Structure

Three principles should guide you as you are organizing your work: consistency, simplicity, and identity.

Consistency

Consistency is key for a well-structured work.

• If you group chapters into parts, every chapter must fall within those structural sections. If you are including an introduction in your manuscript, either put this into the prelim pages or create a section or part for the introduction. Avoid ‘orphan’ sections.
• Do not split some chapters into ‘sub-chapters’ while leaving others as full chapters (e.g. chapters 1-30, followed by chapter 31a, 31b, 31c, and then chapters 32-40 is not suitable).
• Use headings consistently within and across chapters and do not create different hierarchies of headings across different chapters.
• Features and structures should be consistent across chapters (e.g. if one chapter opens with a mini table of contents, all chapters should. If the first heading in a chapter is ‘Introduction’ and the final is ‘Summary’, then all chapters should have a parallel structure).
• Keep chapters to a similar length. If one chapter is significantly longer than the others, consider dividing it into two shorter two chapters.

Figure 3: Example of an orphan chapter within a table of contents.

Simplicity

The structure of your content should not be complicated. Make sure that:

• Chapters are only grouped into parts or sections if it benefits the reader for the content to be structured in that way.
• No more than three heading levels are used unless there is a clear reason to do so (e.g. in practitioner law titles). Please note that the chapter title does not count as a heading level.
• Headings are used regularly throughout each chapter so that text is divided up into simple chunks. This is particularly important when content is being viewed on a hand-held device as it will stop readers being confronted with long passages of unbroken text.

Identity

It should be clear what each component of your manuscript is about. Your OUP editorial contact and copyeditor will help you to evaluate whether your intent will be clear to readers. Some tips include:

• Distinguish the hierarchy of heading levels so it is easy to discern the different levels (see section ‘Different heading styles’).
• Make sure that all parts or sections have a descriptive title (e.g. use ‘Part 1: Don Quixote, followed by ‘Part 2: Novelas ejemplares’, rather than ‘Part 1’ and ‘Part 2’).
• Chapter titles must be unambiguous and able to stand alone (e.g. use ‘Chapter One: The archives of La Mancha’ instead of ‘Chapter One: Introduction’).
• Number appendices separately and give each one a title (to better inform readers from the list of appendices).
• Do not include blank part-opener pages. Empty elements will appear as blank screens on digital devices. Instead, include useful elements (e.g. mini table of contents) on part openers.
• Label different types of box features (e.g. summary boxes vs. didactic boxes) to ensure they receive distinct designs when typeset.
• Make sure to label the colours you use to denote meaning (e.g. to indicate a clinically-relevant warning) to inform the Production team to typeset accordingly. While a colour may not be available in digital formats, the content will still be distinguished, and its meaning maintained. For this reason, do not refer to the colours you use as labels in your writing.

The following:

<start of Warning>You should avoid aspirin<end of Warning>

will become:

Figure 4: Example of a clinical warning a) within the submitted manuscript b) as typeset.