Article Submission

Authors should submit an outline or abstract of the proposed article to the editor for advice as to whether the article would be suitable. Authors need not be members of the Institute of Food Technologists. 

Articles should be prepared in a feature style, rather than in the standard scientific research paper format. Serial articles are not accepted for publication; each article must be complete. See back issues of Food Technology for examples of feature articles. 

To be considered for publication, an article must report on a significant development; have a direct bearing on food, IFT, or IFT members; be of interest to a significant number of IFT members; include sufficient data to support claims and/or conclusions; not have been published elsewhere; and not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.  

Acceptability and accuracy of each submitted article are determined by the editorial staff. In special circumstances, the article may be reviewed by one or more scientists known to be experts in the subject area discussed in the article. 

Other reasons besides quality and scientific merit, however, affect the decision to accept or reject an article. Among these are the amount of space available, the quality of other articles competing for that space, the mix of articles desired, and the expected degree of interest to IFT members. For these reasons, an article that otherwise meets the criteria enumerated above may occasionally be rejected.

The preferred length for articles is about 2,500 words to 3,000 words, including all images, figures, tables, and references

The author is the copyright owner of the article unless the author’s employer owns copyright. All authors must sign and return a copy of the Publishing and Copyright Licensing Agreement prior to publication. The agreement grants IFT an exclusive license to publish the article in print and electronic formats in all languages and to administer subsidiary rights to third parties.

Each submitted manuscript goes through the following steps: 

• Review. The manuscript is reviewed by the editorial staff. In special circumstances where the editorial staff is unsure of the importance or validity of the manuscript, the article may be reviewed by one or more scientists known to be experts in the subject area discussed in the article. The author(s) is notified by the editorial staff upon acceptance or rejection of the manuscript. Accepted manuscripts are then edited by the editorial staff.
• Editing and Revisions. Once the manuscript is accepted, it is edited to make sure that grammar and punctuation are correct, ideas are expressed clearly, no ambiguities exist, no obvious scientific errors exist, and the manuscript is in Food Technology’s style.
• Author Approval. The edited manuscript is then sent to the author for any necessary clarification and approval. This is the author’s last contact with the manuscript prior to publication; no proofs of designed pages are sent to the author.
• Layout and Proofreading. When the author’s changes and approval have been received, the editorial staff makes any final changes and has the manuscript designed. The editorial staff then proofreads the layout of the manuscript. 

Type the manuscript double-spaced in a Word document. Do not embed images, tables, or charts within the Word document. Send them as separate attachments.

Arrange the article in the following order: title page, text, acknowledgments (if any), references, tables, figure captions, and figures. Do not include an abstract or a summary.

Include the following information on the title page: 

• Title. Food Technology articles should have titles of eight words or fewer.
• Deck. Include a deck (a secondary headline of up to 25 words) to briefly describe the article in more detail.
• Authors’ Byline. Include the names of all the authors, capitalizing only the initial letters. Spell out first names. Do not include academic degrees after the name.
• Authors’ Bio Information. State each author’s title, academic credentials (only doctoral degrees and RD are indicated in the bios), affiliation, location (city and state) Also, indicate whether each author is a member or professional member of IFT. This information will appear at the end of the article. 
  
  Example: John Smith, PhD, a professional member of IFT, is president, Clinch Co., St. Paul, Minn. ([email protected]). 

Write the article in a feature style, not the standard scientific research report style (See Food Technology for examples). Use active voice whenever possible.

Divide the article into sections and suggest headings (subheads) that briefly describe the contents of each section. Capitalize only the first letter of each word in the subheads except articles and prepositions. Begin the subheads at the left margin. Do not underline the subheads. 

Authors may wish to indicate subsections, if any, within these sections by numbers, letters, bullets, or bullets followed by one or more words. Use only left justification. Enumerate items within a paragraph with numbers and a single parenthesis (e.g., There are three types of preservation methods: 1) drying, 2) canning, and 3) freezing). 

Do not use footnotes. 

Do not end the article with a summary or conclusions section unless new information or thoughts are presented. Use a descriptive subhead rather than “Summary” or “Conclusions.” 

Use italics for brand names. Brand names may be cited in the text of the article but not in the title. When referring to a company in a feature article, include the headquarters location (city and state).

Example: Campbell Soup Co., Camden, N.J.

Begin typing equations at the left margin. Type the equation in a straight line rather than stacked. If the equation runs more than one line, align the runover lines to the right of the equal sign. Distinguish between the number "one" (1) and the letter "el" (l), and between "zero" (0) and the capital letter "oh" (O).

Number all equations. Type the equation number in italic numerals within parentheses at the right margin of the final line of the equation. Refer to equations by the abbreviation "Eq."

Acknowledgments to others for assistance, etc., should be brief. Place acknowledgments after the list of references.

If the article was based on a paper presented during a meeting, cite the meeting name, location, date, and sponsoring organization; e.g., Based on a paper presented during the symposium, "Bacteriophage-Based Interventions to Improve Food Safety,” at the Annual Meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists, Chicago, July 17–21, 2010.

Do not repeat the same data in the text and in tables or in both tables and figures.

Do not type tables in the body of the text. Instead, please send them as separate documents, set up in Excel.

Set up each table in a separate Excel file. (If it is necessary to continue a table on another page, type “(continued)” at the bottom of the first page of the table and “(Table 1, continued)” at the top of the subsequent page(s).)

Number tables in Arabic numerals. The table number should be followed by a descriptive title and/or caption. The table should be self-explanatory without reference to the text.

Do not use vertical lines in tables.

If the unit of measurement is the same for all data in a particular column, place the unit in parentheses under the column heading.

Use superscript or regular letters, not asterisks, to indicate statistical significance.

Submit figures that are professional in appearance and illustrate the point being made. Do not repeat the same data in both tables and figures. Files should be high resolution (print optimized) at 300 dpi resolution and saved as .jpg, .tif, or .eps format files.

Submit high-resolution (300 dpi) electronic images in either a .jpg, .tif, or .eps format. Send not only images that are specifically referred to in the article, but also images that can be used as full-page general illustrations (“mood shots”) on the opening spread of the article or as the cover of the issue the article appears in.

Charts and Graphs

Submit original artwork for charts and graphs. The charts and graphs should be clear, easy to read, and professional in appearance. Use sans-serif type if available. Also submit a list of data points in a Word or Excel document, so the artwork can be reconstructed, if necessary.

Make all illustrations and labeling consistent in style and size.

Place labeling parallel to each axis. Abbreviate the units of measurement (without periods after the abbreviation) and place them in parentheses after the label. Center the labeling along the axis.

For lettering within the figure, use large enough letters (preferably sans serif) so that they will be readable after reduction (see Food Technology for examples). Capitalize the initial letters of all words except articles and prepositions of three letters or fewer.

Captions

Write captions that are self-explanatory without reference to the text. 

Cover Illustrations

If you have any high-resolution images (approximately 8.5 inches x 11 inches at 300 dpi) that you think would be suitable to serve as a cover illustration for Food Technology or to illustrate your article, please submit it for consideration. Accepted file formats are .jpg, .tif, or .eps.

Use the two-letter zip code abbreviations (e.g., AZ, CA) only when they are accompanied by zip codes; in all other cases, use the traditional abbreviations (e.g., Ariz., Calif.).

Submit a Word document of the manuscript with accompanying artwork via email to the executive editor.

General Guidelines

• Food Technology’s style for references follows The Chicago Manual of Style author-date approach with some minor tweaks, such as the use of initials instead of spelling out first and middle names.
• Use abbreviations for journals. The CAS Source Index Search Tool (http://cassi.cas.org/search.jsp) is a good source for identifying abbreviations for scientific and technical journals.
• If a book or journal article has seven or more authors, list the names of the first three authors, followed by et al. If there are six authors or fewer, list all of their names.
• When a citation includes multiple names, only the first name listed is inverted (e.g., Smith, J., followed by S. Jones, and B. Park.)
• Access dates are not required.
• For a citation in the body text of the article, use this format: (Smith 2013). Note that it does not include a comma.
• Use an en-dash to indicate page ranges. Example: 77–79

References in Text

Cite references in the text in the following ways:

• With the first and last name of the author as part of the sentence, immediately followed by the year of publication in parentheses
• Example: John Smith (2003) reported growth on media.
• With last name of author and year of publication in parentheses, usually at the end of a sentence
•  Example: The starch granules are normally elongated in the milk stage(Brown 2006).

If there are two authors, cite both names; e.g., Smith and Jones (2003). If there are three or more authors, use the name of the first author followed by "et al."; e.g., Smith et al. (2003).

Use commas to separate publications by the same author and semicolons to separate publications by different authors (e.g., Robbins, 1982a, b; Thomas, 1986, 1987a, b; Vygantas, 1988).

Examples of Reference List Entries

Article in a Newspaper or a Popular Magazine
Mendelsohn, D. 2010. “But Enough about Me.” New Yorker, Jan. 25.

Article in a Print Journal
Mermelstein, N. H. 1993. “Controlling E. coli O157:H7 in meat.” Food Technol. 47(4): 90–91.

Article in an Online Journal
Include a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) if one is listed. If no DOI is available, list a URL. If a cited article appears in a journal’s advance online database, include that information (i.e., “advance online publication” or “online first”) after the publication’s name and before the DOI or URL of the journal’s home page.

Ma, X., M. O. Balaban, L. Zhang, E. A. C. Emanuelsson-Patterson, and B. James. 2014. “Quantification of Pizza Baking Properties of Different Cheeses, and Their Correlation with Cheese Functionality.” J. Food Sci. 79(8): E1528-E1534. doi: 10.1111/1750-3841.12540.

Article With Author/s Not Included
Anonymous. 1994. “Food Technology Editors Honored for Excellence.” Food Technol. 48(9): 17.

Book
Rao, M. A. and S. S. H. Rizvi. 1994. Engineering Properties of Foods, 2nd ed. New York: Marcel Dekker.

Baldwin, C. J., ed. 2009. Sustainability in the Food Industry. Ames, Iowa: Wiley-Blackwell.

Blog
Barclay, E. 2015. “Your Grandparents Spent More of Their Money on Food Than You Do.” The Salt, March 2. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/03/02/389578089/your-grandparents-spent-more-of-their-money-on-food-than-you-do.

Bulletin/Government Report
GAO. 1994. Food Safety. Risk-Based Inspections and Microbial Monitoring Needed for Meat and Poultry. Rept. GAO/RCED- 94-110. General Accounting Office, Washington, D.C.

Chapter in an Edited Book
Acton, J. C. and P. L. Dawson. 1994. “Color as a Functional Property of Proteins.” Chpt. 12 in Protein Functionality in Food Systems, edited by N. S. Hettiarachchy and G. R. Ziegler. New York: Marcel Dekker.

Paper Presented at a Meeting or Conference
Jones, A. B. 2015. “The Gut Microbiome and Weight Management.” Presented at IFT15, Institute of Food Technologists, Chicago, July 11–14.

Patent
Hine, W. S. 1994. Non-fat cheese sauce. U.S. patent 5,304,387.

Press Release
NPD. 2006. “Convenience Trumps Health as the Driving Force Behind How America Eats.” Press release, Oct. 24. NPD Group, Port Washington, N.Y. npdfoodworld.com.

Regulation
FDA. 1994. Proposal to Establish Procedures for the Safe Processing and Importing of Fish and Fishery Products. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Fed. Reg. 59: 4142–4214.

Secondary Source
Carpenter, D. E. and S. Lee. 1993. “AOAC Methods and Determination of Fat.” The Referee (AOAC Intl.) 19(19): 1–9. Cited in J. W. DeVries and A. L. Nelson. 1994. “Meeting Analytical Needs for Nutrition Labeling.” Food Technol. 48(7): 73–79.

Survey/Report
HealthFocus. 2007. USA HealthFocus Trend Report. HealthFocus International, St. Petersburg, Fla. healthfocus.com.

Thesis or Dissertation
Richburg, B. A. 1992. “Machine Vision Microscopy as an On-Line Sensor for Bioprocesses.” PhD thesis, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Unpublished Manuscript/Data/Letter
Batt, C. A. 1993. Unpublished manuscript. Dept. of Food Science, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y.
Fuller, J. F. Jr. 1995. Personal communication. Heinz U.S.A., Pittsburgh.

Website
McDonald’s. 2014. “Getting to Know Us.” http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company.html.