Applied Physics Letters Formatting Requirements: Complete Author Guide

APL is a letters journal. AIP's editorial policies list Articles (the format most manuscripts are submitted as), Roadmaps, Comments and Responses, and Errata as submission formats, with Fast Track Articles and Perspectives published by invitation only.

The 3,000-word limit includes figure and table captions but excludes the title, author list, abstract, acknowledgments, data availability statement, references, and non-text figures, tables, and equations. If you have four figures with detailed captions of 50 words each, that is 200 words pulled from the counted text budget.

The current AIP instructions do not state a four-page target. They state that manuscripts longer than 3,000 words are normally rejected and must be shortened and submitted again, with exceptional length considered only when the cover letter explains why it is necessary. If the argument cannot fit that limit, consider Journal of Applied Physics, APL's companion journal for fuller treatment.

One thing worth knowing is that the concise Letter format affects how the manuscript is read. The paper should make one complete applied-physics argument rather than compressing a full-length study into the word cap.

APL's abstract follows a straightforward format with no structural subdivisions.

• Length: one paragraph of 250 words (AIP's general instructions; an older AIP manuscript page says approximately 250 words)

• Structure: Unstructured (single paragraph)

• Citations: Not permitted in the abstract

• Footnotes: Not permitted in the abstract

• Keywords: AIP's manuscript order (title, authors, affiliations, abstract, text, and so on) does not list a keywords block.

The abstract should summarize the purpose, methods, and principal findings of the work. Since APL papers are short, the abstract often reads as a compressed version of the entire paper. Don't waste space restating well-known facts. Get to your specific contribution within the first two sentences.

AIP says the abstract should serve as an index, covering all subjects about which new information is given, and as a summary, presenting the conclusions and all results of general interest.

Space is the defining constraint in APL. With a 3,000-word cap that includes captions, long captions compete directly with explanatory text for the counted budget.

Figure specifications:

Practical figure advice for APL:

AIP encourages up to five figures in a Letter, and images can be grouped as separate panels in one figure when they are logically connected. Multi-panel figures are common and often necessary. A single figure with panels (a) through (d) is typical.

Color figures are published at no extra charge in the online version. APL moved to free color online years ago, and since the journal is primarily read digitally, there's no practical reason to avoid color. However, make sure your figures are legible in grayscale if you expect readers to print them.

Tables are relatively uncommon in APL because the letters format doesn't give you room for large datasets. When tables are used, they should be created using the standard LaTeX tabular environment or Word table tools, not inserted as images.

APL accepts the standard AIP reference formats. AIP's instructions allow three: references numbered in order of first appearance, an alphabetical list, or an alphabetical list with numbers that are cited by number in the text.

In-text citations (numbered format): AIP's own example lists a paper as the 19th reference and cites it as Ref. 19 or as superscript 19. Numbers are assigned in the order references first appear in the text, and all references should be cited in the text.

Reference list format (numbered, from AIP's own example):

19. F. Hernandez, H. Wang, D. Dubrovski, and L. Blum, Appl. Phys. Lett. 121(9), 080401 (2022).

Key formatting details for AIP style:

• Author names: Initials first, then surname in the numbered format (e.g., "J. K. Smith"); surname first in the alphabetical formats.

• Use "and" before the last author (not "&").

• The numbered format gives the authors, journal, volume, page number or numbers, and year. The alphabetical formats add the article title in quotation marks and give the first and last page.

• Give enough information on the reference list for reviewers and readers to access each source.

There's no hard cap on references, but APL papers typically cite 20 to 30 sources. Reviewers will notice if your reference list is padded with tangentially related papers. In a letters journal, every citation should directly support a specific claim.

LaTeX users should start from the AIP Publishing template in Overleaf, which AIP recommends for best results and full support. If you're using Word, you'll need to format references manually or use a citation manager set to an AIP reference format.

APL supports supplementary material for data, figures, and multimedia that do not fit within the concise Letter format.

What can go in supplementary material:

• Additional figures and tables

• Detailed derivations and mathematical proofs

• Extended datasets

• Multimedia files (videos, animations)

• Code and computational details

AIP partners with Figshare to host supplementary material: after acceptance, AIP deposits it there on the author's behalf and it receives a DOI. The Journal Editor approves it as part of the manuscript's peer review process. At initial submission, upload the supplementary material as a PDF, and include any multimedia files with the initial submission.

AIP asks for a "Supplementary Material" section after the Conclusions (before the Acknowledgments) that briefly describes what the supplementary file contains. This is typically one or two sentences. Don't assume reviewers will read the supplementary in detail. The main text should be self-contained, with supplementary material providing supporting evidence.

AIP encourages authors to deposit datasets in publicly available repositories where appropriate and to cite them with a DOI in the reference list. Multimedia files should be under 10 MB.

These are the details that regular APL authors know but first-timers miss:

No section headings. AIP's APL instructions state that section headings are not permitted in Letters. The paper runs as continuous text from the introduction onward, without an "Introduction" heading or any other section heading.

Author and affiliation footnotes. AIP asks that footnotes to the title be set as a "Note" above the affiliation footnotes, and that footnotes to the affiliations be labeled a), b), c), and so on. Footnotes in the text are not permitted: put that information in the text or in the reference list.

Equation formatting. AIP asks that displayed equations be punctuated, aligned to bring out their structure, and numbered on the right-hand side, with consistent math fonts throughout the paper.

Acknowledgments section. Placed before the references. Funding sources, facility access, and computational resources should be acknowledged here.

Data availability statement. AIP now requires a data availability statement for all articles. This appears after the acknowledgments and before the references. Even if all data is contained within the article, you still need the statement.

These trip up authors more than they should:

1. Figure captions count toward the word limit. Unlike many journals where captions are excluded, APL includes captions in the word count. Keep them concise.

1. Single PDF for initial submission. Don't submit text and figures as separate files on the first round. Submit one compiled manuscript PDF with the figures embedded; supplementary material goes in a separate PDF.

1. Cover letter. AIP encourages a cover letter for APL submissions. It should state the manuscript's significance and list related work by the authors, and AIP says it is not shared with reviewers.

1. Supplementary material must be cited. Any mention of it in the body of the paper should use the phrase "supplementary material" so readers can access it.

For manuscripts targeting Applied Physics Letters, four patterns generate the most consistent desk-rejection outcomes.

Manuscript exceeds the 3,000-word initial-submission limit. APL Letters use a concise format enforced through the AIP preparation workflow. Authors frequently underestimate the counted words in figure and table captions. Manuscripts that cannot be reduced without losing essential content should usually target Journal of Applied Physics or another full-article venue rather than forcing a full paper into APL.

Applied physics context not established. APL publishes applied physics, not fundamental physics. Manuscripts that report a new physical phenomenon or theoretical result without establishing its applied significance, or that study a device or material exclusively from a physics perspective without connecting to a technological application, are rejected for scope. AIP's editorial policies describe APL as publishing short experimental and theoretical papers related to applications of physics phenomena. A spectroscopy study of a new material system must connect to a sensor, light source, or other device application.

Insufficient data quality relative to claims. APL reviewers are rigorous about statistical quality. Reviewers are likely to look for error bars on data points and for reproducibility data (multiple devices or multiple samples) behind any performance claim, although AIP's instructions set no rule on either. A single-device characterization without statistical replication, or plots without error bars or uncertainty bounds, can generate revision requests. For transport measurements, state the number of samples and the measurement conditions explicitly.

Figures exceeding AIP width requirements. AIP sets a maximum published width of 3.37 inches (8.5 cm) for a one-column figure and 6.69 inches (17 cm) for a two-column figure, with a maximum depth of 8.25 inches (21.1 cm). Line art should be set to 600 dpi and halftones to 264 dpi. AIP asks for figures at the size and resolution you want them to appear in print, prepared for 100% reproduction, because large reductions cause problems such as fine lines disappearing.

A Applied Physics Letters submission readiness check evaluates manuscript length, applied context, data quality, and figure compliance against these patterns.

How this page was created: sources used include AIP Publishing author instructions, AIP journal-specific guidance for Applied Physics Letters, AIP graphics and data-availability requirements, Clarivate JCR context, SciRev author-reported timing, and our pre-submission review work on physics and applied-materials manuscripts prepared for APL, Journal of Applied Physics, Physical Review Applied, and adjacent AIP journals. We did not test a private live AIP submission account for this formatting page; upload guidance is based on public AIP materials, documented author experience, and pre-submission review patterns.

Why this page exists: "Applied Physics Letters formatting requirements" is a pre-submission execution query. Authors are usually close to upload and need to know whether the manuscript will be returned, delayed, or weakened by preventable AIP-format issues.

In our analysis of APL-targeted manuscripts, the recurring failure pattern is treating formatting as a production chore after the science is finished. For APL, formatting changes the editorial read because page length, figure density, caption length, and data-availability language all affect whether the Letter feels concise enough for rapid applied-physics communication.

What official AIP guidance does well: It gives concrete requirements for file format, manuscript order, author declarations, data availability, figures, tables, supplementary material, and journal-specific instructions.

Where authors still get hurt: The instructions do not tell you whether your particular figure plan makes the Letter too dense, whether the applied-physics context is visible enough, or whether the paper is really a full-length Journal of Applied Physics article in a compressed wrapper.

Alternative pages depend on intent. Use this page for formatting. Use Applied Physics Letters submission process for workflow timing, Applied Physics Letters submission guide for fit and package strategy, and Applied Physics Letters impact factor for metric intent.