• BFY Proceedings
• Volumes
• About the Proceedings
  • General Information
  • Editors
  • Frequently Asked Questions
• Authors
  • Manuscript Preparation
  • Manuscript Submission
  • Publication Rights
  • Review Process
  • Brief Checklist for Authors
• Peer Reviewers
  • Evaluation Criteria
  • Questions to Ponder
  • Ethical Guidelines

Manuscript Preparation

All BFY Proceedings papers are limited to four (4) pages in length, double-column 8.5 x 11 inch format. Authors should use the BFY Proceedings Style Guide Summary to guide the preparation of their papers. This style guide is based on the Physical Review Physics Education Research style requirements, with the exception that full article titles need not be included in the reference list. All peer reviewed papers must be submitted in .PDF format for the peer review process.

Due to the length restriction on BFY Proceedings papers, it is recommended that you focus on only the most significant one or two findings or aspects of the research that you are presenting. These findings should be supported with strong evidence so that your conclusions are clear.

If the paper describes preliminary or work-in-progress, make this clear early in the paper.

As BFY Proceedings papers may be read by researchers in other fields in addition to members of the Advanced Laboratory community, you should not assume the reader knows what methodology you applied.

State the question(s) that you are addressing as early in the paper as possible to provide readers with a clear path through the paper.

Be sure to situate your research within the larger body of knowledge to provide a context for how it relates to work already done in the field. Include appropriate references to provide the interested reader with supporting ideas and background.

Be sure that the work that you are presenting is really at a point that it warrants "getting the word out."

Templates

TeX and Word templates are available. However, due to differences in OSes and environments, authors must confirm papers render as expected before submission. The BFY III Proceedings can serve as a source of adequately formatted sample papers.

Permission to Reprint Published Material

Reproduction of figures, tables, and text material that have been published previously should be kept to a minimum and must be properly referenced. In order to reproduce figures, tables, etc., from a journal, authors must show that they have complied with the copyright/licensing requirements of the publisher of the journal. Publication of material in a thesis does not preclude publication of appropriate parts of that material in the BFY Proceedings.

If your submission contains any material copyrighted elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the original copyright holder. Please submit the release form as evidence that you have obtained all necessary permissions.

Technical Guidelines

Figures, Equations, and Graphics
- Include figures in your Word document as pictures.
- Include equations by using Design Science's MathType equation editor rather than Word's built-in editor, and tables by using Word's Table Editor. Please do not embed any of these items as objects, since this will cause a problem when converting your file to PDF.
- Papers submitted with color images will be published online in color. Note, however, that color images printed in grayscale may be unreadable. Please ensure your figures are still understandable in grayscale.

References
- Check the accuracy of your references. Avoid broken hyperlinks.
- Include the complete source information for any references cited in the abstract. (Do not cite reference numbers in the abstract.)
- Number references in text consecutively, starting with [1].

Language
- If your native language is not English, please enlist the help of an English-speaking colleague who can assist you with proper spelling and grammar in preparing the text.
- Use a spell checker and grammar checker as a first step. You should always check it yourself as well since a spell checker will accept "form" when you meant "from." (Reviewers are not favorably impressed by careless mistakes.)

List of collaborators
- With your submission, include a list of your collaborators who are not your co-authors but may have a conflict of interest related to your paper because they are too familiar with the paper/project to serve as a peer reviewer.

REVTeX and LaTeX
- Please run BibTeX before submitting your paper, and include (read-in) the resulting .bbl file within the reference section of your paper.
- Be sure to check your convert Word, REVTeX or LaTeX PDFs as the conversions can introduce changes and some errors might result.