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Authors

Publishing supplementary material

Many of our journals encourage authors to submit and publish supplementary materials that are not essential for inclusion or cannot be accommodated in the main article, but would be of benefit to the reader. Supplementary materials are hosted online with the main article, and can include data sets, video files, sound clips, figures or tables. The main text of the article should stand alone without the supplementary material.

Please consult your journal’s author instructions to find out whether they accept supplementary materials, and for any journal-specific requirements.

Preparation

Please ensure that each supplementary file is referenced at an appropriate point in the main text of the article.

Audio files

Audio files should be saved in one of the below formats:

  • Preferred formats: mp3, mp4
  • Acceptable formats: AAC, AIFF, WAV
Video files

Authors should follow these guidelines when preparing video files:

  • Preferred formats: mpg/mpeg, mp4, mov, mkv
  • Acceptable formats: wmv, avi
  • Minimum dimensions: 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels deep
  • Should be viewable in QuickTime or Windows Media Player
  • Include a title and pertinent copy for each video, preferably limited to 20 words
  • In the case of multiple video files, number them in the order in which they should be viewed
  • If associated with a figure, include a citation at the end of the figure caption explaining the video’s function, its file format, and that it is accessible at journals.cambridge.org
Other file types

In addition to the audio and video file types listed above, we can also accept the following file formats for supplementary materials:

  • pdf
  • doc/docx
  • xls/xlsx
  • ppt/pptx
  • jpeg
  • tiff
  • png
  • zip

Journals may also accept other file types that are common in their particular fields of research.

Submission

All supplementary materials must be submitted at the same time as your main article, so that they can be made available to peer reviewers. Files should be labelled in such a way that it is clear that they are supplemental to the main article, what they are and to which article they belong, e.g. [Corresponding author surname] supplementmovie1.mov.

Publication

Supplementary materials are not edited or typeset, and are published online with the full article in exactly the format supplied by the authors. If files are deemed unacceptable, the author will be responsible for rectifying the problem and supplying an acceptable file. Supplementary material will be hosted on a ‘supplementary material’ tab on the article page.For detailed instructions on securing permissions, please see here.