Permissions

All copyright permission must be cleared and, if necessary, paid for by the author; this includes applications and payments to DACS, ARS, and similar licensing agencies where appropriate. It is also the author’s responsibility to include acknowledgements as stipulated by particular institutions.

Requirements

Submission of figures in an electronic format will help us to ensure that your work is produced to the highest possible standard. This page contains information on how best to prepare your artwork for electronic submission.

Most figure file formats are acceptable, although TIFF is preferable.

TIFFs (Tagged Image File Format) are used for bitmap, greyscale, and colour images. To save files in TIFF format, go to the ‘Save As’ or ‘Export’ commands under ‘File’.

Before submitting artwork, please make sure that your image(s) fulfil the following criteria:

• If using any files consisting of layers, you should flatten artwork into one layer.
• Size – figures should be sized to the final print size (once created, please do not enlarge an image as the resolution may deteriorate). Lettering should be of a consistent size within each figure. Please ensure that lettering is at least 2 mm in height after reduction to final size. Use standard fonts for all annotation.
• Colour – files should be supplied in CMYK not RGB. Please note that the use of red and green in figures is particularly problematic for approximately 5% of the male population. Advice on the preparation of colour-friendly figures is provided at http://jfly.nibb.ac.jp/html/color_blind/.
• Resolution – figures should be supplied at a minimum resolution of 600 dpi for line drawings (charts/graphs in black and white), and 300 dpi for colour or greyscale images.
• File naming – figures should be saved as clearly named files so that they can easily be identified in terms of manuscript, figure number, and format, e.g. [first author name] Fig 1.tif.
• Figure legends – legends should be included at the end of the main text file. Please ensure that figures and figure legends are in agreement. Symbols must NOT be included in figure legends; ALL symbols used in figures should be described in the legend using words (e.g. filled triangle, open circle).
• Fonts should be embedded.
• Line weights should be between 0.35 pt and 1.5 pt.
• Please ensure that all data are included within the illustration area.

For additional information on preparing figures, visit http://dx.sheridan.com where you can also test whether your figures are suitable for production by using the preflight tool at http://dx.sheridan.com/onl/.

To find out more on figure submission, please visit the Instructions to Authors for the particular journal to which you are submitting. View the full list of Journals.