PRE-EDITING GUIDELINES

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY

MATHS AND EQUATIONS APPENDIX

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Guidance provided in the main “Pre-Editing Guidelines – Royal Society of Chemistry” document
should be followed. This document contains further guidance on the presentation of mathematics
and equations.

PAGINATION OF EQUATIONS

The details provided in this section on pagination are guidelines to help to produce clear and tidy
mathematical and chemical equations. They should be followed where possible, but there will be
equations to which these guidelines cannot be directly applied.

 Where possible equations should be displayed in a single column (breaking the equation
over two lines if necessary and possible, see below). Where this is not possible double
column format should be used and where double column is not possible, landscape display
should be used.

 Single column equations (and double column equations that cannot be broken to fit a single
column) that span less than one line should be centre-aligned.

 Equations that are broken over two or more lines should always be aligned so that it is clear
which parts correspond to the LHS and RHS (or reactants and products).

LINE-BREAKING OF EQUATIONS

 In order to fit equations to the desired width (single or double column) the following rules
on line-breaking should be applied:

o Equations should only be broken at mathematical operators, e.g., +, –, =, x.

o If an equation is to be broken at an implied multiplication (e.g. [x + 1]|[y + 4], where
| denotes the position of the break) then a multiplication sign should be inserted.

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 o The equation should be broken before the operator.
o The part of the equation on the new line should be indented and the first
mathematical operator on each new line should be aligned where possible.
o Avoid breaking equations in the middle of any of the following: fractions, root signs,
within a pair of brackets (where possible), multiplications without signs (e.g. 4νr).
o All components of one equation should appear in the same column and on the same
page.
o Do not alter the sizing of equations to fit them within a given space.

 Some equations will need to be set spanning both columns as they cannot be broken
following the guidelines above.

Breaking an equation at mathematical operators to fit a single column

Equation requiring insertion of a multiplication sign. (Note that guidance on breaking before
the operator is not possible in this example; this is acceptable)

Equation that cannot be broken to fit single column

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SPECIFIC POINTS FOR CHEMICAL EQUATIONS

 Chemical equations should be broken at the arrow wherever possible; the arrow must
remain with the products. As an alternative, they may be broken at ‘+’ or ‘–‘ if necessary.

 Chemical equations should never be broken between pairs of brackets (multiplication signs
should never be inserted).

 If it is not possible to break the equation at the arrow then the products must remain on the
right hand side of the reaction and any operators should be aligned.

Breaking a chemical equation at the reaction arrow to fit a single column

An example of a poorly broken chemical equation. It is not clear whether the 2nd line consists
of products or reactants, and a multiplication sign has been inserted

VARIABLES AND THEIR LABELS

 Care should be taken when paginating variables with labels to ensure that the variable does
not overlap with the label, this includes primes. For example, further space after ψ is
required in to avoid overlap with the prime.

EQUATION PLACEMENT

 All equations should be retained in the original position in the text as provided by the author
as far as possible.

 An equation may only be moved for pagination purposes in order to set it landscape down a
column.

 Numbering should not be added to equations for the purpose of changing their position.

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  When an equation is moved for pagination purposes, it should only be moved in the pdf
version; it must retain its original position in the XML.

COMPOUND FRACTIONS

 All compound fractions (in body text/tables/gifs) and should be displayed at full size (9 pt).

 Fractions in superscripts/subscripts should be displayed at standard sub/superscript size.

Compound fractions displayed at correct size

Fractions should not be reduced in size, as in these examples

FORMATTING

The formatting of variables etc. given in the pre-editing guidelines should be followed, i.e.:

1. Numerical variables (i.e. Latin or Greek letters used to represent numbers) should be
italicized.

2. Script characters should not be in italics, even when representing variables.

3. Multiple letter variables [e.g. Re (Reynolds number), Oh (Ohnesorge number), De (Deborah

number), cmc, ee] should generally be roman. Letters that do not represent numbers (i.e.
labels) should be roman.

4. Note that ‘e’ (when used as the base for natural logarithms), π (when indicating the ratio of
circumference to diameter) and i (the square root of –1) should be roman.

5. Differential “d” should be made roman, e.g. , .

6. Add a space on either side of mathematical operators (except for superscripts or subscripts).
(In subscripts and superscripts only, mathematical symbols should be closed up to the values
either side.)

7. Exponential numbers should not be written as 3.10-3, 3·107 (change the point/middot to a
multiplication sign, with a space either side) or as 1.9492E-9 (change to 1.9492 × 10–9).

8. Stacking tags should be used for variables with two labels, e.g. , . Where the
superscript term is a mathematical power or a variable representing a mathematical power,
the superscript and subscript terms should be staggered with the superscript term appearing

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 after the subscript one, e.g. Rg2, B1x. Charges on chemical species should always appear
staggered, e.g. SO32-.

USE OF MATHTYPE VS. XML

 Mathematical terms should be entered as XML wherever this is possible (using combining
entitities where necessary).

 Use of MathType may be necessary for:

o some fractions
o reactions with conditions on the arrow
o terms containing symbols that cannot be stacked using XML (e.g. radical sign, degree
sign, prime, dagger)
o summation with limits
o integral with limits
o pi functions
o roots
o consistency if a term has been presented in MathType elsewhere and has a distinctly
different appearance when entered as XML (e.g. ; minor differences in
appearance are acceptable)

VECTORS AND TENSORS

 Vectors can be represented in the following styles: bold, bold italic, italic with over arrow,
bold italic with over arrow.

 In general, author choice of style for presenting vectors and tensors should be applied.

 If the author uses different styles to represent vectors and/or tensors, this should be
retained.

 If the text indicates that a letter represents a vector or tensor, and it has not been styled in
one of the formats described above (i.e., roman non-bold text), a sensible choice of style
based on author representation elsewhere should be applied and query M3 inserted.

 If no style has been applied to vectors and tensors by the author throughout the article, then
they should be set in bold italic.

INTEGRALS, PI FUNCTIONS, SUMMATIONS

 The correct mathematical entity for summations (∑, ∑) should be used, not the
upper case Greek letter sigma.

 Integrals, Pi functions and summations should all be roman.

 Limits for integrals should be set to the right of the integral symbol.

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  Limits for Pi functions and summations should be set above and below the symbol.

Roman integral sign with limits to the right

Summation with limits above and below

PRESENTATION OF MATHEMATICAL FUNCTIONS

 sin, cos, tan, sinh, arcsin, log, lg, ln, exp, Im, Re, lim and related functions should always be
roman.

 When presented in XML, these functions should be preceded by a word space if they follow
a mathematical operator or a thin space if they follow a variable.

 In XML, the function should be closed up to the following term if it is in brackets, otherwise a
thin space should be inserted.

 Similar spacing should be present around these functions in MathType equations.

 The function should always be lower case.

EQUATION CONDITIONS

 Equation conditions should be placed after the end of the equation, either separated by a
comma or within parentheses.

 For equations created in XML, an em space should be inserted between the equation and its
conditions. Corresponding suitable space should be incorporated for equations created using
MathType.

ARROWS IN CHEMICAL EQUATIONS

 Single forward arrows and equilibrium arrows should be captured using the relevant entity
in XML, or using MathType if conditions are present on the arrow.

GROWING BRACKETS

 For single line mathematical terms standard, non-growing brackets should be used.

 For brackets around built-up fractions, growing brackets should be used.

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  Paired brackets should be the same size, but sets of brackets with similar content do not
need to be identical in size.

Usage of growing brackets for terms greater than one line:

FRACTIONS

 Fractions may be presented as built-up or in-line , but not slanted .

 Simple stand-alone fractions (i.e. fractions containing one term over another, such as 1/2,
A/B, not forming part of an equation) should not be captured using MathType gif if they can
be keyed as text; they may be changed from built-up to in-line in order to enter them in this
way.

 Author presentation of complex fractions or those forming part of an equation should be

followed – do not change built-up fractions to in-line or vice versa.

 Where fractions are used within the text, the line spacing in the pdf should be altered
accordingly to ensure that there is no overlap. The size of the equation should not be altered
from the standard sizing.

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 Incorrectly sized fractions. The fractions in the following example should be of regular size,
with the line spacing adjusted accordingly

MIDDOTS

 Middots may be used to represent multiplication or dot products in mathematical terms and
equations – these should not be deleted. Full stops used for this purpose should be changed
to middots.

 Middots (and full stops) should be deleted from units and replaced with a space, as detailed
in the Pre-Editing Guidelines

 Middots should only be replaced with a multiplication symbol in exponential numbers, with a
space either side, e.g. change 3∙10–3 to 3 x 10–3.

PUNCTUATION AROUND EQUATIONS

 Punctuation around equations should be pre-edited following the standard requirements,

i.e. the author’s punctuation should be retained but clearly incorrect usage should be
rectified.

 Follow author usage for the starting of new paragraphs around equations.

NUMBERING OF EQUATIONS

 Equations do not need to be numbered; equation numbers should not be added to non-
numbered equations.

 The author’s numbering style should be retained and any obvious errors should be corrected
with insertion of an appropriate query from the Standard Queries list.

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  Equation numbers should be placed to the right of the equation and on the same line if
there is sufficient space. If there is not sufficient space the number should be placed on the
line below directly beneath the right end of the equation.

MATHTYPE SETTINGS/FORMATTING

Equations captured using MathType should conform to the following settings:

Font – Times New Roman and Symbol fonts

Script character font – commercialscriptBT

Font size – 9 pt

Sub/superscript font size – 58% (5.22 pt)

Output – GIF, 600 dpi

Royal Society of Chemistry Pre-Editing Guidelines – Maths and Equations Appendix

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