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Preparing your materials

Policy on prior publication

When authors submit manuscripts to this journal, these manuscripts should not be under consideration, accepted for publication or in press within a different journal, book or similar entity, unless explicit permission or agreement has been sought from all entities involved. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior or duplicate publication. Authors should follow the Cambridge University Press Preprint Policy regarding preprint archives and maintaining the version of record. 

Preparing your article for submission

Papers should be prepared in either Microsoft Word or LaTeX format, and initially should have figures and tables embedded. If the paper is prepared in Word, the doc file can be uploaded during submission, and the submission system will generate a PDF for review purposes. 

If the paper is prepared in LaTeX, the author must generate a PDF and upload this during the submission process. Authors should use the nav.cls style file and supporting files provided below:

LaTeX source files for submission (zip file)

The LATEX source file should not initially be submitted alongside the PDF, but upon provisional acceptance of the paper, the LATEX source file, along with individual figure files and a PDF of the final version, will need to be submitted for typesetting purposes. See the publication process after acceptance page for further information.

Title Block

The title block should contain a short title (up to 40 characters), subtitle (if desired), authors’ names, affiliations and only the corresponding author’s e-mail address (this e-mail address is particularly important, as it will be used by the typesetters for forwarding proofs of papers accepted for publication). The respective affiliations of co-authors should be clearly indicated by superscript numbering

Abstract and Keywords preparation

A self-contained ‘Abstract’ of up to about 150 words should outline in a single paragraph the aims, scope and conclusions of the paper. Further guidance on writing an effective abstract can be found here.

Authors should not enter keywords on the manuscript, as these must be chosen by the author during the online submission process and will then be added during the production process. Authors will be required to select a maximum of four keywords from the list provided on the online submission system. For further details, please see the submitting your materials page. Suggestions for new keywords should be forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief at journal@rin.org.uk.

Main Text

The main body of text should be suitably divided with numbered main paragraphs, with headings in capitals. Related, numbered sub-paragraphs may be used, for which headings (headings in italics, with first letter of each word capitalised) are optional but recommended. Paragraph / sub-paragraph numbering should follow the convention shown in the following example (e.g., 3., 3.1., 3.1.1. etc.).

Notation and Style

Generally any queries concerning notation and journal style can be answered by viewing recent pages in the Journal. When submitting papers to the journal the following global settings should be applied:

  • The spelling language should be set to English (United Kingdom).
  • All acronyms, even those considered to be commonplace, should be decoded on first usage e.g., Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).
  • Automatic numbering of paragraphs, Figures, Tables etc., should be switched OFF throughout the paper. Manual numbering (Arabic numerals) should be input instead.
  • Automatic linking / hyperlinks within the paper should NOT be used.
  • Font should be set to 12-point Times New Roman. Bold font should NOT be used for headings.
  • Formatting should be kept as simple as possible, with single line spacing and paragraph spacing (before and after) set to ‘0’. Indents should NOT be used.
  • Text should be fully justified. Tables and Figures should be sequentially numbered from ‘1’ (e.g. Table 1, Table 2; Figure 1, Figure 2 etc.) and centre justified. Each Table caption should be placed above the Table and each Figure caption placed below the Figure.
  • All Equations should be numbered sequentially from ‘(1)’. Equations should ideally be placed in a full-width 2-cell table with borders suppressed, with the mathematical expression centre-aligned within its cell and the Equation number right aligned within its cell (see example below – cell borders have been shown here for clarity). Equations are to be in an editable format and not “picture” formats that has been cut and pasted from another document as this significantly delays typesetting and raises the risk of errors being made in transcription.


Units, symbols and abbreviations

Units, symbols and abbreviations should conform to the recommendations contained in the Royal Society publication Quantities, Units and Symbols (1975).

Tables and Artwork

Tables

Tables, however small, must be numbered sequentially in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. Each Table caption should be placed above the Table.

Figures

All graphs, diagrams and other drawings should be referred to as ‘Figures’, which should be numbered with Arabic numerals, consecutively from ‘1’. 

Each figure should be accompanied by a single caption, to appear beneath, and must be cited in the text. Figures should appear in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text and figure files must be named accordingly to assist the production process (and numbering of figures should continue through any appendices). Failure to follow figure guidelines may result in a request for resupply and a subsequent delay in the production process.

For review purposes figures should be embedded within the manuscript. Upon final acceptance, however, individual figure files will be required for production.

Any Figures supplied in colour will automatically be published in colour online, but will be printed (hard-copy) in black and white unless accompanied by specific instructions to be printed in colour. There is a charge for hard-copy colour printing (In 2018, the cost was UK£200 + VAT per figure with a cap at UK£1000 + VAT per article). This charge will be invoiced directly to the author. Authors are reminded that it is their responsibility to ensure that figures supplied in colour are still meaningful when printed in black and white.

All Figures should be sized to final publication size (see the latest issue of The Journal for the page width) and ideally supplied in the recommended file formats. Following these guidelines will result in high-quality images being reproduced in both the print and the online versions of the journal. Recommended file formats are:

  • Line Artwork. Format: tif or eps. Colour mode: black and white. Resolution: 1200 dpi.
  • Combination Artwork (Line/Tone). Format: tif or eps. Colour mode: greyscale. Resolution: 800 dpi.
  • Colour or Black and White Halftone Artwork. Format: tif. Colour mode: CMYK colour or grayscale. Resolution: 300 dpi or higher.

For further information, please consult the Cambridge Journals artwork guide.

Footnotes

Footnotes may be used, but their use should be kept to a minimum.

Conclusions

A concise, self-contained ‘Conclusions’ section should outline the outcome of the paper, its perceived benefits to the wider community and any intentions for further research. The Abstract and Conclusions are of major importance as many busy readers look at these two sections first, to see if the main paper is worth reading. It is thus essential that Abstract and Conclusions do the paper full justice.

Acknowledgements 

Acknowledgements should be included at the end of the paper, before the References section or any appendicies. You may acknowledge individuals or organisations that provided advice, support (non-financial), but The Journal of Navigation should NOT be mentioned. 

Citations and References 

The reference system used in The Journal of Navigation is the Harvard style system. References are hyperlinked in the online version of the paper and so it is essential that they are formatted correctly, so that the hyperlinking may work properly.

Reference Citations in the Text. References should NOT be numbered. Reference citations in the text should give authors’ names (no initials) and date e.g., (Kemp, 1998), or (Steele and White, 1996) or for more than two authors (Cole et al., 2007). Specific pages should be added only in the case of direct quotations, e.g., (Kemp, 1998. P.29). Where the context demands it, the name(s) may be moved out of the brackets e.g., “…. Kemp (1999) states that …”.

Reference End List. References should NOT be numbered. The reference end-list should be in alphabetical order of family names of the first named author of each reference. Full details should be included, even if the list of authors is extensive in any particular reference. The reference formats should conform to the current Journal style, as in the following examples:

  • Example for The Journal of Navigation.

Rosenkrans, W. A. (1978). Aeronautical Charts. The Journal of Navigation, 31, 39–51.

  • Example for Other Journals.

Smart, W. M. (1946). On a Problem in Navigation. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 106, 124–127.

  • Example for Books.

Skolnik, M. I. (1976). Radar Systems. McGraw-Hill, Inc.

  • Example for Websites or Website Access.

Open Geospatial Consortium. (2011). OGC Making Location Count. http://www.opengeospatial.org. Accessed 12 January 2018.

  • Example for Proceedings.

Helwig, A. W. S., Offermans, G. W. A. and van Willigen, D. (1996). Implementation and Testing of Eurofix in Standard Loran-C Receiver Technology. Proceedings of the 25th Annual Technical Symposium of the International Loran Association, San Diego, CA.

Appendices

Appendices (lettered A., B., etc.) may be used for supporting information which is not appropriate for inclusion in the main text (i.e., descriptive or explanatory passages, supporting equations or proofs etc). Figure, Table and Equation numbering in Appendices should start again from 1, but be prefixed by the Appendix letter (e.g. A1., A2., etc.).

English language editing services 

Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This step is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the Editor and any reviewers.  

In order to help prospective authors to prepare for submission and to reach their publication goals, Cambridge University Press offers a range of high-quality manuscript preparation services – including language editing – delivered in partnership with American Journal Experts. You can find out more on our Language Services page.

Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge-published journal. 

Seeking permission for copyrighted material

If your article contains any material in which you do not own copyright, including figures, charts, tables, photographs or excerpts of text, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reuse that material. As the author it is your responsibility to obtain this permission and pay any related fees, and you will need to send us a copy of each permission statement at acceptance.

For information on how to obtain permission, please refer to this guidance document

Competing Interests

All authors must include a competing interest declaration in their main manuscript file. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article. 

Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations. 

If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors. 

Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author 1 is employed at organisation A, Author 2 is on the Board of company B and is a member of organisation C. Author 3 has received grants from company D.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”. 

Ethics and Transparency Policy requirements

Please refer to Journal of Navigation's Publishing Ethics and Research Transparency policies when preparing your manuscript.

Authorship and contributorship

All authors listed on any papers submitted to this journal must be in agreement that the authors listed would all be considered authors according to disciplinary norms, and that no authors who would reasonably be considered an author have been excluded. For further details on this journal’s authorship policy, please see this journal's publishing ethics policies.

During the submission process, the Corresponding Author must declare that they have the authority of all co-authors for the submission. The Corresponding Author will be asked this question when they submit the article for review.

Author affiliations

Author affiliations should represent the institution(s) at which the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved. For non-research content, any affiliations should represent the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated. 

For more information, please see our author affiliation policy and author affiliation FAQs.

ORCID

We encourage authors to identify themselves using ORCID when submitting a manuscript to this journal. ORCID provides a unique identifier for researchers and, through integration with key research workflows such as manuscript submission and grant applications, provides the following benefits:

  • Discoverability: ORCID increases the discoverability of your publications, by enabling smarter publisher systems and by helping readers to reliably find work that you have authored.
  • Convenience: As more organisations use ORCID, providing your iD or using it to register for services will automatically link activities to your ORCID record, and will enable you to share this information with other systems and platforms you use, saving you re-keying information multiple times.
  • Keeping track: Your ORCID record is a neat place to store and (if you choose) share validated information about your research activities and affiliations.

See our ORCID FAQs for more information. If you don’t already have an iD, you can create one by registering directly at https://ORCID.org/register.

ORCIDs can also be used if authors wish to communicate to readers up-to-date information about how they wish to be addressed or referred to (for example, they wish to include pronouns, additional titles, honorifics, name variations, etc.) alongside their published articles. We encourage authors to make use of the ORCID profile’s “Published Name” field for this purpose. This is entirely optional for authors who wish to communicate such information in connection with their article. Please note that this method is not currently recommended for author name changes: see Cambridge’s author name change policy if you want to change your name on an already published article. See our ORCID FAQs for more information. 

Supplementary materials

Material that is not essential to understanding or supporting a manuscript, but which may nonetheless be relevant or interesting to readers, may be submitted as supplementary material. Supplementary material will be published online alongside your article, but will not be published in the pages of the journal. Types of supplementary material may include, but are not limited to, appendices, additional tables or figures, datasets, videos, and sound files.

Supplementary materials will not be typeset or copyedited, so should be supplied exactly as they are to appear online. Please see our general guidance on supplementary materials for further information.

Where relevant we encourage authors to publish additional qualitative or quantitative research outputs in an appropriate repository, and cite these in manuscripts.

Author Hub

You can find guides for many aspects of publishing with Cambridge at Author Hub, our suite of resources for Cambridge authors.

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools

We acknowledge the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the research and writing processes. To ensure transparency, we expect any such use to be declared and described fully to readers, and to comply with our plagiarism policy and best practices regarding citation and acknowledgements. We do not consider artificial intelligence (AI) tools to meet the accountability requirements of authorship, and therefore generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and similar should not be listed as an author on any submitted content. 

In particular, any use of an AI tool: 

  • to generate images within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, and declared clearly in the image caption(s) 
  • to generate text within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, include appropriate and valid references and citations, and be declared in the manuscript’s Acknowledgements. 
  • to analyse or extract insights from data or other materials, for example through the use of text and data mining, should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, including details and appropriate citation of any dataset(s) or other material analysed in all relevant and appropriate areas of the manuscript 
  • must not present ideas, words, data, or other material produced by third parties without appropriate acknowledgement or permission 

Descriptions of AI processes used should include at minimum the version of the tool/algorithm used, where it can be accessed, any proprietary information relevant to the use of the tool/algorithm, any modifications of the tool made by the researchers (such as the addition of data to a tool’s public corpus), and the date(s) it was used for the purpose(s) described. Any relevant competing interests or potential bias arising as a consequence of the tool/algorithm’s use should be transparently declared and may be discussed in the article.