Submission for all types of manuscripts to Information Processing and Management proceeds totally online. Via the Elsevier
Editorial System Web site for this journal at http://ees.elsevier.com/ipmyou will be guided stepwise through the creation
and uploading of the various files. When submitting a manuscript to Elsevier Editorial System, authors need to provide an electronic
version of their manuscript. In an accompanying letter, authors should state that the manuscript, or parts of it, have not been and will
not be submitted elsewhere for publication. Please note that an editable file is needed for production purposes after acceptance, and
we ask that you submit source files in the case that your manuscript is accepted. Authors are requested to include a cover letter, manuscript,
tables, and figures, as well as any ancillary materials. Authors unable to submit an electronic version should contact the Editorial
Office. For this purpose, only original source files are allowed, so no PDF files. Authors should select a category designation for
their manuscripts (article, short communication, review, etc.). Once the uploading is done, the system automatically generates an electronic
(PDF) proof, which is then used for reviewing. All correspondence, including the editor's decision and request for revisions, will be
by e-mail.
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract
or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication
is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted,
it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.
Receipt of manuscripts will be acknowledged and authors should retain a copy of the paper exactly as it was submitted. Since page proofs
cannot be sent to authors for last minute corrections, authors must proofread manuscripts carefully, giving special attention to the
accuracy of quotations and references.
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information
on copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information.
A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will
be provided. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners
and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: contact ES Global Rights Department,
P.O. Box 800, Oxford, OX5 1DX, UK; phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com
Proposals for Special Issues
IP&M welcomes proposals for special issues, which the Editors intend to publish
on an occasional basis. Special issues should have a clear and coherent focus and address topics which, in the opinion of the Editors,
will be of considerable interest to IP&M readers. Papers for special issues should meet the same standards as those published
in regular issues and will be externally reviewed in the same way. While guest editors will be responsible for inviting and selecting
papers and corresponding with authors, the journal editors will be the final arbiters concerning their acceptance for publication.
Guest
editor(s)
After an agreement has been reached and the Issue has been commissioned, the role of the Guest Editor is to:
1. Issue
a Call for Papers for the special issue and in other ways announce the issue to prospective authors (e.g. through listserves, personal
emails, personal invitations etc). IP&M will print the Call for Papers, but it takes time, thus other avenues of announcement
have to be pursued.
2. Obtain the manuscripts for the issue and maintain communication with the authors.
3. Assume the authority
and responsibility for handling of refereeing for all manuscripts. The decision of the Guest Editor(s) in refereeing matters is final,
however, the Editor-in-Chief should be consulted.
4. Prepare a lead-in summary (article or editorial) for the Issue.
5. Provide
the Editor-in-Chief with names and addresses of authors, and the title page of the manuscript, so that the editorial office could plan
for publication.
6. Deliver the manuscripts, in paper and electronic format to the Editor-in-Chief, indicating the order of appearance.
Two printed copies of each manuscript AND a disk (or an ftp to Elsevier) should be delivered. Instructions for disks or ftp will be provided.
Guest Editor(s) will be recognized on the cover of the Issue. They will receive from the publisher copies of the issue.
Refereeing
Each article must be refereed by at least two referees and if circumstances warrant by more than two. Guest Editor(s) choose the referees;
authors may suggest referees; Guest Editor(s) may be referees as well. Before sending a paper to a referee the referee should be contacted
by email or otherwise and asked whether he/she is willing to referee. Do not send papers for refereeing unannounced! Enlarged or modified
conference papers that have already been refereed for a conference, require only one referee. IP&M will provide standard
refereeing forms and instructions. Referee comments, together with the Guest Editor's decision, should be provided to authors for revision,
if necessary
Preparation of text
Submissions must fall with the Aims and Scope of IP&M. The following are invited:
1. Papers that have more than 4000 words will be considered on their merit - some original works need longer explanations - however,
the author(s) should explain and justify the increased length in the cover letter.
2. Brief communications of original work or work
in progress of up to 2000 words
3. Critical reviews of trends in any area of IP&M coverage generally of up to 4000 words
4. Opinion papers discussing a contemporary issue in the area of IP&M coverage of up to 2000 words
5. Book reviews or
critical literature reviews
6. Letters to the editor commenting on IP&M publications or editorial policies and practices
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Italics are not to be
used for expressions of Latin origin, for example, in vivo, et al., per se. Use decimal points (not commas); use a space for thousands
(10 000 and above). Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. Present tables and figure legends on separate pages at the end
of the manuscript. If possible, consult a recent issue of the journal to become familiar with layout and conventions. Number all pages
consecutively.
Provide the following data on the title page (in the order given).
Title. Concise and informative. Titles are
often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
Author names and affiliations. Where
the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where
the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's
name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and, if
available, the e-mail address of each author.
Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at
all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are
provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.
Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since
the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated
as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation
address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.
Abstract. A concise and factual abstract is required (maximum length
200 words). The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is
often presented separate from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. References should therefore be avoided, but if essential,
they must be cited in full, without reference to the reference list.
Keywords. Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum
of 6 keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations:
only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. The keywords should be in the style of one of the major thesauruses.
Since the abstract and keywords will be used in automatic indexing, the terminology selected should be suitable for computer analysis.
Arrangement of the article
Subdivision of the article. Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections
should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ?), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also
for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text.' Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear
on its own separate line.
Introduction. State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed
literature survey or a summary of the results.
Discussion. This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat
them.
Conclusions. A short Conclusions section is to be presented and should be divided into specific points.
Appendices. If
there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc.
Acknowledgements. Place acknowledgements, including information
on grants received, before the references, in a separate section, and not as a footnote on the title page.
Vitae. Include in the
manuscript a short (maximum 50 words) biography of each author
Figure legends, tables, figures, schemes. Present these, in this order,
at the end of the article. They are described in more detail below. High-resolution graphics files must always be provided separate from
the main text file (see Preparation of illustrations).
Tables. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in
the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules.
Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
References
Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors. Citations in the text. Please
ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract
must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications should not be in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the
text. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.
Citing and listing of web references.
As a minimum, the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (author names, dates, reference to a source publication,
etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired,
or can be included in the reference list.
Text: Citations in the text should follow the referencing style used by the American Psychological
Association. You are referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition, ISBN 1-55798-790-4,
copies of which may be ordered from http://www.apa.org/books/4200061.html or APA Order Dept., P.O.B. 2710, Hyattsville,
MD 20784, USA or APA, 3 Henrietta Street, London, WC3E 8LU, UK. Details concerning this referencing style can also be found at http://humanities.byu.edu/linguistics/Henrichsen/APA/APA01.html.
List: References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one
reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
Fox, E. A. & Marchionini, G. (1988). Toward a worldwide digital library. Communications
of the ACM, 41(4), 29-32.
Reference to a book:
Korfhage, R. R. (1997). Information storage and retrieval. New York: Wiley.
Reference
to a chapter in an edited book:
White, H. D. & McCain,
K. W. (1997). Visualization of literatures. In M. E. Williams (Ed.), Annual
review of information science and technology: Vol. 32. (pp. 99-168). Medford, NJ: Information Today.
Reference to a conference paper:
Hert, C. A. & Marchionini, G. (1998). Information seeking behavior on statistical websites: Theoretical and design implications.
In Preston, C. M. (Ed.), Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science, 35,
(pp. 303-314). Medford, NJ: Information Today.
References to online journals:
Author, I. (date). Title of article. Name of journal, xx (vol. or number). Uniform Resource Locator
(URL).
References to a web publication:
Author, I. (date). Title of full work. Organization. Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or
location for
.le transfer (ftp).
Sample citation in text:
''For example, Hert and Marchionini (1998) found that or as found in
other studies (Hert & Marchionini, 1998; Clarke & Willett, 1997).'' Whether paraphrasing or quoting directly, the source must
be credited. For a direct quote supply page numbers.
Language Editing
Language editing is a responsibility of authors.
Elsevier has official recommendations for two language editing services, for language editing that takes place either before the peer
review process, or otherwise before article acceptance. Authors pay directly to the chosen service. They may also use a servce of their
own choice.
A reliable, high quality recommendation for language polishing for authors is now in place. This company is called International
Science Editing (ISE): http://internationalscienceediting.com/elsevier and they offer a premium language polishing service.
Their language editors are based in the British Isles and while they offer a premium service their rates are quite competitive in a European
context. The rate of ISE is typically EURO 0.04 per word (approximately EUR 10 per page), plus a EUR 10 handling fee per manuscript.
For in-depth information, please visit http://www.elsevier.com/locate/languagepolishing. There is some need by authors
(typically in developing countries) for pre-accept, author-paid language editing that is lower in price, and still prevents article rejection
on the basis of the language level. Acting on that demand, Elsevier is now ready to recommend a reliable, low cost route, at a reasonable
quality level. This alternative recommendation is through Asia Science Editing (ASA): http://asiascienceediting.com/ The language editing by ASE is done in India by expert editors (typically former expats), and manuscripts are randomly quality checked
in Ireland to maintain standards. On behalf of our authors, Elsevier has negotiated a rate for this service that is EUR 0.024 per word
(ca EUR 6 per page). EUR 10 handling fee per manuscript is added, based on credit card payment. Different rates apply for math-rich manuscripts.
Turnaround times are typically 5 days.
For all third party language editing recommendations, all interaction and responsibility
is between the Author and the Language Editor. The language-editing route is also not to be confused with the copy-editing that continues
unchanged for our journals during the production after manuscript acceptance.
Preparation of illustrations
Submitting
your artwork in an electronic format helps us to produce your work to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high
level of detail. • Always supply high-quality printouts of your artwork, in case conversion of the electronic artwork is problematic.
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork. • Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or
enclose the font. • Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol. •
Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text. • Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files,
and supply a separate listing of the files and the software used. • Provide all illustrations as separate files and as hardcopy
printouts on separate sheets. • Provide captions to illustrations separately.• Produce images near to the desired size
of the printed version.
Files can be stored on 3? inch diskette, ZIP-disk or CD (either MS-DOS or Macintosh).
A detailed guide
on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork
You are urged to visit this site;
some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork
is finalised, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats (Note the resolution requirements for line drawings,
halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below.):
EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as "graphics".
TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum
of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (colour or greyscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or
PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications please supply "as is".
Please do not:
• Supply embedded graphics in your word processor (spreadsheet, presentation) document; • Supply files that are optimised
for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low; • Supply files that are too low in resolution; •
Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.
Captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply
captions on a separate sheet, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description
of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
Colour
illustrations
Submit high-quality images. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier
will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless
of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive
information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. For further information on the preparation of electronic
artwork, please see http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork.
Please note: Because of technical complications which can
arise by converting colour figures to 'grey scale' (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in
addition usable black and white images corresponding to all the colour illustrations.
Preparation of supplementary data
Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the
author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets,
sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier
web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is
directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic
format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/authors
Proofs
When your manuscript is received by the Publisher it is considered to be
in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as 'drafts'. One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding
author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will
be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. A form with queries from the copyeditor may accompany your proofs.
Please answer all queries and make any corrections or additions required.
Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article
corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible. In order to do this we need your help. When you receive the (PDF) proof
of your article for correction, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Subsequent
corrections will not be possible, so please ensure your first sending is complete. Note that this does not mean you have any less time
to make your corrections, just that only one set of corrections will be accepted.
Offprints
Twenty-five offprints will
be supplied free of charge. Additional offprints and copies of the issue can
be ordered at a specially reduced rate using the order
form sent to the corresponding author after the manuscript has been accepted. Orders for reprints (produced after publication of an article)
will incur a 50% surcharge.
Enquiries
Authors can keep a track on the progress of their accepted article, and set up
e-mail alerts informing them of changes to their manuscript's status by visiting http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. For
privacy, information on each article is password-protected. The author should key in the "Our Reference" code (which is in the letter
of acknowledgement sent by the publisher on receipt of the accepted article) and the name of the corresponding author. In case of problems
or questions, authors may contact the Author Support Department, E-mail: authorsupport@elsevier.com.
