Journal Author Instructions
These are abridged instructions to get you pointed in the right direction. For further information please consult each journal's Author Instructions pages.
Preparing to Publish
Your journal article is the official record of your hard work in the science and engineering of ceramics and glass. Successfully publishing your manuscript begins with choosing the journal that best matches your research goals and outcomes. Then you must prepare your manuscript according to journal’s scientific and formatting requirements while also making it attractive to readers and easily understood by indexing websites.
Step 1: Find the journal with aims and scope that best fit your work.
The number one reason for rejection is mismatch between the work presented in the manuscript and the journal’s aims and scope (A&S). There are essentially three components to aims and scope:
- Subject/topic
- Novelty
- Depth of study
Journal of the American Ceramic Society, International Journal of Applied Glass Science, and International Journal of Advanced Ceramic Technology all publish highly novel studies that aim to provide a deep understanding of the subject matter. Early-stage work, incremental studies, and the like are also valuable to our community, and International Journal of Ceramic Engineering and Science is the journal designed for publishing these types of studies and more.
Each journal focuses on targeted areas of ceramic and glass science and engineering. Briefly, they are
- JACerS is a leading source for top-quality basic science research and modeling spanning the diverse field of ceramic and glass materials science.
- ACT reports ceramic technology, engineering, modelling and process research that moves ceramics and composites from lab to production.
- IJAGS reports glass applied science and engineering research aimed at meeting the challenges of using glass in consumer, commercial and industrial applications.
- IJCES is ACerS’ broad-scope Open Access journal covering all aspects of research, development, manufacturing, and use of ceramic and glass materials, assemblies, and systems.
Step 2: Organize your work into a good story
You want to make it easy for the reviewers and ultimately the audience to understand. Wiley has many resources to help you prepare your manuscript. Every good journal article tells the following story:
- Describe the problem you addressed – It must fit into the Aim and Scope of your target journal
- What did you work on?
- What changes did you make and how did you make them?
- How did those changes affect the stuff you worked on?
- Why are those effects important? Why should the audience care?
Step 3: Write the article to meet the journal’s submission and publishing requirements
ACerS has adopted a policy allowing the initial submission of manuscripts with minimal requirements. Our editors encourage a single-document submission to facilitate the initial content review. A second option is submitting one document for the text and tables, with figures contained in one or more files. For example, you can submit a Powerpoint that contains all the images.
Manuscript Sections
All the ACerS journals require the following sections for Research Articles.
- Title
- Authors and institutions
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Methods
- Data/Results/Evaluation/Analysis (organization of these sections is flexible)
- Conclusions/Summary
- Bibliography
You can have other sections such as acknowledgements and authorship statements, but these are optional.
The requirements for other article types such as reviews and perspectives are slightly different. You should consult the journal’s Author Instruction pages for more information.
Manuscript Formatting Requirements
ACerS journals have enacted substantially simplified manuscript and file formatting requirements. Most importantly, figures no longer need to be submitted individually. Figures and tables can be submitted within the body of the main text for both original and revised manuscripts.
Below are the key requirements
- Main text must be editable and submitted as a Microsoft Word® (.doc, .docx), RTF, or LaTeX document
- Double-spaced text for easy review
- The corresponding author must be marked within the author list and contact info provided on the manuscript’s first page
- Tables, equations and figure captions are editable (not images)
- Figures are clear (e.g. text is easily read) when converted to PDF
- All tables, figures, and references, including those within supplemental information must be mentioned within the body of the text. References within captions and table titles are not sufficient.
- Bibliography should have all authors listed and must list the article title. DOIs for journal articles and books are requested. Data from websites should list URL and date which information was downloaded.
English Language Support
Many manuscripts are rejected due to poor writing. You should always have a colleague read your manuscript before submission. If English is not your first language, you should consider outside services to help refine your manuscript such as the Wiley Editing Services.
Publication Ethics Considerations
The authors, reviewers, and editors of the journals are expected to follow the standards defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics. Authors should not submit manuscripts that contain previously published data and results, plagiarized material, fictitious results or information generated by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Credit must be attributed for re-use of information from prior publications via citations. Use of AI tools for analysis purposes must be disclosed.
Do not submit manuscripts that are currently being considered for publication elsewhere, as this is a form of plagiarism, and it is highly inconsiderate of the journal editorial team’s efforts to provide the highest quality for our community.
Publication of work presented at scientific meetings or published on pre-print servers or in abstract compilations will not jeopardize full publication.
Listed authors should only be those who substantially contribute to one or more of the research and writing processes. (design, experimentation, analysis, writing, approval, funding). Each author accepts responsibility for the contents. AI tools cannot accept responsibility and therefore cannot be listed authors. Please consult the Publications Ethics page for more information on authorship, changes to the author list during review, and use of artificial intelligence tools.
Additional Tips for Getting Published
Title and abstract
Good titles and abstracts are critical to having your work found and read. Search engines use the keywords found in these sections for indexing your article. Your title and abstract must also be interesting to the readers or they will not download and read the article. Grab their attention by telling them why your work is important in the abstract. Explain what is new by clearly explaining your work’s main statement (the problem addressed), outlining the most important evidence, and highlighting the unique value of your research. This presentation is a great resource for learning more about writing your title and abstract. You can also view the section on search engine optimization in Wiley Author Services for details of this important process.
Introduction
The introduction lays the foundation of your work. You provide context and explain how your work builds upon what others have done. You can learn more about writing the introduction on this blog post.
Results and analysis
Keep your focus and provide results in a concise but informative way. You should only provide the images, graphics, and tables necessary to support your analysis and conclusions.
Analysis must be consistent with your methods, your data, and prior art (literature) in your field of research. Any variance from or disagreement with generally accepted principles in your field should have substantial justification. Make sure to highlight the most important findings
Conclusions/SUMMARY
Conclusions should not be a repetition of the abstract, nor should it be a lengthy summary. Instead, this is the final statement of your work. Discuss the major findings with key pieces of evidence. Discuss the impact on the field and provide insight into future research directions that will continue to advance your work.
Journal Author Instruction Websites
Journal of the American Ceramic Society
International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology
International Journal of Applied Glass Science
International Journal of Ceramic Engineering and Science
Ready to Submit Your Manuscript?
These links will take you to the submission site for each ACerS journal