Automation of manuscript typographic formatting using MS Word

Abstract

The article describes the goals, methods, and results of developing a set of versatile requirements for formatting scientific manuscripts, the application of which can be automated. The experience and results of testing the developed requirements and methods of their automation are presented. The set of requirements for formatting scientific manuscripts in an editable format allow the document to be circulated between the authors, editors, reviewers, and layout designers, thus optimizing labor- and time resources. The developed requirements meet the text document standards adopted in the Russian Federation and are approved by typographic specialists. The requirements are supported by built-in MS Word automation tools (macros) and are executed automatically. The author’s time spent on mastering the requirements and automation tools is compensated by accelerating the formatting of lengthy documents in the future. The requirements can be customized according to individual preferences and specific publisher requirements. The developed tools were tested as part of the specialized course “Preparation of a Scientific Article for Publication” at Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University. It was found that students become to acknowledge the importance of using formatting styles when the text is initially aligned according to the IMRAD format. By that means, the text structure and formatting tasks are interrelated, complementing each other during the article preparation process. The presented set of requirements seems promising in terms of developing a generally accepted standard.