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MRS Communications Instructions - Format

Style | Mathematics | References | Tables | Acknowledgements | Rights and Permissions | Proof Instructions for Articles 

Style  

Authors are expected to follow the conventional writing, notation, and illustration style prescribed in 1) The ACS Style Guide, 3^rd Edition, 2006.  Authors should also study the form and style of printed material in this journal. SI units should be used. Authors should use an identical format for their names in all publications to facilitate use of citations and author indexes.

Mathematics  

• Special care should be given to make equations and formulas clear to the typesetter.
• Variables should appear in italic text.
• Vectors should appear in bold text.
• Capital and lower-case letters should be distinguished clearly where there could be confusion.
• Fractional exponents should be used to avoid root signs.
• Extra symbols should be introduced to avoid complicated exponents or where it is necessary to repeat a complicated expression a number of times.
• The slash (/) should be used wherever possible for fractions.
• Mathematical derivations that are easily found elsewhere in the literature should not be used.   

References 

All journal article references must include the title of the article and all authors.  The phrases et al. and ibid. should not be used in any reference.  Instead, all authors of the reference should be listed. All journal article references must include the initials and last name of all authors: the title of the article in italic, the volume number in bold, page number and (year).

Authors are responsible for providing English-language translations of reference citations originally published in other languages.

References should be double-spaced, numbered consecutively, placed on a separate page, and arranged thus:

1. A. Gouldstone, Y-L. Shen, S. Suresh, and C.V. Thompson: Evolution of stress in passivated and unpassivated metal interconnects. J. Mater. Res. 13, 1956 (1998).
2. H. Lamb: Hydrodynamics, 6th ed. (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, England, 1940), pp. 573, 645.
3. T.R. Jervis, J-P. Hirvonen, M. Nastasi, and M.R. Cohen: Laser mixing of titanium on silicon carbide, in Beam-Solid Interactions: Physical Phenomena, edited by J.A. Knapp, P. Borgesen, and R.A. Zuhr (Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 157, Pittsburgh, PA, 1990), p. 395.  
4.  H. Wang, A. Sharma, and A. Kvit: Mechanical properties of nanocrystalline and epitaxial TiN films on (100) silicon. J. Mater. Res.16, 9 (2001).

Please take note of the reference format for the following MRS publications:

MRS Communications
T. Yokoto, T. Sekitani, Y. Kato, K. Kuribara, U. Zschieschang, H. Klauk, T. Yamamoto, K. Takimiya, H. Kuwabara, M. Ikeda, and T. Someya: Low-voltage organic transistor with subfemtoliter inkjet source-drain contacts. MRS Communications, doi:10.1557/mrc.2011.4, Published online 17 June 2011.

Journal of Materials Research
G. Bakan, N. Khan, A. Cywar, K. Cil, M. Akbulut, A. Gokirmak, and H. Silva:  Self-heating of silicon microwires: Crystallization and thermoelectric effects.  J. Mater. Res.26(9), 1061 (2011).

MRS Bulletin
B.M. Moskal and L. Kosbar:  Addressing broader impacts through K–12 outreach in materials education.  MRS Bull.36(4), 255 (2011).

MRS Symposium Proceedings
Print volume:
T.R. Jervis, J-P. Hirvonen, M. Nastasi, and M.R. Cohen: Laser mixing of titanium on silicon carbide, in Beam-Solid Interactions: Physical Phenomena, edited by J.A. Knapp, P. Borgesen, and R.A. Zuhr (Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 157, Pittsburgh, PA, 1990), p. 395. 

Electronic volume:
T. Saif, J. Rajagopalan, and A. Tofangchi: The role of mechanical tension in neurons, in Biological Materials and Structures in Physiologically Extreme Conditions and Disease, edited by M.J. Buehler, D. Kaplan, C.T. Lim, and J. Spatz (Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 1274, Warrendale, PA, 2010) 1274-QQ01-06.

Tables 

All but the simplest tabular material should be organized into separate tables. Tables should be numbered with arabic numerals on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. Captions should be sufficiently descriptive to make the data in the table intelligible without referring to the text. Complicated column headings in the body of the table should be avoided. If necessary, symbols that are explained in the caption should be used.

 

 Acknowledgments 

An Acknowledgment(s) section is optional.  Please note spelling above.  Place statements of funding support and disclaimers in the Acknowledgments section, not in footnotes.

 Rights and Permissions 

All requests to publish material published in MRS Communications should be directed to Cambridge University Press.  Please visit Cambridge’s Rights and Permissions page:  http://journals.cambridge.org/action/rightsAndPermissions 

Proof Instructions for Articles  

 MRC is dedicated to rapid publication of material and our Publisher is committed to providing the fastest and highest quality production processes in support of this goal. With a target of acceptance to publication in under 14 working days, authors are therefore asked to respond to receipt of their proofs promptly. Authors can anticipate receiving electronic copies of their proofs within 5 days of acceptance. We ask authors to bear in mind the following policies:

1.  Authors will be required to return proofs for correction within 48 hours of receipt.
2.  If an author is unable to meet the 48 hour deadline, but wants additional input, this needs to be communicated so that the production process is put on hold.
3.  If authors fail to return their corrected page proofs or to communicate a requirement for an extended review period, the paper will be published without corrections.
4.  Authors shall follow the instructions for the return proofs provided at the time of their dispatch.
5.  Online publication is considered a definitive act and shall be the version of record. Any subsequent request for alterations, additions or correction shall be considered on a case by case basis for significant errors at the discretion of the editors. Records shall be updated by the publication of a corrigendum, erratum or addendum, as appropriate.

Note: Authors should note that minor corrections of their published material, not affecting the contribution in any significant way or impairing the reader’s understanding of the article (spelling or grammatical errors, for instance), will not be published.