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To Submit a Manuscript to IP&M

All IP&M submissions are managed through the Editor Manager system that guides you stepwise through the process of entering your manuscript details and uploading your files. The system converts your article files to a single PDF file used in the peer-review process. Editable files (e.g., Word, LaTeX) are required to typeset your article for final publication. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor-in-Chief's decision and requests for revision, is sent by email. You will need to use the system to submit your manuscript.

Please read all of the material on this page before submitting your manuscript.

Is IP&M the Right Place to Publish Your Work?

IP&M is committed to being the premier journal in the information science field, including computational science, analytics, social media computing, information retrieval, information behavior, and related areas. This scope includes human computer interaction (HCI) aspects of any area in the information science field.

We, therefore, welcome a broad range of submissions of original work in the information science field. If you have original relevant results that convey something important, the IP&M community members want to read about your research. If you are not familiar with IP&M, you probably should read the IP&M scope.

If you are still uncertain, you are welcome to examine published articles IP&M. Such a review will give you an idea of whether or not your submission is in scope for IP&M.

The Editor-in-Chief will make the final determination of the acceptability of any submission.

IP&M Graduate Student Awards

IP&M offers two graduate student manuscript awards, which are the Master Degree Paper Awards by Information Processing and Management (IP&M) and the Ph.D. Paper Awards by Information Processing and Management (IP&M).

Desk Check and Peer Review

The Editor-in-Chief will assess all submissions for suitability for IP&M and may return a submission to the author for revising. Manuscripts deemed suitable are sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the manuscript.

IP&M operates a single-blind review process (i.e., authors are disclosed to the reviewers; reviewers are not disclosed to the authors). More information on types of peer review.

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles.

Some guidelines for IP&M submissions are:

  • Language: Manuscripts must be written in English (American or British usage is accepted). Authors who believe their English language manuscript requires editing may wish to use the English Language Editing Service.
  • Page Limit: There is no set upper page limit, but please consider the comfort of your readers. Submitted manuscripts are typically 30 or so pages doubled spaced at 11 pt. font, plus reference pages. There generally are at least 30 to 40 references, often more. Consider this a guideline.
  • Prior Publication Policy: IP&M publishes only original research papers that have not been previously published. However, IP&M encourages authors of articles published in English at conferences to submit enhanced versions for publication in IP&M. IP&M acknowledges that there may be benefits for the publishing of research previously published in a non-English outlet, so enhanced versions of these many be submitted. IP&M, in general, will not accept the submission of an identical or nearly identical manuscript posted on a publically accessible archiving site (e.g., arXiv.org, etc.).
  • Simultaneous submissions: Simultaneous submissions are not allowed. Your work must not, wholly or in part, be under consideration at other venues (conference, journals, book chapters, etc.) at the time of submission to IP&M.
  • Statistics Format: When reporting statistics, authors must provide sufficient information such that the reader can validate the analysis. Authors are referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition.
  • References Format: Although not required for initial submissions to IP&M, citations in accepted articles should follow the referencing style used by the American Psychological Association. Authors are referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition. Whatever reference style used in the initial submission, ensure references are complete, and style is consistent.
  • Survey/Review Articles: Survey manuscripts must address a broad topic in the field, be the result of a rigorous research identification methodology (either scoping or systematic), outline the state of the field, be able to differentiate from other similar review articles already published, and provide recommendations for future research. Typically, survey manuscripts cover a new or novel topic in the field.

Suggestions for Your Submission

Here are some suggestions to facilitate your submissions clearing desk review.
  • Title: The title should clearly express what the research in the manuscript is about.
  • Abstract: The abstract should highlight the specifics of the research or findings (i.e., provide some numbers, metrics, specifics, etc.).
  • Literature Review: Ensure you are citing the most current and relevant research in the field. The literature review also needs to tie your research to the information science community. The literature review should not just list related papers but should make clear how and why your results build on prior work. IP&M welcomes interdisciplinary papers that draw links to other literature, but submissions that are unable to cite relevant information science research might not be within the scope of IP&M
  • Research Questions/Objectives: There needs to be an explicit research question(s) / objective(s) stated, preferably as a separate section.
  • Dataset(s) and Methods: If you employ dataset(s), provide justification on why the dataset(s) is appropriate. For methods and analysis, provide justification for usage. If claiming an advancement of an algorithmic process, include a legitimate baseline for comparison employing a Gold Standard test set, if available.
  • Implications: The manuscript should contain an explicit discussion section clearly highlighting the theoretical and/or practical implications of the research.
  • References: Do not cite 'preprints', 'working papers', 'tech reports', etc. if actual peer-reviewed articles are available.

Your Paper Your Way

The only formatting requirement for your initial manuscript to IP&M is that it be single columned to facilitate the review. Only if your manuscript is at the revision stage, will you be requested to put your manuscript into a specified format and provide the items required for the publication of your manuscript. However, we encourage authors to examine published IP&M articles to facilitate the conversion that will be necessary if accepted.

If you wish, IP&M has templates in both Word and LaTeX formats, to aid with submissions. The templates can be found at:

Word: Use the IP&M Word Template

LaTeX: Use the IP&M LaTeX Template

Overleaf: Use the IP&M Overleaf Template

You can also see the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier.

Submission Checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before submitting to IP&M.

A submission to IP&M entails the following items:

  • Cover Letter: If your submission is based on prior published research, the cover letter is the reasonable medium to fully disclose the previous publication(s) of the manuscript or any portion of the manuscript and the level of copyright.
  • Recommended Reviewers: Authors are required to recommend at least 5 international reviewers from a mixture of countries and institutions. These recommended reviewers must be published in the research area, with no conflicts. Authors must provide institutions, institution email addresses, and reasons for recommending. Note: There is a possibility that IP&M may have to reject your manuscript if we are unable to find enough reviewers after a reasonable period.
  • Title Page: With the title, author names, and affiliations. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and the e-mail address of each author. Indicate who is the corresponding author.
  • Highlights: Highlights consist of a short collection of bullet points that capture the novel results of your research. Please have a look at the examples here: example Highlights. Highlights should include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point).
  • Manuscript: The manuscript must include a maximum of 6 keywords, all figures (including relevant captions), all tables (including titles, description, footnotes). Authors are required to obtain a copyright for material within their submission. Ensure the manuscript has been spell-checked and grammar-checked. Ensure all references mentioned in the reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa.
  • Competing Interests Statement: A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare.
  • Author contributions: For transparency, authors are to submit an author statement file outlining their contributions to the paper using the relevant CRediT roles: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; Writing - review & editing. Authorship statements should be formatted with the names of authors first and CRediT role(s) following. More details and an example.

Optional Submission Items

  • Supplementary material (optional): Supplementary material can be published with your article to enhance it. Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received (Excel or PowerPoint files will appear as such online). Please submit your material together with the article and supply a concise, descriptive caption for each supplementary file. If you wish to make changes to supplementary material during any stage of the process, please make sure to provide an updated file. Do not annotate any corrections on a previous version. Please accept all 'Track Changes' in Microsoft Office files as these will appear in the published version.
  • Data visualization (optional): Include interactive data visualizations in your publication and let your readers interact and engage more closely with your research. Follow the instructions to find out about available data visualization options and how to include them with your article.
  • Research data (optional): IP&M encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings. To facilitate reproducibility and data reuse, IP&M also encourages you to share your software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods, and other useful materials related to the project.

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, a published lecture or academic thesis, see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information), 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 service Crossref Similarity Check.

Ethics in Publishing

Please see our information pages on Ethics in publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication.

Use of Inclusive Language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Articles should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, should contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of race, sex, culture, or any other characteristic, and should use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, for instance by using 'he or she', 'his/her' instead of 'he' or 'his', and by making use of job titles that are free of stereotyping (e.g. 'chairperson' instead of 'chairman' and 'flight attendant' instead of 'stewardess').

Changes to Authorship

Authors are expected to consider the list and order of authors carefully before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, 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.

Article Transfer Service

IP&M is part of our Article Transfer Service. This means that if the Editor feels your article is more suitable in one of our other participating journals, then you may be asked to consider transferring the article to one of those. If you agree, your article will be transferred automatically on your behalf with no need to reformat. Please note that your article will be reviewed again by the new journal. More information.

After Acceptance ? Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (see more information on this). 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. 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. For gold open access articles: Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete an 'Exclusive License Agreement' (more information). Permitted third party reuse of gold open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license.

After Acceptance ? Author Rights

As an author, you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. More information. Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals.

After Acceptance Open access

Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal.

After Acceptance ? Online Proof Correction

To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors.

If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF.

We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. 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. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as the inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

After Acceptance Off Prints

The corresponding author will, at no cost, receive a customized Share Link providing 50 days free access to the final published version of the article on ScienceDirect. The Share Link can be used for sharing the article via any communication channel, including email and social media. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form, which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Corresponding authors who have published their article gold open access do not receive a Share Link as their final published version of the article is available open access on ScienceDirect and can be shared through the article DOI link.

Author Inquiries

For further information, you can visit our Support Center. Here you will find everything from Frequently Asked Questions to ways to get in touch.

You can also check the status of your submitted article or find out when your accepted article will be published.

Elsevier Researcher Academy

Researcher Academy is a free e-learning platform designed to support early and mid-career researchers throughout their research journey. The "Learn" environment at Researcher Academy offers several interactive modules, webinars, downloadable guides, and resources to guide you through the process of writing for research and going through peer review. Feel free to use these free resources to improve your submission and navigate the publication process with ease.

Reporting sex- and gender-based analyses

Reporting guidance
For research involving or pertaining to humans, animals or eukaryotic cells, investigators should integrate sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA) into their research design according to funder/sponsor requirements and best practices within a field. Authors should address the sex and/or gender dimensions of their research in their article. In cases where they cannot, they should discuss this as a limitation to their research's generalizability. Importantly, authors should explicitly state what definitions of sex and/or gender they are applying to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of their research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer (see Definitions section below). Authors can refer to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist. These offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting and research interpretation - however, please note there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender.

Definitions
Sex generally refers to a set of biological attributes that are associated with physical and physiological features (e.g., chromosomal genotype, hormonal levels, internal and external anatomy). A binary sex categorization (male/female) is usually designated at birth (""sex assigned at birth""), most often based solely on the visible external anatomy of a newborn. Gender generally refers to socially constructed roles, behaviors, and identities of women, men and gender-diverse people that occur in a historical and cultural context and may vary across societies and over time. Gender influences how people view themselves and each other, how they behave and interact and how power is distributed in society. Sex and gender are often incorrectly portrayed as binary (female/male or woman/man) and unchanging whereas these constructs actually exist along a spectrum and include additional sex categorizations and gender identities such as people who are intersex/have differences of sex development (DSD) or identify as non-binary. Moreover, the terms ""sex"" and ""gender"" can be ambiguous—thus it is important for authors to define the manner in which they are used. In addition to this definition guidance and the SAGER guidelines, the resources on this page offer further insight around sex and gender in research studies.

Author contributions

For transparency, we require corresponding authors to provide co-author contributions to the manuscript using the relevant CRediT roles. The CRediT taxonomy includes 14 different roles describing each contributor’s specific contribution to the scholarly output. The roles are: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; and Writing - review & editing. Note that not all roles may apply to every manuscript, and authors may have contributed through multiple roles. More details and an example.

Article transfer service
This journal uses the Elsevier Article Transfer Service to find the best home for your manuscript. This means that if an editor feels your manuscript is more suitable for an alternative journal, you might be asked to consider transferring the manuscript to such a journal. The recommendation might be provided by a Journal Editor, a dedicated Scientific Managing Editor, a tool assisted recommendation, or a combination. If you agree, your manuscript will be transferred, though you will have the opportunity to make changes to the manuscript before the submission is complete. Please note that your manuscript will be independently reviewed by the new journal. More information.

Queries

For questions about the editorial process (including the status of manuscripts under review) or for technical support on submissions, please visit our Support Center.

Research data

This journal requires and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings, which may also include software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.

Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. When sharing data in one of these ways, you are expected to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.

Research Elements

This journal enables you to publish research objects related to your original research – such as data, methods, protocols, software and hardware – as an additional paper in a Research Elements journal.

Research Elements is a suite of peer-reviewed, open access journals which make your research objects findable, accessible and reusable. Articles place research objects into context by providing detailed descriptions of objects and their application, and linking to the associated original research articles. Research Elements articles can be prepared by you, or by one of your collaborators.

During submission, you will be alerted to the opportunity to prepare and submit a manuscript to one of the Research Elements journals.

More information can be found on the Research Elements page.