This journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts (previously Manuscript Central) to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the guide for ScholarOne authors before making a submission. Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.

The instructions below are specifically directed at authors that wish to submit a manuscript to Virtual and Physical Prototyping. For general information, please visit the Author Services section of our website.

Virtual and Physical Prototyping considers all manuscripts on the strict condition that they have been submitted only to Virtual and Physical Prototyping, that they have not been published already, nor are they under consideration for publication or in press elsewhere. Authors who fail to adhere to this condition will be charged with all costs which Virtual and Physical Prototyping incurs and their papers will not be published.

Contributions to Virtual and Physical Prototyping must report original research and will be subjected to review by referees at the discretion of the Editorial Office.

Manuscript preparation

1. General guidelines

• Papers are accepted only in English. British English spelling and punctuation is preferred.
• Authors should include a word count with their manuscript.
• Manuscripts should be compiled in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text; acknowledgments; appendixes (as appropriate); references; table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figure caption(s) (as a list).
• Abstracts of 100-150 words are required for all papers submitted.
• Each paper should have three to five keywords.
• Search engine optimization (SEO) is a means of making your article more visible to anyone who might be looking for it. Please consult our guidance here.
• Section headings should be concise and numbered sequentially, using a decimal system for subsections.
• All the authors of a paper should include their full names, affiliations, postal addresses, telephone and fax numbers and email addresses on the cover page of the manuscript. One author should be identified as the Corresponding Author.
• Biographical notes on contributors are not required for this journal.
• For all manuscripts non-discriminatory language is mandatory. Sexist or racist terms should not be used.
• Authors must adhere to SI units. Units are not italicised.
• When using a word which is or is asserted to be a proprietary term or trade mark, authors must use the symbol ® or TM.

2. Style guidelines

• Description of the Journal's article style, Quick guide
• Description of the Journal's reference styles 
• Guide to using mathematical symbols and equations
• LaTeX template (Please save the LaTeX template to your hard drive and open it for use by clicking on the icon in Windows Explorer)
• Word templates are available for this journal. If you are not able to use the template via the links or if you have any other queries, please contact authortemplate@tandf.co.uk

If you have any questions about references or formatting your article, please contact authorqueries@tandf.co.uk (please mention the journal title in your email).

3. Figures

• It is in the author's interest to provide the highest quality figure format possible. Please be sure that all imported scanned material is scanned at the appropriate resolution: 1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour.
• Figures must be saved separate to text. Please do not embed figures in the paper file.
• Files should be saved as one of the following formats: TIFF (tagged image file format), PostScript or EPS (encapsulated PostScript), and should contain all the necessary font information and the source file of the application (e.g. CorelDraw/Mac, CorelDraw/PC).
• All figures must be numbered in the order in which they appear in the paper (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2). In multi-part figures, each part should be labelled (e.g. Figure 1(a), Figure 1(b)).
• Figure captions must be saved separately, as part of the file containing the complete text of the paper, and numbered correspondingly.
• The filename for a graphic should be descriptive of the graphic, e.g. Figure1, Figure2a.

4. Colour

There are a limited number of colour pages within the annual page allowance. Authors should restrict their use of colour to situations where it is necessary on scientific, and not merely cosmetic, grounds. Authors of accepted papers who propose publishing figures in colour in the print version should consult Taylor & Francis at proof stage to agree on an appropriate number of colour pages. If the colour page budget is exceeded, authors will be given the option to provide a financial contribution to additional colour reproduction costs. Figures that appear in black-and-white in the print edition of the Journal will appear in colour in the online edition, assuming colour originals are supplied.

5. Reproduction of copyright material

As an author, you are required to secure permission if you want to reproduce any figure, table, or extract from the text of another source. This applies to direct reproduction as well as "derivative reproduction" (where you have created a new figure or table which derives substantially from a copyrighted source). For further information and FAQs, please see http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/preparation/permission.asp. Authors are themselves responsible for the payment of any permission fees required by the copyright owner. Copies of permission letters should be sent with the manuscript upon submission to the Editor(s).

• Copyright permission letter template

6. Supplementary online material

Authors are welcome to submit animations, movie files, sound files or any additional information for online publication.

• Information about adding multimedia and supplementary content to your article 

Manuscript submission

All submissions should be made online at the Virtual and Physical Prototyping Manuscript Central site. New users should first create an account. Once logged on to the site, submissions should be made via the Author Centre. Online user guides and access to a helpdesk are available on this website.

Manuscripts may be submitted in any standard format, including Word, PostScript and PDF. These files will be automatically converted into a PDF file for the review process. LaTeX files should be converted to PDF prior to submission because Manuscript Central is not able to convert LaTeX files into PDFs directly. The original LaTeX files should also be uploaded as supplementary data.

Authors should prepare and upload two versions of their manuscript. One should be a complete text, while in the second, all document information identifying the author should be removed from files to allow them to be sent anonymously to referees. When uploading files authors will then be able to define the non-anonymous version as "File not for review".

Copyright and authors' rights

It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to Taylor & Francis. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course the Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors retain many rights under the Taylor & Francis rights policies, which can be found at http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/preparation/copyright.asp. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.

Exceptions are made for Government employees whose policies require that copyright cannot be transferred to other parties. We ask that a signed statement to this effect is submitted when returning proofs for accepted papers.

Reprints

Corresponding authors will receive free online access to their article through our website. Reprints of articles published in the Journal can be purchased through Rightslink® when proofs are received. If you have any queries, please contact our reprints department at reprints@tandf.co.uk.

Page charges

There are no page charges to individuals or institutions.

Visit our Author Services website for further resources and guides to the complete publication process and beyond.