Detailed Instructions for Papers for the 2006 Conference "Advances in Threat Assessment..."

Conference papers will be simultaneously published by the Southern and Pacific Northwest Research Stations as a book-length General Technical Report and as part of the Forest Environmental Threats Encyclopedia at www.threats.forestencyclopedia.net. Dual publication on a rapid timeline poses a number of challenges. Following the guidelines below will help ensure your paper is published properly in both media.

Submission Overview: Manuscripts must be submitted in electronic format. If hardcopy is needed it will be requested. The Station prefers manuscripts prepared with MS Word software. If MS Word is unavailable, WordPerfect will be accepted if the manuscript is saved in Rich Text Format (.rtf).

Manuscripts can be submitted via email, anonymous FTP, CD, or 3.5-inch diskette (PC format). FTP uploads should be accompanied by an email message to jpye@fs.fed.us so files be transferred to a more permanent location.

John Pye
Southern Research Station
P.O. Box 12254
3041 E. Cornwallis Rd.
Research Triangle Park NC 27709

Email jpye@fs.fed.us
Phone (919) 549-4013
FTP is also available

Manuscripts will have received and properly addressed the concerns of at least two independent peer reviews, with additional oversight by conference organizers and associate editors. Authors will be responsible for the content and accuracy of their manuscripts.

Each manuscript will be edited for style by the Stations for printing in a consistent page layout. If the author fails to comply with these instructions, this job will become very time consuming. Excessive delays can prevent inclusion of the paper in the GTR and delay its appearance on the web.

General Formatting: When preparing the manuscript, the author should limit the use of control characters or special formatting. Use italics to indicate all Latin names, use bold sparingly for emphasis. Do not use other character format options. For symbols use Words Equation Editor. Do not use underlines except for hyperlinks. Do not use tabs. Do not use centered text, graphic lines; etc. unless instructed to do so. Use only one space after all punctuation (periods, colons, etc.). Use a sans serif font (Helvetica or Arial) in all graphics.

Use Words styles to indicate the structure of the document. The papers title should use the Title style, first level headings use Heading 1, second level headings Heading 2, and so forth. Three levels of headings should be sufficient. Every heading should be followed by some text. The body text should use style Normal or Body Text. Use the Word template provided by the conference organizers, or the default template provided in Word.

Set the normal or body text styles to 10-point Times New Roman or Times font, single-spaced, left justified, ragged right, no hyphenation. Make sure the page layout is set to single column with 1-inch margins all around.

Paper Title: Type the title and mark its style as "Title." To make it available under Format, Styles and Format you may need to select "Available formatting." If the title is longer than one line, allow it to wrap to the next line (i.e. don’t press Enter or otherwise force a new line).

Authors Names: Leave one blank line below the title and type the full name of the authors, centered, using initial capitals.

Author Identification: Leave one blank line below the authors names and type flush left the job title and complete address of each author. Text should be left justified, ragged right. If more than one author is at the same address, do not repeat the address. The layout person will move author identifications to the proper footnote.

Abstract: Leave one blank line below the author identification and type flush left the word "Abstract" followed by two dashes. Begin the text immediately after the dashes (no spaces). At the end of each line, allow the word processor to wrap to the next line. Do not use carriage returns except at the end of each paragraph. Do not hyphenate words at the end of lines. All text should be left justified, ragged right.

Body text: Leave one blank line below the abstract and type flush left your first heading. Style it as Heading 1, accepting the default format. On the next line (no blank line), begin typing the text at the left margin. Text should be left justified. Use the word wrap feature at the end of each line and do not hyphenate words at the end of lines.

Left justify all paragraphs, no paragraph indentions. Skip one line between each paragraph.

Headings: All section headings should be entered in plain text, selected, and set to the appropriate heading style using Format, Styles and Formatting. Make sure each heading has at least one paragraph of text before the next heading, even if it’s a lower level heading. An individual heading should not have more than six paragraphs of text. Avoid entering blank lines before or after headings.

Lists and Bulleted Items: Use Word’s Format, Bullets and Numbering choice. Use the first bullet and numbering styles offered (e.g. solid disk and Arabic number followed by a period). If an additional style is needed, select the next one offered.

Quotations: Do not indent or italicize quotations. Quote them, and for lengthier quotes set them off as their own paragraph--the layout person will convert them to the appropriate format.

Acknowledgments: This section, if needed, should be placed after the conclusions section under the first-degree heading, Acknowledgments.

Literature Cited: Arrange citations in alphabetical order. Type each literature citation as a separate paragraph, allowing the word processor to wrap at the end of each line. Do not indent. Hard carriage returns should only be used at the end of each citation. Separate each citation with one blank line. This section should be titled Literature Cited. Follow the American National Standards Institute (ANSI Z39.29-1977) style for citing bibliographic references. Use of Endnote or similar bibliographic management tools is encouraged. Please include the library of citations used either as a traveling library attached as part of the Word manuscript or as a separate library file.

Use the author-date method to refer to literature in the text; for example, "More rapid runoff may result in increased peak flows (Brown 1980)" or "Later experiments by Miller (1980) showed... If several references are listed together, list them alphabetically (Adams and Smith 1980, Endres 1972, Peterson 1974). Use a comma, not a semicolon, between listings. If a manuscript has three or more authors, list the first author followed by "and others" (e.g., Clark and others 1986). Do not use "et al."

With one exception, only published material should be included in the references section. Manuscripts accepted for publication may be included. The notation "In press" appears in the same position as the publication date; for example: Haywood, J.D. [In press]. Plant communities in selected....

Footnotes: FOOTNOTES ARE DISCOURAGED. IF ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, USE ENDNOTES INSTEAD. Insert endnotes using Word’s Insert, Reference, Footnotes and Endnotes. Endnotes should be numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript and placed after the references section. The layout person will place each footnote at the appropriate location. This section should be titled Endnotes.

Personal Communications: Reference to personal communications and unpublished data should be avoided. If it must be done, do so parenthetically in the text; for example: (Personal communication. John Doe. 1991. Silviculturist, Kisatchie National Forest, 2500 Shreveport Highway, Pineville, LA 71360). A complete address must be given as a means of contact.

Numbers and Units of Measurement: Throughout the manuscript, spell out numbers at the beginning of a sentence, whole numbers from one through nine unless associated with a unit of measurement or money (7 m, 2 inches, 3 percent, $3), fractions standing alone or followed by "of a" or "of an," and preceding a unit modifier that contains a figure (ten 3-m logs). Use numerals when 2 or more numbers appear in a sentence and 1 of them is 10 or more. Note that metric units are abbreviated (7 m, 9 cm, 2 L, 3 mL), while English units are spelled out (2 inches, 3 feet, 4 square feet).

With one exception, use standard GPO abbreviations in the tables and text for units of measurement. Do not use "%" in the text, write out the word "percent" instead. The "%" sign can be used in the tables, however. Write out units of measurement when used alone in the text, units are usually abbreviated in tables. Do not mix metric and English units in the text. Use the one most appropriate.

State Abbreviations: States should be abbreviated when mentioned with the name of a town or county and spelled out when standing alone. Use the U.S. Postal Service two-letter State abbreviations.

Nomenclature: Scientific names set off in parentheses should follow the first mention of each common name in the abstract and again in the body of the manuscript. The authority is not necessary but if used should be consistent throughout. The genus, species, and variety names should be italicized. Do not underline the names. Common names or scientific names without the authority can be used thereafter. If the number of species is large, a list of common and scientific names can be included in an appendix following the references section.

Equations: Use Word’s Equation Editor or MathType software program to write equations. Equations should be broken out of the text, numbered at the right margin, and surrounded by extra space.

Placing Tables and Figures: Place all tables and figures at the end of the manuscript, forcing a new page before each new table or figure. See below for more detailed instructions on tables and figures.

Tables: Tables should be mentioned in the text and numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript. Always reference a table using the term "Table" as in "…shown in Table 3." Place all tables at the end of the manuscript following the references section and/or appendices and before the figures. Avoid large tables (over 1/2 page), and especially avoid wide tables.

Keep tables simple. Use a table editor to create tables. DO NOT USE THE SPACE BAR OR TABS TO ALIGN COLUMNS. Decimal tabs are permitted but only within table columns. Columns are easily aligned if the appropriate table features are used but require tedious reformatting or retyping if spaces or other improper procedures are used to force alignment.

Each table should have a complete title. In the title, insert two dashes after the table number; for example: Table 1--Mean live crown ratios for loblolly pine.... Do not place a period after the title. The web version will need a short title to use for navigation purposes. Include a short title on its own line below the caption and before the table itself or accept an editor writing one for you.

All columns must have headings. Capitalize only the first word of each column heading and proper nouns. Use lowercase letters for footnotes in each table beginning with "a." (See attached table examples for proper formatting). Simple table layouts are encouraged, complex nesting of headings can be difficult to render on the web.

Figures: Illustrations, such as charts, maps, drawings, and photographs are figures. Number figures in the order mentioned in the text. Minimize the use of text within figures, but when you do, use a sans-serif font, preferably Helvetica or Arial. SUBMIT A SEPARATE ELECTRONIC FILE OF EACH FIGURE GRAPHIC ACCORDING TO DIRECTIONS PROVIDED BELOW. Be prepared to provide a printed version if asked. Figure captions should be placed above each graphic and not in the graphic itself. Avoid footnotes in figures; include the information in the caption. In the caption, insert two dashes after the figure number (Figure 1--) and end the caption with a period. INCLUDE A DESCRIPTION OF EACH GRAPHIC, entered on a separate line below the caption and before the graphic. Descriptions are how we make your graphics accessible to those with impaired vision. They should make clear verbally the major point of the graphic or describe its appearance. These descriptions will not appear in the hardcopy publication.

Name each graphic file to reflect the conference, the corresponding author, and the figure number using the following pattern, substituting specific information for the bold text:

threatsconf2006-correspauthor-figure##.eps

Use of color in figures is encouraged. AVOID CREATING FIGURES IN MICROSOFT WORD or POWERPOINT. Drawings should be created in Macromedia Freehand, Adobe Illustrator, or similar illustration program. They must be rendered as vector graphics and not raster (bitmaps) and submitted in EPS (Encapsulated Postscript) format. Charts and graphs should be created in Excel, SigmaPlot, KaleidaGraph, DeltaGraph, or similar charting program. The submitted chart should be in either XLS or EPS formats. Maps and graphs produced in ArcView/ArcInfo and Sigma Plot should be saved or exported in editable EPS format—not EPS printer format. The editable format includes a thumbnail image in the graphic. We cannot use the figures embedded in the text of your manuscript, these will only be used as check-plots and to confirm figure numbering. All figures should be 100% of the final image size. (See the next paragraph for size constraints.)

Photos and remote sensing imagery that are inherently raster (bitmap) can be published in full color but must be of high quality and submitted as 300 dpi TIFF files or high resolution JPG.

All figures must be readable when viewed at 1024 x 768 pixels but still clear when printed at 300 dpi. Very complex graphics will probably not pass this test. In a limited number of cases, authors may be permitted to submit low resolution web and high resolution print versions of the same figure.