Content / Submission Instructions

This page contains the following sections.

If you have questions, please contact the Editor of Physics in Canada (picpac@cap.ca).

Content of Submissions

The following points should be addressed:

  • The content must be based on sound physics.
  • The content should be readily understood by a third year undergraduate or an educated lay person in science.
  • The final manuscript must be submitted in electronic format, preferably in Word format, using one of the templates provided below.
  • The figure captions must be clear and readily understood.
  • The figures must be clear and readily understood. 
  • Articles will be published online in colour, but please ensure that figures will be sufficiently clear in both colour and grayscale. Use colours that have clearly distinguishable grayscale values and different line styles or data markers for different data sets. 
  • Figures must be submitted in electronic format as either .jpg, .tif, or .pdf files, with a resolution of 300 dpi and fonts embedded. In order to allow for maximum flexibility in terms of placement and sizing of figures, the figures should be no smaller than 5″ x 7″ in size at 100%. The figures must be submitted as individual files to ensure that the original high resolution is preserved.
  • References should appear as superscripted numbers (straight text) in square brackets within the article (e.g. [1]). The text of all references should be included under a ‘References’ section at the end of the article in regular text. Do NOT use your software’s Endnote or footnote features if available.
  • References should appear as follows:
    • For articles: Authors (initials, last name), Title of article, abbreviation of journal name, volume number (in bold), page numbers Year of publication (in brackets), e.g.  J. Arthur, Article Title, Journal Title, 29, 3099-3120 (1978).
    • For books: Authors (initials, last name), Title of book (in italics), Name of publisher, year of publication; e.g. J. Arthur, Keeping up with Physics, Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Templates

Please use the attached Microsoft Word templates. We are working on a LaTeX template, please contact us at picpac@cap.ca if you would like to test it. 

  • Feature Articles (with attached template)
  • Physics and Education Articles (link to section) (with attached template)
  • Physics and Education Corner (link to section) (with attached template)
  • In Memoria (with attached template)
  • Opinion (with attached template)

Procedure for the processing of submissions:

  1. The author submits the proposed article in pdf format to the Editor at the Canadian Association of Physicists (pic-pac@cap.ca). The manuscript must clearly be labelled as a draft. 
  2. The draft article will be reviewed for acceptability by a member of the Editorial Board. If approved in principle for publication, it will then be forwarded to an independent referee for content review.
  3. An anonymous copy of the referee’s report will be forwarded to the author with an indication of deadline for receipt of the final version of the article if accepted in order to meet the publication schedule for the preferred issue. The Editorial Board reserves the right to engage the services of a second referee where deemed appropriate. The final decision on suitability for publication rests with the Editor.
  4. The author submits the final version of the article to the Editor at the Canadian Association of Physicists (pic-pac@cap.ca).The final article MUST be submitted as an editable source file. The figures must be submitted electronically at this time as separate graphic files (in .tif, .jpg, or .pdf format, 300 dpi with fonts embedded).
  5. The author will be provided with an electronic .pdf of the page proofs for final review prior to publication. 
  6. The article will be made available to CAP members and PiC subscribers on the PiC website (https://pic-pac.cap.ca) immediately after the submission is finalized. The author will also be given the opportunity to pay a fee to make their articles available to the general public immediately, otherwise the article will be available to the general public six months after the compiled (full) issue is published on the PiC website. All online articles can be accessed via the index of each particular issue on the PiC website (https://pic-pac.cap.ca).
Share
Share