Writing for the Engineering Subject Centre

The Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre publishes a range of guides, case studies and periodicals. All publications are freely available from the website www.engsc.ac.uk.

The Centre has a professional publications team who process all manuscripts from submission through to final publication. This includes copyediting and proof reading, peer reviewing, contracts and copyright, typesetting, design and print management.

Peer review and editorial rights

Papers and guides requiring peer review are refereed by up to three reviewers who are drawn from an editorial board or are suitable subject specialists from the wider academic community. Their recommendations, with constructive comments, are forwarded to the author. For accepted work, timescales and deadlines are agreed and, in some cases, a contract of work may be drawn up.

The Engineering Subject Centre holds editorial rights over all submissions. This means that editorial changes may be made, to ensure that the manuscript:

• meets expectations in terms of content, coverage, style and format;
• has a sound pedagogical basis, relating to and enhancing the existing body of literature.

After copyediting, a final version is emailed to the author for approval prior to publication.

Copyright

No submission will be accepted which is currently under consideration by any other publication or which has been published elsewhere, unless it is expressly invited or agreed by the Engineering Subject Centre. Intellectual property rights for each publication will be formally agreed using an Author Agreement licence. It is usual that copyright for submissions remains with the author.

Contributions are accepted on the strict understanding that the author is responsible for the accuracy of all the contents of the published material. The Engineering Subject Centre does not accept any liability for the accuracy of submissions and does not accept responsibility for mistakes, be they editorial or typographical, nor for consequences resulting from them.  Authors are asked to ensure that there are no libellous implications in their work.

Submission checklist

Schedules are devised for all publications including deadlines and publication dates. Please use the following guidelines to ensure your submission is not unnecessarily delayed or rejected before it enters the production process.

• Check the required word count.
• Check whether an abstract is required and, if so, the required word count.
• The title should be less than 90 characters in length (including spaces) and describe the main theme of the submission.
• Text should be in clear, concise, grammatical English, using English and not US spelling. SI units should be used.
• Manuscripts must be submitted electronically in Microsoft Word format by email attachment to naomi@engsc.ac.uk (or via the website if a journal paper to www.engsc.ac.uk/journal).
• Text should have consecutively numbered pages.
• All illustrations, figures, photographs, tables, boxes etc. should be referenced in the text.
• Use an 11 or 12pt text size and an accessible font. List all captions and references separately.
• Clearly indicate the level of main headings and sub-headings.
• Please use endnotes, not footnotes.
• Citations to published work are essential and should follow the Harvard style (see our website).
• Where acronyms are used, their full expression should be given initially.
• Quotations - if the quotation is less than two to three lines, then it should be included in the main text enclosed in single quotation marks. If the quotation is more than two to three lines, then it should be separated from the main text and indented.
• Any acknowledgements should appear at the end of the document.

On a cover page, please include:

• Title of submission.
• Full names, qualifications and positions/affiliations of authors.
• Identification of principal author. Correspondence will be sent to the first named author unless otherwise indicated.
• Contact information (address, telephone number and email).
• Number of words.
• Date written/revised and revision number.
• List of tables, boxes, figures, photographs etc.

Figures/photographs/illustrations/equations

Figures, photographs and illustrations should be sent electronically as jpeg, tif or eps files (with fonts embedded) at a minimum resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi) for 100% size reproduction.  Please ensure that all annotations are typeset using Arial Light, Helvetica Light or Swiss Light at 8pt when reproduced at 100%.  The maximum height and width of an image is 240mm (h)  x 180mm (w). Prepare figures suitable for black and white reproduction at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi for half-tone illustrations or images.  Half-tone illustrations, figures or photographs must be ready and suitable for reproduction or they will be rejected.

When submitting equations, please use Arial, Helvetica, or Swiss based on 9.5pt standard characters along with a sans serif symbol typeface for special characters.  To ensure accurate reproduction, please also supply the equation as an image (e.g. jpeg, tif or eps, with fonts embedded or supply pages containing equations as pdf files) along with the Word file.

Note: It is the author's responsibility to obtain written permission to quote or reproduce material that has appeared in another publication. This includes both copyright and ownership rights, e.g. photographs, illustrations, trade literature and data (advice on obtaining copyright is available).

Naomi Dungworth, Information Officer  

naomi@engsc.ac.uk