Pramana - journal of physics welcomes articles communicating current research work in physics, which will be published subject to acceptability after referee and editorial assessment.

Declaration - The submission of a paper by a set of authors will be held to imply that it represents the results of their original research not previously published; that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; and that if accepted for Pramana it will not be published elsewhere.


Articles may be submitted under any of the following categories:

Research papers
Rapid Communications
Comments
Brief reports
Review articles


Instructions

Electronic Submission
Type Script
Title Page
Abstract
Keywords
List of Symbols
Text
Tables
FootNotes
Appendices
Proofs
Reprints
References
Mathematical Materials
Figures

1. Research papers: Normal full length papers which describe significant and substantial original work. These should not normally exceed 8000 words or equivalent in length.

2. Rapid Communications: This will be processed faster by the journal. A need for urgent publication, as judged by our referees and editors, will be an important additional criterion in the acceptance of such contributions. The paper should describe the work concisely, being not longer than 2500 words or equivalent. A longer article, containing full details of the same work, can be separately entertained under category (1) above (research papers).

3. Comments: Comments on papers which have already appeared in Pramana, or addenda and errata to such papers by the authors themselves. These could be as short as a paragraph, but not ordinarily longer than 1000 words or equivalent.

4. Brief reports: These should be short articles (less than 2500 words or equivalent) making specific technical points of interest to others in the area, even though the content may not be substantial enough to be considered under category.

Review articles: In addition to the different categories of papers mentioned above, Pramana now publishes review articles. These are by invitation and represent a scholarly review of an area of physics, with substantial references to the existing literature in the field. The invitations are generally initiated by the Editorial Board. However, any author(s) with ideas for a potential review article are welcome to communicate to the Editors a synopsis and a detailed plan of the proposed review. This will be assessed and if found acceptable an invitation to contribute a review could result. All review articles are still refereed after their submittal. Pramana also intends to publish topical reviews which are not necessarily comprehensive but represent a particularly interesting or important viewpoint (even if it is not universally accepted) since such articles can stimulate further work. Authors wishing to have papers published in Pramana in any of the above categories should send them to the Editorial Office. Three copies of the paper must be submitted.

Note: Authors are encouraged to submit the manuscript electronically by e-mail to pramana@ias.ernet.in .

Electronic Submission : Electronic files in LaTeX are preferred. However, MS-WORD files are also acceptable. Figures should be supplied in eps (encapsulated postscript) or pdf formats.

Typescript: Papers must be written clearly and concisely in English, the preferred spelling being that of the Concise Oxford Dictionary. They must be typed double spaced with ample margin on all sides on white bond A4 size paper, (297 ·210 mm). This also applies to the abstract, tables, figure captions and the list of references each of which are to be typed on separate sheets

Title Page:

The first page must bear

a) title of the paper
b) the initials; and the names of the authors
c) names and addresses of the institutions where the work was carried out
d) the permanent or present addresses of the authors, (if different from c) and
e) the Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme Number for the manuscript.

A copy of the scheme can be obtained from the Editorial Office. Authors should suggest an abbreviated running title of not more than 50 characters including spaces. The title must be specific and should contain words useful for indexing.

Abstract: All papers must have an abstract of not more than 200 words. The abstract should indicate the general scope of the paper, the important findings and the conclusions drawn.

Keywords: Between 3 and 6 keywords must be provided for indexing and information retrieval services.

List of Symbols: In cases where the number of symbols used is large, the authors should attach to the manuscript a separate complete list of symbols identified typographically, not mathematically. This list will not appear in print but is essential in order to avoid costly corrections at the proof stage. In other cases, a clear typographical identification of each symbol, made in the margin in quotes (e.g. "epsilon") the first time it appears in the text should be adequate.

Text: The paper must be divided into sections starting preferably with "Introduction" and ending with ''Conclusions". The main sections should be numbered 1, 2, 3 etc and subsections 2.1, 2.2 etc.

Tables: All tables must be numbered consecutive!y in Arabic numerals (not Roman) (e.g. table 3) in the order of appearance in the text. The tables should be self-contained and have a descriptive title. Column headings of tables should be brief. Extensive tables will be reproduced photographically and should therefore be typed carefully and in the exact format desired. Footnotes to the tables, if any, should be identified by superscript symbols and placed at the bottom of the page containing the table.

Footnotes: Footnotes to the text should be avoided if possible. When necessary they should be numbered along with the references (numbers in square brackets) sequentially in the main text. The matter of each footnote should appear after the appropriate number in the list of references.

Appendices: Appendices should be labeled as A, B, etc. and the equations appearing in them be labeled as A1, A2, B1, B2, etc.

Proofs: Normally two sets of page-proofs are sent to authors for correction along with a reprint order form. One set of corrected proofs should be posted back to the Editorial Office within two days of receipt. If the corrected proofs are not received within a reasonable time, it will be presumed that the authors have no corrections to make. The articles are typeset by computer photocomposition and printed by the offset process. While this process is neat, it makes corrections at the proof stage very difficult and expensive. Addition or deletion of a letter or a word or a sentence in the proof means resetting the whole line or para and sometimes even a few pages. Authors are therefore requested to indicate only typographical or composing errors. Fresh corrections which are absolutely essential and unavoidable call be indicated on the proof but will be charged to the authors at actuals.

Reprints: Fifty reprints of each article will be supplied free of charge. If additional reprints are desired these can be ordered at the proof stage at the cost indicated in the reprint order form.




The author's attention is specially drawn to the instructions on items below. If these are not followed strictly, both the quality of reproduction and the technical accuracy would be jeopardised. Therefore, in such cases the manuscripts may have to be returned to the authors for improvement causing delays in their publication.

References: References should be numbered in order of appearance in the text of the paper, the number being enclosed in square brackets in the same line. E.g. "It has been shown [1, 2] that..."or "Ramachandran and Raman [14] developed a formalism in 1955 which made it possible..." The second example is meant to show that while names of authors and dates are not essential, they can be included even in this format. At the end of the manuscript, references to articles in journals should be listed by number, again in square brackets, followed by authors names (preceded by initials), abbreviated journal title, volume, first page number and year in brackets, e.g. [4] P W Anderson, Phys. Rev 109, 1492 (1958) References to books should include: name(s) of author(s) (preceded by initials), title of the book, edition if not the first, initials and name(s) of editor(s) if any, preceded by "edited by" and publisher, place of publication, year within brackets and chapter or pages referred to, e.g. [ 12] J de Boer and J Eichler, in Advances in nuclear physics edited by M Baranger and E Vogt (Plenum, New York, 1968) Vol. 1, p. 1. References to theses must include the title of the thesis, the degree for which submitted, the University and year.

Mathematical Material: Equations must be clearly written, each on its own line, well away from the text. All equations must be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals with the number in parentheses near the right hand margin. If desired, equations can be numbered consecutively in each section preceded by a point and the section number e.g. (3.14) for the 14th equation in section 3. Indices, subscripts, superscripts and exponents must be clearly indicated in pencil in one copy of the manuscript, for example like a, b % b a'' biX,v .. etc. 'Oh' and 'zero', K, k and Kappa, 'ell' and 'one', etc. must be clearly distinguished. Authors must indicate wherever special characters
(greek, gothic, script, scalar, vector, tensor, matrix, etc) are required. All other letters will be set in italic type. Vectors must be underlined by a wavy line and tensors and matrices by two wavy lines.
The SI system of units and symbols is recommended.

Figures: All figures, including photographs (which must be glossy prints) should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals in the order of occurrence in the text. Figure captions must be typed on a separate sheet. Line drawings must be in Indian ink on good quality tracing paper. Curves should be drawn sufficiently thick to permit reduction to one half or even one third of the original size. The axes and letterings must be about 0.3 mm thick and curves 0.6 mm thick. Whenever computer outputs are directly submitted as figures, they should conform to the same specifications given earlier for drawings.