Histochemistry and Cell Biology - HACB-Specific Artwork and Illustration Guidelines
Histochemistry and Cell Biology does not charge for the reproduction of color figures. For the best quality final product, it is required that all of your artwork – photographs, line drawings, etc. – be submitted in an electronic format. Your art will then be produced to the highest standards with the greatest accuracy to detail. The published work will directly reflect the quality of the artwork provided.
- All figures must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in the order in which they are cited in the text.
- Magnification must be indicated by a legible bar scale (without lettering) within the images themselves. The bar scale size (in mm, µm or nm) should be provided at the end of the figure caption. Listing the original magnification in the figure legend is not allowed.
For all images acquired by microscopy, provide the following information in the Methods section:
· Type and manufacturer of the microscope
· Objective lens specifications (magnification, N.A., aberration corrections, etc.)
· Type and manufacturer of camera (include number of pixels)
· Type of acquisition software used (software version).
· Image acquisition information, including detector gain, time and space resolution data (xyzt and pixel dimensions); and image bit depth. For fluorescence imaging provide the following details: fluorophores used, fluorescence filters; and equipment settings and configurations for multifluorescence image acquisitions.
Electronic Figure Submission
· Supply all figures electronically.
· Figures should be submitted separately from the text.
· Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.
· For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones and color, please use TIFF format.
· MS office files (word.doc, xlsx, PowerPoint/ppt) and PDF's are not acceptable for figure submission.
· Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
· Name your figure files with "Fig" and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps
Line Art
· Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.
· Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.
· All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
· Line drawings should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.
· Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
Halftone Art (Images)
· Definition: Photographs and microscopy-based images.
· If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves (without lettering).
· Halftones must have a minimum resolution of 300 ppi and be submitted in uncompressed
.TIF format.
Combination Art
· Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftone plus line drawing, halftone with extensive lettering, color diagrams.
· Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.
Color Art
· Color illustrations are free of charge.
· Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per channel) and should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.
Figure Lettering
· To add lettering, we request the use of lower case Arial font.
· Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 12 -15 pt.
· Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.
· Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.
· Do not include titles or captions into your illustrations.
Figure Numbering
· All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
· Figures must always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
· Figure parts must be denoted by lowercase roman letters (a, b, c, etc.) Type Arial, size 12-15 pt. Please use always letters of the same size for the principal lettering inside your figures.
Figure Captions
· Each figure should have a caption describing accurately what the figure depicts.
· Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
· No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.
· Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
· Identify previously published material by providing the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.
Figure Placement and Size
· Authors must prepare their illustrations to match following sizes:
· the entire page width (17.4 cm)
· 1.5 column width (12.9 cm)
· 1 column width (8.4 cm)
· 1 subcolumn width (3.9 cm)
· length can vary, but must not exceed 23.4 cm
· When submitting a panel, all parts should be arranged as one figure and saved in a single file. Panels should not be boxed in by borderlines. The vertical and horizontal space between the individual parts of a figure should be consistently 1 mm.
Permissions
If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s). Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that Springer will not be able to refund any costs that may have occurred to receive these permissions. In such cases, material from other sources should be used.
Examples:
Light microscopy images (entire page width)
Electron microscopy images (single column width)
Color art and line drawing combination (single column width)
ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
Authors are free to submit Electronic Supplementary Material (movies, large tables) and, if the manuscript is accepted for publication, such material will be published online at the publisher’s website, linked to the article. This feature can add dimension to the author's article, as certain information cannot be printed or is more convenient in electronic form.
All supplementary material can be submitted in standard file formats including in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names. To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.
Submission
· Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.
· Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names; affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
· To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.
Audio, Video, and Animations
· Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 4:3
· Maximum file size: 25 GB
· Minimum video duration: 1 sec
· Supported file formats: avi, wmv, mp4, mov, m2p, mp2, mpg, mpeg, flv, mxf, mts, m4v, 3gp
Text and Presentations
· Submit your material in PDF format; .doc or .ppt files are not suitable for long-term viability.
· A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.
Spreadsheets
· Spreadsheets should be converted to PDF if no interaction with the data is intended. If the readers should be encouraged to make their own calculations, spreadsheets should be submitted as .xls files (MS Excel).
Numbering
· If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.
· Name the files consecutively, e.g. “Figure S1”, Figure S2”, “Table S1”, “Table S2”, “ESM_3.mpg”, “ESM_4.pdf”, and refer to the supplementary files as “Electronic Supplementary Material”, e.g. “s. Electronic Supplementary Material, Fig. S1”...
Captions
· For each piece of supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of the file.
Processing of Supplementary Files
· Electronic supplementary material will be published as received from the author without any conversion, editing, or reformatting.