Writing is the first standard in our editorial review process. I read every paper submitted to JOSA A. I reject papers that are poorly written, either because of problems with the English that make them difficult to understand or because they are poorly organized and confusing. Here, I would like to provide some insight into my editorial decisions.

The work must be good. Put another way, the results must represent some good and a positive step for the community of readers we serve. Research articles must present significant novel results. Discussion papers must raise stimulating and valuable ideas for our community. Comments must provide constructive observations on published work. Reviews must serve as authoritative references. Tutorials must be instructive in unique ways. Organization, writing, and pedagogy are critical to making the good in any paper clear to us at the review stage. Do good!

Your results must be presented clearly and in a manner that serves the scholarly mission of the Journal. You should include appropriate citations and connections to precedent work. Your article should aid our readers in their work and continuing growth as scientists and engineers. Whenever possible, sentences should be plainly constructed and words should be chosen for clarity. We serve a worldwide audience and writing in a direct and standard style will help us capture the attention of a wider readership for your good work. Equations are a critical part of the writing, just as critical for clarity as the words. Choices of symbols, compactness, transparency, and accessibility all matter. Write well!

We cover certain subjects within optics, but not all subjects. Our scope evolves, growing and changing gradually. Your work may be fantastic, but it might not fit our current scope. On the other hand, it is the edge cases that help us consider how we want to evolve. I appreciate submissions that push the boundaries of what we cover, even those I turn down. A paper on the frontier of our coverage that is well written and set in context of the interests of our readership is much more likely to be accepted than one that is hard to read and appears unrelated to our core mission. Write for JOSA A!

When I reject papers for problems with the quality of writing, I often encourage the authors to improve the writing and resubmit because I want their work to be seen in the best possible light. Those who follow through and resubmit an improved paper are often successful. Good writing is good for our authors. It is good for our readers. It is good for optics.

P. Scott Carney

Editor-in-Chief, JOSA A

University of Rochester

Additional Resources

There are many resources to be found online that can provide advice on writing clearly for scientific publication. The JOSA A scope and criteria for publication are also available online on the Journal’s website [1,2]. The OSA journal style guide can help with the practical aspects of organizing your manuscript, and our professional editing service is available for those who would like assistance with both language and structure [3,4].