National Weather Association Newsletter
Instructions for Authors

Overview

Articles may be submitted at any time. If an article is being targeted for a specific month, contact the technical editor (nwanewsletter@nwas.org) several months in advance.

The editors use AP Stylebook as the primary guide. Some of the specific formats used in NWA Newsletter articles are listed below.

The technical editor will review the article, and will work with the author to prepare it for publication if it is considered suitable.

Format

The article must be short and concise. Article text should be less than 1,000 words with no more than two figures (see figure requirements below). Authors should consider providing links to more information about a topic, or expanded articles, in the article.

There are no font type/size, margin, column or any document format requirements. These format items and the final placement of figures in the Newsletter are determined by the layout editor.

Images and Figures

Images and figures must meet each of the following guidelines.

  • Images and figures must be provided as a separate high resolution files (not embedded in another document). We recommend 300 dpi; lower resolution will be considered but may be rejected if there print quality is too low. Images and figures may be included in the article for review purposes, but the editors cannot extract them from the original article for publication.
  • The preferred formats are: .png, .tif, .eps, .psd, or high resolution .pdf or .jpg formats.
  • Provide no more than two figures and indicate which figure has priority in case there is room for only one in the Newsletter.
  • Include a short descriptive caption with each figure.

Newsletter Article Review Process

Submit articles with individual high-resolution image files to nwanewsletter@nwas.org.

Submitted articles will be reviewed in a priority order:

  1. Time-critical articles, such as local chapter updates and the President’s message,
  2. News articles, such as those about new instruments, and then
  3. Scientific articles, such as an in-depth case study.

Articles in each category will be edited in the order they were received.

The editor will check the resolution of any images submitted with the article along with the length of the text. If the images do not have the proper resolution or the article is too long, it will be sent back to the author or committee chairperson who submitted the article.

Guidelines

The following apply to the most common formats encountered in articles.

  • Units of Measure used in operational meteorology in the United States are recommended. Refer to the NWA National Weather Digest (Digest) instructions for authors for more information http://www.nwas.org/digest/instructions.php
  • Dates should follow AP style formats (Examples: September 20, 2011, September 2011).
  • Times may be written in local or UTC format. Include all four digits when using UTC times. (Examples: 0000 UTC; 7 p.m. EST; 3:45 a.m. CDT)
  • State names will be abbreviated in AP style format when they follow a city name. (Examples: Norman, Okla., Louisville, Ky.)
  • References will be formatted following the Digest guidelines http://www.nwas.org/digest/ref_instructions.php