Author Guidelines

Editorial Policy

JSimE operates a double-blind peer review process (click here to see the details). All manuscripts are initially screened by the Editor for suitability to the journal. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two reviewers selected by the Editor according to the submission topic. The reviewers might be members of the editorial board or ad hoc specialists on the topic. Authors may suggest reviewers that may or may not be selected by the Editor. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of manuscripts. Once the reviewers have commented, the Editor decides whether the manuscript is Accepted as is, Accepted with Minor Revision, requested to Revise and Resubmit, Rejected, or informed it is Out of Journal Scope.

JSimE requires authors to declare that their submission has not been published previously, nor has it been submitted for publication to another scientific journal or being considered for publication elsewhere. Posting a manuscript on a pre-print server is not considered to be duplicate publication. It is also acceptable to submit manuscripts that have been posted on an author's personal or institutional website and manuscripts based on material that has formed part of an academic thesis and been placed in the public domain, according to the awarding institution's guidelines.

Authors are required to submit two documents

• Single title page document including
  • Title of the manuscript
  • Name and affiliation of the authors
  • Email address(es) of the corresponding author(s).
• A blind manuscript without any author names and affiliations. Authors should avoid language that could identify themselves as the authors. Acknowledgments should be avoided at this stage because the authors may be identifiable, for instance, via their funding agency's project number. The blinded manuscript should contain:
  • Title of the manuscript
  • Abstract not exceeding 250 words and should avoid the use of references and abbreviations
  • Classify the content of the manuscript using the ACM Classification System
  • Between 3 to 5 Keywords for indexing purposes.

Document Templates

Currently, we offer Microsoft Word (DOCX DOTX), LaTeX (ZIP TGZ), and HTML (ZIP TGZ) templates for preparing your manuscript to JSimE.

Manuscript Formatting

Format

JSimE strives to make research results more accessible, e.g., through semantic search, by using HTML as the primary online publication format. Compared to PDF, HTML allows improved text retrieval, analysis and indexing, in-document linking and annotations. Authors may use DOCX or PDF format for their submission, but when accepted, the manuscript should be provided as HTML, possibly generated from DOCX via our DOCX-to-HTML converter.

Language

Either American or British English is accepted, but not a mixture of them. For editors and reviewers to accurately assess the work presented in the manuscript, write your text in good quality English.

Title

Provide a title that is concise and informative.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

Abstract

The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the manuscript, the principal results and major conclusions. Abstracts should not exceed 250 words. Abstracts are often presented and read as stand-alone text. Avoid the use of references and abbreviations.

ACM Subject Categories

Provide a classification using the the ACM Classification System

Keywords

Provide between 3 to 5 keywords firmly established in the field to be used for indexing purposes.

Headings

Use the decimal system of headings with no more than three levels.

Tables

Submit tables as editable text and not as images. Provide tables within your manuscript file where possible, ideally using a single table grid for each individual table. Tables should be cited in the manuscript. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text using Arabic numerals and place any table notes below the table body. Provide a table caption explaining the components of the table. Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.

Artwork and Illustrations

• Provide all illustrations in place in your manuscript file and separately electronically
• Illustrations should be in the SVG (preferable) or PNG format
• Image size
  • 18 cm wide (2 columns wide)
  • 12 cm wide (1.5 columns wide)
  • 9 cm wide (1 column wide)
• Resolution: 300 dpi (minimum)
• If the image consists of several panels, combine these panels in a single image with the correct image size (see above), and label the panels as A, B, C...
• Pictures should be provided in JPEG format
• Embed the used fonts if the application provides that option
  • Font: Arial (preferred)
  • Font size: >= 10pt (preferred)
• Name your illustration files with "Fig" and their number, e.g., Fig1.svg
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text
• Captions should be supplied separately, not attached to the illustration. A caption should comprise a brief title and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
• If the illustration has already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s)

Animations

• Animations should be provided in SVG (preferable), GIF, or CSS
• Name your animation files with "Animation" and their number, e.g., Animation1.svg

Mathematical Formulae

Equations should be numbered sequentially through the manuscript, but only those that are referenced in the text. Displayed equations should either

• be capable of being rendered in HTML, using the characters available in (X)HTML 5, or
• be treated as graphics and then should be supplied preferably as SVG images.

When using Microsoft Word, include equations using the built-in equation tools available.

Footnotes

Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation, and they should never include the bibliographic details of a reference. They should also not contain any figures or tables. Footnotes are numbered consecutively.

Acknowledgment

Acknowledgments should be placed in a separate section at the end of the manuscript before the references, and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

References

References should use the American Psychological Association (APA) style. A tutorial about this style can be found at the APA website. When using Microsoft Word, use the built-in bibliographic tools available.

Citation

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.

Citation in the text should be as author and date pairs between parenthesis, e.g., (Wagner, 2017). Multiple citations should be separated by a semi-colon, e.g., (Wagner, 2017; John, 2011), (Wagner, 2017; Wilson, & Madson, 2016). When mentioning an author in the text, put just the date after the author's name, e.g. "Wagner (2017) was one of the first to...".

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 (e.g., DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. As webpages and other digital objects on the Internet tend to disappear, after citing online material JSimE suggests that authors use the WebCite® technology to archive cited web references before citing them. Please go to WebCite® Archive and enter the URL you want to cite. The system will take a "snapshot" of the webpage or online document, so that it will remain available for future readers. WebCite will also give you detailed instructions on how to cite the web reference. This procedure is not necessary if the web reference is expected to be "stable", such as electronic journal manuscripts.

Reference List

The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text. Do not use footnotes as a substitute for a reference list. Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work. Publications of exactly the same author(s) must be ordered chronologically.

Supplementary Information

JSimE does not impose any limit on either the length of the manuscript or on the number of figures and tables included. We strongly encourage you to present all information within the main manuscript and eliminate supplementary content whenever possible. JSimE accepts electronic supplementary content when appropriate, such as large dataset files, video and audio files, archives, and any other file containing information that cannot easily be incorporated into the main manuscript. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of the manuscript. You should submit the material in electronic format together with the manuscript, and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file.

Collect multiple files in a .zip or .gz file.

Ethical Responsibilities

JSimE follows the COPE 'Guidelines on good publication practice'.

Manuscript Submission

The online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your manuscript details and uploading your files.

HTML formatted manuscripts should be submitted as a single ZIP file containing the complete content of the manuscripts under "index.html". Note that the full content of the manuscript should be readable offline, hence the ZIP file should include all resources (e.g., CSS, images) to guarantee a correct visualization of the document on web browsers. The use of any kind of tracking system that may identify readers is forbidden.

Special Sections

JSimE occasionally publishes collections of articles sharing a common theme, in a Special Section. The articles in a special section are often derived from presentations at workshops. Often some of the reviewing and editing is undertaken by the workshop organizers in conjunction with the journal editor. If you would like to suggest a special section, please email the journal editor with details.