1. FORMA accepts any qualified article, irrespective of the field, topic, or method of research, if it conveys a general interest in "Form" and if it is prepared carefully such that it can be understood by readers from other fields. The Journal accepts the following:
REVIEW (32 printed pages or less): by free submission and recommendation
ORIGINAL PAPER (16 printed pages or less): editing policy remains the same
LETTER (8 printed pages or less): fast review and fast publishing
ART COLUMN (16 printed pages or less): presentations of artwork or essays on artwork
FORUM (4 printed pages or less): essays, proposals, comments, etc. which suggest new directions for lay experts. By free submission and recommendation
ART GALLERY (a few pages including one page with explanation): artwork created with a scientific point of view or demonstrating scientific applications.

Papers exceeding the above page limits will be accepted if editorial board deems that the additional pages are necessary.
Special issues on particular topics will sometimes be published (refer to the next page for instructions).

2. Manuscripts should be written in English and prepared according to the FORMA STYLE MANUAL provided below. The preferred manuscript submission method is to send it via an email to the Editor-in-Chief or to one of the editors as an attached PDF file compiled from a LaTeX(*) or Microsoft Word document file. If the file size is larger than 5MB, it may be sent as a CD or through a file-sharing cloud service (e.g. Dropbox).

(*) LaTeX Style Files http://www.scipress.org/journals/forma/styles.html

3. Written informed consent should be obtained from parties (researchers, committees, organization etc.) when studying human bodies or human nature. Care of experimental animals should be in accordance with the institute and/or the licensing committee approving the experiments. The consent and/or approval should be clearly noted in the submitted manuscript.

4. Reproductions of figures or sentences from other articles should be made with the permission of the authors of the original articles and the copyright holders (if they are different from the authors). Original articles should be clearly referenced in the submitted manuscript.

5. Manuscripts are reviewed by one of the editors and a referee appointed by the Editor-in-Chief, such as an Executive Editor or an Associated Editor. Note that manuscript corrections may be required after acceptance, so that they match the style of FORMA and can be comprehended by readers from other fields. Letters of acceptance will be sent from the Editor-in-Chief.

6. A revised manuscript received more than two months after provision of feedback will be treated as a new submission.

7. The first proof is corrected by the author(s). The second proof is corrected by the editors and/or the publishing company. Author(s) only have one opportunity during the first proof to correct any errors they find, after which they will not receive another draft prior to uploading.

8. The publisher does not redraw figures provided by the author(s). It is the responsibility of author(s) to ensure that figures are provided at a sufficiently high resolution for high-quality reproduction in the final article. The article will not appear in our journal if the publication quality of the final manuscript is insufficient for uploading. Furthermore, up to three figures must be highlighted as "attractive figures" for the benefit of the reader.

9. For papers submitted after May 8, 2019 (GMT), the publication fee for each paper accepted for publication is 50,000 yen and the price for color figs. per page (online) is 25,000 yen.

10. The article copyrights (including network distribution) are owned by the Society for Science on Form, Japan. However, contributors maintain other rights, such as patent rights and rights to use the article for their own work. In articles that discuss artwork and design work, the copyrights of the work remain with the author(s). In such instances, it is required that this be indicated in the figure captions, for example, "Copyright of this artwork belongs to (Name)."

11. The Journal is published online at: http://www.scipress.org/journals/forma/index.html
PDF files of accepted papers are sent to the first authors.

12. (INSTRUCTIONS FOR EDITING SPECIAL ISSUES)
The Editor can propose to edit a special issue on a particular topic. An informal proposal document should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief and include the title of the issue, the editor(s) of the issue, and a tentative list of contributors with article titles. Four articles or more are required for one special issue. Collected articles should be reviewed by the editor(s) of the issue or by referees appointed by the editor(s). Do not forget to record the dates of receipt and acceptance. A preface of one to two pages is expected to be written by the editor(s). Letters of acceptance are sent from the Editor-in-Chief.
Re-publishing of the special issue's contents as a monograph is possible, as negotiated with the Editorial Board.

1. It is recommended that manuscripts be written as WORD documents, with page settings of 45 lines/page, and 80 characters/line. Thus, one page would include approximately 500 words and correspond with the printed page of FORMA. As a result, the number of printed pages can easily be estimated. Printed manuscripts should be typed singled-sided, on 21 × 30 cm (or similar size) white paper.

2. The first page should include:
Category: "Original paper," "Review," "Letter," or "Forum" appearing at the top right of the page.
Title: First letters of words, except prepositions or conjunctions, are capitalized. If title is longer than 40 characters, provide a short running head.
Author(s): Family name is all capitalized.
Affiliation(s): Brief and include postal address and email address.
Keywords: No more than five.
Abstract: Fewer than 150 words for an original paper and review, fewer than 100 words for letters.
Footnotes: If necessary.

3. Headings for each section should be typed from the left margin in the same character size and font as the main text, e.g. "1. Introduction." Leave two blank lines above each heading and one blank line below it.
Sub-headings should be in italics, e.g. "2.1. Basic assumption." Leave one blank line above the sub-heading and no blank line below it.

4. References should be cited in the text in either of the following styles:

(i) Text: "According to Toda (1981), ...", "... is studied (Elias et al., 1971a; Baba, 1980)".
List: Provide a list of references at the end of the text. List the references in alphabetical order of last names as follows:
Baba, K., Miyamoto, K., and Kimura, K. (1981a) [Title of paper], FORMA, 2, 305-315.
Kendall, D. G. (1974) [Title of paper], in [Title of Books or Proceedings], (ed. E. F. Harding and D. G. Kendall) Griffin, London, pp. 105-107.
Rosenfeld, A. (1976) [Title of Book], 2nd Ed., Academic Press, NY, pp. 69-83.

(ii) Text: Cite references using number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referenced as well, but the reference number(s) must always appear as follows:
"According to Toda [6], ...", "... is studied [4,8]".
List: Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.
[1] K. Baba, K. Miyamoto, K. Kimura, [Title of paper], FORMA 2 (1981) 305-315.
[2] D.G. Kendall, in E. F. Harding, D. G. Kendall (Eds.), [Title of Books or Proceedings], Griffin, London, 1974, pp. 105-107.
[3] A. Rosenfeld, [Title of Book], second ed., Academic Press, New York, 1976.

5. Figures in EPS, PDF, or JPEG formats are welcome. Figures should be inserted into the appropriate places in the text. Note that the page layout will be changed by the editor Tables may be typed as a part of the main text. Below each figure, add a figure number and caption, e.g. "Fig. 1. ...." Above each table, provide the table number and caption, e.g. "Table 2. ...."
For printed manuscripts, figures are drawn on separate sheets. Include the figure (plate) number and name(s) of author(s) at the bottom of each figure (plate). Include a list of figure captions on a separate page at the end of the text. Placement of the figures should be indicated in the right margin of the main text, e.g., [Fig.1]

6. In the main text, sections, equations, figures, plates, and tables should be referred to as "Sec. 2", "Eq. (1)", "Eqs. (3) and (2. 3)", "Fig. 2", "Figs. 4 and 5", "Plate 3", "Table 3", etc."
Avoid beginning sentences using these abbreviations.

7. Leave one line blank above and below each mathematical expression. Provide the equation number (if necessary) in parentheses to the right. Symbols expressing quantities should be in italic, but functions (sin, exp, log, etc.) are straight. Avoid piling up fractions and suffices. For example, "e^ak2/bj2" should be changed to "exp(a^k2/b^j2)", or to "exp(A/B), where A = a^k2, B = b^j2". Try to simplify mathematical expressions. Complicated mathematical procedures should be included in the Appendix.