Submissions

Papers should be submitted electronically via the online submission website. Please read the online submission instructions first. Any editoral or submission queries should be sent to:

Papers should be as concise as possible without detracting from clarity. A copy of any important unpublished reference should be sent to the editor when the paper is submitted.

Papers submitted to Biometrika must neither have been published nor be under
consideration for publication elsewhere.

Stylistic Requirements

Before preparing a paper for submission, please examine a recent issue of Biometrika carefully and follow that arrangement of sections, formulae, references, tables, etc. closely.

In particular please note the points given below. The preparation for press of a paper that is technically acceptable, but which does not follow these requirements, would involve the editors in a large amount of work. Therefore it may be necessary to return any such manuscript for retyping; this will often involve delay in publication. The following notes can be found in full in issue 94-1.

1. Manuscripts should be typed on one side of the paper only. There should be margins of 30 mm on all four sides. Double-spaced typing should be used (not 1.5 line) and this should include the pages of references, tables and diagram titles. The depth of ‘white space’ between lines of text should be at least 5 mm. The type size should not be smaller than 12 characters per inch (25 mm). All copies of the manuscript should be legible, including accents and sub- and superscripts; pages should be numbered con-secutively.
   Please use Oxford "-ize" spelling.
2. For each author please give one postal address, including a department and postcode, and one e-mail address; these should be the best permanent addresses current at time of publication. Acknowledgements to other institutions should be put with other acknowledgements at the end of the paper.
3. At the beginning of the paper there must be a single paragraph summary which should not contain formulae, followed by some key words in alphabetical order.
4. The paper should be divided into numbered sections with suitable short verbal titles. Subheadings may be used, but not sub-subheadings. Where subsections are used each, including the first, should have a number and title.
5. Verbal phrases inside brackets or dashes, or in italic type, should not be used. Footnotes should be avoided except for tables. Abbreviations like a.s., i.i.d., d.f., ANOVA, MCMC and ML and special symbols like ∀ should not be used.
6. References in the text should follow the current style used in Biometrika. In citing
   references use ‘First author et al.’ if there are three or more authors. The list of references at the end should correspond to those in the text, and be typed in exactly current Biometrika form. References to books should be to the latest edition; a page, section or chapter number is nearly always necessary. References to books of papers should include title of book, editor(s), first and final page numbers of paper, where published and publisher. Complete lists of authors and editors should be given. Unpublished reports can be referred to in the text, but should not be included in the References except where they have been accepted for publication.
7. Acknowledgements should appear at the end of the paper and be as brief as possible subject to politeness. Information, such as contract numbers, of no interest to readers, must be excluded. If there is an appendix it should follow the Acknowledgement but precede the References; appendices should have titles.
8. Please arrange brackets in the order [{( )}], and follow the usual conventions for e, exp, use of solidus, square root signs, etc. as in a recent issue.
9. Multiple overbars must be avoided, as must symbols with underbars. Subscripts and superscripts (and second-order sub- and superscripts) should, preferably, be aligned horizontally. Please avoid sub- and superscripts of third, and greater, order.
10. Symbols should not start sentences. Distinctive type (i.e. bold) for matrices and
    vectors is not used in Biometrika. Vectors are assumed to be column vectors, unless explicitly transposed. Please distinguish between easily confused characters like w, ω; k, κ, K; o, O, 0; 1, l, I; e, ∈. Where a script letter (capital only) is used or there is ambiguity, indicate the character by name in the margin the first time it is used.
11. Please use: var (x) not var x or Var (x); cov not Cov; pr for probability not Pr or P; tr not trace; E(X) for expectation not EX or E(X); log x not loge x or ln x. Please avoid: ‘.’ for product; a/bc, which should be written a/(bc) or a(bc)^(−1). Use: zeros preceding decimal points, 0·2 not ·2; the form 1,. . . ,n not 1, 2,. . .,n.
12. Equation numbers should be included only when equations are referred to; the
    numbers must be placed on the right. Long or important mathematical (not verbal) expressions should be displayed (i.e. shown on a separate line). Short formulae should be left in the text to save space where possible, but must not be more than one line high and not contain reduced-size type. For example dy dx must not be left in the text, but should be written dy/dx or it should be displayed. Equations involving lengthy expressions should, where possible, be avoided by introducing suitable notation.
13. Tables should be numbered in the order they are to appear, and referred to consecutively by number. Each table, with self-explanatory title and any footnotes, should be typed double-spaced on a separate sheet. Check that the arrangement makes effective use of the Biometrika sized page. Layouts that have to be printed sideways should be avoided if possible. For this reason tables should not be more than 92 characters wide, including decimal points and brackets (1 character), and minus and other signs and spaces (at least 2 characters).
14. Diagrams should be numbered Fig. 1 etc., and referred to by number consecutively. Each figure should be on a separate page; self-explanatory (verbal if possible) titles should be typed double spaced. Figures for accepted papers should be submitted electronically alongside the text file in one of the following formats: .jpg, .gif, .tif or .eps. Minimum resolutions are 300 d.p.i. for tone images, and 600 d.p.i. for line drawings. Line drawings should have clear and sharp lines and any shading should be clear and distinctive. Wherever possible, figures should be submitted in their desired final size. The labels on the axes, etc. will be re-lettered in the same style as the printed text.

Copyright and Permissions

It is a condition of publication in Biometrika that authors assign copyright to the Biometrika Trust. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. As part of the licence agreement, Authors may use their own material in other publications provided that Biometrika is acknowledged as the original place of publication.

On acceptance, please complete a Licence to Publish form and return it to the address given on the form.

Offprints

Authors will receive electronic access to their paper and twenty-five offprints free of charge. Authors have the option to purchase extra offprints if they wish.

To order gratis and extra offprints, please complete an offprint order form and return it to the address given on the form.

Note: Orders from the UK will be subject to a 17.5% VAT charge. For orders from elsewhere in the EU you or your institution should account for VAT by way of a reverse charge. Please provide us with your or your institution’s VAT number.

Author Self-Archiving/Public Access Policy

For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.