Notes for Authors
Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control operates a conventional single-blind reviewing policy in which the reviewer’s name is always concealed from the submitting author.
Priority and time of publication are decided by the editors, who maintain the customary right to edit material accepted for publication if necessary.
The Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control is the Institute's premier publication. The technology covered by the Transactions is naturally inter- or cross-disciplinary and for this reason the field is very wide. However, where possible, the Editors will ensure that material having a similar theme will be published in the same issue.
Contributions to Transactions are invited on all aspects of the research, development and application of measurement and control techniques. They may include results of experimental or theoretical research (assuming there is a clear practical application) or may deal with practical developments related to specific plant or processes.
Contributions may include, research papers, technical briefs and reviews.
Research papers
Research papers are written to inform colleagues about the results of research, to establish priority of publication, and to provide an archival record. The peer review procedure exercised by the Transactions ensures a process of quality control for the research published. The research paper should contain original work not published elsewhere, should be based on work that has been completed to the point of yielding conclusions amply supported by firm evidence.
Technical briefs
Technical briefs are short research papers. They may describe partial results obtained from work in progress, provided the conclusions are amply supported by firm evidence. Again, the peer review procedure exercised by the Transactions ensures a process of quality control for the research published. However, the review process will normally be much faster than that for a full research paper.
Reviews
Review articles may be prepared at the invitation of the editor or initiated by the author. It is advisable for the author to discuss a proposed review with the editor before undertaking the project. A useful scientific review should provide an answer to an important question. The answer may not be definitive but it may indicate directions for future research. Useful reviews summarise, critically analyse, and integrate the topics under discussion. A review may be needed when the number and content of research reports on a scientific question are such as to permit the developing of a clear well supported answer to that question.
Permissions
It is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain written consent from the original publisher and author(s) to use any material published previously elsewhere. Please forward all correspondence to SAGE with your manuscript.
Proofs
Pdf proofs are normally sent to the corresponding author direct to their email address. Authors are asked to check the proofs for typographical errors only. Modifications cannot be incorporated at this stage without incurring heavy costs.
Offprints
Access to 25 free e-prints will be provided; the corresponding author will receive one complimentary copy of the journal for each contributor.
Please take the time to read the following information carefully and share it with your typist if necessary. It will ensure that your paper is produced quickly and effectively.
Submission
These should be in the form of a Word document.
All submissions are made directly by email to: transactions@qub.ac.uk
Authors may also supply the names and contact detail of three possible referees for their paper. The Editorial Office will, at the Editor's discretion, use one of these referees in the peer review process.
Your contact details
Authors should include their name and initials, their posts at the time they wrote the review, their current appointments, and their address for correspondence with telephone/fax/email contact information. Each author should also include a list of "key words" indicating their areas of expertise.
For papers with several contributors, the order of authorship should be made clear and the corresponding author (to whom proofs and offprints will be sent) named.
Article presentation
Manuscripts should be typed double-spaced, especially the references with margins of at least 1 inch on both sides.
The title of the paper should define the scope of the manuscript and avoid acronyms.
An abstract of up to 200 words should precede the text. This should be readable without reference to the article and should indicate the scope of the contribution, including the main conclusions and essential original content.
The paper should contain a list of key words
Subheadings should be typed on separate lines and marked to indicate their progressive order of importance. The use of more than three levels of heading should be avoided.
A list of symbols should be provided at the beginning of the paper, following the summary.
Any acknowledgements will be printed at the end of the text.
Electronic Files
Once your paper has been accepted for publication a Word document for your paper will be required.
Please ensure that your Word document matches the final version of your paper - as approved by the Editor.
All figures and tables should appear on separate pages at the end of the article and be saved separately as EPS or JPEG files. Do not paste these into the text.
Microsoft Word is the preferred word processor. No artwork should be included in the text files. The final files should be sent by email.
Use the minimum formatting.
Roman, bold and italic type can be used, but use only one typeface and size.
Capitals should be used only where they are to appear in the finished text.
The text should be ranged left and unjustified, with hyphenation cancelled.
Indents, underlining and tabs should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.
Headings and paragraphs should be separated by two carriage returns.
There should be only one space between words and only one space after any punctuation.
Style
General:
Abbreviations should be spelled out when first used in the text. Full stops should be used in lower case abbreviations (e.g., i.e.,) but not for capitals (SAS, ANOVA). Spelling to follow the Oxford Dictionary.
Mathematical:
Authors should use SI units. Any special mathematical symbols, including greek characters should be identified in the margin.
All vectors and matrices should be shown in bold type.
It is sometimes very difficult to distinguish bold, roman and italic symbols. If there might be any confusion, the letter or symbol concerned should be circled in pencil and identified in the margin.
Particular attention should be paid to subscripts and superscripts (and especially sub-subscripts etc.) so that they are explicitly detailed.
Numbers below 10 should be written out in the text unless used in conjunction with units (e.g., three apples, 4 kg).
Full points (not commas) should be used for decimals. For numbers less than one, a nought should be inserted before the decimal point . (e.g., 0.125 275).
Use spaces (not commas) within numbers (e.g., 10 000, 0.125 275).
Tables and illustrations
These should be submitted separate from the text. Line drawings should be black and white. The figure titles should be supplied together on a separate sheet. Figures should ideally be drawn for a reduction of one third i.e., 3:2 or 150:100 mm.
References
In general references to web pages will not be accepted.
The Harvard style of referencing should be used. The reference should be referred to in the text by the author and date (Bloggs, 1997) and then listed in alphabetical order at the end of the article applying the following style:
For a book
Olson, M.A. 1965: The logic of collective action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
For an edited book
Berry, P., editor, 1976: Language and communication in the mentally handicapped. London: Arnold.
For a chapter in an edited book
Feagin, J.R., Gilderbloom, J. and Rodriguez, N. 1989: Private-public partnerships: the Houston experience. In Squires, G., editor, Unequal partnerships. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 204-59.
For a book in a series
Lesser, R. 1979: Linguistic investigations of aphasia. Studies in Language Disability and Remediation 5. London: Arnold.
Gore, A.J.P., editor, 1983: Ecosystems of the World. Volume 1, Mires: swamp, bog, fen and moor; Volume 2, Mangroves and coastal systems. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.
For a journal title
Hanson P. 1977: The activity patterns of elderly households. Geografiska Annaler 59, 109-24.
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