The Right-Hand Margin of Manuscripts: Straight or Not?

Greetings again. I hope that all is going well for you.

Recently I was providing some feedback on manuscript sections drafted by participants in an AuthorAID course. In addition to noticing content and language use, I noticed the formatting of the text.

I noticed, for example, that most participants used justified (straight) right margins. Some major style manuals, however, request that manuscripts have unjustified (ragged) right margins.

Often authors assume that justified right margins are preferable. After all, typeset text in books and journals usually has a justified right margin. Text with justified right margins might seem neater and more formal. And sometimes right-justification is the word-processing default.

In manuscripts, though, unjustified right margins may be better. The differences in line length can help readers to keep their place. And word-processed text with an unjustified right margin (as in this blog post) tends to have more consistent spacing between words.

Word-processed text with a justified right margin tends to have uneven spacing. This awkward spacing especially tends to occur if the text is in a narrow column—for example, in a poster presentation.

In a manuscript to submit to a journal, should the right margin be justified or unjustified? If possible, consult the journal’s instructions to authors or the style manual that it specifies. Often, but not always, the answer is to use an unjustified right margin.

If the journal or style manual does not state a preference, I suggest using an unjustified right margin, which generally seems preferable. What do you suggest? Feel free to post a comment.

Until the next post—

Barbara