Submissions
Submissions are solicited for both the Journal of Directed Energy and the Journal of Directed Energy
(Limited Edition). Before submission, authors should be aware of the scope of suitable topics for the Journal.
The technical scope of previously published papers in the
Journal
is suggestive, although the editor may consider any DE-related manuscript. The authors should understand the
DEPS Copyright Policy.
If appropriate, the authors must know the special requirements for publication of classified manuscripts in the
Journal of Directed Energy (Limited Edition).
The process by which manuscripts are considered for publication is shown in the flow chart to the right.
Detailed format and submission instructions are given later on this page.
The corresponding author submits a manuscript, a release form, and a list of suggested referees.
Manuscripts that are out of scope are rejected outright. Authors of manuscripts that seem likely to exceed the
page limit are warned.
The manscript is sent to the referees for their review. The author list and the acknowledgements are stripped from the
manuscript beforehand, in an attempt to provide anonymity to the authors. However, ours is a relatively small
community, so the referees may be able to identify the authors by internal references, by the subject matter,
or even by the title.
The referees are asked to read the manuscript and determine if it is an original contribution to DE worthy of publication
and to make suggestions on how the manscript
might be improved. The editor receives these comments and determines whether the overall recommendation is
to publish after changes, to publish without changes, or to reject the work. The corresponding author is
informed of the result, possibly including anonymous referee suggestions for improvement.
Unless it was rejected, the (perhaps revised) manuscript is sent to the technical editors. The edited
final paper, after review by the authors, is published on the
Current Papers Web page.
When the number of accepted papers is large enough, they are collected and published as an issue of the Journal.
Papers for the Journal of Directed Energy (Limited Edition) are not posted on the Current Papers Web page, but
become immediately available for electronic distribution.
Delays in this process can occur at any step. The most common delays occur during the referee reviews. Some
referees may feel unsuited to review this topic or may have a conflict of interest. Others
are unable to respond in a timely fashion. Any of these requires that another referee be identified and approached.
Our goal is to have an acceptable paper appear on the Current Papers Web
page within three months, but this is often unmet.
Manuscripts intended for the Journal of Directed Energy (Limited Edition) face further delays due to the
typical timelines for exchanging classified information.
Most published papers are reports of DE-related research, but some are review articles, such as the
"Recent Advances in Explosive Pulsed Power" in
Volume 3, Number 2.
Some papers are also published in special editions that are devoted to a specific topic, most recently the
Volume 6, Number 1,
devoted to non-lethal DE and edited by David B. Law. Authors and editors considering review articles or special issues
should contact the Journal editor before beginning work.
A review article receives some relaxation of the page count limit but otherwise goes through the same
evaluation and publication process. The technical content of a special
issue of the Journal is the responsibility of the guest editor. Consequently, papers do not go through the peer review
process. They are subject to technical editing and go directly to publication
as an issue.
Manuscript Instructions for Authors
Manuscripts submited to the Journal should be no more than 32 double-spaced pages with a 12-point font.
(The 32-page limit does not include the high-resolution figures following the list of references.)
They must include, in order:
- Title of the manuscript.
- A list of authors and affiliations. The corresponding author must be identified with complete contact information.
- A brief abstract (100 to 200 words) that explains the object of the investigation and the major results.
- For indexing purposes, three to eight keywords must be indicated at the end of the abstract.
- A nomenclature section must follow the abstract in which all symbols are identified.
- An introduction explaining previous work and the contribution provided by the submitted
paper follows the nomenclature section.
- The introduction is followed by the body of the paper. In order to expedite reviewing, figures and tables
should be included in the body of the paper in the appropriate location.
- Accuracy of results, whether computational or experimental, must be addressed. A section clearly explaining the
conclusions that may be drawn from the results and their significance is the last section of the text.
- The body of the text is followed by:
- the list of references, and
- beginning on a new page, high-resolution copies of all figures, in numerical order, along with their captions.
See below for detailed instructions regarding the figures contained within your manuscript.
We understand that some subjects require an expansive format. Nevertheless, papers exceeding 25 published pages in length will be
subject to a page charge for each page beyond 25 pages. Manuscripts meeting the requirements outlined on this page generally will not exceed
25 published pages.
Authors should follow the recommendations set forth in the AIP
Style Manual. Submissions should use American rather than British spelling, the serial comma, and international
standard abbreviations for units of measurement (e.g., "g" not "gm" for gram). Metric or dual systems (metric and
English) are permissible. Authors should spell out numbers through ten except when used with a unit of measurement.
Use the comma in numerals of five or more digits in the text. (In tables, use the comma in numerals of four or more digits.)
The use of "et al." in reference callouts in the text is acceptable, but all authors of sources must be included in the reference list.
Acronyms should be spelled out at first use and are allowed even if not used again. Please also write out full
names in the text the first time they are used (e.g., Richard A. Jones). Equations should be numbered and may be
inserted in the text using MathType (preferred) or the Microsoft Word equation editor.
Do not use hyphens in place of minus signs.
Consistency with the established style, nomenclature, and fonts throughout the text is a necessity. It is preferred
that authors use the Times or Times New Roman font for the equations and text, and the Arial font for any figure labels (i.e., text inside
the figure). Inside the figures, please capitalize the first letter (only) of all phrases (e.g., Laser output, Vacuum pump, High
pressure, High temperature). Footnotes to the text are acceptable. Tables footnotes should be placed after the
bottom of the table.
References must be easily accessible public documents, although the Journal of Directed Energy (Limited Edition)
will accept references to classified documents. The references are to be numbered and placed at the end of the paper
in order of consecutive appearance (i.e., first publication called out/referred to is 1, and so on).
All references must be called out (referred to) in the text, figures, and/or tables. Figures and tables
must also be referenced (called out) in the text by respective numbers.
Tables and figures can be mentioned out of order parenthetically (i.e., a
figure discussed later could be referred to earlier).
Figures must be clear and sharp, with text labels large
enough to be easily legible. Figures
should be embedded in the manuscript body, but electronic originals of all figures should be appended to the end of
the file as described above. Creation of graphs and charts in Microsoft PowerPoint and subsequently pasted into the
manuscript is encouraged. Hardcopy originals of the figures or photos appropriately labeled may be submitted in lieu
of electronic copies. Figures, photos, or artwork must be at least 300 dpi (600 dpi is preferable) at the size they
will be printed, which is typically 1/3 of a page or larger in 7x10 format. Hardcopies must be high-resolution
artwork or glossy photo prints corresponding to the 1/3 page or larger format. (All hardcopy figures or photos will
be returned to the author.)
Use the following links for more information and instructions on submitting manuscripts to the Journal.
Unclassified Submissions
Classified Submissions
Last updated: 9 July 2020
