• Using Manuscript Central • Basic Requirements • Electronic Artwork • Reference Paradigms • Permissions • Competing Interest Statement • Download Complete Author Guidelines (102 KB pdf)

Manuscript Submission

Individual authors should submit their chapters through Manuscript Central, our online submission system. Special note should be taken regarding submission of figures and the use of special characters in titles and abstracts.

Using Manuscript Central

Getting Started

1. Launch your Web browser (Internet Explorer 5 or higher, Netscape 7 or higher, Firefox 1.0.4, or Safari 1.2.4) and go to the Manuscript Central homepage of the New York Academy of Sciences (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nyas).
2. Login or click the Create Account option if you are a first-time user of Manuscript Central at the New York Academy of Sciences.
3. If you are creating a new account:
   • Click on Create Account, enter your name and e-mail address (not a Hotmail account), and click Next. Your e-mail information is very important.
   • Enter your institution and address information as appropriate, and then click Next.
   • Enter a user ID and password of your choice (we recommend using your e-mail address as your user ID). Click Finish.
4. If you have an account but have forgotten your login details, go to Password Help on the NYAS Manuscript Central homepage and enter your e-mail address. The system will send you an automatic user ID and password reminder.
5. Login and select Author Center.

Submitting Your Manuscript

6. After you have logged in, click Next in the menu bar to submit a new manuscript.
7. Enter data and answer questions as appropriate.
8. Click the Next button on each screen to save your work and advance to the next screen.
9. You are required to upload your files.
   • Click on the Browse button and locate the file on your computer.
   • Select the designation of each file in the drop-down menu next to the Browse button.
   • When you have selected all files you wish to upload, click the Upload Files button. (Note: All files that you upload may not exceed a total of 300 MB.)
   • A Word about Figures and Tables: As noted in our Author Guidelines, we can only accept figures that are high-resolution tiff or eps files (300 dpi for photographs and 600 dpi for line illustrations, at a width of 3-4 inches). Manuscript Central will not accept PDF, jpeg, Excel, or PowerPoint files. If you submit figures in Word, you may be asked to submit your manuscript again or at least to supply figures in the appropriate programs. Tables may be embedded in the text, provided they are in Word. We prefer that they be submitted in separate Word files, and not as tiffs, or in eps format.
   • Special Characters in the Title and Abstract: If there are special characters in the title or abstract (including curly quotation marks), you will need to insert the special characters into your title and abstract. Click on the pi symbol (Π) next to the words Special Characters. You will find many symbols (standard, Greek, special [curly quotation marks are here], and math) to click on and insert into your abstract or title. You will also need to insert symbols for bold, underline, italic, as well as subscript and superscript. This enables the preprint files to be properly formatted; otherwise these files will be rejected.
   • You are required to submit a Copyright Transfer Agreement (67 KB PDF). Download this form or use the Instructions & Forms link under Resources before you log in at Manuscript Central. You should print, complete, scan, and submit as a supplementary file in Word (doc or rtf).

10. Review your submission (in both PDF and HTML formats) before sending. Click the Submit button when you have finished reviewing.

You may suspend a submission at any phase before clicking the Submit button and save it to submit later. After submission, you will receive a confirmation e-mail. You can also access Manuscript Central at any time to check the status of your manuscript. The New York Academy of Sciences will inform you by e-mail when the volume editor has reviewed your manuscript.

Getting Help with Your Submission

• Each page of the Manuscript Central Web site has a Get Help Now icon connecting directly to the online support system.
• Queries can also be e-mailed to support@scholarone.com, and telephone support is available 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday, through the U.S. ScholarOne support office at +1-434.817.2040, ext 167.
• If you do not have Internet access or cannot submit online, please contact the Annals Project Manager.

Basic Requirements

Manuscript Length

Your volume editor’s suggestions concerning the desired length of your contribution should take precedence over the general guidelines offered here.

Chapters submitted by speakers for a conference proceedings volume can be of any appropriate length, but usually range from 12 to 20 manuscript pages for a regular paper (including abstract, figure legends, tables, and references). If you have been invited to submit a briefer chapter, follow your editor's guidelines, but every chapter must include an abstract and references.

Chapters submitted for an invited monograph or review volume can be of any appropriate length, but usually range from 25 to 40 manuscript pages (including abstract, figure legends, tables, and references).

Contents of the Manuscript File

The text elements should be ordered as follows:

Incorporate components 1 through 11 into one file.

Tables should be sent as Word documents, so that they can be edited. It is best to put all the information into cells rather than laying them out using hard returns and tabs, which can be corrupted when read by a different system. Append tables to the end of the manuscript.

For information about Figures and illustrations other than Tables, please see the section Electronic Artwork.

Finally, use your software's page-numbering capabilities.

Individual manuscripts will not be put into processing unless they are accompanied by a Copyright Transfer Agreement, which should be submitted through Manuscript Central as a supplemental file.

Acceptable Formats
Most up-to-date word-processing software is acceptable, such as WordPerfect, Word, or ClarisWorks. PC DOS, Windows, and Macintosh formats are acceptable. If you are working on a UNIX-based system, please save your file in a PC format. Manuscripts should also be saved with formatting intact. Rich-text formats are preferable.

What is not acceptable: Straight text files are not appropriate, because the formatting will be lost. (For example, characters such as beta and pi will not convert.) Manuscript Central will not accept PostScript and PDF files; it is impossible to edit text in these formats.

When formatting italic and boldface, use the software's built-in features whenever possible. Use special characters provided in the software (e.g., Greek letters and superscripts and subscripts) when required by scientific convention. Symbols and foreign characters are usually available within word-processing software by keying a corresponding font that displays the appropriate character. If a character cannot be displayed, make a note where the character should appear (or indicate what character is used as a temporary measure) and note what the character should be.

Avoid manual coding for line breaks and page breaks. Formatting should be used only for the displaying of equations. In addition, if the manuscript has been edited electronically, please remove all conditional text and remember to turn off the "track changes" feature when keying the manuscript.

Do not use hard returns for line endings within a paragraph; rather, use the software's automatic wrap-around. Use hard returns at the end of each paragraph and after headings. Use only one space between words and sentences. Do not interchange characters: for example, do not use a lowercase "ell" for a 1 or an "oh" for a zero. Be consistent in use of variations of characters: for example, ß versus B.

Manuscripts in TeX (or LaTeX)
TeX files are difficult for our text-editing system to handle. If at all possible, please convert these to a standard word-processing program. If TeX must be used, LaTeX (2e) is best. Note that use of specialized versions of TeX other than LaTeX (2e) or AMS TeX, or the extensive use of custom macros should be avoided, as it will render the file too customized for an economical conversion.

References
References are cited numerically as they occur in the text. Abbreviations for journal titles are those used in the Biosis database. Only the first author's name and initials are inverted in the reference list, and all authors' names are cap/lower case [NOT all caps]. See Reference Paradigms for details.

References should be cited in the text in numerical order as superscript numbers. Reference numbers come immediately after punctuation marks (includes, . : ; " ? !), with no intervening space, but should fall within closing brackets, braces, or parentheses. If your software does not set superscript numbers, key reference numbers with ;s, for example, ;s2;s4 would be 24 for reference number 24.

If your chapter is part of a psychology book, the author–date style as set out by the APA is preferred. References should be cited in the text by author and year within parens. Multiple citations are separated by a semicolon; for example, (Smith, 1995; Culver, 1998). The reference section should be in alphabetical order by last name of the first author using the style elaborated in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

In math/physics-related manuscripts, references should be cited in the text in numerical order in square brackets (e.g., [2], [5]). The reference section should be in the same order in which citations appear in the text.

Permissions

If you are reprinting figures from another source, it is your responsibility to acquire a letter of permission from the copyright holder and forward the signed, original permission letter to us. You should submit these as supplementary files in Manuscript Central.

Competing Interests

Please sign and return a Competing Interests Statement with your manuscript.

Download Competing Interests (28 KB PDF)