How to format a paper for journal submission

This guide is part of our series on writing and publishing papers; the pillar is how to write a conference paper. If your manuscript started as a thesis chapter, read thesis to journal article first: cutting and refocusing come before formatting.

Step 1: Read the author guidelines properly

Every journal publishes instructions for authors. Find them on the journal's site (often titled "Author guidelines", "Guide for authors" or "Submission guidelines") and read them end to end once before you change anything. Then make a short list for your article type:

Example (invented for illustration). The numbers above are typical, not a rule. A short report may allow 2,000 words; a review article 6,000 or more.

Step 2: Put the sections in the journal's order

Most empirical research articles use IMRaD: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. Around it sit the front matter and back matter:

1. Title page (sometimes a separate file)
2. Abstract and keywords
3. Introduction
4. Methods (or Materials and methods)
5. Results
6. Discussion (some journals add a separate Conclusion)
7. Declarations and acknowledgments
8. References
9. Tables, figure legends, and sometimes the figures themselves

Journals vary in the details:

• Nature-family journals open with a referenced summary paragraph, run the main text without an "Introduction" heading, and put Methods at the end.
• APA 7 manuscripts (common in psychology and education) start the introduction under the paper's title, not a heading "Introduction", and use "Method" in the singular.
• IEEE and ACM journals use numbered sections, keywords or index terms, and often a related-work section.
• Many clinical journals follow the ICMJE recommendations and expect a structured abstract and specific statements.

Step 3: Meet the word and abstract limits

Word limits usually cover the main text only, but the guidelines say what is excluded. Count the way the journal counts: if references and tables are excluded, remove them from your count.

For the abstract:

• Structured abstracts use headings such as Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions (clinical journals often use Objective, Design, Setting, Participants, Interventions, Main outcome measures, Results, Conclusions).
• Unstructured abstracts are one paragraph.
• Typical limits are 150 to 300 words. Do not cite references in the abstract unless the journal allows it, and define abbreviations.

If you are over the limit, cut the introduction and discussion first; they usually carry the most repetition. Move detailed methods to supplementary material where the journal allows it.

Step 4: Build the title page

A title page usually includes:

• The full title (and a short running title if requested)
• All authors with affiliations, and ORCID iDs where the journal collects them
• The corresponding author's name, address and email
• Word counts for the abstract and main text, and the number of tables and figures
• Keywords
• For double-blind journals: the title page goes in a separate file, and the manuscript itself carries no names, affiliations or acknowledgments

Step 5: Write the declarations

Missing declarations are one of the most common reasons manuscripts are sent back. Most journals require some or all of these:

Write the ethics statement in the journal's wording, with the committee name and reference number. Our ethics approval statement template gives wording for approval, exemption, waiver of consent and retrospective studies. If the journal requires a reporting guideline (CONSORT 2010, STROBE, PRISMA 2020 and others), fill in its checklist with page numbers; see reporting checklists.

Step 6: Apply the reference style

Journals use one of a few families of reference style:

Use a reference manager and the journal's style file rather than typing references by hand. Check that every in-text citation has a reference and every reference is cited, that DOIs are present where the style wants them, and that journal names are abbreviated or not as the style requires. Our guide to formatting a reference list has examples for each style.

Step 7: Prepare figures and tables

• File formats and resolution. Journals commonly ask for TIFF, EPS or PDF; many ask for at least 300 dpi for photographs and higher (often 600 to 1,000 dpi) for line art.
• Separate files if the journal asks, named Figure1, Figure2 and so on, with legends in the manuscript.
• Tables as editable text, not images, built with the word processor's table tool.
• Readable at print size, with fonts of at least 6 to 8 pt after scaling, and color choices that work for color-blind readers.
• Permissions for any figure you reproduce from another source.
• Number figures and tables in the order they are first cited.

Step 8: Write the cover letter

Keep it to one page. Address the editor by name if the journal lists one. Say:

1. The title and article type.
2. The question and the main finding, in two or three sentences.
3. Why it fits this journal's scope and readers.
4. That the work is original, not under consideration elsewhere, and that all authors approved it.
5. Any related preprints or prior conference versions.
6. Any suggested or opposed reviewers, if the journal asks.

Do not repeat the abstract. The cover letter's job is to show the editor why the paper belongs in their journal.

Formatting problems that get manuscripts returned

Editors and editorial assistants send back or desk-reject manuscripts for reasons that are easy to avoid:

• Wrong scope or article type for the journal.
• Word or abstract limit exceeded by a wide margin.
• Missing declarations, especially ethics approval, consent, data availability and competing interests.
• No reporting checklist where the journal requires one.
• Identifying details left in a blinded manuscript.
• References in a mixed or broken style, or in-text citations without matching references.
• Figures that cannot be read, missing, or embedded at low resolution.
• Section order that ignores the guidelines, such as Methods at the start for a journal that puts them at the end.
• No line numbers or page numbers where the journal requires them.

None of these says anything about the quality of the research, which is why it is painful to be rejected for them.

Formatting checklist

• Author guidelines read on the day of formatting; article type confirmed.
• Main text within the word limit, counted the journal's way.
• Abstract within limit, structured or not as required.
• Sections in the journal's order.
• Title page complete; separate if the review is blinded.
• Ethics, consent, funding, competing interests, data availability and author contributions present.
• Reporting guideline checklist completed, with page numbers.
• References in the required style; every citation matched.
• Figures and tables in the required formats, numbered, with legends.
• Cover letter written for this journal.

Format a manuscript in AI for Research

The Journal formatter in Writing Studio (/write?module=journal-format, also available in the editor) takes your manuscript as an upload (Word or PDF) or pasted text. You pick a target: Nature and Nature-family journals, Science, IEEE, ACM, APA 7th edition, a medical journal using ICMJE/Vancouver, or another journal, for which you paste its author guidelines. It returns the manuscript in that section order and reference style, applies the word and abstract limits, and gives you a list of what still breaks the guidelines, such as a missing data availability statement or an abstract over the limit.

It costs 3 credits per 10,000 words, at most 4 units, so no manuscript costs more than 12 credits. The Free plan has 45 credits a month; see pricing. If you want to start from a blank layout instead, the editor has free venue templates for IEEE, ACM, APA 7, Nature-style and Vancouver manuscripts.

What it does not do: it does not submit to the journal, and it does not guarantee acceptance. Journals change their limits, so read the journal's current author guidelines and compare them with the result before you submit. See the journal formatter page for details. For the ethics statement itself, the ethics approval statement template gives the wording.

FAQ

Where do I find a journal's formatting requirements?

On the journal's website, in a page called Author guidelines, Instructions for authors, Guide for authors or Submission guidelines. Read the current version on the day you format, because journals update limits and required statements. Some journals also publish a submission checklist or a downloadable template.

What is IMRaD format?

IMRaD stands for Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion, the standard order for empirical research articles in the sciences, medicine and much of the social sciences. Most journals add an abstract before it and a conclusion, declarations and references after it. Some journals, such as the Nature family, move the Methods to the end.

Do journals desk-reject papers for formatting?

Editors rarely reject a strong paper for a margin or font, but they do return or reject manuscripts that ignore the scope, exceed word limits by a wide margin, lack required declarations such as ethics approval or data availability, or use the wrong article type. Formatting errors also signal carelessness and make the editor's first read harder.

Do I need to format references in the journal's style before submission?

Many journals now accept any consistent style at first submission and ask for their own style only after acceptance, sometimes called format-free submission. Others require their style from the start. The author guidelines say which. If you use a reference manager, switching styles takes seconds, so it is usually worth doing.

Can a tool format my paper for a specific journal automatically?

A tool can reorder sections, apply a reference style, flag missing statements and check word counts against the limits you give it. It cannot read the journal's current guidelines for you or decide what your declarations should say. Always compare the result with the journal's author guidelines before you submit.

Related

• Thesis to journal article
• How to write a conference paper
• How to format a reference list
• How to respond to reviewer comments
• Journal formatter