A Journal of IFAC, the International Federation of Automatic Control
Guide for Authors
Submission of Papers
Papers and Brief Papers should be submitted to the Editor whose subject best fits the topic of the paper,
Survey Papers to the Editor for Survey Papers, and Technical Communiqués or Correspondence to the Editor for Rapid Publications.
See the "Editorial Board" page for the editorial areas and information on the editors. Papers must be in English.
Submission
process: Paper submission to Automatica is web-based. Prospective authors should go to the website of Automatica's
paper review management system Pampus at www.autsubmit.com and follow the
instructions. Only PDF files that are already to be printed can be accepted. All submissions are acknowledged automatically. Submissions
by ordinary mail or e-mail are not accepted. Prospective authors who do not have access to Internet, or cannot carry out the web-based
submission process should contact the Editor-in-Chief.
Language services: Authors who require information about language editing
and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit language
or contact authorsupport@elsevier.com for more information. Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility
for any products, goods or services offered by outside vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please
refer to our Terms and Conditions terms
Papers
from IFAC technical meetings:Automatica has priority access to papers presented at meetings sponsored by IFAC. Such papers
normally need extensive revision before they are ready for publication. If the authors of IFAC meeting papers have not been notified
by one of the Automatica Editors within three months of the meeting that the paper is to be reviewed for possible publication
in Automatica, then the paper can be considered as released for publication elsewhere provided that an acknowledgement to the
IFAC meeting is given.
Conditions of publication: It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to Automatica
have not been published and will not be submitted or published elsewhere in English or any other language, without the written consent
of the publisher. Responsibility for the contents of the paper rests upon the authors and not upon IFAC, the Editors, or the Publisher.
Types of Contribution
Submitted articles may be of five basic types:
•Survey papers - Extensive reviews
of established or emerging research topics or application areas.
•Papers - Detailed discussion involving new research,
applications or developments. [10 printed pages, i.e. 10 000 words.]
•Brief papers - Brief presentations of new technical
concepts and developments. [6 printed pages, i.e. 6000 words.]
•Technical communiqués - New useful ideas and brief
pertinent comments of a technical nature. [4 printed pages, i.e. 4000 words.]
•Correspondence - Letters to the Editor
about the journal or to authors commenting on previously published papers. In the latter case, the Editor will give the authors an opportunity
to respond. [2 printed pages, i.e. 2000 words.]
The above maximum sizes include the space needed for all the figures, tables and
references.
Manuscript Preparation
General: Authors are encouraged to prepare their manuscripts as LaTeX documents.
For the first submission the use of the standard LaTeX "article" style or the special Automatica style (autart.cls) available
on Pampus at www.autsubmit.com is recommended. Authors must not create their
own macros or define new commands.
Text: Follow this order when preparing manuscripts: Title; Authors; Affiliations; Abstract;
Keywords; Main text; Acknowledgement when appropriate; Appendices; References. The corresponding author should be identified with an
asterisk and footnote, which should include a telephone number, a fax number and an e-mail address. Full postal addresses muct be given
for all co-authors.
Units: The SI system should be used.
References: All publications cited in the text should
be present in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. For style of referencing, authors should consult any recent
issue of Automatica. For citations with fewer than six authors, all all authors are to be listed at first citation, with "&"
separating the last two authors. For more than six authors, use the first six authors followed by et al. In subsequent citations for
three or more authors use author et al. in the text. The list of references should be arranged alphabetically by authors' names. As a
style file, any of the standard LaTeX bibliographic style files can be used, but the instructions embedded in the sample LaTeX file on
Pampus (www.autsubmit.com) should be followed.
Preparation and Submission
of Final Manuscripts
For the final versions of accpeted papers the use of a special Elsevier LaTeX preprint style (elsart.cls)
is requested. It is preferable that the authors use the special Automatica version of this style file, autart.cls. The submission
of electronic versions of artwork (in addition to the hard copy artwork) is also encouraged.
The Elsevier preprint style elsart.cls
and the special Automatica style autart.cls are available on Pampus at www.autsubmit.com,
where also a sample LaTeX file is provided. The latest Elsevier preprint style, along with full instructions to authors, may also be
downloaded from Elsevier's anonymous ftp server on ftp.elsevier.com in the directory pub/styles, or from the Internet (CTAN sites) on
ftp.shsu.edu, ftp.dante.de and ftp.tex.ac.uk in the directory tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/supported/elsevier. Other word processing
packages are also acceptable but LaTeX documents are strongly preferred.
Illustrations: All illustrations can cannot be sent
electronically should be provided in camera-ready form, suitable for reproduction (which may include reduction) without retouching. Photographs,
charts and diagrams are all to be referred to as "Figure(s)" and should be numbered consecutively in the order to which they are referred.
They should accompany the manuscript, but should not be included within the text. Every figure must have a caption. Captions should be
supplied separately.
Line drawings: All lettering, graph lines and points on graphs should be sufficiently large and bold
to be legible when the diagram has been reduced to a size suitable for inclusion in the journal.
Photographs: Original photographs
must be supplied as they are to be reproduced, i.e. black and white or colour. If necessary, a scale should be marked on the photograph.
Photocopies of photographs or poor electronic versions are not acceptable.
Colour: Coloured figures will appear in colour
in the electronic verison of a published paper, as posted on the Elsevier website. For the printed journal version, however, authors
will be charges for the additional cost of printing figures in colour. 100 additional free offprints will be supplied in the case of
paid colour. Full details are available from Author Services.
Tables: Tables should be numbered consecutively and given a
suitable caption and each table typed on a separate sheet. Footnotes to tables should be typed below the table and should be referred
to by superscript lower-case letters.
Biographies: A short biography and passport-style photograph of every author should
be provided for Survey Papers, Papers and Brief Papers when requested by the Editor.
Proofs
Proofs will be sent to the author
(first named author of multi-authored papers if no corresponding author is identified) and should be returned within 48 hours of receipt.
Corrections should be restricted to typesetting errors; any others may be charged to the author. Any queries should be answered in full.
Offprints
Twenty-five offprints will be supplied free of charge. Offprints and copies of the issue can be ordered using the
order form sent to the corresponding author after the manuscript has been accepted.
Copyright
All authors must sign the Transfer
of Copyright Agreement before the article can be published. This transfer agreement enables Elsevier Ltd to protect the copyrighted material
for the authors, without affecting the authors' proprietary rights. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and
distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microfilm or any other reproductions of similar nature and translations,
and includes the right to adapt the article for use in conjunction with computer systems and programs, including reproduction or publication
in machine-readable form and incorporation in retrieval systems. Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder
permission to reproduce any figures or other material included in the paper for which copyright already exists.
Disposal of Scripts
All material submitted by postal mail, including the authors' photographs, will be discarded one month after publication unless the
publisher is requested to return the original material to the author.
Author Enquiries
For enquiries relating to the submission
of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal's homepage at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/automatica.
You can track accepted articles at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an
article's status has changed, as well as copyright information, frequently asked questions and more.
Contact details for questions
arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided when an article is accepted for publication.
