INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

 

FOR THE PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

 

Please read these instructions carefully before formatting the manuscript.

1. Organization of the Manuscript

The title should be clear, informative and concise.  It should be centered and typed in bold CAPITAL LETTERS (Times New Roman 12 pt, leading EXACTLY 12 pt) after two blank lines (leading EXACTLY 12 pt). NO OTHER FONT IS ACCEPTED EXCEPT "symbol".

The Author's Name is to be centered below the title in the form:  Given name (or initial) Family name (Times New Roman 12 pt, leading EXACTLY 12 pt) after one blank line.

The list of authors' affiliations should be stated in English giving the name of each institution, department, full postal address and e-mail address  All affiliations are to be listed together and centered below the list of authors (Times New Roman 10 pt, leading EXACTLY pt 10 pt), after one blank line. It should be followed by one blank line and by an abstract (Times New Roman 10 pt, leading EXACTLY 10 pt) of around 150 words. This should be a single paragraph concisely stating the main objectives of the investigation, the methodology employed, a summary of the results, and the principal conclusions.

The body of the article (Times New Roman 10 pt) should be organized in the following manner: Introduction (leading EXACTLY 11 pt), Materials and Methods (leading EXACTLY 10 pt), Results AND Discussion (leading EXACTLY 11 pt), Acknowledgments (leading EXACTLY 10 pt), and References (leading EXACTLY 10 pt). Greek letters and symbols should be typed as "symbol" fonts, not by using the Microsoft Word shortcut (symbol chart) procedure. The use of the option key should be avoided. ONLY SYMBOL AND TIMES NEW ROMAN FONTS MAY BE USED.

The type area must be 15.5 x 22.5 cm.  No text or figures can be outside of this area. All pages must be filled except the last one.

The first line of paragraphs may be indented by 1 cm.  A blank line may be left above and below all displays. Equations are to be broken only at an equals sign (=) or equivalent (>,<,≥) mark.  Equals signs should not be repeated at the end of one line and the beginning of the next, but carried over to the beginning of the following line.

2. Illustrations

All illustrations must be numbered in sequence with arabic numerals and each illustration must be referred to in the text. Each illustration must be provided with a caption giving sufficient information for the figure to be appreciated without reference to the text.

Desktop publishing software with high quality graphics should be used. Figures should be inserted (not copied/pasted) in JPG, WMF or TIF format. Graphics must be appropriately sized and inserted into the text where appropriate. Photographs must be inserted as high quality scanned documents. Drawings should be finished to a size compatible with the printed text. Freehand lettering is not permitted.  Oversize illustrations and tables may be turned landscape on the page with the top at the left‑hand margin.  All text and illustrations must be within (and fill) the allowed area of 15.5 x 22.5 cm except for the pages oriented landscape. For these ones, the figures need to be inserted in the central column of the three columns table without any visible border to allow me to insert the header and the footer in these two extra columns left empty by the authors. These figures should be avoided.

3. Tables, references, page numbers, printer, paper

Tables are often an economic way of presenting data.  All tables must be numbered in sequence with Latin numerals both in the text and in the heading of each table. The heading should be sufficiently informative for the table to be understood without reference to the text.  Potrait-oriented tables are to be inserted in the appropriate place in the text. Landscape-oriented tables, that should be avoided if possible, should be sent separately and two extra empty columns should be added, one the the right side and onbe on the left side of the columns used to enter the data.

Manuscripts should be proofread with extreme care so that submitted manuscripts are error‑free.  

Final page numbers will be inserted by the Editor or the Publisher.  Margins should be justified, figures and tables, centered.

Two hard copies printed on white, heavy duty bond paper with a Laser‑printer needs to be sent  to  one of the Editors as well as an electronic version of the manuscript (Microsoft Word document e-mailed to

Freund Publishing House Ltd., Tel Aviv, Israel :  e-mail:  imgn8@netvision.net.il  to the attention of Dr. M. Zangen

4. References

References should be placed at the end of the manuscript. These notes are only to guide the typist in the general form.

4.1. Titles of books and Journals should be in italic.

4.2. Titles of Articles should not be given

4.3. Volume Numbers should be in bold.

 

 

ON THE PUBLICATION OF THE RESULTS OF X-RAY CRYSTAL STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

 

The importance of single crystal structure analysis employing X-ray diffraction methods is undisputed in chemistry.  Indeed, a cursory survey of papers published recently in Main Group Metal Chemistry shows that approximately 25% of papers contain the results of one or more crystal structure determinations. With the advent of area-detector diffractometers and increased automation, it may be anticipated that more structures will be determined and published than previously.  The purpose of this Editorial is to set some general guidelines for the publication of crystallographic results in Main Group Metal Chemistry.

The guidelines annunciated below are not meant to circumvent the idea that in a paper ‘sufficient detail should be presented in order to allow others to repeat the experiment’. Rather, the guidelines are specified in recognition that many X-ray crystal structure determinations are ‘routine’ and thereby require no particular or special description of experimental procedures. Authors of papers containing the results of crystal structure determinations are encouraged to check carefully that their submissions match the guidelines below.  Of course, deviations from these guidelines will be allowed as long as a justification for the deviation is given.

Abstract: While it would be normal to mention that a crystal structure determination is reported, it is not necessary to include crystallographic data in the Abstract.

Experimental: For many papers, the Experimental section will comprise a brief statement on how the crystals were obtained and include a suitably modified Table based on the following template:

 

Table 1.  Crystal data for

_________________________________________________________________________

Formula                                                                               Formula weight                      

Crystal system                                                                   Crystal size, mm                     

Space group                                                                       a, Å                                          

b, Å                                                                                      c, Å                               

b, °                                                                 V, Å3                              

Z                                                                                           Diffractometer                        

Temperature, K                                                                  m(radiation used), cm-1          

Trans. factors                                                                     Dcalcd, g cm-3                              

F(000)                                                                                  qmax, °                                        

Reflns meas.                                                                       Reflns unique, Rint             

Reflns with I ≥ ns(I)                                                          Weighting scheme            

R(F or F2), Rw(F or F2)                                            r, e Å-3                                     

Programs used                       

Deposition number                CCDC XXXXXX

_________________________________________________________________________

 

This Table reports the key experimental details for a crystal structure analysis and is sufficient for publication of a structure in Main Group Metal Chemistry.  Reformatting of the Table to accommodate papers reporting more than one structure is preferable to the inclusion of two (or more) separate Tables.  Additional text should be included in the Experimental section when necessary.  The additional text could be a discussion of special procedures employed in the data collection and/or refinement, treatment of disorder, location of large residual electron density peaks, details of absolute structure determination, etc.

Each structure submitted to Main Group Metal Chemistry must have its crystallographic data (preferably in CIF format) deposited at the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre and a CCDC deposition number must be included in the Table.  Supplementary Material (preferably in CIF format) should still be submitted with manuscripts for the purposes of review.  As the CCDC makes available crystallographic data upon request [1], there is no need in normal circumstances to publish fractional atomic coordinates.

Discussion: The description of the structure should include a discussion of key and relevant features of the molecular structure, and the relationship between the structure and other data such as spectroscopic results.  It would be appropriate to place the structure in the context of related studies.

A listing of salient interatomic parameters (e.g. phenyl C-C distances are not usually required) should be included in tabular form or, in the case of limited data, in the caption to the Figure.

Each structure should be represented by a thermal ellipsoid plot and the probability level for the displacement ellipsoids stated.

When appropriate, an analysis of intermolecular interactions should be included and in these circumstances a unit cell diagram can be published if this enhances the description of the crystal structure.

 

Crystallographic Reports

It is expected that crystal structures would be published together in the context of a wider chemical study.  In the case of where crystal structure is reported as a stand-alone contribution, authors should consider whether a Crystallographic Report, as defined below, is the appropriate medium for publication.  A Crystallographic Report in Main Group Metal Chemistry is a two page paper that will be subjected to refereeing as for other papers published in the Journal.

An example of a Crystallographic Report may be found in Main Group Metal Chem., 23(5), 2000.  A Crystallographic Report comprises:

i)              an informative title giving the compound name and molecular formula,

ii)             a thermal ellipsoid plot - authors may wish to include a schematic diagram (e.g. ChemDraw®) of the structure,

iii)            significant interatomic parameters (included in the Figure caption),

iv)           comments highlighting the important features of the structure,

v)            an experimental section detailing the preparation and characterization (in the case of new compounds), a table of crystallographic data (see above) and, when appropriate, an outline of special experimental details associated with the crystal structure determination,

vi)           references.

Printed reprints will not be distributed for Crystallographic Reports, however, the corresponding author will be supplied with a pdf version of the published paper. In the near future, the same policy will be adopted for all papers published in Main Group Metal Chemistry.

[1] Copies of data deposited at the CCDC may be obtained free of charge from The Director, CCDC, 12 Union Road, Cambridge CB2 1EZ, England (Facsimile: 44-1223-336033 or e-mail: deposit@ccdc.cam.ac.uk).