AUTHOR GUIDELINES



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Author Guidelines: How to make submissions

Submissions address

IMF Staff Papers publishes high-quality research on a variety of topics of interest to a broad audience, including academics and policymakers in the member countries of the Fund. IMF Staff Papers is open to outside submissions. All submissions of papers for consideration should be made to:

  • Mr. Robert Flood
    Editor, IMF Staff Papers
    International Monetary Fund
    Room: HQ1-09-612
    700 19th Street, N.W.
    Washington, DC 20431 USA

    Telephone: +1.202.623.7667
    Fax: +1.202.589.7667
    Email: RFlood@IMF.org

Please copy (cc:) all submissions to Ms. Rosalind Oliver, Administrative Coordinator for IMF Staff Papers:

  • Telephone: +1.202.623.7992
    Fax: +1.202.589.7992
    Email: ROliver@IMF.org
    Postal address: Same as for the Editor

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Editorial style

The style for IMF Staff Papers is essentially that of The Chicago Manual of Style. If you find that the instructions that follow are unsuitable or inadequate for your project, and the Manual of Style offers no solution, please contact Mr. Einhorn (contact details below) to discuss the situation before you proceed.

Language

Please use American spelling, punctuation, and syntax. Commonly used latin terms (e.g., inter alia) need not be italicized.

If a relatively unfamiliar, non-English term (e.g., chaebol) will appear throughout your work, so that italicization will be cumbersome, you may choose to italicize the term and define it the first time it appears, and thereafter use roman type.

Names of institutions or organizations (e.g., Bundestag; Goskomstat) are not italicized. Diacritical marks should be retained in proper names and non-English words, even when they are not italicized (e.g., Poincaré, émigré, vis-à-vis, raison d'être).

The preferred transliteration system for Russian is the modified Library of Congress system. For the Romanization of Chinese we prefer pinyin.

Preparing your manuscript

Please prepare your manuscript in Microsoft Word; separate Excel files are acceptable for tables and figures. (If it is not possible for you to provide your submission in Word, or a Word-compatible format, please contact Mr. Einhorn.)

Please adhere to the following basic procedures for preparing computerized manuscripts.

  • Please utilize the following convention for naming your files: your surname to be followed by the element in the file (e.g., Smith-text.doc, Smith-Figure 1.doc, etc.).
  • Create a separate file for each table and figure. (If provided in Excel, each table should be in its own separate workbook file.)
  • Create and retain a backup of your files.
  • Use only one space after punctuation.
  • Do not leave blank lines between paragraphs unless there is a deliberate break in the text.
  • Use a line feed ("carriage-return" key) only to end a paragraph, not at the end of each screen line.
  • Do not use hyphenation/justification, windows, or other automatic functions in the files you send. They will not transmit properly to our computers.
  • Do not insert spaces between initials.
  • Do not use a lowercase "el" (l) for a numeral one (1).

The titles of parts, chapters, tables, etc., and the subheads within a chapter should be brief but informative, parallel in construction, and in a consistent style. As a group, the weighted subheads should give a clear outline of the structure of the work and its parts. Superscript note numbers or asterisks should never appear in a chapter title or subtitle, table title, or subhead.

Quotations

When using quotations from published sources, please follow exactly the spelling and other conventions of the original. Please place interpolations (comments you insert that are not part of the quotation) in square brackets, not parentheses. Indicate internal omissions with ellipsis points; do not use ellipsis points at the beginning or end of a quote.

Quotations need to be identified by source. Direct quotations are enclosed within double quotation marks; quotations within quotations are enclosed in single quotation marks. Commas and periods go inside the close quote (," ."), colons and semicolons outside (": ";). A question mark or exclamation point belongs inside the close quote if it is part of the quotation. A superscript note number follows the close quote, but proper placement of punctuation marks will vary: ("xx xxxxx"),2 "xx xxxxx";3 "xx xxxxx,"4 and "xx xxxxx."5

Citations and references

Remember that a credit (or acknowledgment) note is unnumbered. If it applies to the entire chapter, it should be placed at the foot of the opening page or before the numbered endnotes.

Please do not incorporate notes belonging to tables or figures into the sequence of numbered notes, as the exact placement of these elements will not be fixed until the text is paged.

The superscript note number is best placed at the end of a clause, sentence, or quotation, outside the punctuation. Superscripts should never appear in chapter titles or subheads.

Use a short-form citation for nonsequential references to a previously cited source (not op cit.).

Data in tables

In statistical matter throughout:

  • dots (...) indicate that the data are not available;
  • a dash (–) indicates that the figure is zero or less than half the final digit shown, or that the item does not exist;
  • a single dot (.) indicates decimals;
  • a comma (,) separates thousands and millions;
  • "billion" means a thousand million; and "trillion" means a thousand billion;
  • a short dash (-) is used between years or months (for example, 1998-99 or January-June) to indicate a total of the years or months inclusive of the beginning and ending years or months;
  • a slash (/) is used between years (for example, 1998/99) to indicate a fiscal year or a crop year; and
  • components of tables may not add to totals shown because of rounding.

The term "country", as used in this publication, may not refer to a territorial entity that is a state as understood by international law and practice; the term may also cover some territorial entities that are not states but for which statistical data are maintained and provided internationally on a separate and independent basis.

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Proofing

A complete process of copy-editing and proofing will be administered by the editorial office. In addition, Palgrave Macmillan will make available to the author a final typeset proof in PDF format, via its e-proofing web site. Authors will be requested by email to check their proof within a specified time. Any small corrections and answers to queries must be returned within that time.

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Clearing Permissions. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing through any medium of communication those illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. Add your acknowledgements to the typescript, preferably in the form of an Acknowledgements section at the end of the paper. Credit the source and copyright of photographs or figures in the accompanying captions.

Authors who are not IMF staff are required to assign copyright to the IMF for their article. Please contact the editorial office for more information.

The journal mandates the Copyright Clearance Center in the USA and the Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK to offer centralized licensing arrangements for photocopying in their respective territories.

Corresponding authors will receive a copy of the journal.



Author Guidelines: Final manuscript preparations

If you made your submission to the Editor without first adhering to the preparation instructions in the Submissions sections of this website, please review and follow those instructions first BEFORE you proceed with the Final Preparation instructions below.Thank you. When ready, please send your prepped manuscript to:

  • Mr. David Einhorn
    External Relations Officer
    International Monetary Fund
    Room: HQ1-07-124
    700 19th Street, N.W.
    Washington, DC 20431 USA

    Telephone: +1.202.623.8975
    Fax: +1.202.589.8975
    Email: DEinhorn@IMF.org

Length

Please limit the total length of your final manuscript to 50 double spaced pages. This overall length limitation should include:

  • Text, footnotes, references, equations, boxes, and appendixes of no more than 300 words per page;
  • No more than 8 full pages of figures (please see figure instructions for more detail); and
  • No more than 8 full pages of tables.

Line spacing

Line spacing. Please double space the entire manuscript, and leave extra space above and below headings, mathematical equations, and between individual references (in your References section).

Margins

Leave a 1½" margin on all sides of each page–top, sides, and bottom. This space is needed by the editor and typesetter for their purposes.

Manuscript formatting

All formatting of your manuscript will be done by a professional typesetter, according to established IMF guidelines. Indeed, when preparing your manuscript for submission, please do not try to format the layout or appearance of the work yourself.

Figures, tables, and boxes

Please do not embed these elements in the flow of the text in your manuscript. They should be handled separately, and provided on separate sheets of paper and in separate files. Only a "call-out" should appear in the text to indicate placement, such as <<Table 2 here>> below the paragraph in which the item is called out.

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Preparing Artwork: Camera-Ready Format

General Information

Please provide either a camera-ready copy (CRC) for each figure on separate sheets of paper, or provide each figure as instructed in the guide below (each figure should be in its own separate file). Please limit the number of figure panels in your final manuscript to no more than 8 full pages (as defined below).

Dimensions

It is important that each figure be camera-ready original artwork of professional quality or laser output, and that the following dimensional limits are observed:

  • Full-page figures should measure 5" x 8", including axes labels.
  • Half-page figures should measure 5" x 4", including axes labels.
  • Third-page figures should measure 5" x 2¼", including axes labels.

Multi-panel charts

You are free to submit figures with more than one panel (or part), and these panels can be as large as one full page each. It is also possible to have figures with multiple panels on each page that are prepared to fit within one of the size dimensions listed above.

It is recommended, however, that except for the simplest of figures, you should try to limit the number of panels per page to 8. For example, a figure with 8 panels can be prepared to fit within one full page (5" x 8") of space. A figure of, say, 12 panels should be prepared as one full page with 8 panels and one half page comprising 4 panels.

Image orientation ("landscape" vs. "portrait")

You should feel free to orient your figures as you wish, but please keep in mind the dimension restrictions above. For example, portrait-oriented figures (full, ½, or ?) should be 5" wide. The same size figures in landscape orientation would need to be 8" wide. The deciding factor as to which orientation to adopt should be the legibility of the final image (e.g., very complex figures involving many data points with long time series will look better when presented in landscape rather than in portrait format).

Labels, notes, sources, and captions

Your figures (using the dimensions shown above) should include the image itself and any labels you wish to apply to the various elements and the axes. To ensure maximum legibility, please render labels in 10-point Arial (or Helvetica) font.

Notes, source information, figure titles (e.g., "Figure 2.3. Official Bank of England CPI Rates, 1947-97"), and captions (if any) should be provided separately as Word documents.

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Guide to preparing camera ready copy artwork

Your final camera ready copy (CRC) artwork will be treated as pieces of mechanical art that will be subjected to photographic reproduction. They should be output at the highest resolution possible (1200 dpi (or finer) is recommended) using a quality laser printer output onto white bond paper that has a smooth texture and is fully opaque. ("Ink-jet" printers will not work for this purpose.) Please do not use paper with a watermark. Please do not use grey-scale screens or shading in any part of your figures.

Each master CRC image should be accompanied by a photocopy. Please write the figure number and any special instructions on the photocopy only. Please do not mark, crease, or write anything on the CRC, as this will affect appearance of the figure in reproduction.

Pack the CRC mechanicals in a separate envelope with each image separated from the next by a clean piece of paper. When you are ready to send in your manuscript, please send the photocopies for each figure along with the envelope containing the CRC mechanicals. Please ensure that the CRC mechanicals cannot become bent or creased in shipment. Please do not use staples or paperclips on the CRC mechanicals.

Electronic file formats

We Prefer:
FormatResolution/Notes
Adobe Illustrator (*.AI or *.EPS) For composite images: minimum resolution of 300d.p.i. at final printed size. Fonts to be included.
Photoshop (*.PSD) Please supply with layers intact.
Freehand (*.FHx) For composite images: minimum resolution of 300d.p.i. at final printed size. Fonts to be included.
We can accept:
FormatResolution/Notes
TIFF Minimum resolution of 300d.p.i. (72d.p.i. files are not useable) at the size the image is to appear in print. If the figure contains text minimum resolution is 400d.p.i. and 600d.p.i. where it contains small text or other fine detail. Compress if file size is large.
EPS For composite images – minimum resolution of 300d.p.i. at final printed size. Fonts to be included.
MS Word Minimum resolution of 300d.p.i. for halftone images and 1000d.p.i for lineart. Generate postscript files by using ‘Print to file’. To do this, open the image in its native application, go into the ‘print’ menu and change the destination from ‘printer’ to ‘file’ (or click on ‘print to file’). This will write a Postscript (.ps or .prn) file.
MS PowerPoint Minimum resolution of 300d.p.i. for halftone images and 1000d.p.i for lineart. Generate postscript files by using ‘Print to file’. To do this, open the image in its native application, go into the ‘print’ menu and change the destination from ‘printer’ to ‘file’ (or click on ‘print to file’). This will write a Postscript (.ps or .prn) file.
MS Excel Minimum resolution of 300d.p.i. for halftone images and 1000d.p.i for lineart. Generate postscript files by using ‘Print to file’. To do this, open the image in its native application, go into the ‘print’ menu and change the destination from ‘printer’ to ‘file’ (or click on ‘print to file’). This will write a Postscript (.ps or .prn) file.
JPEG Minimum resolution of 300d.p.i. (72d.p.i. files are not useable) at the size the image is to appear in print. If the figure contains text minimum resolution is 400d.p.i. and 600d.p.i. where it contains small text or other fine detail. Compress file size if large. Please supply the highest possible quality (between 10-12) to prevent reduction of quality.
Acrobat PDF Use Print PDF or Press PDF settings. Always use embed fonts option in the job options setting (fonts tab). For composite images - min. resolution of 300d.p.i. at final printed size. Fonts to be included.
PICT Minimum resolution of 300d.p.i. (72d.p.i. files are not useable) at the size the image is to appear in print. If the figure contains text minimum resolution is 400d.p.i. and 600d.p.i. where it contains small text or other fine detail. Compress if file size is large.
Canvas version 9.0But not earlier than version 3.5
Delta graph version 5.6
Sigma Plot version 9.0
CorelDraw version 8, 9, 10

We cannot accept: Canvas before version 3.5, DeltaGraph

Image types:
Raster formats (bitmapped images) are best suited to photographs and scans (we prefer Photoshop or TIFF files)
Line (or vector) formats are best for graphs and schematic diagrams

A "final" word. When submitted in CRC format, your figures are considered final. It will not be possible to make changes to them at the proofing stage without great effort. Even the smallest typo cannot be fixed without stripping out the old image and reshooting a new one - an expensive and time-consuming option. Please check your artwork very carefully before sending it to us.