Author Information

Table of Contents

• Manuscript Preparation
• Submission for Editorial Review
  • How to Submit
  • Review Process
• Procedures for "Accepted with Minor Revision" Papers
  • How to Submit
  • Copyright and Use Agreement
  • Page Charges
  • Formatting Documents For Electronic Publication

Authors are required to prepare and submit their manuscripts electronically. This facilitates both a quicker editorial review process as well as facilitating electronic publication of accepted papers.

While ACM admits a wide variety of formats for the electronic submission of accepted papers, the emerging technologies which support electronic publishing currently force us to impose some restrictions on submission for both review and final acceptance of manuscripts. Therefore for purposes of editorial review, TOSN permits electronic submissions only in PDF or PostScript format.

TOSN authors should prepare manuscripts according to the ACM accepted manuscript preparation guidelines. Since these guidelines are in a state of transition with regard to electronic publication, the guidelines here take precedence whenever there is a conflict. We will soon have our own style guides which addresses more of the specific needs for electronic publishing.

Please see Formatting Documents For Electronic Publication below.

To ensure proper indexing, classification, retrieval and dissemination, authors must include the following in the manuscript.

• Descriptive title
• Author names and affiliations
• Abstract
• Content indicators
• Citations to relevant literature

Descriptive Title

Select a title that accurately and clearly tells what the paper is about. Choose title terms as highly specific as content and emphasis of the paper permit. Avoid special symbols and formulas in titles unless essential to indicate content. Avoid cute or clever titles.

Author Names and Affiliations

Authors' names should be given without titles or degrees along with the name and address of the organization for which the work was carried out. A footnote on the first page should acknowledge funding sources and presentations, if any, of the material at technical meetings (give dates and sponsoring societies). The author's current address should be given in a footnote on the first page.

Abstract

The abstract should be from 150 to 200 words long and consist of short, direct, and complete sentences. It should be informative enough to serve in some cases as a substitute for reading the paper itself. It should state the objectives of the work, summarize the results, and give the principal conclusions. The title need not be repeated. Work planned but not done should not be described in the abstract. Because abstracts are extracted and used separately, do not use the first person, do not display mathematics, and do not use citation reference numbers. Try to avoid starting with the words "This paper ..."

Content Indicators

Three types of content indicators must be assigned: (1) categories and subject descriptors, (2) general terms, (3) keywords and phrases. The first two items are selected from the Computing Reviews Classification Scheme published in the January 1991 issue of Computing Reviews. Select as many of these as may be applicable.

The keywords and phrases are additional English language words that indicate the content of the submission. They should not be synonymous with those already in the classification system : they can be more specific in relation to the paper than the subject descriptors, or they may not be covered by the existing system at all. The following guidelines may be helpful.

• Use phases (up to five) from the topic areas listed in  the TOSN Editorial Charter if possible.
• Use important terms from the title; include their synonyms, related words and words of higher or lower generic rank.
• Use English nouns, or noun-noun and noun-adjective combinations; do not use hyphens except if the hyphenated parts are always treated as a single unit.
• Use specific terms whose meanings are generally accepted; do not use broad catchall terms (such as "computer", "automatic", "machine", "system", "discussion", "description"); do not use private terms or acronyms that may not be generally known.
• Do not use negative terms stressing what your paper does not do.

Citations

1. References to items in periodicals: These should take the form: author, title, journal, volume, number, date, pages. For authors, last names are given first, even for multiple authors; likewise for editors, with the name followed by (Ed.). The author's name always ends with a period, either the period which follows his initial, or a period for the purpose. The title has only the first word and proper names (or their derivatives) starting with capital letters, and it ends with a period. The date is given in parentheses. Example:

   3. Jenkins, M. A., and Traub, J. F. Principles for testing zerofinding programs. ACM Trans. Math. Soft. 1, 1 (March 1975), 26-34.

2. References to reports or proceedings: Author(s) name(s) and title (same style as above), report number, source including date and pages.
3. References to books: Author(s) -- same style as in periodicals. Title -- all principal words start with a capital letter, and is set in italics. Include publisher, city, and year. Page or chapter references follow the year.
4. Sequence: In the reference list, entries must be arranged alphabetically according to authors' or editors' names, or publishing organizations for items to which no names can be attached. References are to be numbered in the list, and the numbers are then cited in the text.
5. Accuracy: Authors are responsible for checking that all information in the references is correct.
6. Completeness: Include any and all information necessary for finding the work referenced. It is better to include more than enough information than too little information.

Submission for Editorial Review

How to Submit

http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/acm/tosn

Please note, if you don't have an account at ACM Manuscript Central for TOSN you will need to create an account before you can log in and submit to TOSN.

The Editor-in-Chief can also be reached at:

TOSN

Dr. Feng Zhao, Editor-in-Chief

Microsoft Research

1 Microsoft Way

Redmond, WA 98052-6399

USA

tel: +1-425-706-8777

fax: +1-425-936-7329

e-mail: zhao@microsoft.com

Each submission must include a PDF or PostScript file for the complete manuscript and an ASCII file containing title, abstract, authors, and contact information for the corresponding author of the manuscript.

Each submission should indicate whether it is intended as a regular paper (approximately 20-30 printed pages each), short technical note (no more than 15 printed pages each), or tutorial/survey paper (approximately 20-25 printed pages each). In the case where the work has already been published by a refereed conference, the submission should note the prior publication on the title page. Please refer to Editorial Charter for the prior publication policy.

Review Process

Submitted papers are evaluated by anonymous referees for originality, relevance, and presentation. The author will be notified of the name of an associate editor who will be responsible for the processing of the manuscript, upon request to the journal assistant. Revisions requested by the associate editor should be submitted through http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/acm/tosn which will be forwarded directly to that editor. After the refereeing process is complete, the associate editor makes a decision for acceptance or rejection. There are two types of revisions: major or minor. For a major revision, original referees will be invited to review the paper again, and make a recommendation. For a minor revision, no reviews are required, the editor makes the final decision of acceptance if both the content and format are acceptable. Note that it is recommended that all papers go through minor revisions before acceptance.

Timeline of the review process: expected time: first decision < 15 weeks, second decision < 35 weeks

Authors may contact the journal assistant for the status of the paper.

Authors whose paper are accepted with minor revisions shall prepare the final version using ACM Transaction Format. For latex users, a sample style file can be found here. Authors should submit ALL source files (tex and figures), in addition to final PDF or PostScript. It is recommended that all files are put in a zip or tar file and submitted as "not for review". Please note that after acceptance of a paper, authors are no longer able to submit any files to the manuscript center for that paper.

Authors whose papers are accepted sign a form which either transfers copyright to the ACM or declares that the paper is part of government work. Authors retain liberal rights to material published by the ACM. The following is the standard copyright notice used by ACM journals:

Further details can be found in the ACM Copyright Policy.

Page Charges

Formatting Documents For Submission & Electronic Publication

Guidelines for preparing your paper for publication can be found at ACM accepted manuscript preparation guidelines. For latex users, a sample style file (with TOSN specific information) can be found here. Note that  it is essential that the ACM copyright be included on the first page of your final document.

Last modified by Ying Zhang 12/30/2008