MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION ISSUES


General issues

Format of the manuscript

If you are using a text processor for which automatic typesetting is not possible then please consult the official IFAC guidelines for manuscript preparation at the IFAC-Elsevier publications site:

IFAC/Elsevier instructions for authors

You may also like to check the explicit manuscript specifications given below.

Use only valid type 1 or True Type fonts

Make sure that you use the times (type 1) or times new roman (True Type) font for the text of your paper. You may also need some other fonts, such as courier or courier new (for typeset programming code), or Symbol (for mathematics), but do not use any other fonts apart from the above ones. Please restrict the character set of your paper file to the ASCII or the ISO Latin-1 subset.

NOTE: Including non-standard fonts is one of the primary sources of poor PDF performance. Please check carefully that your file does not contain any font which is not included in the set of allowed fonts for IFAC manuscripts.

Generating a Postscript or PDF file from your manuscript

Depending on the platform you are using, it may be better to start producing a PostScript file and then convert it to PDF using either Adobe Acrobat or GhostScript. Follow the instructions for your text processor and tools where applicable.

In some case, it may be easier to submit your paper as a PostScript file.

Generating a PostScript file

Configure your PostScript driver withe the following parameters:

  • Enable Adobe Document Structuring Conventions (ADSC or just DSC) (this may be included in a "optimize for portability" option).
  • Select PostScript Level 1.
  • ASCII data format.
  • Resolution of 600 dpi.
  • Enable Page independence.
  • Disable job codes (Control-D).
  • Send True Type fonts as outlines
Notice that some of the above options may be not available for your driver.

Do not use font substitution tables or conversion to built-in printer fonts. If possible, it is better to use only standard PostScript fonts (such as Times, Courier, or Symbol) in your manuscript.

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Manuscript specifications

If no automatic typesetting is possible, please refer to this section. Full author information on how to prepare your paper can be found on:

IFAC/Elsevier instructions for authors

The main issues for manuscript preparation are as follows.

Typing Manuscripts must be in English and should not exceed the page limit of 6 pages. Use of the first person ("I", "we") must be avoided.
Format Authors should prepare their manuscript in double column format for printing on A4 paper, using Times Roman 10pt typeface. The text of the paper is in 76mm (3in) column width with 8mm (0.3in) column separation. Use full 253mm (10in) column length. Please ensure that the typing area (centred, 253mm x 160mm / 10in x 6.3in) matches exactly that shown in the sample pages. Pages should not be numbered. A 10pt Times Roman font should be used in all text.

The first page should include (a) a title in bold capital letters, centred, not exceeding 10 words (b) each authors' names in upper and lower case, boldface, centred in 125 mm (5 in) width (c)author's affiliations in italics, upper and lower case, centred, 125 mm (5 in) width (d) abstract (50-100 words), giving a brief account of the most relevant aspects of the paper, 125 mm width, centred. (e) 5-10 keywords taken from the list of keywords recommended for this symposium.

Single line spacing should be used throughout. Initial lines and paragraphs should not be indented. Paragraphs need to be separated by one blank line.

The paper should be prepared in the order: Introduction, followed by the main body. Then Conclusions, Acknowledgements (when appropriate), References, Appendices (when appropriate).

Headings Section headings should be centered, in capital letters and numbered consecutively, starting with the Introduction. Sub-section headings should be in capital and lower case italic letters, numbered 1.1, 1.2, etc, and left justified, with second and subsequent lines indented. Sub-sub-sections in italics or underlined, without number.
Tables Table headings should be placed above tables, underlined and centred. Leave one line space between the heading and the table. Only horizontal lines should be used within a table.
Illustrations All photographs, schemas, graphs and diagrams are to be referred to as figures. Line drawings should be original and not photocopies. Figures should be placed at the top or bottom of a column wherever possible, as close as possible to the first reference to them in the paper and preferably in single-column width. Do not use coloured photographs or figures. Figure number and caption should be typed below the illustration, left justified, with subsequent lines indented.
Footnotes Footnotes should be avoided where possible. Necessary footnotes should be denoted in the text by consecutive superscript numbers. The footnotes should be typed single spaced, and in smaller typesize, at the foot of the column in which they are mentioned, and separated from the main text by a line extending to just over half way across the column.
Measures All weights and measures should be expressed in standard SI units. All non-standard abbreviations or symbols must be defined when first mentioned, or a glossary must be provided.
References In the text, the surname of the author and the year of publication of the reference should be given. Two or more references by the same authors, published in the same year should be differentiated by the letters a,b,c, etc... For references with more than two authors, text citations should be shortened to the first name, followed by et al.

References must be listed in alphabetical order at the end of the paper. References to the same author(s) should be in chronological order.

  • Journal references should include: author's surname and initials; initials and surnames of ramining authors; year of publication (in brackets); title (where provided); abbreviated journal title (in italics); volume number and page numbers.
  • Book references should include: author's surname and initials; initials and surnames of remaining authors; year of publication (in brackets); the book title (in italics); the name of the publisher and place of publication.

Further details

For all further details concerning manuscript preparation, please see the IFAC Publications website published by the IFAC publications Managing Board.

Where to get the tools

You can download templates and style files for automatic processing of your paper from the tool repository on this site.


Updated Februari 2003.
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