Taylor & Francis

Prepare your manuscript for Contemporary Physics.

Review the checklist, choose your article type, and turn your draft into a cleaner submission package.

Checked 2026-08-01

Article types

Review
Review Article
Book Review
Editorial
Clinical Trial
Protocol
Systematic Review
Letter
Perspective
Lectio

Readiness requirements

Review the key details below, or download the complete checklist with every stored source-backed requirement.

Abstract length

  • Provide an author-written abstract of no more than 150 words.
  • Use a structured abstract.
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  • Your abstract should focus on what your research is about, what methods have been used, and what you found out.
  • The instructions for authors for each journal will give specific guidelines on what’s required here, including whether it should be a structured abstract or graphical abstract, and any word limits.
  • A non-structured abstract of more than 100 and no more than 150 words.
  • Please do not embed it in the manuscript file but save it as a separate file, labelled GraphicalAbstract1.Taylor & Francis Editing Services provides a graphical abstract creation service for a fee.
  • Review / Book Review / Letter: Place, e.g., [abstract], [book review] or [letter] after the article title: Author K.

Keywords

  • Include or confirm the keywords required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Reference style

  • Articlo formats your supplied references to the journal's stored style and checks that citations match the reference list; source validity is not verified.
  • A typical article for this journal should be more than 8000 and no more than 12000 words; this limit includes tables, references, footnotes, figure captions, endnotes.
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  • Use an unspaced en dash between page numbers. Warning | Not controlled when printed Maintained by Head of Copyediting | Taylor & Francis | Journals Page 3 of 11 Information Classification: General In the text and in the reference list NLM uses p. rather than pp. With a quotation Author maintains that “This is author’s quoted text” [1,p.3].
  • Letter: Personal communication References to personal communications are cited only in the text. … and most of these proved to be fatal (2003 letter from RS Grant to me; unreferenced, see “Notes”) … Tables and figures Table and figure captions References cited only in tables or figure captions should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure.
  • For example: …and many nurses involved with such cases (Mar 22, 2007 posting by RS Grant to the ANPACC Listserv; unreferenced, see “Notes”) report… Blog Messages posted to discussion lists like a blog are considered a form of personal communication and should not be included in a reference list.
  • Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text.
  • Review: Readers should be able to understand the review without references to other material, although authors should give reference to those who wish to explore further.
  • Authors do not need to include DOIs for published journal articles when preparing manuscripts.
  • Do not include a full point at the end of DOI or URL addresses.
  • Place the source information in parentheses, using a term or terms to indicate that the citation is not represented in the reference list.
  • Include the nature and source of the cited information, using terms to indicate that no corresponding citation is in the reference list.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors take full responsibility for the integrity of the whole content, including accuracy of references.
  • If the reference also includes a place of publication, this should follow the rules as given above for book references, with any state or country included placed in brackets.
  • Conference Conference details Please note that in the following reference types the conference name should be followed by the date in [yyyy mm dd–dd] format, followed by the place in which the conference is held.
  • Place references to such communications within the running text only.

Figure and table rules

  • Keep every figure and table numbered, captioned, and cited in the manuscript. Keep figures embedded; Articlo also extracts numbered source files for the package.
  • Group figures at the end of the manuscript.
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  • Group tables at the end of the manuscript.
  • Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size).
  • The format for colour figures must be CMYK at a minimum 300 dpi resolution.
  • Tables and figures Show clearly in your article text where the tables and figures should appear, for example, by writing [Table 1 near here].
  • Figures should be saved separately from the text.
  • Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text.
  • Authors of accepted papers who propose publishing figures in colour in the print version should consult the production editor of the journal.
  • It’s very important that you have been given permission to use any tables or figures you are reproducing from another source before you submit.
  • Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) files are acceptable for figures that have been drawn in Word.
  • Check the instructions for authors to see how you should supply tables and figures, whether at the end of the text or in separate files, and follow any guidance given on the submission system.

Funding statement

  • You should declare only the acquired funds and grants that are directly relevant to the work reported in your article; for example, This work was supported by the [Funding Agency #1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency #2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency #3] under Grant [number xxxx].

Competing interests

  • Include or confirm the competing interests required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Data availability statement

  • Include or confirm the data availability statement required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Ethics statement

  • Include or confirm the ethics statement required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Blinded manuscript

  • The PDF should be uploaded as the “Manuscript - with author details”/”Manuscript - anonymous” file.

Cover letter

  • Using third-party material in your paper You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article.
  • Review: The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission.
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  • If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission.

Author contributions

  • Submitting authors should be prepared to submit CRediT roles for themselves and their co-authors (where applicable) as part of the submission process.

Supplementary files

  • Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.

Title page and author information

  • All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript.
  • One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF (depending on the journal) and the online article.

Article structure and word limits

  • Review / Book Review: A typical book review for this journal should be more than 400 and no more than 600 words.
  • Review: A typical Essay Review for this journal should be more than 2000 and no more than 3000 words.
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  • This could be adapted from your departmental website or academic networking profile and should be relatively brief (e.g. no more than 100 words).
  • Use an unspaced en dash to join inclusive first and last numbers, e.g. [2,3,4,5,7,10] would be abbreviated to [2–5,7,10].
  • Margins Margins should be at least 2.5cm (1 inch).
  • It should be a maximum width of 525 pixels.
  • London: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; 1998. p. 75–81. Warning | Not controlled when printed Maintained by Head of Copyediting | Taylor & Francis | Journals Page 9 of 11 Information Classification: General Presentation Presentations and posters should also include the stream in which they were presented if available.
  • Review: These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly.
  • You will also need to upload your LaTeX source files, which should be uploaded as a single zip file alongside your submission and marked as “LaTeX Source Files”.
  • Authors should restrict their use of colour to situations where it is necessary on scientific, and not merely cosmetic, grounds.
  • Queries Should you have any queries, please visit our Author Services website or contact us here.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Originality and accuracy of content has been confirmed by the authors.
  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable.
  • Authors must retain the original and revised versions which must be shared upon request.
  • The PLSP guidelines for authors must be followed at all times.
  • Please note that Taylor & Francis does not require the inclusion of all optional elements, so you should match the samples below.
  • Use the dates for the individual journal article being cited.
  • Use an unspaced en dash between page numbers.
  • Do not include as forthcoming any articles that have been submitted for publication but have not yet been accepted for publication.
  • Forthcoming book Do not include as forthcoming any books that have been submitted for publication but have not yet been accepted for publication.
  • The nature and source of the cited information should be identified by an appropriate statement.
  • Include the report series and number if available.
  • Before you submit your article, make sure you’ve checked the instructions for authors for your chosen journal, so you are aware of everything required.
  • Most journals create image descriptions during the production process, but a minority may require authors to provide image descriptions.
  • Review: Running heads and received dates These aren’t required when submitting a manuscript for review.
  • Please use SI units (non-italicized).
  • Include the country name for other countries only to avoid ambiguity: Cambridge (MA) Cambridge (UK) If more than one place of publication is found, use the first listed place of publication.
  • The conference place should include the town or city followed by the US state code or country after a comma rather than in brackets. [authors or editors] [Conference title]; [year] [abbreviated month] [day(s)]; [town or city], [state or country].
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: European accents (Greek, Hebrew, or Cyrillic letters, or phonetic symbols): choose Times New Roman font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: Asian languages (such as Sanskrit, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese): choose Arial Unicode font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Place: Publisher; Year. p. 000–000.
  • There is a limited number of colour pages within the annual page allowance.
  • Place family designations of rank after the initials, without punctuation, e.g. Author AA Jr.
  • Do not abbreviate journal titles consisting of a single word.
  • Add the phrase “Accompanied by:” followed by a description of the medium.
  • Place: Publisher; Year. (Series editor(s) optional).
  • Place: Institution; Year. (Report series; Report number).
  • If you are at the early stage of your research, you may also need to read how to start writing a journal manuscript.
  • Image descriptions are typically used by systems such as pronouncing screen readers to make images accessible to people that cannot read or see the object due to a visual disability.
  • Do not elide page number ranges.
  • Place: Publisher; Year.
  • Place: Publisher.
  • Place: Publisher; Year [cited Date].
  • Place within the running text only.
  • Place the source information in parentheses.

Reporting guidelines

  • Include or confirm the reporting guidelines required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Preprints and prior publication

  • If you have shared an earlier version of your Author’s Original Manuscript on a preprint server, please be aware that anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

Artificial intelligence disclosure

  • Add or confirm the author-written Artificial intelligence statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Please include a statement disclosing whether and how generative AI has been used in the research and manuscript preparation process.
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  • Use of AI tools as part of ethical research studies is permitted.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: The name and version number of the AI tool used.
  • Systematic Review: Use of AI tools as part of ethically conducted literature reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analysis and bibliometrics studies is permitted.
  • Use of AI tool assisted plain language summaries (PLS) of authors own work is permitted.
  • Please read our guidance on using AI tools in your research and manuscript preparation to understand scenarios where their use may be permissible, and the required information that must be disclosed.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors have checked terms of use for the specific AI tool used, and therefore confirm suitability for publication.

Language and text style

  • Please use British -ise spelling style consistently throughout your manuscript.
  • Please use single quotation marks, except where 'a quotation is "within" a quotation'.
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  • Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fourth-level headings should be in bold italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fifth-level headings should be in italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Capitalize only the first word of the title, proper nouns, proper adjectives, acronyms, and initialisms unless the conventions of a particular language require other capitalization.
  • Letter: Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Second-level headings should be in bold italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Letter: Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Third-level headings should be in italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • See http://www.issn.org/services/online-services/access-to-the-ltwa/ Journal title abbreviations should not include full points, except at the end of the title; see examples below.
  • Place the original language title or romanized title before the translation.

Manuscript structure

  • Authors should supplement formal derivations by the type of explanation that imprints the results on the reader’s mind.
  • Authors must retain full records of the methods undertaken, including full descriptions and records of the prompts used, which must be shared with the journal upon request.
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  • Letter: Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: First-level headings (e.g. Introduction, Conclusion) should be in bold, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.

Study reporting guidelines

  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable (e.g. CONSORT-AI, STARD-AI, GAMER, TRIPOD-AI, etc).

What your package checks

Abstract: 150 words
Paper: 12,000 words
Declarations: Artificial intelligence
Format: Times New Roman

Source transparency

This preparation guide uses published journal-specific author requirements. Journal instructions can change, so authors should complete a final review before submission.

Open official guideline source