Every journal publishes author instructions, and no two sets are organized the same way. One gives length in words by article type, another splits its word limit across sections, a third states length in pages. The rules themselves are rarely hard. The time goes into finding the rule that applies to your article type, at your stage of submission.
Folio keeps a small set of journal formatting fact sheets, each checked against the journal's current author instructions and linked to them. Three are live so far. Here is what each of those journals asks for, and the detail in each that is easiest to miss.
Journal of the American Chemical Society
At initial submission, JACS follows the ACS Fast Format rules: references can be in any style, as long as every reference is complete and includes its title. The ACS Style Quick Guide lists the parts each type of reference needs.
The detail that is easy to miss is how length works, because it depends on the article type. A Communication is limited to 2,200 words, counting the abstract, the main text and the titles and captions of about five graphics, but not the references. The guidelines are explicit that word count, not the template's page count, is the defining limit for a Communication. Perspectives can run to 9,000 words. Articles have no stated word limit, and the Article template is strongly encouraged but not required. Both Articles and Communications need an abstract of no more than about 250 words and a Table of Contents graphic, and a title may not contain the words "First" or "Novel".
Full JACS formatting and submission guide
Psychological Science
Revised and final manuscripts must follow APA 7th edition, including its reference format. At initial submission, authors may deviate from some of those style requirements, such as reference format and the placement of tables and figures.
Two details are easy to miss. The first is that the word limit is split. For a Research Article, the Introduction, Discussion, footnotes, acknowledgments and appendices share a 2,000-word cap, while the Method and Results do not count toward it. The guidelines add that 2,500 words or fewer is enough for the Method and Results in almost all cases, and that about 40 references should be enough for most Research Articles; neither figure is a hard limit.
The second is the Research Transparency Statement, required for empirical manuscripts and placed between the end of the Introduction and the start of the Method. It covers preregistration, materials, data, analysis scripts, use of AI, conflicts of interest and funding, and it must give a persistent identifier, such as a DOI, for preregistrations, shared materials and analysis scripts. It does not count toward the word limit.
Full Psychological Science formatting and submission guide
American Economic Review
For reference lists prepared with bibliography software, the AER prefers the Chicago Manual author-date style. The abstract is 100 words or fewer.
Length is stated in pages rather than words. The journal strongly recommends that a manuscript not exceed the equivalent of 40 pages in 11-point type or 45 pages in 12-point type, both with 1.5 spacing and 1-inch margins, and that count includes figures, tables, references and appendices. It is a recommendation, not a hard cap, and it is measured in manuscript pages. The journal separately notes that the average published AER article runs 35 to 36 typeset pages, and accepted papers first submitted on or after February 1, 2024, pay a fee of $15 per typeset page.
The other easy miss is what belongs in the paper itself. The paper, including any in-paper appendices, must be self-contained: data sources, variable definitions, methods and proofs of formal results all go in the paper. A separate Supplemental Appendix is for nonessential material such as extensions and robustness checks. In-paper appendices start on a new page after the text, come before the references, and count toward the length.
Full American Economic Review formatting and submission guide
Why the set is small
None of these rules is hidden. The friction is that they sit in different places, in different units, and some change between first submission and revision. A fact sheet is only useful if it matches the journal's own page, so each one links to its source and shows when it was last checked, and a sheet goes live only after that check. That is why the set is three journals and not more. Requirements change, and the journal's instructions are always the final authority, so they are worth one more read before submitting. Requests for the next journals to cover can go through the contact page.
Once the rules are clear, Folio exports documents to DOCX, LaTeX and PDF, and citations to BibTeX and RIS, so matching a journal's format does not mean rebuilding a reference list by hand.
Sources: JACS author guidelines (American Chemical Society, last updated August 27, 2026) · Psychological Science submission guidelines (Association for Psychological Science, updated June 23, 2026) · AER submission guidelines (American Economic Association). All three were checked on September 24, 2026.