This journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts (previously Manuscript Central) to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the guide for ScholarOne authors before making a submission. Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.

Journal of Modern Optics considers all manuscripts on the strict condition that they have been submitted only to Journal of Modern Optics, that they have not been published already, nor are they under consideration for publication or in press elsewhere. Authors who fail to adhere to this condition will be charged with all costs which Journal of Modern Optics incurs and their papers will not be published.

Contributions to Journal of Modern Optics must report original research and will be subjected to review by referees at the discretion of the Editorial Office.

By submitting a manuscript to Journal of Modern Optics authors are agreeing that CrossCheck software may be used to screen their work for unoriginal material.

Manuscript preparation

1. General guidelines

• Papers are accepted only in English. British English or American English spelling and punctuation is acceptable, but should be consistent throughout the article.
• There is no strict upper page limit. Authors may be asked to shorten their article if the submitted length is unwarranted by the nature of the material. Authors should include a word count with their manuscript.
• Manuscripts should be compiled in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text; acknowledgments; appendices (as appropriate); references; table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figure caption(s) (as a list).
• Abstracts of 100 - 150 words are required for all papers submitted.
• At least one General Keyword and up six free keywords should be selected per paper.
• Section headings should be concise and numbered sequentially, using a decimal system for subsections.
• All the authors of a paper should include their full names, affiliations, postal addresses, telephone and fax numbers and email addresses on the cover page of the manuscript. One author should be identified as the Corresponding Author.
• Biographical notes on contributors are not required for this journal.
• For all manuscripts non-discriminatory language is mandatory. Sexist or racist terms should not be used.
• Authors must adhere to SI units. Units are not italicised.
• When using a word which is or is asserted to be a proprietary term or trade mark, authors must use the symbol ® or TM.

• Description of the Journal's article style, Quick guide
• Description of the Journal's reference styles
• Guide to using mathematical symbols and equations
• LaTeX template (Please save the LaTeX template to your hard drive and open it for use as a template from the directory to which it was saved)
• Word templates are available for this journal. If you are not able to use the template via the links or if you have any other queries, please contact authortemplate@tandf.co.uk

• It is in the author's interest to provide the highest quality figure format possible. Please be sure that all imported scanned material is scanned at the appropriate resolution: 1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour.
• Figures must be saved separate to text. Please do not embed figures in the paper file.
• Files should be saved as one of the following formats: TIFF (tagged image file format), PostScript or EPS (encapsulated PostScript), and should contain all the necessary font information and the source file of the application (e.g. CorelDraw/Mac, CorelDraw/PC).
• All figures must be numbered in the order in which they appear in the paper (e.g. figure 1, figure 2). In multi-part figures, each part should be labelled (e.g. figure 1(a), figure 1(b)).
• Figure captions must be saved separately, as part of the file containing the complete text of the paper, and numbered correspondingly.
• The filename for a graphic should be descriptive of the graphic, e.g. Figure1, Figure2a.

As an author, you are required to secure permission to reproduce any proprietary text, illustration, table, or other material, including data, audio, video, film stills, and screenshots, and any supplementary material you propose to submit. This applies to direct reproduction as well as “derivative reproduction” (where you have created a new figure or table which derives substantially from a copyrighted source). The reproduction of short extracts of text, excluding poetry and song lyrics, for the purposes of criticism may be possible without formal permission on the basis that the quotation is reproduced accurately and full attribution is given.

For further information and FAQs, please see http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/preparation/permission.asp

Copies of permission letters should be sent with the manuscript upon submission to the editors.

Copyright permission letter template

Manuscript submission

All submissions should be made online at the Journal of Modern Optics ScholarOne Manuscripts site. New users should first create an account. Once logged on to the site, submissions should be made via the Author Centre. Online user guides and access to a helpdesk are available on this website.

Manuscripts may be submitted in any standard format, including Word, PostScript and PDF. These files will be automatically converted into a PDF file for the review process. LaTeX files should be converted to PDF prior to submission because Manuscript Central is not able to convert LaTeX files into PDFs directly.  This PDF should be uploaded as the main document. The original LaTeX files should also be uploaded as supplementary data.

Copyright and authors' rights

It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to Taylor & Francis. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course the Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors retain many rights under the Taylor & Francis rights policies, which can be found at http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/preparation/copyright.asp. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.

Exceptions are made for certain Governments' employees whose policies require that copyright cannot be transferred to other parties. We ask that a signed statement to this effect is submitted when returning proofs for accepted papers

Comment, Response and Rejoinder Policy

• Comment on published article sent in.
• Comment sent to referee who will suggest changes if necessary.
• Comment author to revise comment and produce final draft.
• Final draft of comment sent to original article author who will draft a response.
• Response sent to the same referee, changes suggested if needed.
• Final draft of response sent to comment author who will draft a rejoinder.
• Rejoinder sent to referee who will suggest changes if necessary.
• Rejoinder author to revise comment and produce final draft.
• At this stage, no further revisions to comment, response or rejoinder are possible.
• The Editor's decision on the appropriateness of any comment, response and rejoinder for publication is final.
• Final comment, final response and final rejoinder to be published alongside one another in the Journal and hyperlinked to one another, and the original article, online.

Reprints

There are no page charges to individuals or institutions.

Open access

Visit our Author Services website for further resources and guides to the complete publication process and beyond.