Water Science and Technology

Instructions for Authors

Sample Layout

These notes are to help authors prepare papers that may be selected following peer review for publication in Water Science and Technology and Water Science and Technology: Water Supply. It is your responsibility as author to follow the instructions below.

1. Authors' responsibilities

1.1. Papers must be in good, grammatically correct English, and if your paper cannot be understood it will be rejected. If English is not your native language you should seek the help of a colleague or professional translator.

1.2. Have your typescript read by at least two other persons to avoid typing errors.

1.3. Major corrections cannot be undertaken by either the editor or the publishers, and no proofs are provided. Thus if your paper is not prepared in accordance with these instructions it may not be considered further.

1.4. If your paper is selected for publication you will be expected to sign our copyright transfer form. Where necessary you must obtain permission to publish material and for using any other material protected by copyright.

1.5. Papers accepted for publication by IWA Publishing must not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere without the consent of IWA Publishing.

2. Preparation of electronic versions

Articles should be provided in electronic form (uploaded to our online submission site http://www.editorialmanager.com/wst/) and comply with the following basic instructions.

2.1. File formats. The preferred format for electronic versions is Microsoft Word, though we can accept most other word-processing packages in PC or Macintosh formats; however, please do not supply your typescript in TeΧ or as a PDF. Authors should not add their own macros. Please supply only the final version of your file (with no hidden text) so as to avoid any risk of old versions of the text being used in error. [Important Note. Until further notice, please do not supply Microsoft Word 2007 files (.docx) as there are compatibility problems with the software used for online submission/peer review and typesetting] 

2.2 Graphics. All figures should be embedded correctly positioned within your Word files; however it is most helpful if you can also supply them as separate graphics files in their original formats. EPS, TIFF or PSD formats are preferred; JPEG or GIF formats tend to be too heavily compressed to give good-quality appearance in print.

Scanned artwork should be saved to TIFF format for both line and halftone (photographs), and scanned at suggested minimum settings of 300 dpi for halftones and 800 dpi for line art. If it is necessary to compress the scans please indicate the software used. Illustrations should be logically named and saved as individual files.

2.3. Filenaming: When naming files it is strongly recommended that you incorporate the name of the first author or the paper’s reference number into the filename. Please do not use generic names such as “IWApaper " or similar easily confused variants!

3. Preparation of the typescript

3.1 Papers should be typed or laser printed on standard A4 metric or 11" × 8.5" white paper sheets. In either case, the text should occupy an area of 250mm depth × 170mm width (the equivalent margin settings are shown on in the table in the sample layout)

3.2 Text should be typed single-spaced on one side of the paper only. Do not exceed the dimensions given above. Please use a 12pt Times justified typeface. The main body text should be typed flush left with no indents. Insert one line space between paragraphs, and two line spaces between paper title, authors' names, and addresses on the first page.

3.3 The title of the paper, author's name(s), affiliation(s), author's full postal address(es) and e-mail, abstract and keywords should be set out following the example on p4 of these notes.

3.4 If any figures or tables are not already fixed in their correct position in the text, insert a brief note specifying which figure should be placed there.

3.5 The maximum acceptable length of article is 5000 words (less 250 words for each normal-sized figure or table you include): please do not exceed this limit or your paper may be rejected.

4. Content

Papers should be well structured: i.e. they must comprise:
(1) Title, author name(s), full postal and e-mail addresses for each author.
(2) Abstract: no more than 200 words briefly specifying the aims of the work, the main results obtained, and the conclusions drawn.
(3) Keywords: 3–6 keywords (in alphabetical order) which will enable subsequent abstracting or information retrieval systems to locate the paper.
(4) Main text: for clarity this should be subdivided into:
(i) Introduction - describing the background of the work and its aims.
(ii) Methods - a brief description of the methods/techniques used (the principles of these methods should not be described if readers can be directed to easily accessible references or standard texts).
(iii) Results and Discussion - a clear presentation of experimental results obtained, highlighting any trends or points of interest.
Do not number or letter section headings.
(5) Conclusions: a brief explanation of the significance and implications of the work reported.
(6) References: these should be to accessible sources. Please ensure that all work cited in the text is included in the reference list, and that the dates and authors given in the text match those in the reference list. References must always be given in sufficient detail for the reader to locate the work cited (see below for formats). Note that your paper is at risk of rejection if there are too few (<10) or too many (>25) references, or if a disproportionate share of the references cited are your own!

5. Nomenclature and Units

5.1 Please take care that all terminology and notation used will be widely understood. Abbreviations and acronyms should be spelled out in full at their first occurrence in the text. In describing wastewater treatment processes authors should consult "Notation for use in the description of wastewater treatment processes". Water Research 21, 135-139 (1987).

5.2 SI units are strongly recommended. If non-SI units must be used, SI equivalents (or conversion factors) must also be given. Please use the spellings “litre” and “metre” (a “meter” is a measuring instrument).

5.3 Please use a decimal point rather than a comma in numbers (i.e. 3.142 not 3,142).

5.4 Write equations in dimensionless form or in metric units. Please use italic letters to denote variables (in text or in displayed equations)

6. Figures and Tables

6.1 Figures and tables should appear in numerical order, be described in the body of the text and be positioned close to where they are first cited.

6.2 Make sure all figures and tables will fit inside the text area.

6.3 Because figures may be resized in the course of production please use scale bars and not magnification factors.

6.4 Artwork should be drawn and lettered for finished size and subsequent reduction to 75% using a Times or Helvetica typeface giving a final size after reduction of 8 point type with appropriate line weights.

7. References: citations in text

7.1 Use surname of author and year of publication: Jones (2002) or (Jones, 2002).

7.2 Insert initials only if there are two different authors with the same surname and same year of publication.

7.3 Two or more years in parentheses following an author's name are cited in ascending order of year, and two or more references published in the same year by the same author are differentiated by letters a, b, c, etc. For example: Brown (1999, 2002, 2003a, b).

7.4 Different references cited together should be in date order, for example: (Smith, 1959; Thomson and Jones, 1992; Green, 1999).

7.5 If a paper has been accepted for publication but has not been published the term "(in press)" should be used instead of a date.

7.6 If a paper has been submitted but not definitely accepted the term "(submitted)" should be used. If the paper is still being prepared the term "(in preparation)" should be used.

7.7 The abbreviation "et al." should be used in the text when there are more than two co-authors of a cited paper.

7.8 Please double-check: every citation in the text must match up to an entry in the reference list and vice-versa.

8. List of references

8.1 References should be listed alphabetically at the end of the paper. Although "et al." is preferable in the text, in the list of references all authors should be given.

8.2 Journal reference style:

Zeng R. J., Lemaire R., Yuan Z. and Keller J. (2004). A novel wastewater treatment process: simultaneous nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal. Water Science and Technology, 50(10), 163-170.

Note that to unambiguously identify articles published in Water Science and Technology before 2008 the issue number as well as the volume number is needed.

8.3 Book reference styles - (i) article in compilation; (ii) multi-author work; (iii) standard reference; (iv) report; (v) thesis:

(i) McInerney M. J. (1999). Anaerobic metabolism and its regulation. In: Biotechnology, J. Winter (ed.), 2nd edn, Wiley-VCH Verlag, Weinheim, Germany, pp. 455-478.
(ii) Henze M., Harremoës P., LaCour Jansen J. and Arvin E. (1995). Wastewater Treatment: Biological and Chemical Processes. Springer, Heidelberg.
(iii) Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater (1998). 20th edn, American Public Health Association/American Water Works Association/Water Environment Federation, Washington DC, USA.
(iv) Sobsey M. D. and Pfaender F. K. (2002). Evaluation of the H2S method for Detection of Fecal Contamination of Drinking Water, Report WHO/SDE/WSH/02.08, Water Sanitation and Health Programme, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland. (v) Bell J. (2002). Treatment of Dye Wastewaters in the Anaerobic Baffled Reactor and Characterisation of the Associated Microbial Populations. PhD thesis, Pollution Research Group, University of Natal, Durban, South Africa.

8.4 Online references: these should specify the full URL for the reference and give the date on which it was consulted. Please check again to confirm that the work you are citing is still accessible:

Alcock S. J. and Branston L. (2000) SENSPOL: Sensors for Monitoring Water Pollution from Contaminated Land, Landfills and Sediment. http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/biotech/senspol/ (accessed 22 July 2005)

8.5 References in languages other than English should be accompanied by an English translation of the article title

Barjenbruch M., Erler C and Steinke M. (2003) Untersuchungen an Abwasserteichanlagen in Sachsen-Anhalt im Jahr 2003 (Investigation on wastewater lagoons in Saxony-Anhalt in 2003), Report for the Environment Ministry of Saxony-Anhalt, Magdeburg, Germany

For further advice please contact:
Journals Manager, IWA Publishing, Alliance House, 12 Caxton Street, London SW1H 0QS, UK.
Tel: +44 (0)207 654 5500; Fax: +44 (0)207 654 5555; E-mail: wst@iwap.co.uk

Updated September 2007.