American Chemical Society: ACS Books Guidelines for Figures, Figure Captions, Chemical Structures, Equations, and Tables

Guidelines for Figures, Figure Captions, Chemical Structures, Equations, and Tables

Figures and Artwork

The artwork submitted for publication in ACS books will be used as camera-ready copy. Therefore the clarity of the printed illustrations depends on the quality of the original illustrations you provide. Please send original artwork. If your original figures are larger than the margins specified in the sample chapter, we will reduce them. Photocopies are unacceptable.

Write the figure number and indicate the top of the figure on the back of each figure. Do not write on the back of photographs except with felt tip pens; the writing may show through. Use a separate label and affix it to the back.

In preparing artwork for publication, keep in mind the following points:

Use dark black ink on high-quality, smooth, opaque white paper.
Do not tape, glue, or paste anything onto or around a figure.
Use the best resolution available (graphics plotter, 600 or higher dpi laser printer).
Avoid textures and shadings.
Use initial capital letters for axis labels [e.g., Time (min); Temperature (慢)].
Maintain even spacing within the figure or scheme.
Ship all copy and illustrations flat(do not fold.

Figure Callouts in Text

When referring to a figure in the text, write out the word Figure and indicate the figure number with an Arabic numeral, for example, Figure 2. Example: As shown in Figure 3b, the polymer surface has begun to deteriorate.

Figure Placement

Use one of the following two options for figure placement:

Provide figures and artwork separately; do not leave space for them in your manuscript. ACS Books will adjust the size of all figures so that the type size in each figure is appropriate. We will then place the figures after their first mention in the text by inserting a page into the chapter.
If your word processing program can generate figures within the text, this is acceptable. Make sure the type size in the figures matches the type size in the text and that the complete figure caption is included beneath the figure. (See section below for instructions on figure captions.) Figures should always be placed after their callout in the text.
Center the figure horizontally and leave 2 line spaces above and 1 line space below the figure to the figure caption. Leave 2 line spaces between caption and text.

Figure Captions

The figure captions should be concise. Lengthy discussions of reaction conditions or data interpretation, for example, should be incorporated into the text.

If you are supplying your figures separate from the manuscript, print the figure captions on a separate sheet of paper (insert a page break in your file) in the order in which they appear in the manuscript. Each caption should be single-spaced with an extra line space between captions. Do not indent the first line of the caption. Use 10 point italic Times Roman.

If you are inserting your figures in the text, leave 2 line spaces below the figure caption to the text. Align the figure caption on the left.

Chemical Structures

Chemical structures can be placed within the text. Leave 2 blank lines above and below the structures.

Prepare chemical structures according to these guidelines for ChemDraw. If you are using other drawing packages, please adapt these parameters.

typeface 10 pt Times Roman
bond length 14.4 pt (0.2 in.)
line thickness 0.6 pt (0.0083 in.)
bond thickness 2.0 pt (0.0278 in.)
tolerance 3.0 pt (0.0417 in.)
margin width 1.6 pt (0.0222 in.)
hash spacing 2.5 pt (0.0345 in.)
bond spacing 18% of width

Photographs

When submitting black-and-white photographs for publication, provide high-contrast prints. Do not submit negatives, slides, or overhead transparencies; rather submit prints of these illustrations. Photographs produced on a laser printer or otherwise digitally reproduced (i.e., photographs cut from a printed publication) should be avoided because they scan poorly.

Equations

If you are working in Microsoft Word, we recommend you use Word's Equation Editor, which comes with the software.

You need not number equations unless you will refer to them again later in the text (e.g., According to eq 3...). If so, use a single Arabic number in parentheses at the right margin of the line.

Whenever possible, equations should be included inside the text paragraphs rather than displayed on a separate line. If the equations are more than one line or if they need to be referenced with numbers, then you can separate them from the paragraphs, by adding one line space above and below the equation.

Tables

Number all tables consecutively using single Roman numerals.
Give every table a descriptive, short title.
Use vertical columns for presenting data wherever possible and give column heads for each column of data.
When presenting numerical data, align the decimal points; if this is not possible, center the entry. In numbers less than one, a zero should ordinarily precede the decimal point.
Indicate footnotes by using superscript lowercase italic letters.

Placement of Tables

Place small tables (fewer than 30 lines) within the text, leaving two lines of space above and below each table. Put the complete table on the same page. Print larger tables on separate sheets of manuscript paper. If the tables are oversized, we will reduce them.

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