GUIDELINES FOR THE LENGTH OF MANUSCRIPTS

Length of manuscripts should preferentially be adequate to yield 3 printed pages, and in no case more than 4 printed pages. As an approximate guide to authors for judging the length of their paper, the following estimation may be used: heading + abstract = 0.6 printed page; 900 words or 5600 characters = 1 printed page; 3 single-column wide or 2 double–column wide figures plus legends = 1 printed page; 3 single–column wide or 2 double–column wide tables = 1 printed page; 17 references = 0.5 printed page. Authors are requested to provide more precise length calculations by exactly determining the final size of figures and tables including captions (as outlined in separate section below).

Those using Excel may download the Excel spreadsheet for easy calculating the length of a manuscript:   nsl-p1.xls

Calculation of the printed size of an illustration
Figure material should be arranged to fit into a printed format with the width being either that of a single column (8.3 cm) or a page (17.6 cm). The column width is preferred for the sake of saving space. Most of the figures containing graphic displays can be adapted to column width size, whereas sets of multiple micrographs might be better reproduced at page width. The original figure is usually larger than the final figure.
Using the original width (OW, in cm) and the original length (OL, in cm), the reduced printed length (in cm) is calculated as follows:

CL = OL x 8.3 cm/OW for a column width figure
PL = OL x 17.6 cm/OW for a page width figure.

In this calculation, the reduction factor is represented by 8.3 cm/OW or 17.6 cm/OW. For example, if an original figure submitted has a width of 19.5 cm (OW) and a length of 14.7 cm (OL), the printed size of the final figure will be:

for page width: PW = 17.6 cm, PL = 13.2 cm, reduction factor 0.90
for column width: CW = 8.3 cm, CL = 6.3 cm, reduction factor 0.43

For additional space required for the caption and the blank spaces above and below the figure, add the following values to the printed length (CL or PL) of a figure:
5.0 cm of column length for a figure at column width;
3.5 cm of page length for a figure at page width.
These values have been determined by taking the average of many printed figures and should be adjusted for an unusually long figure caption. The steps explained above combined give the following equation for the complete space requirement of a figure:

A figure at column width requires: [OL x 8.3 cm/OW] + 5 cm

A figure at page width requires: [OL x 17.6 cm/OW] + 3.5 cm.

Calculation of the printed size of a table
Tables can be printed at column width or page width format. The number of characters per line (including at least 5 blanks to separate each adjacent column) is the crucial parameter to decide between these alternatives:
if there are 65 characters or less per line, the table will fit into a single column;
otherwise, full page width is required.

To estimate the printed length, count the number of horizontal rows (NHR) in the table, including blank space or drawn lines to subdivide the table material vertically, and multiply this number by 0.4 cm to obtain the length (in cm) of a printed column (CL) or page (PL) of the table. The length of a table (in cm) is:

CL or PL = NHR x 0.4 cm

Additional space is required for the heading, the caption and the blank spaces above and below the table. Therefore, add the following values to the printed length (CL or PL) of a table:

5.0 cm of column length for a table at column width

3.5 cm of page length for a table at page width

Again these values have been determined by calculating the average of many printed tables and should be adjusted for unusually long captions. The steps explained above combined give the following equation for the complete space requirement of a table:

A table at column width requires [NHR x 0.4 cm] + 5 cm

A table at page width requires [NHR 0.4 cm] + 3.5 cm