Manuscript preparation guidelines
A. Méndez-Vilas1, and J. Díaz2
1
Microbial Adhesion Group, CIBER-BBN, Networking Biomedical Research Centre in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and
Nanomedicine, University of Extremadura, Avda. Elvas s/n, 06071 Badajoz, Spain
2 Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Extremadura, Av. Universidad s/n, 10071 Cáceres, Spain
This document contains a short summary about how to prepare manuscripts before their submission to the book titled:
Current Research, Technology and Education Topics in Applied Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology. Manuscripts
have to be formatted according to the current layout and page size. Each manuscript requires an abstract with a maximum
length of about ten lines.
Keywords keyword; keyword
1. General remarks
Submissions to Current Research, Technology and Education Topics in Applied Microbiology and Microbial
Biotechnology should be written in correct English. Please consult a native speaker or a knowledgeable colleague for
help, if necessary.
Please submit your manuscript exclusively as one single Word document including the entire text as well as all
tables and figures. Please note that manuscripts must be restricted to a total of 8 or 12 pages for educationally-oriented
research papers, and mini-reviews, respectively. Large numbers of figures should be avoided.
2. Title information
The manuscript should begin with the title of the paper in lower case letters except for proper nouns, certain
abbreviations, physical quantities etc. It is followed by the names of all authors (with first name initials or full names)
and the corresponding institutions (from the smallest to the largest unit, e.g. group, department, and university) with
addresses. Countries should be written in English.
Keywords must be provided separated by semicolon.
3. Manuscript layout
3.1
File formats and templates
Please prepare your manuscript electronically using Microsoft Word (or compatible formats like RTF). All textual
material of the paper (including tables, captions, etc.) should be in a single file. It is essential that you use the provided
template. Please use the predefined styles for title, authors, abstract, body etc. Please use Times New Roman, Times,
Arial, Helvetica, or Symbol fonts as much as possible. Some other fonts (e.g., Asian or Russian character fonts) may
cause problems and should be avoided.
Section headings on all (preferably not more than three levels) should be consecutively numbered by decimal
numbers as 1, 1.1, 1.1.1 etc.
3.2
Figures and tables
Figures must be carefully prepared and submitted ready for reproduction. Lettering and symbols should be clear and
large enough in the final figure size. Avoid small open symbols, small dots, small decimal points, and hairlines, closedotted or short-dashed lines. Draw a closed axes frame in diagrams with the axis titles (quantity followed by the unit in
brackets) parallel to the corresponding axis, outside the frame. For numbers, use a decimal point instead of a comma.
For symbols and units, avoid writing alpha, Ohm, deg; use Greek and special characters instead: α, Ω, °.
Table 1
Volumes of the Microbiology book series in 2007.
Year
Volume number
Papers per volume
Number of pages
2007
2007
I
II
51
49
468
405
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Fig. 1 If a figure is very wide and therefore must span the whole page width, the standard left indent may be skipped.
Please note that the final phrase of the caption ends with a period.
Figures and tables including captions should be embedded in the manuscript file, in order to indicate their appropriate
position and required space. Possible arrangements are shown in this document (Figs. 1–3, see also Table 1). Please
make sure to use only standard fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, Symbol) or include the fonts in the figure file. When
composing a figure, avoid using separate drawing elements in Word such as arrows, symbols or letters, since these are
often lost if a figure must be extracted from the Word file during typesetting. All elements of a figure should be grouped
together as one graphics object.
In the text, the figures or tables are referred to as “... in Fig. /Table 1” or as “Figure/Table 1 shows ...” at the
beginning of a sentence.
Figures and images will appear in black and white (grayscale) in the print version of the book (they will remain in
color in the online PDF version). If some author is interested in color reproduction in print, please contact the publisher
at microb2@formatex.org (color reproduction could have extra costs)
3.3
Quantities, units, and equations
All physical quantities and constants should be given in italic, vectors in bold italic letters (both in the text and in
equations). Care should be taken to distinguish subscripts, superscripts, and special symbols. Units should be written in
upright letters (not in italics) with a short space to the number before. SI units should be used throughout. Mathematical
functions which are tabulated (e.g. sin, cos, exp, e, etc.) should be given in upright letters (not in italics).
Equations may be numbered sequentially. Except for small in-line equations, they should appear on separate lines,
such as
G=
ab 
ab 
b2 b1 +

 b2 a n an .
i cos a i 1
i cos a i 1
(1)
a)
b)
Fig. 2 Two parts of a figure side-by-side. They should be labelled a) and b) either in the figure or adjacent to it. Such figures are not
left indented. Two figures of similar size with consecutive numbers may be arranged in the same way, with separate captions
underneath each figure.
2
Fig. 3 Figure with side caption. This option is particularly appropriate
for a single illustration with a maximum width of about 8 cm which
cannot be grouped together with another figure. The figure is placed
left-aligned with no indentation. The caption text must not exceed the
available space beside the figure. Depending on the position of the
figure at the top or the bottom of the page, the caption is also aligned
top or bottom, respectively.
In the text, equations may be referred to by writing “... in Eq. (1)”. At the beginning of a sentence, use the full form
“Equation (1) shows ...”.
3.4
Formatting of references
References should be numbered (in square brackets, such as [1, 2] or [1–3]) and listed in the order of citations in the
text at the end of the manuscript. In Word, it is not recommended to insert references as endnotes.
Citations for journal articles should include the following basic information (not every article will have all of these
elements): Authors’ last names followed by his/her first and middle initials. Title of article and subtitle (if any). Name
of journal -- IN ITALICS. Year; Volume number (Part or supplement and issue month or number when there are nonsequential page numbers): Page numbers
Citations for books, chapters in books, etc. should include the following basic information (not every book will have
all of these elements): Authors’ last name followed by his/her first and middle initials. Chapter title. Last name and first
and middle initials of book authors or editors. Title of book and subtitle, if any -- IN ITALICS. Volume number and
volume title, when there is more than 1 volume. Edition (do not indicate 1st). Place of publication: Publisher; Year of
copyright: Page numbers, when specific pages are cited.
Some examples about citation of journal articles, books and websites are shown below.
Acknowledgements
The support by XXX is gratefully acknowledged.
References
[1] Raux H, Coulon P, Lafay F, Flamand A. Monoclonal antibodies which recognize the acidic configuration of the rabies
glycoprotein at the surface of the virion can be neutralizing. Virology. 1995;210:400-408.
[2] Shepard TH. Catalog of Teratogenic Agents. 7th ed. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins Press; 1992.
[3] Armitage JO, Antman KH, eds. High-dose Cancer Therapy: Pharmacology, Hematopoietins, Stem Cells. Baltimore, Md:
Williams & Wilkins; 1995.
[4] Degner LF, McWilliams ME. Challenges in conducting cross-national nursing research. In: Fitzpatrick JJ, Stevenson JS, Polis
NS, eds. Nursing Research and its Utilization: International State of the Science. New York, NY: Springer; 1994:211-215.
...
[10] Terre Haute Center for Medical Education. The THCME Medical Biochemistry page. Available at:
http://web.indstate.edu/thcme/mwking/home.html. Accessed August 24, 1999.
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