and Electronic Commerce

(1) Papers for publication should be submitted via the Web. Please go to www.elsevier.com/locate/dsssubmit and follow the instructions.

(2) Papers submitted should consist of original research, not published previously, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. If accepted the paper should not be published elsewhere, in English, or in any other language, without the written consent of the publisher. Contributions should contain nothing of a libellous or scandalous character.

Authors planning to submit papers to the journal should ensure that their work is relevant to the topics normally considered to be part of the field of decision support systems.

(3) All submissions are reviewed by a panel of independent experts who may accept or reject the articles, or suggest modifications. The language of publication and for the submission of typescripts is English. Authors are encouraged to obtain assistance in the editing of their papers for proper use of English prior to submission. When submitting authors should suggest three possible reviewers who are familiar with the area of research represented in the submitted paper and who are not directly connected with the authors. Please provide complete contact information including email address for those you suggest.

(4) The editor and publisher assume no responsibility for and make no claims concerning the original authorship of any material published, nor do they necessarily subscribe to the theories, methods or opinions expressed. It is the author's responsibility to secure permission for quoting from external sources.

(5) The submission should contain the following information (i) the title; (ii) the name(s) and institutional affiliation(s) of the author(s); (iii) an abstract of not more than 100 words and keywords. Please note that abstract and keywords are compulsory items. Furthermore, it is strongly recommended to include biographical note(s) and photograph(s) of the author(s). The submission must not exceed 34 pages, including abstract, keywords, tables, figures, all references and appendices, and should be typed double-spaced throughout with one-inch margins and using 11 point font. All pages should be numbered consecutively. Tables, figures and legends for figures should be on separate pages at the end of the paper. Titles and subtitles should be short. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

(6) Acknowledgements and information on grants received can be given before the References or in a first footnote, which should not be included in the consecutive numbering of footnotes.

(7) Important formulae (displayed) should be numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript as (1), (2), etc., on the right-hand side of the page. Where the derivation of formulae has been abbreviated, it is of great help to referees if the full derivation can be presented on a separate sheet (not to be published).

(8) References to the literature should be indicated by arabic numerals enclosed in square brackets. Specific identification of the applicable parts of the reference, e.g. page numbers, equation numbers, etc., may be included within the brackets. If possible, avoid mentioning author's names. In the list of references, items should be listed alphabetically and numbered consecutively (in square brackets); initials should precede the family names.

For material using the Latin alphabet, titles should be given in the original language. Titles using Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, etc., characters in the original should be transliterated.

The following are examples of different types of references. Please pay special attention to punctuation and capitalization.

For a monograph:

[1] R.W. Hartenstein, Fundamentals of Structured Hardware Design (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1977).

For a paper in a journal:

[2] R.A. Beauclair and A.H. van de Ven, A Group Process Model, Journal of Behavioral Sciences 7(3) (1971).

For a paper in a contributed volume:

[3] G. Chroust, Orthogonal Extensions in Microprogrammed Multiprocessor Systems, in: G. Chroust and J.R. Muhlbacher, Eds., Firmware, Microprogramming and Restructurable Hardware, Ch. 2 (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1980).

For an unpublished paper:

[4] P.T. Wilkinson, Link Protocols for Packet-Switching Networks, NPL Report COM 78 (Feb. 1975).

(9) Footnotes should be avoided where possible. Try to incorporate footnote material into the text, e.g. parenthetically or as a "remark" or "note".

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(11) All unessential tables should be eliminated from the manuscript. Tables should be numbered consecutively in the text in arabic numerals. Any manuscript which does not conform to the above instructions may be returned for the necessary revision before it is entered in the reviewing procedure.

(12) Reprints: The corresponding author will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. This PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use.