How to Submit an Article to the JAAVSO

How to Submit an Article to the JAAVSO

The Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers is published by the American Association of Variable Star Observers, 49 Bay State Rd., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. The Journal is sent to all AAVSO members and subscribers.

In order to speed the dissemination of scientific results, selected papers that have been accepted for publication in the Journal will also be posted on the internet at the eJAAVSO website [1] as soon as they are accepted. These papers may be referenced as J. Amer. Assoc. Var. Star Obs., in press, until they appear in the Journal.

Page Charges
Unsolicited papers by non-Members will be assessed a charge of $15 per page.

Instructions for Submissions
The Journal welcomes papers from all persons concerned with the study of variable stars and topics specifically related to variability. All manuscripts should be written in a style designed to provide clear expositions of the topic. Contributors are strongly encouraged to submit digitized text in Latex+postscript, MS Word, or plain-text format. Manuscripts may be mailed electronically to journal@aavso.org [2] or submitted by postal mail to JAAVSO, 49 Bay State Rd., Cambridge, MA 02138. If your submission is not acknowledged in a timely fashion, please send a follow-up message. Email submissions and correspondence should have "JAAVSO" at the beginning of the subject line.

Manuscripts must be submitted according to the following guidelines, or they will be returned to the author for correction:

Manuscripts must be:

1. original, unpublished material;
2. written in English;
3. accompanied by an abstract of no more than 100 words.
4. should not exceed 2,500-3,000 words in length (10-12 pages double-spaced).

Figures for print publication must be in black and white. We can accept full color images for use in our electronic edition [3], but the printed journal will be in black and white so your figures should not rely on color to communicate information. Figures must also:

1. be camera-ready or in a standard digitized image format;
2. have all coordinates labeled with division marks on all four sides;
3. be accompanied by a caption that clearly explains all symbols and significance, so that the reader can understand the figure without reference to the text.

Maximum published figure space is 4.5" by 7". When submitting original figures, be sure to allow for reduction in size by making all symbols and letters sufficiently large.

Photographs and halftone images will be considered for publication if they directly illustrate the text.

Tables should be:

1. provided separate from the main body of the text;
2. numbered sequentially and referred to by Arabic number in the text, e.g., Table 1;
3. spaced with tabs rather than with letter-spaces.

References:

1. References should relate directly to the text.
2. References should be keyed into the text with the author's last name and the year of publication, e.g., (Smith 1974; Jones 1974) or Smith (1974) and Jones (1974).
3. In the case of three or more joint authors, the text reference should be written as follows: (Smith et al. 1976).
4. All references must be listed at the end of the text in alphabetical order by the author's last name and the year of publication, according to the following format:

   Brown, J., and Green, E. B. 1974, Astrophys. J., 200, 765.

   Thomas, K. 1982, Phys. Report, 33, 96.

5. Abbreviations used in references should be based on recent issues of the Journal or the listing provided at the beginning of each volume of Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts (Springer-Verlag).

Follow the Astronomical Journal style for reference formats not illustrated here.

Miscellaneous:

1. Equations should be written on a separate line and given a sequential Arabic number in parentheses near the right-hand margin. Equations should be referred to in the text as, e.g., equation (1).
2. Magnitude will be assumed to be visual unless otherwise specified.
3. The Journal cannot supply reprints of papers.