Preparing "Camera-Ready" Copy

Before you Start
General Formatting Guidelines
Typesetting Specifications
Illustrations
Submission

Before you Start

ASOR’s general publishing policies and procedures are available by clicking here. It it important for authors to wait until their manuscript has officially been accepted by ASOR before beginning the process of preparing camera-ready copy.

Before getting started on preparing the camera-ready copy for your manuscript, we advise you to contact the ASOR Publications office to discuss the programs and formats you will be using.

Camera-ready manuscripts mean just that: The manuscript is received ready to be printed. Camera-ready materials appear in published form exactly as they were submitted. In other words, "what you see is what you get." The preparation of camera-ready materials places a great deal of responsibility on the author; on the positive side, however, this procedure provides the maximum amount of author control, reduces expenses (especially when highly complex alphabets and other materials are employed) and speeds the production process.

Authors who intend to submit camera-ready material should send a sample printout to the ASOR Publications Office at an early stage in the preparation process. The Director of Publications will review the sample and assist the author in conforming to camera-ready specifications .Laser printers generate near-typeset quality, camera-ready text. In general, this text will be reproduced at 100% of its original size. Accordingly, font styles and sizes should duplicate as closely as possible those found in a typeset book. Line length and page depth will vary according to the series in which a book is to be published. For specifications for a particular series, see below. Camera-ready documents should be printed on high-contrast, gloss paper whenever possible.

Authors should send a sample of their printed material to the Director of Publications for review and verification before proceeding to output an entire document. Sample electronic templates with "style sheets" in a limited number of proprietary file formats are available from the Publications Office. As is the case with all camera-ready documents, authors will not be able to make corrections once a text is submitted to ASOR, unless significant changes are made to the document after receipt.

General Formatting & Style Guidelines

General matters of style are addressed in the Guidelines for Manuscript Preparation. Additional formatting guidelines pertaining specifically to the preparation of camera-ready documents are listed here. With these exceptions, the internal organization of a manuscript is largely left to the discretion of the author. Authors are therefore advised to consult The Chicago Manual of Style regarding formatting questions not addressed herein.

1. When manuscripts contain several layers of heads and subheads, authors should consult the Chicago Manual of Stylefor advice on how to present the various levels (BASOR style is always acceptable).

2. Avoid orphans and widows. These are single lines that become separated from the rest of their paragraph because of a page or column break. Do not begin at the bottom of a page if there is room for only one line or if the final line of a paragraph will occur at the top of the succeeding page. Eliminate orphans and widows by creating slightly longer or shorter pages than normal, by spacing, or through minor rewrites.

3. Chapters and major divisions should begin on a right, odd numbered page. Odd numbered pages are always on the right, even numbered pages are on the left.

4. Insert blank pages wherever necessary. If the last page of the preceding chapter ends on an odd numbered page, leave a blank page (and assign it a number using a non-repro blue pen) and begin the new chapter on the next odd numbered page.

5. Center the number of the first page of each chapter or division at the bottom.

6. All other page numbers must be accompanied by running heads and placed in the upper corners, odd numbers being placed in the upper right-hand comer, even numbers in the upper left-hand corner. Arabic page numbers begin with the first page of the first chapter and all pages, except blank pages, should be numbered.

7. Normally, running heads for left-hand or even numbered pages are a shortened version of the volume's title; right-hand or odd pages display an abbreviated version of the chapter's title.

8. Running heads may be centered, made flush with the inside margins, or moved left and right and separated from the page number by a slash. The bottom of the running head should be .25 in. above the first line of the main text.

10. The first four pages of a text, the half-title page (i), the series page (ii), the title page (iii), and the copyright page (iv) will be typeset by the ASOR Publications office. All additional pages will be printed in the camera-ready condition in which they were received. Page v is the first camera-ready page. If there is a dedication, it should appear here and the table of contents should begin on page vii, page vi being a blank. All blank pages should be so indicated. In the absence of a dedication, the table of contents usually begins on page v.

11. Indent paragraphs 3–5 spaces (about .25"). It is not necessary to indent the first paragraph of a section or chapter.

12. Avoid subheads that are followed by two lines or less of text before the end of the page. The Chicago Manual of Style is recommended for advice on dealing with complex headings and subheadings.

13. Conventionally, the text in books is justified—each line is exactly the same length. A word processing program hyphenates words at the end of a line and adjusts the space between each word to make the line fit. This means that the word spacing varies from line to line. Occasionally a line will have an unsightly space. Correct this problem by a minor rewrite or a hyphen.

14. Use en-dashes to indicate a range (pages, distances, years) rather than a hyphen. With most fonts you can type en-dash by hitting the option key + the hyphen key.
Always use a single space between sentences and after colons. Two spaces after punctuatioon is a sure sign of an amateur job!

Typesetting Specifications

Templates with the following pre-set specifications are available for PageMaker from the ASOR Publications Office.

Archaeological Reports Series

Volumes in the ASOR Archaeological Reports Series are generally 8.5 x 11 inch format. Check with the editor for instructions in other formats.

Pages should look much like those in earlier reports of the series: a single column with illustrations on the page closest to their discussion, if possible.

The width of the text is 4.25 inches. Leave .25 inch between headers and the text.

The length of the text from the top of the page (including headers) to the bottom is 7.25 inches. Because the paper size of the book is identical to that used by most American printers, there is no need to account for reduction of image area. The location of the text on the paper is not important as long as it is consistent on every page.

Print texts in proportional Times Roman or Palatino at 11 point size with 13 point leading.

Chapter title and designation: 14 point or larger; bold; upper/lower case. You may opt to spell out the chapter numbers or simply use a number.

Authors of chapters: 12 point or larger, all caps.

Headers: 8 point; all caps.

First level subheadings: 12 point, all caps, centered.

Second level subheadings: 11 point, upper/lower case, italics.

Block quotations: text=9 point; leading = 11 point, fully justified; indent .25 inches and center.

Endnotes, bibliographies, and indices: 10 point; superscript: 8 point.

Text in the table of contents: 11 point.

ASOR Books Series

Volumes in the ASOR Books Series are generally 6 x 9 inch format. Check with the editor for instructions in other formats.

Pages should look much like those in earlier reports of the series: a single column with illustrations on the page closest to their discussion, if possible.

The width of the text is 4.25 inches. Leave .25 inch between headers and the text.

The length of the text from the top of the page (including headers) to the bottom is 7.25 inches. Because the paper size of the book is identical to that used by most American printers, there is no need to account for reduction of image area. The location of the text on the paper is not important as long as it is consistent on every page.

Print texts in proportional Times Roman or Palatino at 11 point size with 13 point leading.

Chapter title and designation: 14–18 point; bold; upper/lower case. You may opt to spell out the chapter numbers or simply use a number.

Authors of chapters: 12 point, all caps. Note: The ASOR Books series allows for flexibility in design of chapter heads. Contact the ASOR Publications Office with any special requests on design.

Running heads: 8 point; all caps.

First level subheadings: 11 point, all caps, centered.

Second level subheadings: 11 point, upper/lower case, italics, left aligned.

Block quotations: text = 9 point; leading = 11 point, fully justified; indent .25 inches and center.

Endnotes, bibliographies, and indices: 10 point.

Superscripts: 8 point.

Captions: 8 point Helvetica (or other sans serif font).

Text in the table of contents: 10 point.

Illustrations

For general information on illustrations, refer to the Illustration Guidelines. The following guidelines are specific to the preparation of illustrations for camera-ready copy.

1. Leave the precise space needed for each illustration at the desired place on the page; indicate in the space which illustration is to appear at that location.

2. If an illustration is not to appear in the size submitted, indicate the percentage of reduction or enlargement needed. Do not submit illustrations larger than 24" x 24".

3. An appropriate caption should appear in the correct location on the page on which the illustration will appear. The caption should be in eight point font. Do not place a caption on the illustration itself (anything appearing on the illustration will be picked up by the camera!). If necessary, attach a note to the illustration indicating the caption that is to accompany it.

4. Include a separate sheet with the manuscript indicating the number and placement of all illustrations. This sheet will be used for editing purposes only.

5. All illustrations should be numbered sequentially. Do not number line drawings separately from photographs, etc.

6. Editors of multi-authored volumes should make sure that authors are consistent in their use of labels (a, b, c vs. A, B, C etc.) on the figures. They must also ensure that the use of A.D. and B.C. vs. C.E. and B.C.E., and the spelling of geographical names are consistent in the figures as well as in the text of the manuscript .

Submission

Final submission should include all application files used in the preparation of the manuscript, including the digital illustration files. Be sure to include ALL fonts used in your manuscript, including standard fonts like times, and fonts used in all digital line art. Clearly mark any special characters or fonts in your manuscript. The files should be clearly identified in order. Include a sheet of paper listing every file and its contents if necessary In addition, ASOR must receive a laser print out that matches the electronic file exactly.

Send your final materials to the Publications Office of ASOR, 656 Beacon St., 5th floor, Boston, MA 02215. Tel: (617) 358-4376; Fax. (617) 353-6575; e-mail: asorpubs@asor.org.