Paper Formatting Guidelines

All regular, short, and workshop paper submissions must follow the formatting guidelines presented on this page. The best way to produce a correctly formatted paper is by downloading one of the templates below and then inserting your text and images into that document. The templates also include important information about formatting. Papers must be submitted as PDF documents.

Microsoft Word and Other Word Processors

There are a number of word processors that could be used to create papers, with Microsoft Word being the most obvious. A high-quality free alternative is Apache OpenOffice. If you plan to use a word processor, please start by downloading the .docx or .odt template file below, and looking at the PDF that we generated from them. If your word processor generates comparable PDF output, then it should be a fine tool for writing your Bridges paper.

LaTeX

LaTeX is a standard document preparation system that is available for free on all platforms. It has a steeper learning curve, but it is considered the standard for scholarly writing in STEM fields. It is particularly good at typesetting mathematical notation and working with vector graphics (e.g., mathematical diagrams). If you want to use LaTeX, please start with the template files below, and compare the output against the provided PDF.

If you plan to use some other system, the PDFs linked above can still be used as a guide—they describe correct formatting for Bridges. If you have any suggestions for the templates offered here, feel free to contact us.

Guidelines for Author Lists

The single example in the Bridges template might not provide enough information depending on the number of authors in your submission, or the number of affiliations associated with them. We have prepared a supplementary PDF with additional examples; please compare your paper with this document to verify the formatting of your author list.

Guidelines for References

Bridges papers use a non-standard format for bibliographic entries. Our format is more compact than other bibliographic styles, leaving more room for your creative ideas within the page limits of papers. The files below provide model bibliographic entries for Artworks, Books, Chapters in Edited Volumes, Electronic Journals, Print Journals, Conference Proceedings, and Webpages. We provide LaTeX and Word source, to allow you to adapt these exemplars for your own references.

Formatting Checklist

Here is a summary of our formatting requirements in checklist form. Please use this list to double-check the formatting of your paper before you submit it. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page so you do not miss any items. Incorrect formatting may result in your paper being rejected without detailed review.

Size and Format
  • Submission is in PDF format.
  • File size must not exceed 10 MB.
  • Paper size is US Letter: 8.5 inches × 11 inches.
  • The number of pages is even, with no blank space on the last page.
  • Enlarge Figure images to use up extra space on every page.
Margins, Paragraphs, JUSTIFICATION
  • Margins are 1 inch on the top, bottom, and sides.
  • Abstract margins are inset .4 inches from the main margins.
  • The first paragraph of a section is not indented.
  • Subsequent paragraphs are indented .3 inches. 
  • There is a 4 pt line between paragraphs.
  • Paragraphs in the body of the paper should be justified to the left and right margins.
  • Abstracts are left and right justified to their indented margins.
  • References are left justified and ragged right.
Font
  • The only font for the entire paper is Times New Roman. This includes annotations on Figure images and text in Tables.
  • Title is 16 pt font, bold, capitalized, centered. On the first page leave a blank 16 pt line below the top margin before your title. All other pages begin at the top margin.
  • Author name(s) is 12 pt font and centered. There is a blank 12 pt line between the paper title and author name(s). Do not include professional titles or occupation.
  • Author information is 12 pt font and centered. There is a blank 12 pt line between author name(s) and author’s information. Listing an academic institution or company is optional. Include a location with city, (state), and country. Do not include street address or postal code. Email addresses are black text and not underlined.
  • Abstract is 9 pt font.
  • Section titles are 12 pt font, bold, capitalized, and centered.
  • Subsection titles are 11 pt font, bold, italicized, capitalized, and justified left.
  • Subsections are not required and often not needed, particularly for Short papers.
  • The main text and figure captions are 11 pt font.
  • References are 11 pt font. They may be 10 pt font to save space, but no smaller.
  • All mathematics symbols should be in math mode.
  • Use italics for emphasis in the body of the paper. The first time a word is defined it should be in italics. Subsequent use of that word should be plain text.
  • Do not use bold or underline for emphasis in the body of the paper. The only text that should be bold in the entire paper is the Title, Section Headings, SubSection Headings, and “Figure 1a:” in Figure captions.
Capitalization and Punctuation
  • In the Title and Section Headings, nouns, verbs, adjectives and other important words are capitalized while conjunctions (e.g., “and” / “or”) and prepositions (e.g., “of” / “with”) begin with a lower-case letter.
  • Check for rogue double spaces and backwards or straight quotes. All quotation marks should be curled; "don’t use straight quotes like these".
  • When quotation marks are used, punctuation is always located inside the end quote.
  • Use en-dashes for pages or other numerical ranges, such as 1–8, and em-dashes to set off text—like this—for emphasis. There should not be any space on either side of em-dashes.
  • Bridges format uses the Oxford (or serial) comma for lists.
  • Images should be high quality.
  • The proceedings will be produced in full color both online and in print.
  • Permission must be obtained for any copyrighted images or material, and attribution must be included. Anything published before 1923 is generally OK to copy in the US. If you take a graphic from the web, get the owner’s permission, and make sure the resolution is of good quality.
Figures and Tables
  • Every Figure has a caption. It’s a bold Figure<space>Number<nospace>: followed by an italicized Caption<period>.  It looks like this:
    Figure 5:  Description of figure here.
  • Figure captions are centered below the Figure.
  • Table captions are formatted like Figure captions but are centered above the Table.
  • Multiline captions are centered, or have full justification with the first line of the caption.
  • Captions should not be too long. If a Figure caption is longer than three lines it may include informations that should be moved to the body of the paper.
  • All Figures and Tables are referred to in the text and should appear on the same page or as close as possible to the first mention in the text.
  • When referring to a Figure or Table in the paper use Figure 1, Figure 1(a), or Table 1. The words Figure and Table should always be capitalized and never abbreviated.
References and footnotes
  • References are in alphabetical order by last name.
  • Please precisely follow the formatting of References in the Templates and Guidelines, particularly the formatting of Bridges Proceedings articles.
  • Authors are listed with first name initials followed by full last name. Full first names may be used if preferred and space is available.
  • Article titles should be in quotes, book and journal names are italics, publishers are plain text.
  • Article and book titles are properly capitalized, unless the original publication did not use a capitalized title.
  • Authors, title, and journal/publisher information is separated by periods.
  • When article titles are in quotes the period is inside the end quote.
  • For multi-line reference entries, subsequent lines should have a hanging indent.
  • Abstracts shall not refer to the references (nor to any figures, or footnotes for that matter).
  • All reference entries are cited in the text using the number from the Reference section, i.e. [1]. Multiple references cited together should be cited as [1][2]. Long lists of reference may use [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] if preferred.
  • Check that any URLs are correct and active. Live URL links should be blue text and not underlined.
  • Do not use include URLs or links in the body of the paper. These are References and should be included in the Reference section and cited as [#] in the body of the paper.
  • Most Bridges papers do not include footnotes and footnotes are generally discouraged. Important information that might be in a footnote probably belongs in the body of the paper. If the information is not very important it might not need to be included in the paper, even in a footnote.