Journal figure specifications, read and applied
Lesson 1 of 6 · Figures
1 · Learn the move · Verified-data override
Every journal publishes an artwork specification - column widths in millimeters, minimum font size, file formats, resolution - and the model's memory of them is stale and blended across publishers. Asking "what does this journal require" gets you a plausible average of many journals, which is a rejection letter with extra steps. The override move: fetch the actual spec page yourself, paste it, and instruct the model to work only from the pasted text. It converts the spec into a checklist, audits your figure's stated properties against it, and - the honest part - marks anything the pasted spec does not address as UNKNOWN rather than filling the gap from memory. The spec you pasted is the only spec in the room.
Below is the artwork specification pasted verbatim from [journal]'s author guidelines, dated [date]. Using ONLY this text - not your memory of this or any journal - build a checklist of every figure requirement it states. Then audit my figure against it: [figure properties: width, fonts, format, resolution, color mode]. For each item output PASS, FAIL, or UNKNOWN (the pasted spec does not address it). Never substitute a typical journal's value for a missing one. [pasted spec]
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
Your manuscript is going to a journal you have not submitted to before, and your six figures were sized for a different journal's single-column width. You have the author guidelines page open. Get a checklist built from that page alone, then an audit of figure 1 against it.
Remember: the AI sees only your prompt, not this page. If the situation isn't in your prompt, it doesn't exist.
Optional. These shape the output when you run your prompt below, not your score.