Forest Products Journal Publication Style Sheet

The Forest Products Journal’s primary purposes include communicating research findings at the applied or practical level, communicating news and items of current interest to the membership, and describing Society programs and activities. Technical manuscripts submitted for publication are reviewed in a double-blind review process by referees selected by the Editor. Final evaluation of the material rests with the Editor.

Form of Manuscript

The original submission of a manuscript for review must be sent in both electronic form and on a double-spaced printed hard copy. Mail one hard copy plus one floppy disk or CD that contains the manuscript in an MS Word file. After the author page, the sequence of material in the manuscript as submitted should be: title page, abstract, text, literature cited, captions for figures, tables, and figures (i.e., drawings and photographs). Do not incorporate tables into the text. Manuscripts should be submitted in correct English form. Authors speaking English as a second language should have their manuscripts edited by a native English speaker prior to original submission.

  1. Authors’ names, titles, affiliations, complete addresses of the affiliation, and e-mail addresses should be included on a separate page. If acknowledgments are necessary, they should be written as a footnote on the author page. The title page should only include the title of the manuscript, which should be as concise as possible.
  2. The abstract should contain, in very condensed form (250 words for an article, 75 for a note), the essence of the whole work. It should summarize why the work was done, what was done and how, and results and conclusions, perhaps with a mention of the significance.
  3. In the text, make certain all figures, tables, and references are mentioned. If fewer than six references are mentioned, they should be typed as footnotes at the bottom of the page. If six or more references are mentioned, they should be cited in parentheses at the appropriate location in the text using the author-date style. For example: . . . (Brown and Banks 1985, Adams 1989, Evans et al. 1999) — in chronological order.
  4. References should be listed at the end of the manuscript in a section called “Literature cited.” They should be listed alphabetically (if an author is repeated, the sequence is single author first, then two authors, etc.). Use lowercase for periodical titles and uppercase for main words in book titles. Translate foreign titles, then indicate what language and if an English abstract is available. If the author has consulted an online source, the citation should include the complete uniform resource locator (URL) and the date the source was accessed. If the source is an online version of a printed journal or other printed material, the citation should include the standard reference information, followed by the URL and access date.
    Examples:
    Adams, R. 1997. Wood is good. Forest Prod. J. 47(1):68-70.
    Adams, R. and T. Banks. 1995. Drying Wood. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 550 pp.
    Adams, R. and H. Collins. 1994. Drying veneer. Wood and Fiber Sci. 29(2):25-28.
    Adams, R., C. Albert, and H. Smith. 1992. Drying red oak. Forest Prod. J. 42(5):72-78.
    Adams, W., P. Abner, and H. Collins. 1998. Drying hickory. In: Proc. Drying Various Woods. Proc. No. 7432. Forest Prod. Soc., Madison, WI. pp. 43-52.
    Banks, T. 1991. Drying Wood for Fun and Profit. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York. 485 pp.
    Evans, R. 2005. Drying schedules for southern pine. USDA Forest Products Laboratory GTR–324. 4 pp. www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf2005/fpl_2005_evans002.pdf. (Accessed 4 Nov 08.)
  5. All tables should be typed on separate pages and numbered consecutively. Tables should be created in MS Word. Tables should be kept simple and used for summary data, rather than raw data, if possible. Captions should be included above each table.
  6. Detailed instructions for submitting figures are given in Preparing Figures for Publication in the Forest Products Journal.
  7. For more details regarding style, use the U.S. Government Printing Office style manual.

Policy on Units

As an international organization, the Forest Products Society strongly encourages the use of SI units in the Forest Products Journal. Authors, however, may still choose the units most appropriate for their audience. In principle, highly technical papers should give preference to SI units only; general interest or industry-targeted papers might be more appropriate in dual units. Consistent units should be used throughout the paper.

Page Charges

Technical manuscripts published in the Forest Products Journal are subject to a page charge of $135 per printed page ($155 per page if none of the first three authors are members of the Forest Products Society).

Manuscript Submissions

Mail submissions to the Editor, Forest Products Journal, 2801 Marshall Ct., Madison, WI, 53705-2295. Enclose a cover letter that indicates the manuscript is being submitted for possible publication in the Forest Products Journal and include an e-mail address for the corresponding author.

Final Format Guidelines

Revised manuscripts must be provided on an IBM-compatible, high-density floppy disk or CD that contains the manuscript, tables, and captions in an MS Word file, and the figures in separate files.

Technical Notes

Articles suitable as Technical Notes in the Journal are brief notes (generally 1,200 words or less) that describe new or improved equipment or techniques; report on findings produced as by-products of major studies; or outline progress to date on long-term projects. Technical notes should be 3 to 4 pages in the Journal, which could include one table and one figure.

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