Formatting

Authors using Word for their manuscript should use the AMS Word Template for proper formatting, while LaTeX authors should use the AMS LaTeX template for proper formatting. Information on the various manuscript components is presented below. 

Order of Manuscript Components	Title Page Abstract Significance Statement Capsules (BAMS only) Body Text Tables Figures Acknowledgments (if any) Availability Statement Appendix (if any) References Submissions may also contain Supplemental Material (if any) that should be prepared and uploaded separately from the main manuscript content.
Length	Abstracts: 250 words. This conforms to ISO standards and the needs of abstracting services (MGA, etc.). Significance Statement (optional): Up to 120 words. Articles: Up to 7500 words, including the body text, acknowledgments, and appendixes. The word limit does not include the title page, abstract, significance statement, data availability statement, references, captions, tables, and figures. If a submission exceeds the word limit, the author must provide a justification for the length of the manuscript and request the Chief Editor’s approval of the overage. This request may be uploaded in a document with the "Cover Letter" item type or entered in the comment field in the submission system.
Margins	Margins must be approximately one inch (2.5cm).
Line Spacing	All text contained in the article body must have line spacing of 1.5, including the references. The Word and LaTeX manuscript templates that AMS provides already have these defined. Line spacing of 1.5 is equivalent to approximately 4 lines of text per inch. Figure and table captions can use single spacing to set them off from the article body text.
Paragraph Breaks	Paragraph breaks must be visually designated. Please either indent the first line of each new paragraph or insert an extra line space between the paragraphs (the extra line should leave at least 5/8 in. or 1.5 cm of white space).
Page, Line, and Section Numbering	All submissions must include line numbering. Pages must be numbered sequentially. Please see Body Text (below) for more details about section numbering.
Font	Black text. Sized 12 pt. font.
Acronyms and Abbreviations	See List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
AMS Style for Common Meteorological Terms	See AMS Style for Common Meteorological Terms
AMS Style for Geography and Oceanography Terms	See AMS Style for Geography and Oceanography Terms
Mathematical Formulas, Units, Time, Date	See Mathematical Formulas, Units, and Time and Date
Tables	All tables should have full captions. If needed, the preferred way to highlight table information is to use bold or italic font styles. Tables cannot contain shaded cells, underlining, color, or graphic elements. Footnotes can be used if additional information must be indicated. See Tables (below) for more guidance.

Manuscript Components

Title Page

The manuscript title, name and affiliation of each author, any current or additional affiliations, and corresponding author email need to appear on the first page in the manuscript file. The institution(s) where authors conducted the research should be listed as the main affiliation and any current or additional affiliations can be indicated with an additional footnote. For more information regarding author lists, please see Your Author List.

Abstract

A concise (≤ 250 words) abstract is required at the beginning of each article and, at the discretion of the chief editors, at the beginning of appropriate shorter contributions. Authors should summarize their conclusions and methods in the abstract. Footnotes, reference citations, and urls or hyperlinks are not permitted.

Please note the abstract text in the manuscript must match exactly the abstract text entered in the abstract field of the upload system. If the abstract text entered in the abstract field of the upload system does not match the abstract in the manuscript then the submission will be returned to the author for correction.

Significance Statement

An optional plain language summary suitable for wider readership that provides additional context for why the work is relevant to science and society. It should be concise (≤120 words), written in a single paragraph style, and authors should follow the guidelines for significance statements.

Capsule (for BAMS only)

Include in the text of the manuscript (before or after the abstract) a short (20-30 words maximum) capsule summary of your article. No capsule is required for Nowcast, In Box, or Meeting Summary manuscripts. The capsule summary may be placed underneath the title in the digital edition layout. It may also be the text used on the table of contents. It is not included in the online layout of the full article. The more detailed abstract is placed at the beginning of  the online layout of the full article.

Complete list of BAMS submission types and article components 

Body Text

The text should be divided into sections, each with a separate heading and numbered consecutively. The section/subsection headings should be typed on a separate line [e.g., 1. Introduction, a. Data, 1) RADIOSONDE, and (i) Experiment 1]. Sections in BAMS need not be numbered. See above for more information on Formatting.

Acknowledgments

The AMS requires that all topically relevant funding sources, including recipients and grant numbers, as well as conflicts of interest, are fully disclosed in the Acknowledgments of all submissions. Please omit the word “number” from grant or contract information.

Availability Statement

Authors are required to include an Availability Statement in its own section to inform the reader where the data and software associated with a paper are available, and how and under what conditions (if any) they can be accessed(please see the updated Data and Software Policy and Guidelines). Include a list of the repositories along with associated persistent digital object identifiers (DOIs), if applicable.

Appendix

Auxiliary analyses or tables whose details are subordinate to the main theme of the paper should normally appear in an appendix. Any tables or figures appearing in an appendix should be numbered with the letter prefix of the appendix (for example, Figure A1, Table A1, Table A2, etc.) and embedded with the full caption text within the appendix near the first citation of the element. An appendix must include paragraph text citing/describing each appendix table and/or appendix figure, even if it is also described in the body of the paper. Each appendix must have a title. Example:
APPENDIX A
Use of Model Data

References and Citations

References should be arranged alphabetically without numbering. The in-text citation should consist of the author's name and year of publication, [e.g., “according to Rossby (1945),” or “as shown by an earlier study (Rossby 1945)”]. When there are two or more papers by the same author in the same year, the distinguishing suffix (a, b, etc.) should be added.

Read more on References and Citations

Tables

The tables should be embedded in the body of the manuscript as close as possible to its first citation following a paragraph (we understand this placement may not always be possible for authors using LaTeX). Text wrapping should not be used. The caption must be visually distinguished from the body text, either with single-spaced caption text, with 10.5 pt. font size captions, or with an extra line break following the caption to separate it from the body text. Please use the same format for all table captions in the manuscript. Each table must be cited specifically in the text and in numerical order, and have a caption directly beneath the table. See above for more details about formatting tables.

Figures

• Each figure should be embedded in the body of the manuscript as close as possible to its first citation following a paragraph (we understand this placement may not always be possible for authors using LaTeX).
• Each figure must include a full caption directly beneath the figure. The caption must be visually distinguished from the body text, either with single-spaced caption text, with 10.5 pt. font size captions, or with an extra line break following the caption to separate it from the body text. Please use the same format for all figure captions in the manuscript.
• Text wrapping should not be used. 
• Each figure must be cited specifically in the text and in numerical order.
• Please note all figure source files for production are required at the revision stage. The print-quality original figure files must be uploaded in one of the accepted formats.
• Authors should submit one complete figure per figure file. Multiple-panel figures that will appear on a single page should be combined into a single file whenever possible. 
• Figures should be prepared according to the guidelines specified on Figure Information for Authors. Please be sure to consider accessibility needs when selecting color palettes as described in the Color Mode section.
• Technical editors may resize the figures for layout purposes.
• It is the policy of the AMS Publications Commission that the use of color in figures during peer review must match the color or black and white format that will appear in print.
• Note that BAMS encourages the use of color by authors and does not levy additional charges for color figures.

For additional information regarding which item type to select when uploading your figure source files, please refer to the list of item types.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental Material is online only and should be separate from the main manuscript. The definition, review process, and full submission instructions for supplemental content are provided on Supplemental Material.

The “Supplemental Material” item type should be used for all supplementary files. Supplemental content is not processed in the same way as the main manuscript, and source files are not required. Formatting requirements also do not apply. Authors should upload their supplemental content exactly as they intend it to appear for final publication online.

For BAMS only: The above description of Supplemental Material applies to papers where the first full manuscript was submitted on or after 1 January 2022. For papers where the first full manuscript was submitted on or before 31 December 2021, additional requirements apply. Please see Supplemental Material for full details.

Keywords

The corresponding author will select between three and six keywords from a predefined classification taxonomy in Editorial Manager during the submission process. Keywords should not be included in the main manuscript file(s) and will be ignored if included within submission files. For additional information and a preview of the taxonomy that will be available for selection, see Keywords.