A publication of the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP) and of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA)

Submission of Manuscripts
Authors are encouraged to submit their papers electronically by using online manuscript submission available from http://ees.elsevier.com/specom. This site will guide you stepwise through the submission process. Authors can upload their article as a LaTeX, Microsoft® (MS) Word® or WordPerfect® file. It is also possible to submit an article in PostScript or Adobe® Acrobat® PDF format, but if the article is accepted it will be necessary to send in the original source files. If you submit a word processor file, the system generates an Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used for the reviewing process. Authors, Reviewers and Editors send and receive all correspondence by e-mail and no paper correspondence is necessary.

Authors who have a preference for one of the three editors to handle the review of their paper are requested to indicate their choice. While assigning submissions to Editors, the preference of the author will be taken into account as well as the areas of interest of the Editors and their workloads.

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and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.

Authors are requested to indicate if their work was presented at a conference, and to provide details in a footnote.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer 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, which can be obtained from http://www.elsevier.com/authors.

Preparation of Manuscripts
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these. Use decimal points (not commas); use a space for thousands (10 000 and above).

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 correct 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. 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 3-5 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. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations. Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field at their first occurrence in the article: in the abstract but also in the main text after it. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Subdivision of the article. After the abstract, 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.

Appendices. If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: (Eq. A.1), (Eq. A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, (Eq. B.1) and so forth.

Acknowledgements. Place acknowledgements before the references, in a separate section, and not as a footnote on the title page.

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: All citations in the text should refer to:

• Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
• Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;
• Three or more authors: first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication.

Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.

Examples: "as demonstrated (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1995). Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...."

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:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2000. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51-59.

Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 1979. The Elements of Style, third ed. Macmillan, New York.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B. , 1999. How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age, E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281-304.

Artwork
Submitting your illustrations, pictures, tables and other 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. For detailed guidelines on electronic figures, please refer to the 'artwork instructions' at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. This site shows how to prepare your artwork for electronic submission and includes: common problems, suggestions on how to ensure the best results, and guidelines for popular applications. See the links under Creating your Artwork for details about using specific artwork software.

Reproduction of colour
Submit colour illustrations as original photographs, high-quality computer prints or transparencies, close to the size expected in publication, or as 35 mm slides. Polaroid colour prints are not suitable. 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) 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://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
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 prints corresponding to all the colour illustrations.

LaTeX documents
If the LaTeX file is suitable, proofs will be produced without rekeying the text. The article should preferably be written using Elsevier's document class 'elsart', or alternatively the standard document class 'article'.

The Elsevier LaTeX package (including detailed instructions for LaTeX preparation) can be obtained from: http://www.elsevier.com/latex. It consists of the files: elsart.cls (use this file if you are using LaTeX2e, the current version of LaTeX), elsart.sty and elsart12.sty (use these two files if you are using LaTeX2.09, the previous version of LaTeX), guidelines for users of elsart, a template file for quick start, and the instruction booklet "Preparing articles with LaTeX".

Reviewing policy
All submissions are sent to at least two anonymous referees and will only be accepted on the basis of stringent peer review.

Proofs
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.

Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are returned to us in one all-inclusive email or fax. Subsequent additional corrections will not be possible, so please ensure that your first communication is complete.

The Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated to the Publisher within the term requested with the proofs (within 48 hours). Should there be no corrections, please confirm this.

Author enquiries
For enquiries relating to manuscript preparation and submission, please refer to http://www.elsevier.com/authors. This site will also provide status information during review and, after acceptance, production of your article. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those related to proofs, will be provided when your article is accepted for publication.

Author benefits
The principal author will receive 25 offprints of the paper free of charge. Extra copies can be ordered when proofs are returned.

Authors are entitled to a 30% discount on Elsevier books.

Page charges are not applicable.

Accepted articles will be available on average four week after acceptance at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/aip/01676393.

Publication information
Speech Communication (ISSN 0167-6393). Subscription prices are available upon request from the Publisher or from the Regional Sales Office nearest you or from this journal's website: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/specom. Further information is available on this journal and other Elsevier products through Elsevier's website: http://www.elsevier.com. Subscriptions are accepted on a prepaid basis only and are entered on a calendar year basis. Issues are sent by standard mail (surface within Europe, air delivery outside Europe). Priority rates are available upon request. Claims for missing issues should be made within six months of the date of dispatch.