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DISCRETE MATHEMATICS

Guide for Authors

Online submission to the journal prior to acceptance
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article. Via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com/) you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail through the Elsevier Editorial System.

Types of submissions

Contribution - Full length original research article of more than 6 journal pages, or about 9 full pages of a typical manuscript.
Note- A short self-contained original research article of not more than 6 journal pages, or about 9 full pages of a typical manuscript.
Corrigendum- Concise correction to article of the same author published in the journal. The full publication data of the original paper should be included. ScienceDirect will provide a link to the Erratum in the original article.
Perspectives - Expository articles of broad interest that cast a new light on well-known or insufficiently-known topics, including survey papers and papers that present the authors' unifying points of view on problems, trends, or methods. Perspectives papers are intended to be accessible to a broad cross-section of the readership.
Research problems - Statements of open problems in discrete mathematics, with background, motivation, and references, occupying at most one journal page. Please follow the format used in recent Research Problem items in the journal.

Preparation of text
It is essential to give an e-mail address when submitting a manuscript. Articles must be written in standard English.
Language editing. For language editing services, please see External link http://www.elsevier.com/locate/languagepolishing
LaTeX documents. Please click here for the Elsevier LaTeX package (including detailed instructions for LaTeX preparation).
The Elsevier LaTeX package (including detailed instructions for LaTeX preparation) can be obtained from: External link http://www.elsevier.com/latex. The site consists of the files: elsart.cls, guidelines for users of elsart, a template file for quick start, and the instruction booklet "Preparing articles with LaTeX".

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. Do not use all capital letters for the title.
Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this with a note of explanation. Present the Authors' permanent addresses below the names. 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 the corresponding author will be. Ensure that telephone numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.
Permanent address. The Author's permanent address must be retained as the main address. Acknowledgments of previous addresses at which work was completed may be indicated as a footnote to the Author's name.
Abstract. A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state the problem studied and the principal results proven. It is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone and should not cite items from the bibliography by number.
Keywords. Please include 2 to 6 keywords with your article. Keywords will be assembled in a keyword index printed in the last issue of each volume and in cumulative indexes, and they will make your article more widely available through online keyword searches. Please use the following guidelines in choosing keywords.
  • Each keyword (which can be a phrase) should describe a specific concept. Avoid words like "and" or "of" and generalities (like "graph", "mathematics", and "optimization") that become meaningless in a list of many keywords.
  • Choose keywords that outline the article as a whole.
  • Do not imbed commas in keywords; separate them by semicolons.
  • Use natural language: for instance "automatic error recovery" rather than "error recovery, automatic".
  • Use nouns and adjectives rather than verb forms (for example, "proper coloring" rather than "coloring properly"). Do not use plural nouns.
  • Avoid abbreviations except when the abbreviation is so well-established that the full term is rarely used (e.g. use "laser" instead of "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation", but use "computer aided design" instead of "CAD").


References. Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the Authors. Text: Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual Authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given. Example: "..... as demonstrated [3,6]. Barnaby and Jones [8] obtained a different result ...." List: Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in alphabetical order by the first listed author's last name.
Examples:
  1. Reference to a journal publication:
    J. van der Geer, J.A.J. Hanraads, R.A. Lupton, The art of writing a scientific article, J. Sci. Commun. 163 (2000) 51-59.
  2. Reference to a book:
    W. Strunk Jr., E.B. White, The Elements of Style, third ed., Macmillan, New York, 1979.
  3. Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
    G.R. Mettam, L.B. Adams, How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: B.S. Jones, R.Z. Smith (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age, E-Publishing Inc., New York, 1999, pp. 281-304.


Preparation of electronic illustrations

General points

  • 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, Computer Modern, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: External link http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions

General

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.
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright see External link 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 Elsevier's Rights Department, Oxford, UK: phone (+44) 1865 843830, fax (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail permissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage (External link http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

Authors' rights. As an author you (or your employer or institution) may do the following:
  • make copies (print or electronic) of the article for your own personal use, including for your own classroom teaching use
  • make copies and distribute such copies (including through e-mail) of the article to research colleagues, for the personal use by such colleagues (but not commercially or systematically, e.g., via an e-mail list or list server)
  • post a pre-print version of the article on Internet websites including electronic pre-print servers, and to retain indefinitely such version on such servers or sites
  • post a revised personal version of the final text of the article (to reflect changes made in the peer review and editing process) on your personal or institutional website or server, with a link to the journal homepage (on elsevier.com)
  • present the article at a meeting or conference and to distribute copies of the article to the delegates attending such a meeting
  • for your employer, if the article is a 'work for hire', made within the scope of your employment, your employer may use all or part of the information in the article for other intra-company use (e.g., training)
  • retain patent and trademark rights and rights to any processes or procedure described in the article
  • include the article in full or in part in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be published commercially)
  • use the article or any part thereof in a printed compilation of your works, such as collected writings or lecture notes (subsequent to publication of your article in the journal)
  • prepare other derivative works, to extend the article into book-length form, or to otherwise re-use portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the journal


Digital Object Identifier. The digital object identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information.
The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as: doi:10.1016/j.dam.2003.10.271.
When the DOI is used to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

Author benefits
No page charges. Publishing in Discrete Mathematics is free.
Free offprints. The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. The 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.
Discount. Contributors to Elsevier journals are entitled to a 30% discount on all Elsevier books.
ScienceDirect The published article will be available via ScienceDirect.

Author enquiries
For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit the journal's website at External link http://www.elsevier.com/locate/disc. The site also provides the facility to track accepted articles and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed, as well as detailed artwork guidelines, copyright information, frequently asked questions and more.
Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided after registration of an article for publication.

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