Guide for Authors

JCSS Guide for Authors -
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Ethics in Publishing - Conflict of interest - Submission declaration - Contributors - Copyright - Retained author rights - Role of the funding source - Funding body agreements and policies - Language and language services - Submission - -
PREPARATION
Use of wordprocessing software - LaTeX - Style - Vitae - Essential title page information - - - - - Electronic artwork - Figures - Color artwork - - Tables - References - Citation in text - Web references - References in a special issue - Reference style - Journal abbreviations source - Submission checklist
AFTER ACCEPTANCE
Use of the Digital Object Identifier - Proofs - Offprints
AUTHOR INQUIRIES


JCSS Guide for Authors

JCSS Guide for Authors

The Journal of Computer and System Sciences (JCSS) publishes original research papers on computer science and system science, with emphasis on the relevant mathematical theory and its applications. Among the subject areas covered by JCSS are classical traditional subjects like computability theory, theory of algorithms, formal language theory and abstract automata theory. Contemporary and modern subject areas covered include complexity theory, parameterized complexity, database theory and practice, parallel and distributed computing, computational learning theory, cellular automata and abstract systems, computer security and cryptography, computer networks, and computational biology/genomics.
For the most expeditious review of a paper in any of these varied areas authors are advised to submit the paper directly to the managing Editor, E.K. Blum (see below) or to a pertinent Area Editor listed below. Submission by email with an attached text or pdf file (see preparation of manuscripts below for details) is recommended. To assure proper handling and login, especially for papers where the subject area is not clearly determined, each email submission should be cc'd to the Managing Editor as listed below.

Managing Editor
Edward K. Blum: blum@usc.edu

Complexity Theory Area Editors
Jin-Yi Cai: jyc@cs.wisc.edu
Alan Selman: selman@cs.buffalo.edu
Ramamohan Paturi: paturi@cs.ucsd.edu
William Gasarch: gasarch@cs.umd.edu

Database Area Editors
Ronald Fagin: fagin@almaden.ibm.com
Georg Gottlob: org.gottlob@comlab.ox.ac.uk
Michael Benedikt: @comlab.ox.ac.uk

Computability, Automata and Formal Languages Area Editors
Alfred V. Aho aho@cs.columbia.edu
Mihalis Yannakakis mihalis@cs.columbia.edu
Joel Seiferas seiferas@rochester.edu

Computer Networks Area Editors
Fan Chung Graham: fan@ucsd.edu
Edith Cohen: edith@research.att.com

Computational Learning Theory Area Editors
Sally Goldman: sg@cs.wustl.edu
Sanjoy Dasgupta: dasgupta@cs.ucsd.edu

Parallel and Distributed Computing Area Editors
Christian Scheideler: scheideler@in.tim.de
Michael Goodrich: goodrich@cs.umd.edu

Fuzzy Computing Area Editor
Lotfi Zadeh: zadeh@cs.berkeley.edu

Computer Security/Cryptography Editor
Wayne Raskind: raskind@usc.edu

Computational Biology Area Editor
Ming Li: mli@cs.uwaterloo.ca

Quantum Computing Area Editor
Todd Brun: brun@usc.edu
The purpose of the Journal of Computer and System Sciences is to publish original research papers in computer science and system science, with emphasis on the relevant mathematical theory and its applications. Papers may deal with such subjects as automata theory, databases, complexity, computational learning theory, parallel computation, quantum computation, computational biology, computer network algorithms, cryptography and computer/communication security, theory of formal languages and formal systems, theory of algorithms, computer programming theory, mathematical theory of systems (discrete or continuous, deterministic or stochastic), optimization of systems, mathematical programming, computational biology and genomics, and applications of mathematics to the study of complex systems.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

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 in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

Contributors

Each author is required to declare his or her individual contribution to the article: all authors must have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should be described. The statement that all authors have approved the final article should be true and included in the disclosure.

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.

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/funding.

Funding body agreements and policies

Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.

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://www.elsevier.com/languagepolishing or our customer support site at http://epsupport.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 & Conditions: http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions.

Submission

Submission to this journal proceeds totally online and you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of your files. The system automatically converts source files to a single PDF file of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF files 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 removing the need for a paper trail.
Electronic submission of manuscripts is accepted. Manuscripts must be written in clear, concise, and grammatical English and should be submitted in duplicate to:

Professor Edward. K. Blum, Managing Editor
Journal of Computer and System Sciences
Mathematics Department
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
Telephone: (213) 740-2391
Fax: (213) 740-2424
E-mail: blum@pollux.usc.edu

Editorial Assistant: Chaunte Williams
Telephone: (213) 740-2400
Fax: (213) 740-2424
E-mail: cwill@math.usc.edu

There are no submission fees or page charges. Each manuscript should be accompanied by a letter outlining the basic findings of the paper and their significance.
Articles and any other material published in the Journal of Computer and System Sciences represent the opinions of the authors and should not be construed to reflect the opinions of the Editor(s) or the Publisher.

PREPARATION

Use of wordprocessing software

It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. Do not embed "graphically designed" equations or tables, but prepare these using the wordprocessor's facility. 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. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier: http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication). Do not import the figures into the text file but, instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic text and on the manuscript. See also the section on Electronic illustrations.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the "spell-check" and "grammar-check" functions of your wordprocessor.

LaTeX

Authors are strongly encouraged to use the LaTeX template available at http://www.authors.elsevier.com/latex for manuscript preparation. Note that the extensive use of custom macro may necessitate conventional typesetting from the hard-copy manuscript. Hard-copy printouts of the manuscript and art that exactly match the electronic file must be supplied. The manuscript will be edited according to the style of the journal, and authors must read the proofs carefully.

Style

Manuscripts should be prepared according to the following style rules. Deviation from these rules causes publication delays. Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout on one side of 8.5 x 11-inch or A4 white paper. Number all pages consecutively and organize the paper as follows.

Vitae

Include in the manuscript a short (maximum 100 words) biography of each author, along with a passport-type photograph accompanying the other figures.

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.
• 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.

This page should contain the article title, authors' names and complete affiliations, footnotes to the title, and the address for manuscript correspondence (including e-mail address and telephone and fax numbers).
The abstract must be a single paragraph that summarizes the main findings of the paper in less than 150 words.
After the abstract a list of up to 10 keywords that will be useful for indexing or searching should be included.
In text, footnotes should be avoided. If absolutely necessary, identify them by superscript Arabic numerals in order of their appearance and type them together on a separate page, double-spaced.

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 embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation) document;
• 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.

Figures

Figures should be in a finished form suitable for publication. Number figures with Arabic numerals, and indicate the top and the authors on the back of each figure. Lettering on drawings should be professional quality or generated by high-resolution computer graphics and must be large enough to withstand appropriate reduction for publication. Figures should not be embedded in the text. Digital artwork of at least 300 dpi resolution is accepted in eps or TIFF formats. Please visit our Web site at http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork for detailed instructions on preparing electronic artwork.

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.
Type all legends consecutively on a separate sheet.

Tables

Number tables consecutively with Arabic numerals in order of appearance in text. Type each table double-spaced on a separate pages with a short descriptive title directly above and essential footnotes below. Authors should submit complex tables as camera-ready copy.

Numbers for displayed equations should be placed in parentheses at the right margin. References to equations should use the form "Eq. (3)" or simply "(3)".

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. 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.

References in a special issue

Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.

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 (2000) 51-59.
Reference to a book:
[2] W. Strunk Jr., E.B. White, The Elements of Style, third ed., Macmillan, New York, 1979.
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, 1999, pp. 281-304.

Journal abbreviations source

Journal names should be abbreviated according to
Index Medicus journal abbreviations: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of serial title word abbreviations: http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service): http://www.cas.org/sent.html.

Submission checklist

It is hoped that this list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal's Editor for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are present:
One Author designated as corresponding Author:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been "spellchecked" 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://epsupport.elsevier.com.

AFTER ACCEPTANCE

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.2003.10.071
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

Proofs

One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Elsevier now provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 (or higher) available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online). The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return them to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

Offprints

The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. 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. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.

AUTHOR INQUIRIES

For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal's homepage. 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. Also accessible from here is information on copyright, frequently asked questions and more. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher.