Guide for Authors
Types of contributions
Integration's
aim is to cover every aspect of the VLSI area, with an emphasis on cross-fertilization between various fields of science, and the design,
verification, test and applications of integrated circuits and systems, as well as closely related topics in process and device technologies.
Individual issues will feature peer-reviewed tutorials and articles as well as reviews of recent publications. The intended coverage
of the journal can be assessed by examining the following(non-exclusive) list of topics:
Specification methods and languages; Analog/Digital
Integrated Circuits and Systems; VLSI architectures; Algorithms, methods and tools for modeling, simulation, synthesis and verification
of integrated circuits and systems of any complexity; Embedded systems; High-level synthesis for VLSI systems; Logic synthesis and finite
automata; Testing, design-for-test and test generation algorithms; Physical design; Formal verification; Algorithms implemented in VLSI
systems; Systems engineering; Heterogeneous systems.
Original research papers and special issue papers can be submitted. For special
issues, check that the submission is completed before the issue deadline. Review articles may also be published at intervals, but the
subject and content of the latter should first be discussed with the Editor.
Ethics in publishing
For information on Ethics in publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication
see
http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and
http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.
Conflict of interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including
any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work
that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Submission declaration
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carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any
other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
Submission declaration and verification
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, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originality detection software iThenticate. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/editors/plagdetect.
Changes to authorship
This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the
authorship of accepted manuscripts:
Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove
an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript
and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail,
fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors,
this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded
by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers
will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until
authorship has been agreed.
After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or
rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.
Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement'
(for more information on this and copyright see
http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure
the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript
together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce
tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of
the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations
and translations (please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions). 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: please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Retained
author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Language and language services
Please
write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who require information
about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit
http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageservices or our customer support site at
http://support.elsevier.com for more information.
Full online submission
All
manuscripts and any supplementary material should be submitted via the journal's online submission and peer-review systems at
http://ees.elsevier.com/vlsi.
Please follow the instructions given on this site. 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 and via the author's homepage.
IMPORTANT
NOTE: In case you submit a special issue paper that will be handled by a designated Special Issue Guest Editor, please follow the instructions
below:
1. Author registers in EES (follow the instructions on the site)
2. Select: Submit Manuscript from Main Menu
3. When
choosing Article Type please select the title of the special issue you are submitting to
From then on follow the steps as laid out
in EES. The manuscript is submitted to the Editorial Office who then assigns it to the Guest Editor in charge of that specific special
issue.
Referees
Please submit, with the manuscript, the names, addresses and e-mail addresses
of up to 5 potential referees. Note that the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used.
Use of Word Processing Software
It is important that the file be
saved in the native format of the word processor used. The main text should be in double-column format (89mm width and 243mm length per
column). Use single-spaced lines for main text. Use 10pt font for normal text. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. When
preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid
is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the "spell-check" and
"grammar-check" functions of your word processor.
Article structure
Essential
title page information
•
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 will 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. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding
author.
•
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 100
words). The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often
presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone.
Keywords
Important
Notice: please add three to five keywords to your article. Keywords are essential for the accessibility and retrievability of your article.
It is planned to make keywords available on Internet. To maximize the consistency with which such keywords are assigned by different
authors, the following guidelines have been drawn up.
•Each keyword (which can be a phrase of more than one word) should describe
one single concept. Often words like "and" or "of" should be avoided.
•Avoid very general keywords which become meaningless
once in a keyword list. Examples to avoid are "action", "computer", "mathematics". Check whether the keywords as a whole describe the
outlines of the article.
•Try to use nouns and adjectives as much as possible (i.e. use "automatic error recovery" rather than
"recovering errors automatically"). Do not use nouns in the plural form.
•Use English rather than American spelling (regardless
of the spelling used for the article itself).
•Avoid the use of abbreviations as much as possible, unless an 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").
Subdivision - numbered sections
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
Conclusions
The
main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion
or Results and Discussion section.
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 on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.
Acknowledgements
Collate
acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title
page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language
help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).
References
Citation
in 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 are not recommended in the reference
list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference
style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'.
Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.
Web references
As
a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, 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.
Reference
style
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 the order in which they
appear in the text.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
[1] J. van der Geer, J.A.J. Hanraads, R.A. Lupton,
The art of writing a scientific article, J. Sci. Commun. 163 (2010) 51–59.
Reference to a book:
[2] W. Strunk Jr., E.B.
White, The Elements of Style, fourth ed., Longman, New York, 2000.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] 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, 2009, pp. 281–304.
Vitae
Include in the manuscript a
short (maximum 100 words) biography of each author, along with a passport-type photograph accompanying the other figures.
Artwork
Electronic artwork
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, Courier, Times, Symbol.
• Number the illustrations according to their
sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions to illustrations
separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
• Submit each figure as a separate file.
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
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: color or grayscale 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 (color or grayscale): 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 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.
Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable
format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color
figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and
other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version.
For color reproduction
in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate
your preference for color in print or on the Web only. 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 color figures to "gray scale" (for the printed version
should you not opt for color in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the color illustrations.
Submission checklist
The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending
it to the journal for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following
items are present:
One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded, and contain:
•
Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
•
Manuscript has been 'spell-checked' and 'grammar-checked'
• References are in the correct format for this journal
•
All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use
of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)
• Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color
reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print, or to be reproduced in color on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white
in print
• If only color on the Web is required, black-and-white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes
For any further information please visit our customer support site at
http://support.elsevier.com.
Use of the 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 follows (example taken from
a document in the journal
Physics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2010.09.059
When you use the DOI to create URL
hyperlinks to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.
Proofs
Please
make sure that the paper is submitted in its final form.
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
No page
charge is due.
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. For an extra charge,
paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. 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.
For inquiries relating to the submission of
articles (including electronic submission) please visit this journal's homepage. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance
of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher. You can track accepted articles at
http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle.
You can also check our Author FAQs (
http://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ) and/or contact Customer Support via
http://support.elsevier.com.
