Home
Journal
Agreements
Title
Author(s)
Correspond
Reviewers


Submit
Information for Contributors
General Requirements:
Complete all required forms on WriteTrack™, AIAA's Web-based manuscript submittal and tracking system. The AIAA has prior publication rights to any paper presented at its meetings, but papers will be considered for publication only if the author formally submits them. All manuscripts must be as brief and concise as proper presentation of the ideas will allow. Manuscripts must be in English.
Full-Length Papers:
Full-Length Papers contain original, quantitative, detailed technical material, set into perspective relative to prior work and supported by literature references and specific technical accomplishments. A typical Full-Length Paper will be approximately 10,000-12,000 words (including equations), where each normal-sized, single-column figure or table counts as 200 words. All manuscripts are expected to be as concise as possible. Abstract: Each Full-Length Paper must include a 100- to 200-word abstract, written as a single paragraph. It should be a summary (not an introduction!) and complete in itself (no numerical references). Acronyms and abbreviations are not permitted. The abstract should indicate the subjects dealt with in the paper and should state the objectives of the investigation. Newly observed facts and conclusions of the experiment or argument discussed in the paper must be stated in summary form. Readers should not have to read the paper to understand the abstract. Neither the abstract nor the conclusions (see below) should contain equations, symbols, acronyms, or discussions of proposed future research. Nomenclature: A nomenclature section is required for papers containing more than a few symbols; nomenclature definitions then should not appear in the text. Introduction: The paper also must include an Introduction-a brief assessment of prior work by others and an explanation of how the paper contributes to the field. Conclusions: The Conclusions should stand alone without either references or referrals to the main text for more details. They must be logically drawn from the text but not be just a summary of the paper.
Technical (or Engineering) Notes, Readers' Forum, and Technical Comments:
Short manuscripts may qualify for publication in one of these categories. Notes, not to exceed 2500 words, are intended for prompt disclosure of new, significant data or developments of limited scope; they do not have abstracts but do contain introductions and descriptions of results. Readers' Forum items are brief discussions (approximately 1200 words) of previous investigations, and Comments should relate to papers previously published by AIAA; they must not exceed 1200 words. Manuscripts submitted in these categories often are reviewed only by an editor and usually are published sooner than a Full-Length Paper.
Titles and Authors' Names:
The title should be concise (maximum of 12 words), without the use of acronyms or abbreviations. The author's name should appear below the title; the full name is preferred. The affiliation should follow on the next line, with the author's official title and complete mailing address (including ZIP code) given in a footnote. This applies to all categories of papers.
Mathematics:
Be sure to use correct symbols, including Greek characters. Subscripts and superscripts must be readily apparent. To save space, the solidus (/) must be used for fractions in the text and for simple fractions in displayed equations.
References:
References must be limited to readily accessible documents; i.e., those available from libraries, databases, or other public sources. They are to be numbered in the order in which they are cited (not listed alphabetically) and grouped at the end of the manuscript in the following form:
  1. Journals: Walker, R. E., Stone, A. R., and Shandor, M., "Secondary Gas Injection in a Conical Rocket Nozzle," AIAA Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1963, pp. 334-338.
  2. Books: Turner, M. J., Martin, H. C., and Leible, R. C., "Further Development and Appli-cations of Stiffness Method," Matrix Methods of Structural Analysis, 1st ed., Vol. 1, Wiley, New York, 1963, pp. 6-10.
  3. AIAA Book Series: Sutton, K., "Air Radiation Revisited," Thermal Design of Aeroassisted Orbital Transfer Vehicles, edited by H. F. Nelson, Vol. 96, Progress in Astronautics and Aero-nautics, AIAA, New York, 1985, pp. 419-441.
  4. Reports: Book, E., and Bratman, H., "Using Compilers to Build Compilers," Systems De-velopment Corp., SP-176, Santa Monica, CA, Aug. 1960.
  5. Transactions/Proceedings: Soo, S. L., "Boundary-Layer Motion of a Gas-Solid Suspen-sion," Proceedings of the Symposium on Interaction Between Fluids and Particles, Vol. 1, Inst. of Chemical Engineers, New York, 1962, pp. 50-63.
  6. AIAA Meeting Papers: Bhutta, V. A., and Lewis, C. H., "Aerothermodynamic Perform-ance of 3-D and Bent-Nose RVs Under Hypersonic Conditions," AIAA Paper 90-3068, Aug. 1990.
Classified or export-restricted references, personal/private communications, and personal Web sites are not permitted. Give inclusive page numbers for references to journal articles and a page or chapter for books. Cite references in numerical order in the text.
Illustrations:
Line drawings must be clear and sharp. Use black ink on white background. Make sure that all lines and graph points are dark and distinct. Lettering should be large enough to be legible. Keep the lettering size and style uniform both within each figure and throughout all of your illustrations. Place captions beneath each figure, and position the figures within the text, close to where they are cited. Cite each figure in numerical order in the text. Submit artwork in either EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) or TIF format; PowerPoint and GIF are not acceptable. Note: Color photographs may be published if the Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editor deems the use of color necessary for the sake of clarity. The author's employer must pay the full in-cremental costs of color publication (minimum of $1200 for production costs, plus $75 per photograph for color separations; actual costs may vary).
Tables:
Position a double rule at the top and bottom of each table and a single rule under the col-umn headings. Table footnotes should be placed under the final double rule and should be in-dicated by letters, a, b, c, etc. Do not number table footnotes consecutively with text references. Each table must have a number and a caption. Place tables within the text, and cite each table in numerical order in the text.
Symbols and Units:
Use standard symbols whenever possible, preferably those recommended by the American Standards Association. Metric or dual systems of units (metric and English) should be used, whenever possible, in accordance with an endorsement by the AIAA Board of Directors. Such use is mandatory only for AIAA Journal and Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, but all authors are urged to comply. For information on the International System of Units, see NAS 10001, which is the aerospace version of fundamental SI units, found in documents such as the following: NASA SP-7012, ASTM E 380-76, or IEEE Std 322 1971.
Numerical Accuracy:
The AIAA journals will not accept for publication any paper reporting (1) numerical solu-tions of an engineering problem that fails adequately to address accuracy of the computed re-sults or (2) experimental results unless the accuracy of the data is adequately presented.