American Journal of Physics®
Initial Submissions vs. Production Quality
When you initially submit your manuscript to AJP, it should be a single .pdf file incorporating all figures. Each figure should preferably appear near where it is first referenced-not at the end of the manuscript.
If your manuscript is conditionally accepted for publication, the editor will ask you to submit figure files according to the guidelines below. It may save you much grief if you are aware of these guidelines from the beginning.
File Formats
Graphs and diagrams should be saved in a vector graphic format: .eps or .pdf. If a bitmap format must be used, resolution should be at least 600 pixels per inch at their final printed size (maximum 3.7 inches for a one-column-wide figure or 6.7 inches for two columns). Photographs should be exported in .tif then edited as needed, and should be at least 300 pixels per inch at their final printed size. Screenshots should be saved in .tif using their original resolution. The .jpg format should not be used for any files at any point of figure preparation.
Graphs and diagrams
Graphs should be plotted inside a frame, with tick marks around all sides and clear labels on both axes. Be sure to place labels where they don't cross over any of the plotted data. Numerical axis labels should use a consistent number of decimal places (for example, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0; not 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2). Beware that it is difficult to create professional-looking plots using Excel; better choices include Matlab, Mathematica, SigmaPlot, Origin, gnuplot, and Matplotlib. For diagrams, we recommend Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape over PowerPoint.
Fonts and Text Labels
If you need to annotate a photo with text, it is best to import it into a graphics editing program like Adobe Illustrator and make the annotations there. Save the resulting image in .eps format. Then the photo will still be a bitmap, but the annotations will be resolution-independent vector graphic elements.
Fonts used to label figures must be easy to read, appropriately sized, and consistent. When saving a figure as a vector graphic, be sure to tell your software to embed the fonts in the file. Even then, try to avoid using nonstandard fonts. Sometimes it is best to convert the fonts into outlines, if your software offers this option.
Capitalize the first word of each text label, but for a multi-word label, capitalize only the first word and any proper nouns (as in an ordinary sentence).
Designing figures
Carefully designed and prepared figures play a vital role in papers, enabling easy understanding of complicated data or equipment. To save time, begin creating a figure only after you have carefully designed it and determined its content.
Most figures in AJP are printed at a width of one text column, about 3.4 inches (8.6 cm). When necessary, a wide figure can be printed across both columns. Be sure to print the figure at the production size to check the brightness, contrast, font sizes, and line weights. The smallest font should be 8 pt in size (1 mm in height) when the figure is printed at the required width.
Obtaining permission to reprint figures created by others
Figures are different from text. While you can quote sentences written by others as long as you acknowledge the source, you cannot copy figures – even those found on the internet – unless you have the permission of the creator or the figure is explicitly labeled as being in the public domain. For more information, see “Reusing Content Published by Others” on this page.
Initial submissions and revisions
When you initially submit your manuscript to AJP, it should be a single .pdf file incorporating all figures. Each figure should appear near where it is first referenced (not at the end of the manuscript). The file should be under 10 MB so that it can be emailed to reviewers. If you include photographs or high-resolution figures, you may need to decrease their resolution. The same instructions should be followed after a "revise and resubmit" decision.
Conditionally accepted manuscripts
Following conditional acceptance, authors using LaTeX should upload the .pdf and .tex files, while those using Word only need to upload the .docx file. If you decreased the figure resolution for ease of review, you should restore the full resolution now. You will not upload separate figure files; the typesetters will retrieve the figures from the .pdf or .docx file.The typesetters will present figures similar to how they are presented in the accepted manuscript. Size them to fit in a single or double column, as appropriate, and arrange multipart figures as they should appear in the printed paper.
Highlight image
To establish a strong and consistent visual identity for your article, a highlight image is requested at conditional acceptance. It can be either a figure from your paper or another image you create that reflects your work. Your highlight image effectively represents your article online.
- This image should be roughly square, with the height and width within about 30% of each other.
- Acceptable file types for the highlight image are EPS, TIFF, and JPEG.
- Your highlight image will display above your article title in the online Table of Contents.
Color in Figures
AJP encourages the use of color to enhance the clarity and aesthetic appeal of figures. All figures submitted in color will appear in color in the online version of AJP. However, the printed version of AJP ordinarily does not use color for figures, so color should not be the only mechanism used to convey essential information. For example, in a graph showing multiple curves, you may refer to a curve as the "red dashed line." Labels and arrows can also be used to clarify what would otherwise be apparent from color. When appropriate, you may include a parenthetical "(color online)" at the beginning of the figure caption, either to let readers know that the online version is prettier or to point out that print readers may miss essential features.
If the use of color in a figure is essential to the content of an article, then authors may pay to have the figure printed in color. The current rates are:
- $650 for the first figure;
- $325 for each additional figure.
In this case, it's fine-and probably necessary-to refer to the colors in the figure caption. Please let the editors know as early as possible if it is your intent to have a figure printed in color. Unless we hear otherwise, we will assume that all figures will be printed in black and white. You will be able to choose the option of paying for color figures when you receive the proofs.
If the use of color in a figure is essential to the content of an article, then authors may pay to have the figure printed in color. Color printing is expensive. The current rates are:
- $650 for the first figure;
- $325 for each additional figure.
In this case, it's fine-and probably necessary-to refer to the colors in the figure caption. Please let the editors know as early as possible if it is your intent to have a figure printed in color. Unless we hear otherwise, we will assume that all figures will be printed in black and white.
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