From the Executive Editor’s Desk
EDITORIAL
By Dr. Miles Shepherd
Executive Editor
Salisbury, England, UK
Regular readers may recall that the purpose of these notes is to offer some basic advice for authors of papers submitted to PMWJ, particularly those who wish their work to be peer reviewed. The notes are aimed at those starting out on their writing career, rather than experienced authors. What I hope to do is make the process easier by explaining what we look for and how this helps ensure that readers actually read your work.
It is a truth universally accepted that readers will not read poorly presented papers. These notes are intended to offer guidance on two aspects: first, what PMWJ layout requirements and second, on some visual aspects that make reading your work more attractive to our audience and content but there are some aspects that present your work more effectively and thus increase the chances that people will read your paper.
Setting Up
Before putting finger to keyboard, it is a good idea to check our layout requirements. We already provide quite a lot of guidance on how we expect papers to look – see https://pmworldjournal.com/pmwj-author-guidelines and make sure you comply.
Next step is to set up your Word Processor. As we require all submissions to be in Word format (*.docx) I will use MS Word to describe the settings needed. You will find that Word has a number of very helpful tools – check out the Options tab under File drop-down. One of my favourites is the option to display non-printing characters as this shows things like spaces, tabs and a few more obscure but useful tools.
Formatting
The main point to remember is that we publish online so some standard features are not used. Note the main points listed. There is a link to a PMWJ Template under formatting in the author guidance page, but it is useful to remember to set up Word right at the start. Check the following settings:
Spell Checker – English (American or British, or variations thereof as practiced in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa and other countries).
Font – Aptos, Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Times New Roman are acceptable. Sizes 15pt or 16pt for Title, 12 or 14pt for headings, 12pt (bold) for sub-headings, 12pt for body, 11 pt for captions, 10 pt for footnotes, 11 pt for References.
Line spacing – set to 1.15; Spacing used for academic submissions (1.5 or 2.0) are not acceptable. Allow 6 point after text and ensure that “Don’t add space between paragraphs” is not selected.
More…
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Note: From the Executive Editor’s Desk is a short monthly editorial for authors and potential authors by Dr. Miles Shepherd, PMWJ Executive Editor and Director of the PMWJ’s Peer Review program. Each article is a reminder of what to do or not to do when compiling or submitting a manuscript for publication. Dr. Shepherd’s author bio can be found at the end of this short article.
How to cite this work: Shepherd, M. (2026). Presentation Matters, From the Executive Editor’s Desk; PM World Journal, Vol. XV, Issue XI, November. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/pmwj170-Nov2026-Shepherd-Presentation-Matters-From-Executive-Editor.pdf
About the Author
Dr. Miles Shepherd
Executive Editor, PMWJ
Salisbury, UK
Dr. Miles Shepherd is Executive Editor, Advisor and International Correspondent for the PM World Journal in the United Kingdom. He retired from a 30 year career in the British Army in 1994. He is also managing director for MS Projects Ltd, a consulting company supporting various UK and overseas Government agencies, nuclear industry organisations and other businesses. Miles has over 35 years’ experience on a variety of projects in UK, Eastern Europe and Russia. His PM experience includes defence, major IT projects, decommissioning of nuclear reactors, nuclear security, rail and business projects for the UK Government and EU. His consulting work has taken him to Japan, Taiwan, USA and Russia. Past Chair and Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM), Miles is also past president and chair and a Fellow of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). He was, for seven years, a Director for PMI’s Global Accreditation Centre and is past Chair of the ISO committee developing new international standards for Project Management and for Program/Portfolio Management. He served on British Standards Institute project management committee (2002 – 2026) including 5 years as Chair. He was involved in setting up APM’s team developing guidelines for project management oversight and governance. Miles is based in Salisbury, England and can be contacted at miles.shepherd@msp-ltd.co.uk.
To see other works by Miles Shepherd, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/miles-shepherd/
