- Here are some simple general guidelines for authors who are intending to write for BCRA
- You might also like to read the information at Summary Information for Authors
- Your editor at BCRA might have further information, or might wish to modify what is written below.
How should I prepare my manuscript?
It can help our volunteer editors a great deal if authors follow some basic guidelines.
- Software. Please use Microsoft Word and save your files as DOC files (i.e. not DOCX, unless your editor agrees that you can use DOCX). You can also use Open Office but please export your files in the MS Word format.
- Layout. Please do not apply any layout to your document unless we have discussed this with you. The first exercise our editors do is to strip out all the formatting of your text, to take it back to a simple text file. Thus any layout that you apply might be wasted work. The only layout that should remain in your text is simple character embellishment like bold, italic, sub- and superscript, and symbols and accented characters. (To be clear: you can apply layout if you want to, but we will remove it!).
- Fancy Symbols and Publishers' Styles. Some publishers will ask authors to strip out double-spaces, to use en-dashes for hyphens, and a long list of other requirements. We have a similar set of rules but the editors will apply them for you.
- Numbered Lists, Tables and so on. You can use lists and tables, but please try to keep them simple. For tables, please do not apply any "layout" (e.g. formatting cells in a special way). This is because all the layout will be stripped out, as noted above. If you need to use a significantly complicated table, please ask us about it.
- Levels of Headings. Headings are an aspect of layout that some authors have difficulties with. Please do not apply heading levels manually but use Word's paragraph styles to insert them. If you prefer, you can use numbered headings (e.g. 1.7.4). These are easy to keep track of, and we will strip the numbering out as part of the editing process.
How should I Embed my Graphics and Photos?
Please do not embed your graphics or photos! A "manuscript" is a text file - it should not contain graphics or photos. (And, strictly speaking, it should not contain tables either). Well, OK, to be clear... if your manuscript does contain photos or graphics, we will delete them, so please also supply them separately, as outlined below.
- Photos. Supply your photos as separate files with a file name that includes a simple numeric reference and a simple description of the picture. You can retain your camera's original reference as well, if it would be helpful to you. As as example, a photo might be named Photo_1 _ Ingleborough_P45612389.jpg.
- Graphics. Supply and naming requirements are as for photos. Do not spend a great deal of time drawing any graphics without discussing it with us first, as we may want to re-draw the graphics ourselves. There are issues to do with line width and colours to which we need to pay attention.
- Captions. Please supply a table listing all the photos and graphics as a separate Word document. The table should include a caption for each item. Captioning is an art in itself. You need to be brief, but you can also supply a sub-caption if you need to "tell a story in pictures". Please also supply the name of the author of each item (photographer or artist) and any copyright information such as a library reference number or licence number.
- Referring to Items in the Text. Add your references in curly brackets e.g. Please refer to {Fig. 5} . Please also use this format if you are referring to numbered items on, say, a map of a walking route. That is: Turn left at the gate {4} and proceed to the trig point {5}. (Being readily able to identify those characters that require special formatting is very helpful).
- Figure numbering. It is not essential that your figures and photos are numbered in sequence - we may alter the sequence, and we will auto-number it. Thus, if you decide to swap your Fig. 5 with Fig. 7, you do not need to rename the files. It it much more important that you provide an unambiguous reference to each item and place it in the approximate location that the item belongs.
- Combining Photos and Graphics. Please don't! Please do not put graphical items (like circles and arrows) into photo files except as an illustration of what you would like us to do.
- Inline Drawing Packages. Inline drawings such as produced by Microsoft Draw can be very convenient, but they are difficult for us to reproduce without error; similarly, text boxes. If you need to use such items, please discuss it with us. We will ask you to put the drawing in a separate file and, if you are adding text, we will ask you to ensure that you use unique style names.
What Resolution and Format Should my Graphics Be?
- Photo Resolution. Photos should be 350 ppi at the intended final size. In other words, a photo that is five inches wide should be about 1750 pixels wide, with a total size of perhaps 2 mega-pixels. If we were to crop a landscape-format picture for the front cover of an A5 book, it would need to be around 12 mega-pixels in size.
- File Type. We prefer a low-compression JPG file, or a TIFF file. Note that JPG files must be low compression. If you are intending to take photos yourself, take a moment to learn how to set your camera for low compression.
- Photo Size. We prefer photos to be submitted that are too large, rather than ones that are too small. Large photos allow us to choose where to crop them. In other words the bigger the better.
- Websites. Please note that photos downloaded from a web site are rarely a high enough resolution to be usable in a book.
- Mobile phones. Mobile phone cameras are getting better all the time, but we cannot always compensate for low-resolution or a smudged (or low-quality) lens.
- Line Drawings. These need to be a much higher resolution - at least 1000 pixels per inch. For this reason we usually prefer vector graphics to other graphical formats. That is, SVG (or WMF or Microsoft Draw) as opposed to PNG or GIF.
How Should I Send My Files?
The golden rule here is "Never, ever, ever send us two files that have the same name. If you send us a revision, however slight, you should rename the file. It is good practice, when writing in Word, to frequently rename the file anyway - just use a number at the end of the file name, e.g. Caves_on_Mars-v4.doc.
This document written by David Gibson on 20-Feb-2020. Minor updates - see date in page footer.
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