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Dear readers of FORMA,
As is announced before the style of publishing FORMA has changed from Volume 20 (2005), so that it will be published as a WEB journal instead of printing on paper. An advantage of WEB journal is that it can present color figures and animations without extra charges. In order to appeal this advantage we have modified the contents page, i.e. it provides a convenience to see quickly attractive figures of each paper. In this issue we have no color figures or animations. They will come out in the future issues. Readers are asked to utilize this advantage by submitting articles.
The scope and policy of FORMA are not changed except for additions of new categories of contribution. One is "letter paper" for rapid reports of researches. The letter papers should be submitted as attached Word documents addressed to the editor-in-chief or one of editors. It will be transfered quickly to all editors and quick comments on the paper, mainly based on the first impression, are asked to send to the editor-in-chief.The editor-in-chief decides acceptance (or not) according to these comments. Until now we have three submissions of letter papers. The reviewing of these papers have been processed in very good way. Each of them had responces from several editors quickly (within one week) , many of whom are engaged in research fields far from the topics of the submitted papers. This is a very good sign for future development of FORMA, because many editors understand that it is an interdisciplinary journal and are ready to
cooperate. It is hoped that this tendency continues in future.
Another category is "art column", which is aimed at introduction of artworks and essays on artworks, which however, should include scientific contents in some sense. This contribution is also reviewed by a referee and/or an editor. Articles of this category will appear in coming issues.
FORMA will be improved further in the future with helps of readers and editors. Please do not mind to send comments and suggestions on any problem to editorial members. They are also encouraged to submit papers or other type of contribution.
Shoichi Kai
Editor-in-chief of FORMA
FORMA seeks to publish original works, reviews, letter papers and forum articles, which are accomplished in any scientific field through investigation of "Forms", and to provide a place on WEB for discussion of common problems. This Journal has a unique status in a sense that it accepts papers from all fields only if they are concerned with "Forms", and that it supports pioneering works even if they are not complete for other conventional journals. Articles concerned to artworks or design works are also accepted if they include good scientific discussions.
Its scope covers various topics, such as
Editors:
Y. COLLAN (Medicine, Finland) yrjo.collan@utu.fi
Y. FUKUI (Anatomy, Japan) fukui@basic.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp
Y. FURUKAWA (Crystal physics, Japan) frkw@orange.lowtem.hokudai.ac.jp
T. HIRATA (Physics, Japan) d970062@icpc00.icpc.fukui-u.ac.jp
S. IWATA (Material science, Japan) iwata@race.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Y. KISHINO (Civil engineering, Japan) kishino@civil.tohoku.ac.jp
H. KITAOKA (Medicine, Japan) kitaoka@btctr.kobe-u.ac.jp
Y. MASUDA (KITAMURA) (Anatomy, Japan) yayoi@rehab.go.jp
T. MATSUDA (Cosmic physics, Japan) tmatsuda@kobe-u.ac.jp
M. MATSUSHITA (Physics, Japan) matusita@phys.chuo-u.ac.jp
S. MIYAZIMA (Physics, Japan) miyazima@isc.chubu.ac.jp
K. MIYAZAKI (Geometry, Japan) miyazaki@hyper.mbox.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp
M. NAKAGAWA (Civil engineering, USA) mnakagaw@mines.edu
V. NANJUNDIAH (Biology, India) vidya@ces.iisc.ernet.in
K. NISHIGAKI (Biophysics, Japan) koichi@fms.saitama-u.ac.jp
T. OGAWA (Physics, Japan) ogawa-t@koalanet.ne.jp
O. SANO (Physics, Japan) sano@cc.tuat.ac.jp
Y. SHIKATA (Mathematics, Japan) shikat@ccmfs.meijo-u.ac.jp
T. SEKIMURA (Biophysics, Japan) sekimura@isc.chubu.ac.jp
H. SHIMIZU (Pathology, Japan) hshimizu@shonankamakura.or.jp
Y. SHIMIZU (Geophysics, Japan) yuuki@cc.gifu-u.ac.jp
P. STROEVEN (Material science, Netherland) p.stroeven@ct.tudelft.nl
H. TAKADA (Mathematics, Japan) mla11359@nifty.com
M. TANEMURA (Statistical geometry, Japan) tanemura@ism.ac.jp
E. TOKUNAGA (Geomorphology, Japan) tokusan@tamacc.chuo-u.ac.jp
J. TORIWAKI (Informatics, Japan) jtoriwak@sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp
G. T. TOUSSAINT (Computer science, Canada) godfried@cs.mcgill.ca
Y. WATANABE (Crystallography, Japan) watanabe@cn.thu.ac.jp
K. YOSHIKAWA (Chemistry, Japan) yoshikaw@scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Honorary Editors:
1. FORMA accepts any qualified article, irrespective of the field, the topic and the method of research, if it is motivated by a general interest in "Form" and if enough care is paid so that it can be understood by readers from other fields. The Journal accepts the followings:
Papers exceeding the above page limits will be accepted if editorial board admitted its nessecity.
2. Manuscripts are written in English and prepared according to the designated house style (see STYLE MANUAL in the next page). The most welcome way of submission is to send an email to Editor-in-Chief or to one of Editors with a manuscript as an attached WORD document. If the manuscript includes hard-copy figures, they can be sent by post mail separately. Heavy digital figures are also sent included in CD (or hard copies are sent in the first submission).
3. Written informed consent should be obtained in studying human bodies or human natures from those who are concerned. Care of experimental animals should be in accordance with institutional and/or licensing committee approving the experiments. The consent and/or approval should be noted clearly in the submitted manuscript.
4. Reproductions of figures or sentences from other articles should be made with admittances of the authors of the original articles and the copyright holders (if they are different from the authors). Original articles should be referred clearly in the submitted manuscript.
5. Manuscripts are reviewed by one of editors and a referee appointed by the Editor-in-chief, a Regional Editor or an Associated Editor. Note that correction of manuscripts may be required after accepted, so that they match the style of FORMA and they are understandable enough for readers from other fields. Letters of acceptance will be sent from the editor-in-chief.
6. The author(s) corrects the first proof. The second proof is corrected by Editors and/or Publishing company.
7. A charge for submission is not required. Color figures are accepted without extra charge, if they are not too heavy.
8. The copyrights of articles (incl. network distribution) are owned by The Society for Science on Form, Japan. However, contributors keep other rights, such as patent right and right to use article for their own work. In articles discussing on artworks and design works the copyrights of the works can remain in the authors' sides. In such cases short notes are required to be added in figure captions, such as "Copyright of this artwork belongs to (Name)".
9. The Journal is published on WEB with URL: http://www.scipress.org/journals/forma/index.html PDF files of accepted papers are sent to the first authors.
10. (INSTRUCTIONS FOR EDITING SPECIAL ISSUES)
1. It is recommended to write a manuscript as a WORD document with page setting of 45 lines/page, and 80 characters/line. Thus one page includes about 500 words and matches approximately to the printed page of FORMA. In this way the number of printed pages is easily guessed. In the case of printed manuscript it should be typed on one side of white paper, of 21 × 30 cm or similar size.
2. The first page should include
3. Heading for each section should be typed from the left margin with the same character size and typeface as in the main text , e.g. "1. Introduction". Put two blank lines above each heading and one blank line below it.
4. References should be cited in the text in the following way:
5. Jpeg data or Gif data of figures are welcome. Figures should be inserted into appropriate places in the text. Note that the page layout will be changed in the editor's side. Tables may be typed as a part of the main text. Below each figure put a figure caption with heading, e.g. "Fig. 1. ...." Above each table its number and illustration should be given, e.g. "Table 2. ...."
6. In the main text, sections, equations, figures, plates and tables should be referred to as
"Sec. 2", "Eq. (1)", "Eqs. (3) and (2. 3)", "Fig. 2", "Figs. 4 and 5", "Plate 3", "Table 3", etc."
7. Leave one blank line above and below each mathematical expression. Give equation number (if necessary) in parentheses at the right end. Symbols expressing quantities should be italic, but functions (sin, exp, log, etc.) are upright. Avoid piling up fractions and suffices (or superfices). Try to simplify mathematical expressions. Complicated mathematical procedures should be shifted to Appendix.
K. BABA (Medicine, Japan) The former editor-in-chief
S.J.G. GUNDERSEN (Stereology, Denmark) stereo@svfcd.aau.dk
V. HOWARD (Medicine, UK)
S. ISHIZAKA (Biophysics, Japan) The first president of the Society
A. MACKAY (Crystallography, UK) a.mackay@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk
R.E. MILES (Statistical geometry, Australia) fgh@netspeed.com.au
T. TAKAHASHI (Medicine, Japan)
C. TASKA (Medicine, Romania)
phone: +81-3-37187500 fax: +81-3-37184406 Email:
forma@terrapub.co.jp
REVIEW (32 printed pages or less) : by free submission and recommendation
ORIGINAL PAPER (16 printed pages or less) : editing policy is the same as ever
LETTER (8 printed pages or less) : fast review and fast publishing
ART COLUMN (16 printed pages or less) : presentations of artworks or essays on artworks
FORUM (4 printed pages or less) : essays, proposals, comments on future trend, etc. by free submission and recommendation
ART GALLERY (a few pages including one page with explanation) : art works created with a scientific mind or by applying science
Special issues with particular topics are sometimes published (see next page for Instructions).
Manuscripts printed on paper sheets are also accepted. In this case CD or floppy disk of the manuscript are asked to send to the publishing company after acceptance.
Editor can propose to edit a special issue with a particular topic. An informal document of proposal should be sent to Editor-in-chief including title of the issue, editor(s) of the issue, tentative list of contributors with titles of articles. Four articles or more are expected for one special issue. Collected articles should be reviewed by the editor(s) of the issue or by referees appointed by the editor(s). Do not forget to record the dates of receipt and acceptance. A preface of 1-2 pages is expected to be written by the editor(s). Letters of acceptance are sent from Editor-in-chief.
Re-publishing of the contents of a special issue as a monograph is possible after negotiation with the Editorial Board.
Category: "original paper", "review", "letter", or "forum" at the top right of the page.
Title: First letters of words, except prepositions or conjunctions, are capitalized. If title is longer than 40 characters, give a short running head.
Author(s): Family name is all capitalized.
Affiliation(s): Short, but enough for postal address. Add Email address.
Keywords: No more than 5.
Abstract: Fewer than 150 words for original paper and review, fewer than 100 words for letter.
Footnotes: If necessary.
Sub-heading should be Italic, e.g. "2.1. Basic assumptions". Put one blank line above sub-heading and no blank line below it.
"According to TODA (1981), ...", "... is studied (ELIAS et al.,1971a; BABA, 1980)".
Give a list of references at the end of text in alphabetical order of last names, as follows:
"BABA, K., MIYAMOTO, K. and KIMURA, K. (1981a) [Title of paper], FORMA, 2, 305—315."
"KENDALL, D. G. (1974) [Title of paper], in [Title of Books or Proceedings], (ed. E. F. Harding and D. G. Kendall) Griffin, London, pp. 105—107."
"ROSENFELD, A. (1976) [Title of Book], 2nd Ed., Academic Press, NY, pp. 69—83."
For a printed manuscript figures are drawn on separate sheets, and write figure (plate) number and name(s) of author(s) at the bottom of each figure (plate). Add list of figure captions at the end of text on a separate page. Locations of figures should be indicated at the right margin of the main text, e.g. [Fig.1]
Avoid these abbreviations at the beginning of sentences.