There are two goals: getting the paper peer reviewed and then, if accepted, getting the figures to print very nicely.
Formats that can be uploaded for Figure file types are .tif, .eps, .jpg, .pdf. If your artwork is in a Word file (.doc) then either put it at the end of the text file, or upload another article file type and give it a title of Figures x-y. In general, .doc art will work for peer review. It will NOT for print/web versions of accepted papers. Be prepared to send high-quality art if accepted; or just save time and upload the high-quality art!
Ideal Resolutions for Raster (.tif) art1200 ppi/dpi for line art; 600 ppi/dpi for grayscale (shaded) art; 300 ppi/dpi for grayscale-photographic artwork. While PDFs and .eps artwork are vector (meaning they expand/contract and keep their set resolution), they will still have too low a resolution if low-resolution raster images are embedded inside.
For accepted papers, to prepare for print/web, we prefer .tif and .pdf files, although .eps files are fine too. The key is preparation:
Art Testing. Authors can use our printerÕs free art checker system: To access Allen VeriFig, go to http://verifig.allenpress.com. You will be asked to enter a password. The password is allenpresscmyk. This is a very basic art checker; we may still find problems when we test it here. But it is simple, free, and a good start.
TEM artwork needs special handling because of the fine detail, and repeating patterns that are difficult to capture on paper with ink in printing. Please be prepared to send the AE hardcopies if necessary; and upon acceptance, the Editorial Office will request hardcopies to proof and to scan if necessary.
Large file sizes are going to take more than 10 minutes to transmit! If your file is large, over 5 MB, and you need help, please contact the editorial office at editorial@minsocam.org and include what computer, system, program and version you are using. But first, please consider converting or "saving as" a PDF or jpeg or gif; just check if the fine details needed for review are still present. One way to really check your artwork quality, for print, is to zoom into the image on the screen at 400x magnification. Are the lines smooth or jaggy? For the screen, or a quick laser printer output that is all a reviewer is going to do, jagginess at 400x is probably not a problem.
While the computer is transmitting, you can use other programs in other windows.
If and when your paper is accepted and gets sent to Production, then we work one-by-one with authors on figures and if needed provide FTP instructions to quickly transmit files of any size to us directly. Do not worry about this procedure unless it is needed.
A note about Electronic papers, those papers with interactive features such as Quicktime movies (.mov) or buttons that change an image to a different view, or roll over features. These should upload to AllenTrack with no problems. Upload a .mov as a file type video and upload an interactive PDF as a figure file type just as any other PDF. If accepted, weÕll work carefully and closely together to ensure success online.