NCSL International measure
The Journal of Measurement Science

Author Manuscript Instructions

DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS

Anyone is encouraged to submit an article to NCSLI measure for publication. Submissions can include technical articles that have not been previously published, special techniques, or review/background articles of general interest. More specific information on topics of interest to NCSLI measure is listed below. Authors should follow the format instructions listed below and submit a signed NCSL International Copyright Form with all material. All submissions are reviewed by two NCSLI reviewers before being accepted for publication.

I. STEPS TO PUBLISHING IN NCSLI measure

A. Initial Decisions

Papers submitted for publication in measure are sent electronically directly to the Managing Editor or to the NCSLI Business Office on a disk. The Managing Editor reviews the manuscript to ensure that it meets content and format requirements (see B and C below).

B. Content Requirements

The content of manuscripts published in measure must be of interest to the NCSLI membership. This means that topics should cover new or improved technical or management issues related to measurements, calibration, metrology, and/or laboratory accreditation. Example topics include, but are not limited to: the management and operation of a calibration laboratory; calibration laboratory accreditation procedures policies, guidance, etc.; specific or general calibration procedures/processes; new or updated metrology standards; uncertainty analysis in the areas of electrical, physical, mechanical, or chemical metrology; quality principles or processes applicable to ISO/IEC 17025, 17011, etc.; or review/background articles in the areas of metrology, laboratory accreditation, quality, or management of calibration laboratories. In most cases, the manuscript should not have been published in or submitted to another journal or magazine, except in special situations. If you are unsure whether measure is an appropriate venue for your paper, please feel free to discuss with the Managing Editor.

C. Manuscript Format Requirements

measure generally publishes manuscripts that are approximately 6 to 10 printed pages in length, which is equivalent to 12 to 20 double-spaced typed pages. All manuscripts must be in electronic format and created using the Microsoft Word processor. Detailed manuscript format instructions are contained in the attachment and are available from the NCSLI web site: http://www.ncsli.org/ . In addition, measure manuscripts should conform to the SI units; practical guidance is available in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) publication “ SI Unit Rules and Style Conventions: A Check List for Reviewing Manuscripts” which is available at the following web site: http://physics.nist.gov/Document/checklist.pdf

D. Policy on Trade Names

NCSL International requires that authors avoid the use of trade names in all manuscripts (including illustrations), except where mention of the trade name is essential for comprehension of reported results. In general, authors should use generic terminology rather than specific commercial identification.

When a trade name is required for a clear understanding of a document, an author must use care to prevent possible misuse of the passage by others, or objection by the manufacturers or distributors of the same or competitive products. The use of trade names or other specific identification of commercial products (e.g., materials, equipment, or instruments) may be required for one of both of the following reasons:

1. To enable others to reproduce the reported results in their laboratories. Details of procedures, methods, and equipment are included to the extent necessary for this purpose. Generally, in the cases of instruments, precise identification may require giving both the manufacturer's identify and the model number.
2. Precise identification of the product is necessary because the product is part of a system with technical characteristics that must be duplicated.

Note: If modifications of the system or equipment have been made to provide some additional features, these changes should also be described in sufficient detail to permit duplication.

Where trade names or other specific identification of commercial products must be used, the manuscript should include either in its preface, or as a footnote to the first identification of the product, or to the section containing it, an appropriately worded disclaimer. Even when a disclaimer is used, mention of trade names should be kept to a minimum. The following is an example:

Certain commercial equipment, instruments, or materials are identified in this paper in order to adequately describe the experimental procedure. Such identification does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the author or NCSL International, nor does it imply that the materials or equipment identified are the only or best available for the purpose.

E. Peer Review Process

After the Managing Editor determines that a paper is suitable for publication in measure , an electronic copy of the paper is forwarded to at least two technical reviewers selected for their expertise in the subject matter. The reviewer's comments, suggestions, and remarks are the sent to the author to be addressed. An updated manuscript, together with a short response to each reviewer comment, is returned to the Managing Editor for review. If the author has adequately addressed all reviewer comments, suggestions, and remarks, the manuscript is accepted for publication. If some issues have not been adequately resolved, additional review comments are sent to the author concerning the updated manuscript. Further disagreement between the author and the Managing Editor or reviewer(s) is addressed following the process outlined under Section II, B. Author Rights (see below).

F. Final Acceptance

Once a manuscript has received approval from both the reviewers and the Managing Editor, the author will be notified so that the manuscript will be electronically formatted for publication. At this time, the author may also be sent an NCSL International Copyright form, as necessary. Original electronic copies of all necessary graphics, photos, plots, etc. will be requested. Note : A manuscript cannot enter the final production process at NCSL International unless a copyright form has been signed and forwarded with the manuscript. In addition, if an author's emailed manuscript and/or graphics cannot be processed due to technical difficulties, he/she will be notified by NCSL International and asked to provide an alternate copy.

G. Author Proofs

The author will receive a final proof of his/her manuscript, in PDF format, as it will appear in the printed publication. The author is requested to provide corrections to the final proof of his/her paper within a few days after receipt.

H. Reprint Requests

Any request for reprints of his/her paper should be sent directly from the NCSL International Business Office, 2995 Wilderness Place, Suite 107, Boulder, CO 80301-5404 or Faxed to (303) 440-3384.

I. No Returns

The NCSL International does not return disks, graphics, photographs, or paper copies of the manuscripts used in the production process of its issues.

II. AUTHOR RESPONSIBILITIES, RIGHTS AND COPYRIGHT

A. Author Responsibilities

A manuscript submitted for publication to measure should be original work of new or improved metrology topic that has not been previously published or under consideration for publication in a magazine or a refereed journal. NCSL International assumes that material submitted to its publications is properly available for general dissemination to its membership. It is the responsibility of the authors, not NCSL International, to determine whether disclosure of their material requires the prior consent of other parties and, if so, to obtain the appropriate consent. If an author uses charts, photographs, graphics or other material from previously printed material, he/she is responsible for obtaining written permission from the publisher to use the material. Statements and opinions given in manuscripts published by measure are the expressions of the authors. Responsibility for the contents of published papers rests upon the authors, not the NCSL International.

B. Author Rights

Occasionally an author may disagree with the referee's recommendations and/or with the Managing Editor's decision based on those recommendations. In such a case, the author shall be given the opportunity to prepare a suitably worded rebuttal to the referee's comments and to submit the rebuttal to the Managing Editor. Note that technical disagreements often occur because the manuscript is interpreted differently by the referee than is the intended interpretation of the author. Rebuttals can correct such erroneous interpretations. In any case, the Managing Editor forwards the rebuttals to the referee(s) for his/her comments, acting as an intermediary in order to preserve the referee's anonymity.

The referee(s) returns his/her response and revised recommendation(s) to the Managing Editor. The Managing Editor, using the author and reviewer information, decides on an appropriate course of action. During this process, the Managing Editor may seek advice from an additional referee and/or the NCSLI Vice President (VP) of Operations. It is understood that in some cases, the time required may be lengthy.

The Managing Editor is, in general, the final authority on matters of content and appropriateness of material in measure . However, any disputes that arise over review or acceptance of the material submitted for publication are resolved by the NCSLI VP of Operations. In this case, the NCSLI VP of Operations, upon receipt of a written complaint, assesses the merits of the complaint, typically through consultation with the parties to the dispute and with the assistance of knowledgeable members of the professional community. The NCSLI VP of Operations then makes a final decision. This decision is binding on both the author and NCSL International.

C. NCSL International Copyright Form

A completed NCSL International Copyright Form http://www.ncsli.org/measure/crf.cfm should accompany any original material when it is first submitted to measure . In any event, an author must transfer copyright to NCSL International upon being notified of the acceptance of his/her paper if the transfer has not been completed prior to acceptance.

III. Author Pre-submittal Checklist

In order to assist the author, the following checklist has been developed to ensure that all submitted manuscripts meet measure requirements:

1. Is the manuscript of general interest to the NCSLI membership and does it deal with a new or improved topic that covers technical or management issues related to measurements, calibration, metrology, and/or laboratory accreditation ?
2. Is this the first publication of the material covered in the manuscript?
3. Has the NCSLI Copyright Form been signed and sent to the NCSLI Business Office?
4. Are SI units used throughout the paper (see the NIST SI checklist at http://physics.nist.gov/Document/checklist.pdf )?
5. Is the manuscript free from trade names (product, company, process) or, if trade names used, is the appropriate disclaimer included?
6. When numbers are reported, are adequate uncertainty statements included ( guidelines are available in the ISO Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement or NIST Tech. Note 1297, available at http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/pdf.html )?
7. Are support organizations (external funding) and other support staff appropriately acknowledged?
8. Does the Abstract, which is typically about 200 words, adequately summarize the important points of the paper?
9. Is copyrighted material in the paper used by permission and appropriately acknowledged?

IV. Manuscript Instructions

Page setup : Use Microsoft Word and 12-point Times New Roman as the base font. Set all margins of letter-size paper to 25 mm (1 inch).

Title and authors : Type title in capital and lower case letters in 14-point bold; centered on page. After one line of space, type in a list of author names, with their company, complete mailing address, and e-mail of the first author.

Abstract : Include an abstract of about 200 words. Be sure that the abstract includes a concise summary of the important points of the paper.

Text : Number sections and subsections with Arabic numbers: 1.; 2.; 3.; … for main sections and 1.1; 1.2; 1.3; … for subsections. Start with a section titled “Introduction” and end with sections titled “Conclusions,” “Acknowledgements,” and “References” as appropriate. Use full justification only with care to avoid loose and tight lines. Left justification is acceptable. Use single line spacing. Do not indent paragraphs; place a line of space between paragraphs. Use only one space between sentences. Use a single-column format. Number all equations with Arabic numbers in parenthesis: (1); (2); (3); …

References : Number references consecutively in square brackets (e.g., as reported by Jones [4]). In the reference list, also use numbers with brackets. Examples of style for the reference list:

[1] A.R. Smith, D.F. Brown, and R.S. Jones, “Title of article,” J. Abbrev., vol. 15, no. 3, pp. xx–xy, 2001.

[2] R.W. Loran, “Title of article/chapter,” Chapter 3 in Title of Book, Publisher, City, pp. xx–yy, 1989.

Units : Use the International Systems of Units (SI); values in other units may follow in parentheses. For guidance, see NIST checklist at http://physics.nist.gov/Document/checklist.pdf .

Figures and Tables : Mention all figures and tables in the text and number them sequentially. Incorporate each figure and table into the document near its citation in the text. For figures, place a short caption under the figure in the following form: “Figure 1. Sentence or phrase with initial cap only and a period at the end.” For tables, place a short title above the table in the following form: “Table 1. Sentence or phrase with initial cap only and a period at the end.” Use minimal lines in the table, and be sure that each column has a heading.

Submitting the document to NCSLI: Submit the document electronically to the NCSLI measure Managing Editor measure@ncsli.org or send a disk by post to NCSL International, 2995 Wilderness Pl., Suite 107, Boulder, CO 80301-5404, USA .

COPYRIGHT FORM

Revised 9-7-07