Template for Preparing Your Submission to the American Society Of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

Introduction¶

This template and class file “ascelike-new.cls” produce manuscripts that comply with the guidelines of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). It has been produced by Overleaf in conjunction with the ASCE, and is based on the unofficial “ascelike.cls” developed by Matthew R. Kuhn.

This template provides guidance on how to prepare your manuscript according to the ASCE requirements, including details on how to use various LaTeX commands to achieve the appropriate formatting. Additional template options are given in Appendix ??. If you have any questions about this template, or need help with LaTeX, please contact Overleaf who can provide assistance as required.

Once your work is complete, please use the “Submit to ASCE” option in Overleaf to select the appropriate journal for your manuscript and follow the instructions to complete your submission.

For more information on the ASCE, and to access additional resources for authors, please visit the ASCE Library website.

Preparing Your Manuscript¶

Length¶

For most ASCE journals, the maximum length for technical papers and case studies is 30 double-spaced manuscript pages including references, figures, tables, and captions; 7 double-spaced manuscript pages for technical notes; and 4 double-spaced manuscript pages for discussions and closures. The editor may waive these restrictions to encourage manuscripts on topics that cannot be treated within these limitations. See the “Publishing in ASCE Journals: A Guide for Authors” for information on other article types.

General Flow of the Paper¶

Sections of the article should not be numbered and use word headings only. Article sections should appear in the following order:

• Title page content (includes title, author byline & affiliation, abstract)

• Introduction

• Main text sections

• Conclusion

• Appendix(es)

• Data Availability Statement

• Acknowledgments

• Disclaimers

• Notation list

• Supplemental Materials

• References

Title¶

Titles should be no longer than 100 characters including spaces. The title of a paper is the first “description” of a paper found via search engine. Authors should take care to ensure that the title is specific and accurately reflects the final, post-peer reviewed version of the paper. Authors should try to include relevant search terms in the title of the paper to maximize discoverability online. Titles should not begin with “A,” “An,” “The,” “Analysis of,” “Theory of,” “On the,” “Toward,” etc.

Author Bylines¶

Under the title of the manuscript, the full name of each author and his or her affiliation and professional designation, if applicable, must be included. The following academic and professional designations are currently acceptable for all journals: Ph.D., Dr.Tech., Dr.Eng., D.Sc., Sc.D., J.D., P.E., S.E., D.WRE, Hon.D.WRE, D.GE, D.CE, D.OE, D.PE, D.NE, NAE, DEE, P.Eng., CEng, L.S., P.L.S., G.E., P.G., P.H., RA, AICP, and CPEng.

Former affiliations are permissible only if an author’s affiliation has changed after a manuscript has been submitted for publication. If a coauthor has passed away, include the date of death in the affiliation line. Any manuscript submitted without a separate affiliation statement for each author will be returned to the corresponding author for correction.

Gender-specific Words¶

Authors should avoid “he,” “she,” “his,” “her,” and “hers.” Alternatively, words such as “author,” “discusser,” “engineer,” and “researcher” should be used.

Footnotes and Endnotes¶

Footnotes and endnotes are not permitted in the text. Authors must incorporate any necessary information within the text of the manuscript.

Exception - Endnotes are only permitted for use in the Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction.

SI Units¶

The use of Système Internationale (SI) units as the primary units of measure is mandatory. Other units of measurement may be given in parentheses after the SI unit if the author desires. More information about SI units can be found on the NIST website.

Conclusions¶

At the end of the manuscript text, authors must include a set of conclusions, or summary and conclusion, in which the significant implications of the information presented in the body of the text are reviewed. Authors are encouraged to explicitly state in the conclusions how the work presented contributes to the overall body of knowledge for the profession.

Data Availability Statement¶

When submitting a new and revised manuscript, authors are asked to include a data availability statement containing one or more of the following statements, with specific items listed as appropriate. Please include one or more of the statements below, deleting those which do not apply. This section should appear directly before the Acknowledgments section.

• Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available in a repository online in accordance with funder data retention policies (provide full citations that include URLS or DOIs)

• Some or all data, models, or code used during the study were provided by a third party (list items). Direct requests for these materials may be made to the provider as indicated in the Acknowledgements.

• Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request (list items).

• Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions (e.g. anonymized data) (List items and restrictions).

• All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the submitted article.

• No data, models, or code were generated or used during the study (e.g., opinion or data-less paper).

Please also see the guidelines at: https://ascelibrary.org/page/dataavailability.

Mathematics¶

All displayed equations should be numbered sequentially throughout the entire manuscript, including Appendixes. Equations should be in the body of a manuscript; complex equations in tables and figures are to be avoided, and numbered equations are never permitted in figures and tables. Here is an example of a displayed equation (Eq. 1):

Symbols should be listed alphabetically in a section called “Notation” at the end of the manuscript (preceding the references). See the folliowing section for more details.

Notation List¶

Notation lists are optional; however, authors choosing to include one should follow these guidelines:

• List all items alphabetically.

• Capital letters should precede lowercase letters.

• The Greek alphabet begins after the last letter of the English alphabet.

• Non-alphabetical symbols follow the Greek alphabet.

Notation lists should always begin with the phrase, “The following symbols are used in this paper:”; acronyms and abbreviations are not permitted in the Notation list except when they are used in equations as variables. Definitions should end with a semicolon. An example Notation list has been included in this template; see Appendix ??.

Appendixes¶

Appendixes can be used to record details and data that are of secondary importance or are needed to support assertions in the text. The main body of the text must contain references to all Appendixes. Any tables or figures in Appendixes should be numbered sequentially, following the numbering of these elements in the text. Appendixes must contain some text, and need to be more than just figures and/or tables. Appendixes containing forms or questionnaires should be submitted as Supplemental Materials instead.

Sections, subsections, equations, etc.¶

This section is included to explain and to test the formatting of sections, subsections, subsubsections, equations, tables, and figures.

Section heading are automatically made uppercase; to include mathematics or symbols in a section heading, you can use the \lowercase{} around the content, e.g. \lowercase{\boldmath$c^{2}$}.

An Example Subsection¶

No automatic capitalization occurs with subsection headings; you will need to capitalize the first letter of each word, as in “An Example Subsection.”

An example subsubsection¶

No automatic capitalization occurs with subsubsections; you will need to capitalize only the first letter of subsubsection headings.

Figures and Tables¶

This template includes an example of a figure (Fig. 1) and a table (Table 1).

Figure Captions¶

Figure captions should be short and to the point; they need not include a complete explanation of the figure.

Figure Files¶

Figures should be uploaded as separate files in TIFF, EPS, or PDF format. If using PDF format, authors must ensure that all fonts are embedded before submission. Every figure must have a figure number and be cited sequentially in the text.

Color Figures¶

Figures submitted in color will be published in color in the online journal at no cost. Color figures provided must be suitable for printing in black and white. Color figures that are ambiguous in black and white will be returned to the author for revision, and will delay publication. Authors wishing to have figures printed in color must indicate this in the submission questions. There is a fee for publishing color figures in print.

Table Format¶

The following is a guide to preparing tables as part of your submission

• Vertical rules should not be used in tables. Horizontal rules are used to offset column headings at the top of the table and footnotes (if any) at the bottom of the table and to separate major sections.

• All columns must have a heading. Each table should have only one set of column headings at the top of the table. Using additional column headings within the body of the table should be avoided.

• Photographs, sketches, line art, or other graphic elements are not permitted in tables. Any table that includes graphics must be treated and numbered as a figure.

• Highlighting and shading are also not permitted and will not be reproduced in print. Boldface font should be used for emphasis sparingly.

• Equations are allowed in the table body, but should be avoided if possible. Numbered equations are never allowed in tables.

• Tables should not be submitted in multiple parts (Table 1a, 1b, etc.). Tables with multiple parts should either be combined into one table or split into separate tables.

Figure, Table and Text Permissions¶

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for each figure, photograph, table, map, material from a Web page, or significant amount of text published previously or created by someone other than the author. Permission statements must indicate permission for use online as well as in print.

ASCE will not publish a manuscript if any text, graphic, table, or photograph has unclear permission status. Authors are responsible for paying any fees associated with permission to publish any material. If the copyright holder requests a copy of the journal in which his or her figure is used, the corresponding author is responsible for obtaining a copy of the journal.

Supplemental Materials¶

Supplemental Materials are considered to be data too large to be submitted comfortably for print publication (e.g., movie files, audio files, animated .gifs, 3D rendering files) as well as color figures, data tables, and text (e.g., Appendixes) that serve to enhance the article, but are not considered vital to support the science presented in the article. A complete understanding of the article does not depend upon viewing or hearing the Supplemental Materials.

Supplemental Materials must be submitted for inclusion in the online version of any ASCE journal via Editorial Manager at the time of submission.

Decisions about whether to include Supplemental Materials will be made by the relevant journal editor as part of the article acceptance process. Supplemental Materials files will be posted online as supplied. They will not be checked for accuracy, copyedited, typeset, or proofread. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and file functionality remains with the authors. A disclaimer will be displayed to this effect with any supplemental materials published online. ASCE does not provide technical support for the creation of supplemental materials.

ASCE will only publish Supplemental Materials subject to full copyright clearance. This means that if the content of the file is not original to the author, then the author will be responsible for clearing all permissions prior to publication. The author will be required to provide written copies of permissions and details of the correct copyright acknowledgment. If the content of the file is original to the author, then it will be covered by the same Copyright Transfer Agreement as the rest of the article.

Supplemental Materials must be briefly described in the manuscript with direct reference to each item, such as Figure S1, Table S1, Protocol S1, Audio S1, and Video S1 (numbering should always start at 1, since these elements will be numbered independently from those that will appear in the printed version of the article). Text within the supplemental materials must follow journal style. Links to websites other than a permanent public repository are not an acceptable alternative because they are not permanent archives.

When an author submits supplemental materials along with a manuscript, the author must include a section entitled “Supplemental Materials” within the manuscript. This section should be placed immediately before the References section. This section should only contain a direct list of what is included in the supplemental materials, and where those materials can be found online. Descriptions of the supplemental materials should not be included here. An example of appropriate text for this section is “Figs. S1–S22 are available online in the ASCE Library (ascelibrary.org).”

References, Citations and bibliographic entries¶

ASCE uses the author-date method for in-text references, whereby the source reads as the last names of the authors, then the year (e.g., Smith 2004 or Smith and Jones 2004). A References section must be included that lists all references alphabetically by last name of the first author.

When used together, ascelike-new.cls and ascelike-new.bst produce citations and the References section in the correct format automatically.

References must be published works only. Exceptions to this rule are theses, dissertations, and “in press” articles, all of which are allowed in the References list. References cited in text that are not found in the reference list will be deleted but queried by the copyeditor. Likewise, all references included in the References section must be cited in the text.

The following citation options are available:

• \cite{key} produces citations with full author list and year Ireland (1954).

• \citeNP{key} produces citations with full author list and year, but without enclosing parentheses: e.g. Ireland:1954a.

• \citeA{key} produces citations with only the full author list: e.g. Ireland:1954a

• \citeN{key} produces citations with the full author list and year, but which can be used as nouns in a sentence; no parentheses appear around the author names, but only around the year: e.g. Ireland:1954a states that …

• \citeyear{key} produces the year information only, within parentheses, as in Ireland (1954).

• \citeyearNP{key} produces the year information only, as in Ireland:1954a.

The bibliographic data base ascexmpl-new.bib gives examples of bibliographic entries for different document types. These entries are from the canonical set in the ASCE web document “Instructions For Preparation Of Electronic Manuscripts” and from the ASCE website. The References section of this document has been automatically created with the ascelike-new.bst style for the following entries:

• a book Goossens et al. (1994),

• an anonymous book Moody's Investors Service (1988),

• an anonymous report using @MANUAL Rep., Hydr. Engrg. Circular No. 18: FHWA-IP-90-017 (1991),

• a journal article Stahl et al. (2004)Pennoni (1992),

• a journal article in press Dasgupta (2008),

• an article in an edited book using @INCOLLECTION Zadeh (1981),

• a building code using @MANUAL International Conference of Building Officials (1988),

• a discussion of an @ARTICLE Vesilind (1992),

• a masters thesis using @MASTERSTHESIS Sotiropulos (1991),

• a doctoral thesis using @PHDTHESIS Chang (1987),

• a paper in a foreign journal Ireland (1954),

• a paper in a proceedings using @INPROCEEDINGS Eshenaur et al. (1991)Garrett (2003),

• a standard using @INCOLLECTION ASTM (1991),

• a translated book Melan (1913),

• a two-part paper Frater & Packer (1992)Frater & Packer (1992),

• a university report using @TECHREPORT Duan et al. (1990),

• an untitled item in the Federal Register using @MANUAL Federal Register (1988),

• works in a foreign language Duvant & Lions (1972)Reiffenstuhl (1982),

• software using @MANUAL Lotus Development Corp. (1985),

• two works by the same author in the same year Gaspar & Koenders (2001)Gaspar & Koenders (2001), and

• two works by three authors in the same year that only share the first two authors Huang et al. (2009)Huang et al. (2009).

ASCE has added two types of bibliographic entries: webpages and CD-ROMs. A webpage can be formated using the @MISC entry category, as with the item Burka (1993) produced with the following *.bib entry:

    @MISC{Burka:1993a,
      author = {Burka, L. P.},
      title = {A hypertext history of multi-user dimensions},
      journal = {MUD history},
      year = {1993},
      month = {Dec. 5, 1994},
      url = {http://www.ccs.neu.edu}
    }

Notice the use of the “month” field to give the date that material was downloaded and the use of a new “url” field. The “url” and month” fields can also be used with other entry types (i.e., @BOOK, @INPROCEEDINGS, @MANUAL, @MASTERSTHESIS, @PHDTHESIS, and @TECHREPORT): for example, in the entry type @PHDTHESIS for Wichtmann (2005).

A CD-ROM can be referenced when using the @BOOK, @INBOOK, @INCOLLECTION, or @INPROCEEDINGS categories, as in the entry Liggett & Caughey (1998). The field “howpublished” is used to designate the medium in the .bib file:

    howpublished = {CD-ROM},

Notation¶

The following symbols are used in this paper:

LaTeX Template Options¶

The document class ascelike-new.cls provides several options given below. The Proceedings|Journal|NewProceedings option is the most important; the other options are largely incidental.

1. Options Journal|Proceedings|NewProceedings specify the overall format of the output manuscript.

   Journal produces double-spaced manuscripts for ASCE journals. As default settings, it places tables and figures at the end of the manuscript and produces lists of tables and figures. It places line numbers within the left margin.

   Proceedings produces older-style camera-ready single-spaced manuscripts for ASCE conference proceedings. The newer ASCE style is enacted with the NewProceedings option.

   NewProceedings produces newer-style single-spaced manuscripts for ASCE conference proceedings, as shown on the ASCE website (ca. 2013). As default settings, NewProceedings places figures and tables within the text. It does not place line numbers within the left margin.

   If desired, the bottom right corner can be “tagged” with the author’s name (this can be done by inserting the command \NameTag{<your name>} within the preamble of your document). All of the default settings can be altered with the options that are described below.

2. Options BackFigs|InsideFigs can be used to override the default placement of tables and figures in the Journal, Proceedings, and NewProceedings formats.

3. Options SingleSpace|DoubleSpace can be used to override the default text spacing in the Journal, Proceedings, and NewProceedings formats.

4. Options 10pt|11pt|12pt can be used to override the default text size (12pt).

5. The option NoLists suppresses inclusion of lists of tables and figures that would normally be included in the Journal format.

6. The option NoPageNumbers suppresses the printing of page numbers.

7. The option SectionNumbers produces an automatic numbering of sections. Without the SectionNumbers option, sections will not be numbered, as this seems to be the usual formatting in ASCE journals (note that the Appendixes will, however, be automatically “numbered” with Roman numerals). With the SectionNumbers option, sections and subsections are numbered with Arabic numerals (e.g. 2, 2.1, etc.), but subsubsection headings will not be numbered.

8. The options NoLineNumbers|LineNumbers can be used to override the default use (or absence) of line numbers in the Journal, Proceedings, and NewProceedings formats.