Preparation of Manuscript
1. ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION
This instruction gives you guidelines for preparing articles for JAFM. All manuscripts are to be submitted online and in Word. Use this document as a template. Carefully follow the journal article submission process. The full text of the article (except the abstract and the figures and tables that are given after the references) is formatted in two columns. Manuscripts should be written in clear, concise and grammatically correct English so that they are intelligible to the professional reader who is not a specialist in any particular field. Manuscripts that do not conform to these requirements and the following manuscript format may be returned to the author prior to review for correction. Please note that each submitted manuscript has to be limited to 20 pages.
2. GENERAL GUIDELINES
The following section outlines general (non-formatting) guidelines to follow. These guidelines are applicable to all authors and include information on the policies and practices relevant to the publication of your manuscript.
Publication by JAFM
Your manuscript cannot be published by JAFM if
1) The work is classified or has not been cleared for public release.
2) The work contains copyright-infringed material.
3) The work has been published or is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Copyright
During submission process, the copyright information must be filled out and uploaded on the website. Failure to complete the form correctly could result in your article not being published. As you will be uploading this form online, you do not need to fill out a hard-copy form. The corresponding authors signature is obligatory on this form. Do not include a copyright statement anywhere on your article. Please this form here.
3. MANUSCRIPT LAYOUT
All manuscripts should be limited to 20 pages using 9-point Times New Roman. Margins should be 3.99 cm on the left, 3 cm on the right, 2.54 cm at the top, and 2.69 cm at the bottom. The page size is standard A4 with mirrored margins. The manuscript should be set in two-column format, except for the title, author information. Figures and tables are urged to be set in two columns, if their content is not distorted and is illegible enough. The space between columns should be 0.69 cm. Paragraphs should not be indented, with a 6 pt vertical spacing between paragraphs.
The manuscript should be presented in the following order: Title and author information, abstract, keywords, nomenclature (optional), introduction, materials and methods, results, conclusion, acknowledgment (optional) and references.
Title and Author Information
All items in the title block should be centered across both columns. The title should be set in 16 pt bold, with a 14 pt space above and a 14 pt space below. The authors’ names should be set in 11 pt font, with a 11 pt space below. For each author, a numbered superscript should be used to indicate institutional affiliation and a symbol footnote mark to refer to author support information (to be included as footnotes at the bottom of the page). Following the author information, the institutions with which the authors are affiliated should be listed, including addresses. These should be indicated by superscripts as well, and set in 9 pt italic, with a 12 pt space below the final one. The final item in the title block is the corresponding author’s email address. This line should begin with the words "Corresponding Author Email:" (and the word "Email" for one-author manuscripts), followed by the email address in 9 pt italics font. A 9 pt space should follow this line.
ABSTRACT
An abstract of 150-400 words should be included in the article. The abstract should be formatted as an unnumbered section and should be one-column. Abstracts are required for all articles. Be sure to define all symbols used in the abstract, and do not cite references in this section.
KEYWORDS
Between 5 and 7 keywords should be provided below the Abstract to assist with indexing of the article. These should not duplicate key words from the title.
SECTION AND SUBSECTION HEADINGS
Section and subsection headings are numbered using Arabic numerals separated by '.' Section headings are typeset in 10 pt, boldface, small caps, and centered on the line; numbering is as normal. Subsections (heading 2, in Word) are 10 pt, boldface, and flushe left. Sub-subsections (heading 3, in Word) are 10 pt, boldface, and flush left. All levels below this are unnumbered, 10 pt, boldface, with text beginning immediately following the heading on the same line.
FOOTNOTES
Footnotes in the text should be avoided if at all possible. If they must be used, they should be identified by superscript numbers.
INTRODUCTION
This section should include sufficient background information to set the work in context. The aims of the manuscript should be clearly stated. The introduction should not contain either findings or conclusions.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This should be concise but provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be replicated by others.
TABLES AND FIGURES
Insert tables and figures within your document scattered throughout the text. Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively, with captions below the figures and above the tables. Captions should be 9 pt, bold and centered. Two-column-wide figures and tables may be used as appropriate, preferably at the beginning or end of the page. Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate information contained in the text. Individual numbering of subfigures (using lower-case letters) is also encouraged where appropriate. Place figure captions below all figures. If your figure has multiple parts, include the labels “(a),” “(b),” etc., below and to the left of each part, above the figure caption. Please verify that the figures and tables you mention in the text actually exist. When citing a figure in the text, use the abbreviation “Fig.” except at the beginning of a sentence. Do not abbreviate “Table”. Number each different type of illustration (i.e., figures, tables, images) sequentially with relation to other illustrations of the same type. Note that reference to tables and figures should be done in the same page they appear.
EQUATIONS, NUMBERS, SYMBOLS, AND ABBREVIATIONS
Equations are centered and numbered consecutively, with equation numbers in parentheses flush right. Insert a blank line on either side of the equation. All the equations are required to be prepared in Mathtype 6 or upper. Be sure that the symbols in your equation are defined before the equation appears, or immediately following. Italicize symbols (T might refer to temperature, but T is the unit tesla). Refer to "Eq. (1), " not " (1) " or "equation (1) " except at the beginning of a sentence: "Equation (1) is…" Equations can be labeled other than "Eq." should they represent inequalities, matrices, or boundary conditions. If what is represented is really more than one equation, the abbreviation “Eqs.” can be used. Define abbreviations and acronyms the first time they are used in the main text. Very common abbreviations such as JAFM and SI do not have to be defined. Abbreviations that incorporate periods should not have spaces: write “P.R.,” not “P. R.” Delete periods between initials if the abbreviation has three or more initials; e.g., U.N. but ESA. Do not use abbreviations in the title unless they are unavoidable.
RESULTS
Results should be presented in a logical sequence in the text, tables and figures; repetitive presentation of the same data in different forms should be avoided. The results should not contain material appropriate to the Discussion.
CONCLUSION
Although a conclusion may review the main points of the article, it must not replicate the abstract. A conclusion might elaborate on the importance of the work or suggest applications and extensions. Do not cite references in the conclusion as all points should have been made in the body of the article. Note that the conclusion section is the last section of the article to be numbered. The appendix (if present), acknowledgment, and references are listed without numbers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The source of financial grants and other funding must be acknowledged, including a frank declaration of the authors' industrial links and affiliations. Authors must declare any financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest in a covering letter submitted with the manuscript. Financial and technical assistance may be acknowledged here. Anonymous reviewers should not be acknowledged. It is the authors' responsibility to obtain written permission to quote material that has appeared in another publication.
In-text citation
References to published work should be referred to in the text by the last name(s) of author(s) followed by the year of publication in parentheses. For example, one may write "Zaleski et al. (2005) referred to several existing studies (Smith 1995, 1997, 2004a,b; Ko et al. 2004; Shy and Ko 2005)..." or "More information can be found in Reynolds (1999)."
- For unpublished lectures of symposia, include title of article, name of sponsoring society in full, and date. Give titles of unpublished reports with "(unpublished)" following the reference. Only articles that have been published or are in press should be included in the references. Unpublished results or personal communications should be cited as such in the text.
- For periodicals, all of the preceding information is required. The journal issue number (“No. 11” in Ref. 1) is preferred, but the month (Nov.) can be substituted if the issue number is not available. Use the complete date for daily and weekly publications.
- Transactions follow the same style as other journals; if punctuation is necessary, use a colon to separate the transactions title from the journal title.
- Electronic publications, CD-ROM publications and regularly issued, dated electronic journals are permitted as references. Archived data sets also may be referenced as long as the material is openly accessible and the repository is committed to archiving the data indefinitely. References to electronic data available only from personal Web sites or commercial, academic, or government ones where there is no commitment to archiving the data are not permitted in the reference list.
REFERENCES
All references should be in 9 pt font Times New Romans. The references should be grouped at the end of the article in the alphabetical order of the last name of the first author in the following style:
Anson, M. and L. Zhang (1995, July). On-site graphics for planning and communicating the use of site space. In Y. Loo (Ed.), Proceedings of the Fifth East Asia-Pacific Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction, Gold Coast, Australia, 883-888. Griffith University.
Ho, W. (1991). Nonlinear Analysis of Steel Frames with Semi-Rigid Connections. Ph. D. thesis, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
Ko, L., Y. Ni, and Q. Tian (1992). Hysteretic behavior and empirical modelling of a wirecable vibration isolator. International Journal of Analytical and Experimental Modal Analysis 7(2), 111-127.
Ko, L. and Y. Xu (2000, December). Title of paper. In Proceedings of International Conference on Advances in Structural Dynamics, Hong Kong, China.
Teng, L., L. Chen, S. Smith, and L. Lam (2002). FRP-Strengthened RC Structures. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, UK.
Similarity Check
The originality of your submission will be checked by similarity detection software. The manuscripts with total similarity indices of more than 15% (and more than 2% for each identified reference) in the final similarity report will be rejected at any stage of review or publication process.