MRS Internet Journal of Nitride Semiconductor Research Author's Guide

Choosing the Format of Your Paper

Choosing a Submission Method

1. Submit everything electronically. There are two methods available for electronic submission:
   1. MIME e-mail. Many e-mail programs allow you to attach files to your e-mail using an internet standard known as MIME (Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions). Such programs include Eudora, Z-mail, Elm, Netscape, MS Interchange and Quickmail, but do not include Microsoft Mail or Unix Sendmail.
   2. FTP (File Transfer Protocol). FTP is a special protocol found on all Unix systems and most PC Internet packages.
   Directions for electronic submission are below.
2. Submit everything on a disk. Disks may be DOS-formatted or MacOS formatted. If you need to compress your files to fit them on a disk, use the "ZIP" or "Stuffit" formats. If they still won't fit, then you probably have images with resolutions that are too high. Mail the disk to MRS Internet Journal of Nitride Semiconductor Research, c/o Eric Hellman10 Columbus Ave., Montclair, NJ 07042, USA, or if you are submitting in conjunction with a conference, just bring the disk with you.

Choosing Your File Formats

Text Formats

1. (Supported by special arrangement with the journalmaster) If you use TeX or LaTeX, you can use the RevTeX format published by the American Physical Society. The journal is developing a conversion program for this format.
2. (This is the choice you can use right now.) If you use a word processing program such as Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect which can export RTF (Rich Text Format) files, you can use the MIJ-NSR MIJ-NSR RTF template. The journal has a conversion program which uses this template. You can see the results of applying this program to the template by looking at the RTF template after conversion to HTML

Figure Formats

• Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)
• JPEG /JFIF Formats

• PostScript (PS) and Encapsulated PostScript (EPS)
• Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)
• Tagged Image File Format (TIFF)
• Macintosh PICT and PICT2 formats
• Windows Metafile

Other File Formats

Expect that as the Web evolves, standards for the use of multimedia in journals will change.

Writing Your Paper

• You may want to provide hyperlinks to help the on-line reader navigate around the paper, but it's a bad idea to rely too heavily on them.
• A paper in an electronic journal should be rich in headings and subheadings. This helps to break up large blocks of text, which are hard to read on a screen, and helps people with small screens navigate. Since there are a lot more pixels on a piece of paper than on any screen you've ever seen, this includes all of us.
• Don't be afraid to use bullet lists like this one, if you have lists in your paper.
• Length.
  1. There are no restrictions on length in this journal. This does not mean that you should write on and on about every trivial point. No one will read it if you do. On the other hand, you need never leave something important out so that the paper will fit in three Jounal pages.
  2. Use mechanisms which allow you to digress without interupting the flow of the narrative. Arcane details can be put in an "appendix", digressions can be put in an "aside". You may also use an "auxilliary" to add content that would be inappropriate in the paper version.
  3. Just as a paper can be as long as necessary, it can be as short as desired as well. If you have already published the relevant experimental details electronically, you don't need to repeat yourself, as one or two clicks can take the reader to the previous publication.
• Figures.
  1. Although you can use 256 colors in your figures, it's important that the figure be legible in black and white.
  2. Avoid using itty-bitty inset figures in figures. Instead, use subfigures for graphics which should be a component of a figure. You can refer to subfigures as Figure 1a, 1b, etc. You can have both a main graphic, Figure 1, and subfigures, Figure 1a.
• It is almost impossible to have too many citations. In addition to directing readers to relevant prior work, citations can lead readers to your work through forward links. (Accessible from each reference or paper in the journal is a list of all the papers which cite that reference.)

Formatting Your Paper

References

Submitting Your Paper

1. The Submission Request Form

   The first thing you will do when you're ready to submit a paper is to fill out this submission request form. You will supply some of the vital information concerning your paper, such as the title, your name, address, phone number and e-mail address. You will also enter the information needed to process your paper, such as the software your using to prepare your manuscript.

   The submission form has multiple parts. Whenever you have submit any information, you will be asked to confirm it. Be sure to complete all parts of the form. You will recieve confirmation by e-mail.

2. The Invoice and Copyright Transfer Page

   When you have confirmed the submission information, you will be sent a page containing your submission number, an invoice for the publication charges, and a Copyright Transfer Agreement.

3. Paying and Signing

   At this point, you have to make arrangements to pay the invoice and sign the Copyright Transfer Agreement. This should be submitted by real mail or by fax. Sooner or later this will be done electronically, but for now, we'll have to let the wheels of commerce grind away. Note that the reason we have to do this now is that once you submit the manuscript, it can be published within minutes in preprint form, if you choose to do so.

4. Payment and Copyright Transfer Confirmation

   When the The Materials Research Society receives your CTA and payment, you will receive a confirmation by e-mail. Note that you must have an e-mail address. Your confirmation message will contain an access code which you must use to get your paper published.

5. Finally! the Act of Submission

   You're almost done now! Here you have the choice of FTP or MIME e-mail. But first, make sure that your manuscript file is really in the RTF format. Microsoft Word has the annoying habit of asking you if you want to "save changes" after you've saved as RTF. If you answer "Yes" it then re-saves your file in MS Word format.

   Using FTP to Submit Your Manuscript

   To submit a file by ftp, you will need to know the serial number and password assigned to your paper.

   The following instructions assume that you have access to a computer connected to the internet, and that your manuscript file has been transferred to this system. If you use a PC that is connected to the internet, you can use a PC based FTP program which will have very similar commands, or will have a friendlier user interface.

   1. Make sure you have available an FTP client program, your manuscript file, and any graphics files for figures. (On many systems, you can check the list of available files using the "ls" commeand.) If you're not sure about this, consult your local guru.
   2. Use your ftp program to open a connection to "nsr.mij.mrs.org". On unix systems, the command is: "ftp nsr.mij.mrs.org"
   3. At the "Name:" prompt, enter your paper's serial number.
   4. At the "Password:" prompt, enter your paper's password:
   5. Use the put command to send the files. On Unix systems and most PC's, the command is "put filename " (replace filename with the name of your file)
   6. If you need to transfer a file of type "JPEG" or "GIF" for figures, use the command "binary" before transferring the file.

   Using MIME E-mail Attachments to Submit Your Manuscript

   If you use a MIME capable e-mail program, you will find this method easiest. MIME capable programs include Eudora for the PC and Mac, and Netscape version 1.1 or later. Mail programs which are not MIME capable include Unix Sendmail, and most versions of Microsoft Mail. If you are in doubt about whether your e-mail program is MIME capable, send e-mail (with an attachment) to the journalmaster by e-mail at journalmaster@nsr.mij.mrs.org Sending MIME e-mail attachments is unreliable for file sizes>5MB, and is not recommended.

   To submit your manuscript using Eudora, create a new message addressed to mailer@nsr.mij.mrs.org . Using the "Attach Document..." command in the "Message" menu, select your manuscript file. In the body of the message, type the following, replacing "123" and "xyz" with your submission number and password:

   article number: 123 
   password:xyz 
   

   Eudora has a control for wrapping lines; if this is checked, the RTF file will be corrupted. The icon looks like a piece of paper with a curved arrow pointing left; this should be UNCHECKED.

   Send the message, and you're done.

   To submit your manuscript using Netscape 1.1, type "mailto:mailer@nsr.mij.mrs.org" in the "Go To" box, or click on the mail link on the Journal's submission page. Make sure that your "SMTP Host" and your email address are set in the "Mail and News"

   1. Choose "Mail Document" from the "File" Menu
   2. In the box for the text of your message, type

      "article number:" 123
      "password:" xyz
      

      replacing 123 and xyz with your article number and password, respectively.
   3. In the line labeled "Mail To:" , type "mailer@nsr.mij.mrs.org"
   4. Click the "Attach..." button
   5. Click the "File:" radio button.
   6. Click the "Browse" button
   7. Find your manuscript file in the file dialog., and click "Open"
   8. Click the "Attach" button
   9. Click the "Send" button

6. Finishing

   When you're finished sending files, use the finish form to let the journal know that you're done. You'll be presented with a list of files that you have submitted. A message to commence processing will be sent to the Journalmaster.

The Review Process

There are some new possibilities available to reviewers. For example, reviewers may choose to have their comments posted on the Review and Comment page of the paper. These will be the initial comments of what we hope will be a lively on-line debate concerning every paper published in MIJ-NSR. Also, point ratings may be tabulated to help readers choose MIJ-NSR papers to read.

Here is the way that the review process in MRS Internet Journal of Nitride Semiconductor Research proceeds:

Fill out the reviewer's form. The criteria for acceptance in MIJ-NSR are similar to those for traditional journals. We seek papers describing original work of high scientific quality. The writing style must adhere to generally accepted standards. However, the format of papers will be quite different to capitalize on the electronic medium. For example, the paper should be divided into many logical sections to permit the reader to jump from a table of contents, directly to a section of interest. A readability rating is used by the Journal to decide whether to require redaction.

The review of the paper is then forwarded to the editor in charge and the author of record. The author has 30 days to respond to the reviewers comments. Upon receiving the author's response, the editor then determines whether the paper is accepted as is and published, sent back to the reviewers, or rejected and removed from the server. All rejections are final.

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last updated Tuesday, June 16, 1998 1:36:42 AM.
© 1998 The Materials Research Society