Guidelines for authors
Authors who have not previously submitted a paper to the institution are advised to read the complete Guide to the Preparation of
Papers and Instructions to Authors for Submitting Disks which are
available from:
Matt Frye
Journals Assistant, Proceedings
Professional Engineering Publishing Ltd.
Northgate Avenue
Bury St Edmunds, IP32 6BW
UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1284 718658 Fax: +44 (0) 1284 768219
e-mail: m_frye@imeche.org.uk
The following notes have been extracted from the Guide.
Length
1. Technical papers and case studies should not exceed 5000 words
and 10 illustrations.
2. Technical notes should not exceed 1500 words and 5 illustrations.
3. Communications on papers already published should not exceed
500 words and 2 illustrations.
4. Review papers may be allowed to exceed 5000 words, but 6000
words is normally the maximum.
Preparation of manuscripts
1. The language of the Proceedings is English and the preferred
spellings are those of the Oxford English Dictionary.
2. Papers should be written in the third person in an objective,
formal and impersonal style.
3. SI units should be used wherever possible, as recommended in
ISO 1000 and BS5555.
4. Symbols for physical quantities should be in italic (sloping) type.
Mathematical operators and constants (sin, e, d, log, π, . . . ) and
symbols for units (m, kg, s, . . . ) should be in roman (upright) type.
Vectors should be in bold italic type (A) and matrices in bold upright
type (A). If this is not possible then they should be indicated by a
wavy line. Further details are given in the Guide to the Preparation
of Papers, or ISO 31 and BS 5775.
5. Manuscripts should be typed, with double spacing throughout
(including references), on A4 size paper, leaving ample margins. A
list of captions for the illustrations and each table should be typed
separately. Lengthy mathematical proofs and derivations should be
given in an appendix.
6. The preferred order of contents is as follows:
(a) Title of paper.
(b) Author(s) name(s) and business address.
(c) Synopsis of not more than 200 words: covering the aims of the
work, methods used, results obtained and conclusions reached;
keywords for information retrieval purposes should be indicated.
(d) List of notation, in alphabetical order, defining all the symbols
used in the paper (see 4 above).
(e) Body of the paper: organized into logical sections, sequentially
numbered with no more than two grades of subheadings.
(f) Acknowledgements.
(g) References in the order to which they have been referred in the
text (1) (2). For example:
1 Ge. S. S. and Postlethwaite, I. Non-linear adaptive control of
robots including motor dynamics. Proceedings of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers. Instn Mech Engrs, Part I 1994, 208 (12),
89-100.
2 Stanway, R. and Sproston, J. L. Vibration control using ER
fluids in squeeze flow. Proceedings of IUTAM Symposium on The
Active Control of Vibration (Eds C. R. Burrows and P. S. Keogh),
Bath, 1994, pp. 247-254 (Mechanical Engineering Publications,
London).
(h) Appendices.
(I) Tables: these should be numbered consecutively throughout the
text.
(j) List of captions for the illustrations which should also be
numbered consecutively throughout the text; both line drawings and
photographs must be included in the same numbering sequence.
Illustrations
Line drawings: line drawings should be supplied as CRC originals
or ready to be used on reduction. All labelling/annotation should be
of consistent size/style throughout. Symbols should be used to
match those used in the text (see 'Preparation of Manuscripts',
above). Please avoid use of shading; use hatching instead for clarity.
Multicoloured line drawings are unsuitable for monochrome (black
and white) printing. Computer-generated drawings are only
acceptable if the line thickness is adequate to stand reduction.
Each illustration should be marked with the author's name and the
figure number; the top of each photograph should be indicated. No
illustrations will be returned to the author unless specifically
requested.
Colour: It may be possible, in exceptional circumstances, for colour
illustrations to be included. This will only be considered where the
use of colour is unavoidable. Any author wishing to include colour
illustrations must make this plain when submitting the paper, as any
colour must be agreed with the publisher prior to the paper being
accepted. Authors will be asked to cover the full costs incurred in
colour printing.
Photographs: photographs should be clear, sharp, black and white
prints, with good contrast, on glossy paper; the most suitable size is
twice the final size. Cuttings from printed matter or photocopies are
unsuitable for reproduction.
Copyright
Papers are considered for publication on the understanding that they
have not been submitted to any other publisher. With the exception
of review papers, the work described must be original and, generally
speaking, not previously published. The copyright in papers
accepted for publication becomes the property of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers and reproduction of any part of the paper
elsewhere is not allowed without the permission of the Council.
Members of the Institution are subject to the Bylaws of the
Institution concerning material submitted for publication. All
authors are asked to sign a copyright assignment form prior to
publication.
Authors who wish to reproduce illustrations which have
already been published elsewhere must obtain the permission of the
copyright holder.
Submission of manuscripts
Five copies of the manuscript together with photographs and
photocopies of the line drawings should be sent to the Journals
Assistant, Proceedings (address given above).
In the case of joint authors it must be made clear to whom
correspondence and proofs are to be directed. A preference for
publication in a particular Part of the Proceedings Journal may be
stated, but the final decision of the placement of a paper will be
made by the Proceedings Editors Committee.
Papers may be submitted on disk. However, disks should
be retained until the paper is accepted. Many types of software are
acceptable, but MS Word is preferred if available; 3.5 inch high
density (1.44 Mb) disks are recommended. Separate files should be
created for each of: the text, the references, each appendix, each
table, the figure captions. Illustrations should be submitted on a
separate disk. Do not merge the files into one electronic document.
ASCII files should be included if available. Full details are given in
Instructions to Authors for Submitting Disks (see above).
Offprints
Authors will receive 25 free Offprints of papers. Further copies can
be ordered at a reasonable cost prior to printing.
Communications
Communications are invited on all papers published in the Proceedings Journal, and , together with the author's reply, will be published in the first available issue of the appropriate Part of the Proceedings Journal. Please follow guidelines printed here for style.