Criteria for the acceptance of papers relate to our aim of rapid and informative publication and record, requiring clarity and conciseness as well as technical soundness and genuine utility. All papers are subjected to scrutiny by referees of international standing, who also assess the papers submitted to BIOTECHNOLOGY TECHNIQUES. In general, the Editor will decide whether an acceptable paper will appear in BIOTECHNOLOGY TECHNIQUES. or BIOTECHNOLOGY LETTERS (where new and urgent results, rather than techniques, are the main feature), but author's preference will always be given consideration.
Papers are printed with a 20% decrease in size directly from camera-ready originals and the greatest care should be given to the overall appearance of the typescripts (see below). The majority of papers are printed within 8 weeks of acceptance.Once a paper has been accepted authors will be asked to provide two copies on disc (MS DOS, Word Perfect 5.1, Word 6.0, Ascii text format; discs must be IBM PC formatted!).
2. Typescripts should be on good quality white paper of A4 size and should fit into a typed area of 15 x 22cm for page 1 and 15 x 25cm for all other pages. Papers produced by word processors are obligatory. Typing can be justified or rightragged but indiscriminate breaking of words should be avoided. The preferred type size is 6 to 6.5 characters/cm, with appr. 16-18 lines/lOcm.
3. Titles should be in CAPITAL LETTERS, centred and 3 cm ftom the top of the first page. They should be followed by: Authors names, indicating by an asterisk* to whom correspondence should be addressed; Adequate postal address(es); (Fax number and E.mail address of the corresponding author can be included.) A Summary with the key data in not more than five lines.
4. The Summary, Materials & Methods and References should be typed in single-spacing and the Introduction, Results and Discussion in 1.5 spacing. Where possible, a matching italic type is preferable to underlining especially for species binomials. Mathematical expressions and units should be set out economically but unambiguously. A solidus can be used for simple fractions or units - for example ml/h - but the double solidus is to be avoided - for example kg/m3h is correct by g/l/h is not. Units can also be giveu as g I'etc but the style must be consistent. Terms such as ppm are not encouraged; use mg 1' etc. as appropriate. Concentrations sbould be given, for example, as g glucose 1-1 not g 1-1 glucose. Uncommon units, symbols and all non-standard abbreviations must be dpfimd at their first appearance.
5. Figures, graphs, structural formulae, etc. should be presented in place on the typescript with avoidance of wasic space graphs should be concisen and only used when they clarify the text. As they are reproduced with a 20% decrease bols, lines and lettering should be clearly legible. Figure captions and Tables should be clearly distinct from the half-tone photographs will be satisfactory only if they show strong contrasts and may be accompanied by careful linealongside the photograph when printed.
6. References should be given in the text by author and year (e.g. Smith, 1989; Smith and Wesson, 1992; Cobley the end of the typescript arranged alphabetically in order of the first author and in the forms indicated by the following examples:
Cobley, U.T., Pierce, T. and Hawkes, H. (1995). J. Inst. Brew. Lond.82, 526-548.
Smith, J. (1989). Biodegradation, London: Arnold
Smith, K. and Wesson, U. (1996). Rotary discharge system. In: Bioengineering Progress, U.T. Cc pp. 69-96, Arizona: Boot Hill Press.