelines”.  Download the appropriate elsart.cls file and the Articles with Harvard style (author-year) reference template.  Do not use the numbered reference template! 

The text should be in single-column format.  Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible.  You are strongly advised to use the ‘spellchecker’ function of your word processor.  You may use bold face, italics, subscripts, and superscripts as necessary.  Do not use the word processor’s options to justify the text or hyphenate words.  Do not embed ‘graphically designed’ equations or tables, but prepare these using the word processor’s facility.  When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row.  If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns.  For figure preparation, see Section 6 of these guidelines. 

All references are to be in the ASR format.  Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors.

4.1.  Citations in the text

References cited in the text must be listed in the reference list (and vice versa). Citation of a reference as ‘in press’ implies that the item has been accepted for publication; the name of the publication must be given.  A citation to an article under review is cited as “Submitted to” with the journal name.  Unpublished results and personal communications are not included in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text as “personal communication.  Citations of “in preparation” or “to be submitted” are not permitted. 

4.2.  References in the text

All citations are embedded in the text (i.e. Harvard style) as follows:

1. Single author: the author’s name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
2. Two authors: both authors’ names and the year of publication;
3. Three or more authors: first author’s name followed by ‘et al.’ and the year of publication.
   Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically).  Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.
   
   Examples: “as demonstrated by experimental analysis (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1995).  Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ....”

4.3.  Citing and listing of web references

As a minimum, the full URL should be given.  Any further information, if known (author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list), under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

4.4.  Reference list

It is important to give complete references; authors (at least up to 3 names), titles, journal name, inclusive page numbers and year of publication.  These references will be cross-linked (via Elsevier’s ScienceDirect) so that a click on a reference will provide a pointer to the proper URL if the reference is electronically available.
Reference citations should appear at the end of the text before any tables.  References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary.  More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters “a”, “b”, “c”, etc., placed after the year of publication.  Examples of the reference formats for ASR are given in Table 1 at the end of these guidelines. 

5.  Copyright

Advances in Space Research is published by Elsevier Science Ltd. on behalf of COSPAR and is a copyrighted publication.  If, in writing your manuscript, you use excerpts or figures from other copyrighted works (including some web sites) the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owner(s) and credit the source(s) in the article.  You can do this by contacting the original author or copyright holder directly, following the procedures given in the original publication, or by using the Elsevier preprinted forms for this same purpose.  It is the author’s responsibility to obtain all necessary copyright releases.  If you want to use the Elsevier form contact Elsevier Global Rights Department, P.O. Box 800, Oxford, OX5 1DX, UK; phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com
Upon acceptance of an article, the corresponding author will be asked to complete a copyright form transferring the copyright to COSPAR.  By signing this form the author confirms the receipt of all necessary permissions regarding the use of previously copyrighted material. 

If possible the figures should be designed to fit within a column width of 7.6 cm (3 inches) for the final double column format.  Wider figures (~15 cm or 6 inches) will be placed across the width of the entire page.  If figures wider than ~15 cm (6 inches) are necessary they will be placed sideways on the printed page. 

• Number the figures according to their sequence in the text using Arabic numbers.
• Provide each figure as a separate file for uploading.
• Provide figure captions in a separate list at the end of your manuscript (i.e. after the references and tables.)
• Produce figures near to the desired size for use in the printed version.
• Always supply adequate quality figures and/or photographs. 
• Make sure you use adequate (i.e. readable after reduction) uniform lettering and sizing for all figures. 

There is no charge for color figures on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect).  If you want your figures to appear in color in the printed article, additional costs are involved: 400 Euro for the first page and 200 Euro for any subsequent pages.  If you elect color reproduction in print, you will receive information on the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article.  If you wish to have black and white figures in the printed version, and color figures on the web, submit both the black and white electronic images and the color electronic images of these figures.  Enter instructions to the typesetters in the “enter comments box” of the drop-down menu (see section 7.4). 
If you are not able to supply an electronic version of your figures or photographs, contact the ASR Editorial office (asr-editorialoffice@elsevier.com).  A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on the Elsevier website (http://authors.elsevier.com/); click on “Artwork Instructions”.
A resolution of at least 300 dpi is recommended.  Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please “save as” or convert the images to one of the following preferred formats: 

EPS:                              Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as “graphics”.
TIFF:                               Black and white, color or grayscale photographs (halftones).  For color images always use RGB.
JPG:                               JPG files can be accepted.
DOC, XLS or PPT:       If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications please supply “as is”.

Most formats can be accepted.  If you experience problems contact the Author Support Department at authorsupport@elsevier.com

Please do not:

• Supply embedded graphics in your word processor (spreadsheet, presentation) document;
• Supply graphic files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

7.  Submission of articles

Manuscripts are to be prepared in electronic form; submission to ASR is intended to be totally on-line.  You must first register before you can use the electronic submission system.  Please review the submission checklist (Section 7.2) before proceeding.

Go to the web page for Advances in Space Research (http://ees.elsevier.com/jasr/).  Click on “register”.  You must complete the registration in order to use the system.  After you have completed the registration, you will be e-mailed a username and password that will allow you to access the system.  Please retain this username and password. You will need this information each time you wish to access the electronic submission system.  If forget your username and password, go to the log-in page and use the option “If you have forgotten your user name and/or password, please click here”.

The following is a checklist of what you will need to submit your manuscript.

• A separate file containing only the abstract.
• A complete manuscript file containing the title, authors, affiliations, abstract, text, appendices (if any) and references.
• References are in the correct format for Advances in Space Research.
• All tables should be at the end of the manuscript file before the figure captions. Alternatively, Tables can be submitted as separate files, in the same manner as figures.
• All figure captions are listed at the end of the manuscript after any tables.
• Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for printed color reproduction or to be printed in black-and-white.  This information should be specified into the “enter comments” box that is part of the drop-down menu. 
• Each figure is a unique file and labeled as fig(n) where (n) corresponds to the figure number.

If you want to submit your final manuscript at the COSPAR Beijing Assembly , bring an electronic copy with you (it can be in the form of a disk, zip drive, or CD), or arrange to have the manuscript available electronically via the web or FTP.  There will be personnel from the ASR Editorial Office to assist you with your submission.  If you prepare your manuscript after the COSPAR Beijing Assembly, then it must be submitted electronically to the ASR Editorial Office (http://ees.elsevier.com/jasr/). 

Go to (http://ees.elsevier.com/jasr/).  Click on “log in”.  Type in your user name and password.  Click various files of COSPAR Beijing Assembly manuscripts directly into the ASR Editorial Office.  Click on “Submit on “Author Login”.  The main menu will be displayed; there is a step-by-step guide for uploading the New Manuscript” and follow the menu. 

7.3.1  Hints to expedite uploading manuscripts

The title, authors, abstract and keywords should be available for “copy and paste” into the menu “boxes” which will appear in the menu guide requesting this information. 

7.3.2.  Insert manuscript title

Type (or paste) the manuscript title in the “box” that will appear.  Enter the COSPAR paper number (e.g. A1.1-0034-06; F2.2-0003-06; PSB-0019-06) as given in the program book on a line below the manuscript title.  (Do NOT use the Copernicus abstract number.)  Click on “Next” to go to the next menu and “ Select article type” from the drop-down menu.

7.3.3  Author(s)

Insert the names of co-authors. 

7.3.4  Select Section/Category

This section is unique to COSPAR and ASR.  From the drop-down menu, select the COSPAR commission session appropriate for your paper.

7.3.5  Abstract

The guiding menu will ask you for the abstract.  An easy method is to copy and paste the abstract in the dialogue box.

7.3.6  Keywords

The guiding menu will ask you for keywords.  Please provide 3-6 keywords descriptive of your article and suitable for data searches.  Some sample are shown below:

Sample keywords:  Solar particle events; Remote sensing; Biological response; Science education; Active galactic nuclei; Neutron stars.

7.4  Comments 

In the drop-down menu, there is an “enter comments” box.  Please enter the names and e-mail addresses of up to 5 potential referees for your paper into the comments box. 
You may also use this menu “box’ for any comments you wish to address to the editor or for specific instructions, such as specifying which figures are to be printed in color.

7.5.  File uploads

The drop-down menu will display several file types to be uploaded.  The first type is abstract.  (You may use the browser button to specify where the abstract file is stored, or you can copy and paste it in the appropriate location.)  The next file type is manuscript.  The complete manuscript text (including the title, authors, affiliations and abstract) must be uploaded as a unique file.  Then any tables and/or figures may be uploaded as separate files. Figure and Table files should be numbered accordingly in the Description field.  It is possible to consolidate multiple figures into a zip file and then upload the zip file (or tar file for UNIX users) into the EES.  In this case the files in the zip file should each be clearly named for clarity reasons - so that they will be clearly identifiable in the PDF file built by the EES.

7.5.1  LaTeX file uploads

LaTeX files may be uploaded directly.  (See section 3.2)  If the figures or tables are uploaded as separate files, please identify each one appropriately with the extension indicating the file type, such as Fig1.eps.

7.5.2  Word processor file uploads

Word processor documents may be uploaded directly.  The extension should indicate the type of documents, such as F2-4-0003.doc.  Do not embed figures in word processor files.  The preferred method is for each figure to be uploaded as a separate file identifying each one appropriately with the extension indicating the file type, such as Fig1.doc.

7.6.  Checking the uploaded manuscript

Once the uploading is completed, the uploaded file will be checked by the Elsevier system.  The Elsevier system will generate an electronic (PDF) proof for your approval.  (It takes about 60 sec per MB of uploaded data to generate the proof.)  It is possible for the author to edit the manuscript on-line and make necessary corrections and upload revised sections.  (The PDF proof must be recompiled after editing.)  You must approve the PDF proof in order to complete the manuscript submission process.

7.7  Communication with the Author

All correspondence, including notification of the Editor’s decision and requests for revisions, will be by e-mail; however, there may be some cases where the guest editor will contact the author directly regarding specific points in the manuscript.  Once an article has been reviewed and accepted, the corresponding author will be sent notification of the final manuscript number maintained by Elsevier (starting with the letters JASR), and the copyright and offprint order forms.  Approximately four weeks later the corresponding author should receive a PDF galley proof for approval and acceptance.  Please answer any questions that the typesetters may have included and then return the corrected galley proof promptly.

7.8  Privacy issues

The ASR format includes the corresponding author’s e-mail, telephone and Fax numbers.  The e-mail address is necessary for all communications with the author.  If the author objects to having the e-mail address, telephone and/or Fax numbers published in the on-line or in the printed article this data should be deleted when reviewing the final proofs.

8.  Other submissions

For submissions not associated with the COSPAR Beijing Assembly, please contact the Editor-in-Chief (M.A. Shea, e-mail address: sssrc@msn.com) for instructions and information. 

For any further information please contact the Author Support Department at authorsupport@elsevier.com

If you have further queries regarding the status of your manuscript or the submission process itself, after initial submission of your manuscript to the ASR Editorial Office, please contact the ASR Editorial Office at asr-editorialoffice@elsevier.com

Information and notes on reference formats 

1. Authorship: List authors by last name, then initials  (e.g. Carrington, R.C., Zhou, H.)
   You can list as many authors as you wish; however, you might want to consider item No. 2 
2. Multi-authored papers:
   List first three authors followed by et al.  (Example: Rauer, H., Arpigny, C., Manfroid, J. et al.)
3. Titles of papers: First word capitalized; all others in lower-case unless normally capitalized.
4. Titles of books and reports: Major words capitalized. 
5. Publishers: Name of publisher, publisher’s city (and country, if not well known)
6. Editors: After article title followed by (Ed),
7. Journal names: Common abbreviations. 
   (Examples: J. Geophys. Res., Geophys. Res. Lett., Adv. Space Res., Astrophys. J., Sol. Phys.)
8. Volume number: After name of journal
9. Issue numbers (if appropriate): Within parenthesis after the volume number
10. Page numbers: Inclusive pages for journal articles; pp. x-xx for articles in books and reports.
11. Year published: At the end of the reference.  Period at the end.
12. Published Abstracts: Title of abstract followed by the word (Abstract) in parenthesis
13. For submissions: Author, title, followed by “Submitted to journal name”, year
14. For articles accepted for publication or in press:  Author, title, followed by “in press, journal name, year”
15. Non-English language publications: The language of the publication after the year, within parenthesis
    Example:  Kosmicheskie issledovaniya, 38, 16-22, 2000.  (In Russian).  
    English translations of all titles should be given.
16. For internet and www references: http://www followed by the correct internet address.

NOTE: If you are not certain of the format, please give as much information as possible.  The typesetter will reformat all references and query any that are incomplete.

Specific examples follow:

Carslaw, K.S., Harrison, R. G., Korby,  J. Cosmic rays, clouds, and climate. Science 298, 1732-1736, 2002.
Cash, W. High resolution X-ray imaging, in: Turner, M.I.L., Watson, M.G. (Eds.), The Next Generation of X-ray Observatories. University of Leicester, Report XRA97/02, Leicester, UK, pp. 147-152, 1997.
Friis-Christensen, E., Svensmark, H. What do we really know about the sun-climate connection? Adv. Space Res. 20, 913-921, 1997.
Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B. How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: Jones, B.S., Smith, R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. EPublishing Inc., New York, pp. 281-304, 1999.
Nguyen, T.K., Ruffle, D.P., Herbst, E., et al. The water ice distribution in Taurus determined by gas-grain chemistry. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 329, 301-308, 2002.
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B. The Elements of Style, third ed. Macmillan, New York, 1979.
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51-19, 2000.