Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy

Guidelines for Authors for the Preparation of Papers for  Conference Proceedings or the SAIMM Journal

 

K C. Sole,^1* J van Deventer² and D Groot³

 

¹ Consulting Hydrometallurgist, Johannesburg, South Africa

² Purolite, Johannesburg, South Africa

³ Namibia University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, South Africa

 

 

The conference proceedings comprise papers from the conference that are published electronically and distributed to delegates who attend the event. Printed copies are available on order. The papers are made available free of charge on the SAIMM website three months after the event. This document sets out the requirements for preparing and submitting manuscripts for publication in the conference proceedings or the SAIMM Journal. To achieve a technical publication with a consistent and professional appearance, it is essential that all manuscripts conform to these instructions. This document itself serves as an example of a properly prepared manuscript.

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Manuscripts should not exceed 12 pages in length, including text, figures, tables and references. Electronic files should not exceed 6 Mb. Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of all information contained in their manuscripts (e.g., proper names of organizations, data and findings, references, etc.). Manuscripts must be prepared in South African (U.K.) English. SI units or acceptable metric equivalents must be used throughout.

 

Because of the tight deadlines for review and publication, please follow these instructions carefully and assist us in producing high-quality proceedings for this conference or SAIMM Journal.

 

 

GENERAL STANDARDS FOR PUBLICATION

 

To merit consideration for publication, a paper should conform to the high standards that have been established by the SAIMM over many years. The paper should contain material on research and scientific items that is new, with interpretations that are novel or of new significance and conclusions that cast a fresh light on old ideas. The paper could incorporate developments that would be of interest to technical people and be of economic benefit to the industry, including plant or process innovations and improvements, as well as new projects. The paper should not be a repetition of well-known practices or concepts, although well-prepared and original review papers will be considered for publication.

 

All papers, no matter how technical the subject, should be written with the average professional reader in mind. There should be sufficient background to enable the implications of the work to be readily understood. The amount of text-book material should therefore be kept to the minimum essential to the argument. The length of a paper is not the criterion of its worth and all submissions should be as brief and concise as possible. Although references to the names of new products, processes and services are not restricted, it is SAIMM's policy to not allow editorial matter to be used for blatant advertising purposes.

 

 

Permission to publish and COPYRIGHT

 

Authors are required to sign the Permission to Publish agreement in which the first publication rights for a contribution to be published by the SAIMM are strictly reserved by the Institute. Reproduction of material for non-commercial purposes is permitted, and indeed encouraged, provided that the source is fully acknowledged.

 

The author is the owner of the copyright in the contribution..

 

 

SUBMISSION OF CONTRIBUTIONS

 

Papers should adhere to the format prescribed in this document to ensure that they are forwarded to the review process. Papers will be reviewed by two referees who will recommend acceptance, provisional acceptance with revision, or rejection. As necessary, the referees’ comments and suggestions will be sent to the principal author so that the paper can be revised. After revision, papers are checked to ensure that all recommended changes have been carried out to the satisfaction of the referees and the SAIMM Publications Committee. The SAIMM reserves the right to professionally edit the accepted paper prior to publication to conform to the Conference style and format.

 

Authors are urged to have a colleague check their paper for clarity of presentation and typographical errors before submission. For authors whose first language is not English, we recommend the use of a professional technical editing service, such as Edanz (edanzediting.com), prior to submission.

 

Selected outstanding papers will be invited for publication in the Journal of the SAIMM following the conference.

 

To submit a paper, the Author shall first register as an Author on the SAIMM’s https://ocs.saimmevents.co.za (OCS). Once registered, the Author will be able to submit the paper (in MSWord format) on the online conference system OCS. In the event of a problem with registering on the OJS, the corresponding author shall contact the conference publications coordinator, Ms Nazli Mamdoo, at nazli@saimm.co.za

 

PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

 

All text should be in 10 pt Book Antiqua, using single spacing and full justification. First paragraph not indented paragraphs thereafter should be indented 5mm.  Individual sections should also be separated by a single line.

 

Layout and style

 

Your paper must be prepared for A4 paper size (210 x 297 mm). Use the margin settings specified in Table 1. The abstract should be indented 35 mm from the margins on left and right (indents of 15 mm from set margins on left and right).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

	Table 1. Manuscript margins
Paper Margins		Size (mm)
Top		30
Bottom		30
Left		25
Right		25

Title and Abstract

 

The paper title should be centred on the first page in bold 16 point Book Antiqua. The title is followed by two blank lines.

 

The author names are listed on the next line, centred, in bold Book Antiqua (10 point) and separated by a single 10 point blank line.

 

The author affiliations appear below the author names. If the paper is submitted by more than one institution, then each author affiliation should be numbered in superscript at the end of their last name (e.g., K.C. Sole¹) and the number should reference the affiliation which should be listed directly below the author names, centred and single spaced, in Book Antiqua and numbered as per the author names.

 

The abstract, not to exceed 250 words in length, in Book Antiqua 10 point, fully justified, is separated from the title by two blank lines and indented by a further 10 mm on each side and shall cover the principal aims and scope of the work: a brief background and reason for the study, the experimental procedure, main results, and summary of findings. The abstract shall not contain abbreviations or references. Provide a list of about six keywords.

 

Body of the Paper

 

The body of the paper begins with the major heading INTRODUCTION, left- justified, in sentence case, in bold Book Antiqua. Different sections of the main text are laid out in accordance with the Headings guidelines below.

 

Headings

 

Sections shall not be numbered and shall be kept to a maximum of three levels:

 

First level headings are bold

Second level headings are bold italic

Third level headings are italicized

 

Only the first letter of headings is capitalized.

 

Text

 

Text paragraphs are single-spaced and fully justified. Paragraphs are separated by a blank line.

 

Equations and Symbols

 

Equations are placed on separate lines, indented from the left margin by 10 mm and numbered consecutively in square brackets at 10 mm from the right-hand margin. A blank line precedes and follows each equation. For reactions, preferably use the Book Antiqua (normal text) arrow (Equation 1). Use the correct symbol for minus signs (Alt + 8722) (not a hyphen). Symbols in formulas should be set in italics. Equations should be separated by a blank line.

 

ZnS + 3/2O2 → ZnO + SO2                                                                                                                          [1]

 

E = 1.23 – 0.06 pH                                                                                                                          [2]

 

E = mc² [3]

 

Simple mathematical expressions and sub- and super-scripted characters, such as SO4²⁻, are inserted in the text. Do not embed equations as images.

 

The nomenclature and units for symbols must be defined in the text or, where the number of symbols is large, in a special section, NOMENCLATURE, at the end of the paper.

 

Figures

 

All illustrations (including line diagrams, maps, charts and graphs) should be of good quality for full-scale reproduction, whether in black and white or colour. All the lettering and lines should be of consistent density. Any greyscale figures require sharp contrast.

 

Lines and lettering must be large enough (minimum 0.35 point thickness) to remain clearly legible when printed. For maps, microstructures and similar figures, be sure to place a scale marker on the picture or photograph. Do not use frames around figures or shaded backgrounds.

 

Figures should be inserted in the text as close as possible after the first citation of the figure, centred on the page, separated by one blank line above and below the figure. Figures should be labelled using Arabic numerals and the legend given in italics below the figure (see Figure 1). Illustrations should be referred to as Figure 1 and not Fig. 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1. Zinc adsorption isotherms for Lewatit VP OC 1026 and Purolite S950,
indicating maximum loading capacity of each resin and Langmuir isotherms.

 

To ensure integrity of the figures and avoid them moving within the document during the editing and reproduction process, please insert all figures using the commands: Size and Position/Text Wrapping/In line with text.

Do not insert active Excel charts: use the Copy-Paste Special-Picture sequence.

 

A figure too wide to fit between the margins may be placed in landscape orientation (sideways format), on a page by itself, with the bottom of the figure to the right of the page.

 

High-resolution (300 dpi) photographs and micrographs should be inserted as TIFF, EPS or JPEG files. These can significantly increase the size of the electronic file and complicate the editing process. Please make every effort to reduce the size of the electronic files of your photomicrographs and other graphics. To minimize your file size, add photos and photomicrographs using the Insert-Picture function.

Tables

 

Insert tables as close as possible to their first citation. In the text, refer to a table by its number, not its relative position. Tables should be the full width of the page. Avoid horizontal lines where possible. Tables shall be numbered in Roman numerals, e.g., Table I, Table II, and have a short caption (heading). There is no punctuation at the end of a caption. The left column of a table should be left-justified. Other columns are typically centre-justified, depending on the content. Decimal points should be aligned in a column. Only the first word of a column or row heading should be capitalized. See Table II for an example.

 

Table II

Resin loading capacities determined from Langmuir parameters

 

Resin	pH range	qsat (g Zn/g resin)	qsat (g Zn/L resin)
Lewatit VP OC 1026*	2.7 – 3.1	0.017	16.8
Purolite S950	3.7 – 4.2	0.005	5.7

 

 

*for multiplication or the carat ^ to that indicate that superscripts follow

 

REFERENCES

 

The Harvard method of referencing is employed (also known as the Name-date method).

 

Citations in the text

 

Single author: author's name (without initials, unless there is more than one author with the same name and year of publication) and the year of publication

Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication

Three of more authors: first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication

For more than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year, use 'a', 'b', 'c', etc. after the year of publication

Citations may be made directly or in parentheses. Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically

 

Examples: '…as demonstrated (Jones, 2019, 2020a, 2020b; Jones and Kramer, 2015). Kramer et al. (2017) showed that...'

ONIFADE, M. and GENC, B. 2018a. Prediction of the spontaneous combustion liability of coals and coal-shales using statistical analysis. Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, vol. 118, no. 8. pp. 779–808.

List of references

 

References should be arranged alphabetically by first author, citing all authors (not ‘… et al.’) and then further sorted in ascending order of year, if necessary. For multiple authors with the same first author, arrange alphabetically by second author. The n-dash (Alt+0150 (–)), not the hyphen (-), should be used to indicate page ranges.

 

Article in a journal

 

Bezuidenhout, G.A., Eksteen, J.J. and Bradshaw, S.M. (2009). Computational fluid dynamic modeling of an electric arc furnace used in the smelting of PGM containing concentrates. Minerals Engineering, 22 (11), 995–1006.

 

Book

 

Wills, B.A. and Napier-Munn, T. (2006). Wills’ Mineral Processing Technology: An Introduction to Practical Aspects of Ore Treatment and Mineral Recovery, 7^th edn. Butterworth−Heinemann, Amsterdam.

Chapter in an edited book

 

Mills, K.C. (1986). Estimation of physicochemical properties of coal slags. Mineral Matter and Ash in Coal . Vorres, K.S. (ed.). ACS Symposium Series 301. American Chemical Society. Washington DC. pp. 195–214.

Paper published in a conference proceedings

 

Urquart, R.C., Rennie, M.S. and Rabey, C.C. (1976). The smelting of copper-nickel concentrates in an electric furnace. Proceedings of Extractive Metallurgy of Copper: Vol. 1. Pyrometallurgy and Electrolytic Refining. Yannopoulos, J.C. and Agarwal, J.C. (eds.). The Metallurgical Society of AIME, Warrendale, Pennsylvania. pp. 275–295.

 

Nell, J. (2004). Melting of platinum group metals concentrates in South Africa. Proceedings of the VII International Conference on Molten Slags, Fluxes and Salt. The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Johannesburg. pp. 165–170.

 

The date may be repeated if  it  forms  part  of  the  proceedings  title or subtitle. If proceedings were edited, give editor(s) name(s) and initials as for a chapter in a book.  If proceedings were not published, omit publisher, place of publication, page numbers. States in the USA should be abbreviated using the two-letter postal code e.g., MA for Massachusetts.

 

Report

 

Tarrant, G. (2001). Assessment of support requirements associated longwall reorientation. Report No. MET2431. Strata Control Technology, Wollongong, NSW, Australia. 30 pp.

 

Serbousek, M.O. and Signer, S.P. (1987). Linear load-transfer mechanics of fully grouted roof bolts. Report of Investigations No. 9135.US Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, PA.

 

If no authors are identified, the organization issuing the report is regarded as the author.

 

Thesis

 

Forsbacka, L. (2007). Experimental study and modelling of viscosity of chromium containing slags. PhD Thesis, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.

 

Patent

 

Arvidson, B. and Zhu, D. (2007). Outotec Oyj. Methods of separating feed materials using a magnetic roll separator. US Patent, No. 7296687.

 

State name of inventor followed by assignee if different from author. The issuing country may be abbreviated according to the list of country codes in Chemical Abstracts.

 

Newspaper Report

 

Paul, S. (2012). Rio Tinto’s Australian trains go driverless. Star Business Report. 21 Feb. p. 22.

 

If no author is given, use the publication’s name.

 

Acts of Parliament and Other Government Documents

 

South Africa (2008). Mineral and Petroleum Resources Royalty Act of 2008, Government Gazette, vol. 351, no. 31636, 24 Nov. 2008, as amended.

 

Internet References

 

These should be given as for the various types of publication above, with the URL and date of access appended. URLs should be cited in full, including the protocol (http, https, ftp, etc.). Ideally the address should be on a single line but break at a forward slash if necessary. No full stop or other punctuation to follow URL. Date of access is important; URLs have a kind of ‘half-life’. If the DOI is available it can be cited before the URL, thus: DOI: 10.1038/nature10749.

 

Anglia Russkin University. (2011). Guide to the Harvard style of referencing. http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm [accessed 23 Feb. 2012].

 

Unpublished Results and Personal Communications

 

These should be avoided where at all possible. Citation of a reference as 'In press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

 

Presenting Author CV

Author cv to be placed after references, this should include a professional head and shoulder  high resolution jpeg photo of the author.

 

The following information is required: Full Name, Company, Designation, Qualifications, Contact Details, Short Professional biography no more than 100 words

 

WRITING STYLE GUIDELINES

 

Spelling

Spelling Standards

Spelling should conform to standard South African (American) English. Refer to a dictionary to determine whether compound words (two words that describe one item) are written as two separate words, hyphenated, or one unbroken word. For compound words that do not appear in the dictionary, use a hyphen if the term can be misread or it expresses a single thought (e.g., iron‐ore deposit, open‐pit mine).

 

Capitalization

Capitalize names of university departments only if they refer to a specific department in a specific university (e.g., Engineering Department, University of Johannesburg).

 

Capitalize nouns followed by numbers or letters (e.g., as seen in Trial 3), unless the noun represents a common part of a book or table (e.g., in column 3 on page 2).

 

Use lowercase letters for the words mine, deposit, property, mill, refinery, project, and deposit when used with proper name (e.g., Harmony mine, Kitumbe deposit, the Ivanplats property).

 

Abbreviations and acronyms

 

The first time an abbreviation or acronym is introduced in the text, write out the full term, followed by the abbreviation or acronym in brackets. Thereafter, the abbreviation or acronym should be used throughout the text. Abbreviations are the same for the singular and plural, e.g., cm for centimetre and centimetres, kg for kilogram and kilograms. Percentages can be written in the text as e.g. 5% or five percent.  A full stop after an abbreviation is only used when the last letter of the abbreviation is the last letter of the sentence. Do not abbreviate terms that appear fewer than three times in the paper, unless there is a standard abbreviation for long, familiar terms. Add a lowercase s to the end of an acronyms to form its plural. Use a comma after standard Latin abbreviations that appear in parentheses (e.g., i.e., etc.).

 

Paragraphs

 

Each paragraph should address a topic and contain an idea where each sentence in the paragraph logically develops that idea. Be objective. Do not include irrelevant or extraneous matter. Sentences should be punctuated correctly to make for easy reading. Avoid one‐sentence paragraphs and paragraphs containing more than one main idea. Avoid run‐on sentences containing more than one complete idea. Develop arguments where an argument leads from one stage to another and finally to a conclusion.

 

 

Use a semi‐colon to separate two independent clauses. Begin the second clause in lower-case font.

 

Correct: Findings from Test A were significant; findings from Test B were not significant. Incorrect: Findings from Test A were significant; Findings from Test B were not significant.

 

Verb Tense

 

Use the present verb tense to describe actions, conditions, and findings with ongoing applicability in the present. Use the past tense to describe actions, conditions, and results that occurred at a specific time in the past. Abstracts, Experimental, and Results and Conclusions sections will typically be in past tense.

 

Active Voice

 

Use personal pronouns when describing actions taken by the authors and use the active rather than the passive voice.

 

Correct: We extracted three samples. Incorrect:  Three samples were extracted.

However, avoid attributing human characteristics to inanimate sources.

 

Correct:    In this paper, we review…

 

Incorrect:  This paper reviews…

 

Demonstrative Pronouns

 

Accompany all demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) by their referent.

 

Correct:    This finding indicates…

 

Incorrect:  This indicates…

 

Coined Expressions and Key Terms

 

Avoid colloquial expressions and jargon. Use double quotation marks the first time a coined expression is introduced. Subsequent use of the coined expression does not require quotation marks. Place full stops and commas within closing single quotation marks.

 

 

Correct:    We refer to this process as ‘super‐heating.’

 

Incorrect:  We refer to this process as “super‐heating”.

 

Use italics to introduce a technical or key term. Subsequent use of the term does not require italics. Italics may be used to emphasise a word in a sentence.

 

Metrication

 

Use the International System of Units (SI) when referring to units of measurement and the metric system for all units of measurement (e.g., kilogram, metre). Refer to the SI for a list accepted non‐ metric units of measurement (e.g., ton).

 

Use a space between a number and its symbol (e.g., 0.43 mm/s).

 

Use a space for numbers of five or more digits (e.g., 4500, but 45 000, 450 000 and 45 000 000).

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

The SAIMM Technical Programme Committee is grateful to the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy & Petroleum for use of parts of its excellent Guidelines for Authors.