Guidance on submitting technical and scientific papers

Codex Journals

Guidance for authors

  • All papers will be subject to peer review by the Editorial Board, consisting of selected experts from across MOD and Dstl, plus external review by Defence Scientific Advisory Council (DSAC) experts.
  • The content of all papers must be UNCLASSIFIED.
    • If papers contain material that has been published in part or full elsewhere, this must be clearly explained and credited in the article and appropriate copyright assigned.
    • Authors are expected to obtain all permissions for Intellectual Property, particularly with regard to Trade Marks, brands and logos.
    • All authors must agree to be listed and must have seen and approved the manuscript.
    • All authors must provide details of employer at time of submission. Main author must also provide contact email address.
    • Copyright - authors must assign copyright to MOD to publish and distribute in print and online. After publication authors may use their papers without seeking prior permission providing that Codex is acknowledged as the source.
  • Codex is distributed widely across MOD and the wider defence community.
  • Codex is also published online at http://www.science.mod.uk/codex/codex.aspx
  • Papers must be written in clear and unambiguous English. It should have enough technical detail to be of interest to someone working in a similar field, but written in a language that is accessible to people from any discipline.
  • Papers should be a maximum of approximately 4000 words plus a mandatory abstract of approximately 250 words.
  • Text should be provided in a plain format (no columns) in an easy to read font (Times New Roman, Arial) in Microsoft Word.
  • Publications will be produced by Codex designers to the house style.
  • Graphics, images or artwork:
    • They should be provided separately.
    • Provide them in their native file format (not embedded in the Word document).
    • Use high resolution of, ideally, at least 300 dpi at the size to be used.
    • Tints or complex shading should be avoided.
    • Appropriate copyright must be assigned and permissions obtained.
    • Please ensure that all graphics are cited in the text as ‘figures’ (graphs, photographs, diagrams and other drawings) or ‘tables’ as appropriate and numbered consecutively.
    • Figures and tables should be labelled as in the text and given a suitable caption.
  • References should be given using the numerical system:
    • References should be numbered sequentially through the text with each reference individually numbered and enclosed in square brackets (e.g. [1]).
    • Please ensure that all references are cited in the text and vice versa.
    • Provide as much information as possible to allow the reader to locate the reference, particularly with regard to conferences, documents, websites, reports, and books that may not be readily available.
    • Please provide all author name(s) and initials, title of the paper (if applicable), title of the journal or book, date published, volume number (if applicable), editors (if applicable), the page range, if applicable the town of publication and publisher should be included.
    • e.g. - 1. Annas GJ. New drugs for acute respiratory distress syndrome. N Engl J Med. 1997;337:435-9.

Submit your papers to: codex.journal@dstl.gov.uk