Submissions

Author Guidelines

Authors are expected to prepare their manuscripts according to the specific formatting requirements at each stage of the process.

• Initial submissions may follow a flexible format, provided that the basic requirements below are met (See below).
• Revised submissions must comply with the main formatting guidelines for text, figures, equations, references and general article structure (See below).
• After acceptance, authors must transfer the Final manuscript to the IJSEPM Word template and comply fully with the final formatting requirements.

Initial submission

For the first submission, we are flexible regarding layout. You need primarily to adhere to

• Article length may not exceed 7000 words including everything. 
• Submit in Word format
• Do not use columns
• Use reasonable margins, font size and line spacing
• Use page numbering and line numbering

During the submission stage, authors are required to suggest two to five reviewers. Enter name, affiliation, e-mail - and preferably a link to a Scopus or Orcid account

Note that the reviewers cannot be from the same institution as any of the authors, that they may not have close ties with authors, and that they as a general rule should have a reasonable publication record. IJSEPM is free to use any reviewer - suggested by authors or not.

Revised submissions in the review phase 

Ensure that you follow the guidelines for general text (Section A below)

Ensure that you follow the guidelines for Graphics (Section B below)

Ensure that you follow the guidelines for Equations (Section C below)

Ensure that you follow the guidelines for References (Section D below)

Ensure that you follow the guidelines for Article Structure (Section E below)

Final article after acceptance 

We are working on a Word template which will be made available upon acceptance of your article and which you will be required to transition your manuscript into. The information from Sections B to F is in alignment with the template for final layout.

A General text and text formatting

1. Write in British English (alternatively American English); do not mix.
2. Only use SI units combined with proper decadic prefixes. In general, use J or Wh to quantify energy for instance. Non-SI quantifications may supplement if deemed important e.g. “Denmark produces 93 PJ (2.38 bcm) natural gas and biomethane annually
3. Do not perform any text formatting other than italics (no bold, no underlining (except in URLs)) 
4. Avoid footnotes if at all possible. Do not use endnotes

B Graphics and tables

1. Use vector graphics; use only bitmap graphics as a last resort
2. Diagrams, tables and other graphics should be incorporated into manuscript and not submitted in separate files
3. Ensure you have the permission to publish any illustrations. The caption must reflect this (e,g, “Used with permission from …”)
4. All charts must have appropriate axis labels in the form "Descriptive title [Unit of Measure]" - e.g. "Primary energy consumption [PJ]"
5. Do not have titles above figures that replicate the figure caption.  Only if for instance more charts share the same caption. At best, they duplicate - at worst they differ.
6. Captions for figures and tables should be in the format "Figure x: Descriptive title" or "Table y: Descriptive title"
7. Avoid vertical lines in tables and most horizontal (See e.g. Table 3 in https://doi.org/10.54337/ijsepm.9787 )
8. Do not have frames around figures

C Equations

1. Use the built-in equation editor in Word for equations – apart from small text-integrated equations.
2. Number equations using (x) to the right of the equation
3. Refer to equations in the text by Eq. (x)

1. D References Use numbered references in square brackets - i.e. [1]. This style is referred to as “Non-superscripted Number” in e.g. the reference handling software Endnote
2. All references should be followed by a URL if at all possible. Pertinent for journal articles. This must be the doi-link (https://doi.org/.................)
3. In Mendeley, you can use the template for Elsevier's "Energy" - however it does not generate URLs in the reference list - only DOI. Thus, when done editing and before submitting,  perform a search and replace to substitute "doi:" by "http://doi.org/"
4. If you have a reference list without DOIs you can use Crossref’s help tool. This will find and insert the missing DOIs and you can copy the updated list into your manuscript https://apps.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery
   
5. For multiple references, combine in same brackets [1,4,5-7] - not [1], [4] & [5]
6. Articles: State “[number] Author(s), Title, Journal name Volume (Issue) (Year) pages x-y. URL“ – e.g. [2] Østergaard PA, Sperling K, Towards Sustainable Energy Planning and Management. Int J of Sust Energy Plan and Mgt 1 (2014) p 1-5. http://dx.doi.org/10.5278/ijsepm.2014.1.1
7. Books: State “[number] Author(s) / Editor (s). Title. Place of publication: Publisher; year” – e.g. [3] Clark WW, editor. Sustainable Communities. New York: Springer; 2009
8. Chapters in edited books: State “[number] Author(s), Chapter title. In Editor name (s), editor(s). Book title. Place of publication: Publisher; year. p. x-y” – e.g. [4] Lund H, Østergaard PA. Sustainable Towns. In: Clark WW, editor. Sustainable Communities. New York: Springer; 2009. p. 155-68.
9. Internet references: Follow the template for books to the extent possible – followed by the URL

E Manuscript structure

1. Do not capitalize words (apart from proper names and abbreviations)
2. Author(s) – listed in one line – include full names of everybody; no abbreviations and no titles.
3. Use a footnote to indicate corresponding author – also in case of one single author. The footnote must have the following format “Corresponding author – e-mail: alberg@plan.aau.dk”. Use an asterisk as footnote.  This should preferably be the only footnote in the manuscript.
4. Affiliation(s) – if there are different affiliations for the authors then use one separate line for each affiliation and indicate by superscript lower-case letter relationships to names. The letter precedes the affiliation and follows the author name. Between author name and super-script letter make sure to include a space. Else Scopus will think that the letter is part of your name. If all authors share the same affiliation, then only list one affiliation and do not indicate relationships with superscript letters. The affiliation should have the format “Department (where applicable), Institution, Street address, Postal code + City, Country” – e.g. “Department of Planning, Aalborg University, Rendsburggade 14, 9000 Aalborg, Denmark. Note that street addresses are required.
5. The abstract should be preceded by the section header Abstract. The abstract must be 200 words or less. The abstract should address a) The problem / issue at hand b) The methodology applied to analyse the issue / solve the problem c) The results or main conclusions of the analyses.
6. Supply a list of three to five terms following the section header Keywords. One term may encompass more words - i.e. “Scenario development", "Systems analyses" or "Wind power integration”. Supply one term per line starting with an upper-case letter - ending with a semicolon.
7. List all non-standard abbreviations following the section header “Abbreviations”. This section may be omitted if not relevant - or if the number of abbreviations is limited.
8. Structure the manuscript in a sequence of numbered sections and numbered subsections. Number using roman numerals e.g. “1 Introduction” or “2.2 Present electricity demand in Germany”. Use descriptive section headlines – avoid single word headlines – e.g. “3 Energy systems analyses” – not “3 Analyses”. This does not apply to the sections Introduction and Conclusion.
9. Never have headlines that follow directly after one another; there must always be text in between (e.g. introducing  the contents/structure of the section)
10. Add relevant acknowledgements after the conclusion following the section header “Acknowledgements”. This section may be omitted if not relevant. If the article belongs to a special issues from a conference, the conference should be noted using the normal details - name, place, time. It is recommended acknowledging financial support through e.g. a grant
11. Add the list of references following the section header “References” using the template giving previously in these author instructions
12. If pertinent, the main text may be followed by one or more appendices numbered and named appropriately e.g. “Appendix 1: The energyPRO model”. Note that this also forms a part of the word count