Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors of Papers to be Published in Springer Computer Science Proceedings

1 Scope of This Document

You will find here Springer’s instructions for the preparation of proceedings papers to be published in one of the following series:

2 Ethical Responsibilities

All authors must comply with our ethical standards, as detailed in the Springer Nature Book Publishing Policies. Please read the Code of Conduct for Book Authors carefully and make sure that your paper complies with it. In addition, Sect. 4.1 of this document, which concerns the license-to-publish agreement, should be read carefully and adhered to.

3 Preparation of Your Paper

Your contribution may be prepared in LaTeX or Microsoft Word. Please use the templates provided on the authors’ page.

We need all source files (LaTeX files with all the associated style files, special fonts and eps files, or Word or rtf files) and the pdfs of all of the papers. Please note that we cannot accept Framemaker files. If your paper has been prepared using LaTeX, please supply us with the underlying bib file for the references. Our typesetters will use this to create the bbl file. LaTeX users should avoid self-defined environments and use the bibliographic style MathPhySci for computer science proceedings. It is not possible to have hyperlinks in references.

The volume editors, usually the program chairs, will be your main points of contact for the preparation of the volume.

3.1 Structuring Your Paper

Affiliations, Email-Addresses, and ORCIDs. The affiliated institutions, including town/city and country, are to be listed directly below the names of the authors. Multiple affiliations should be marked with superscript Arabic numbers, and they should each start on a new line. We encourage authors to insert their ORCIDs in superscript next to their names (please see the LaTeX and Word templates for examples).

The corresponding author, i.e., the author responsible for checking the final proof and for signing the license-to-publish agreement on behalf of all of the authors, should be clearly marked in the header of the paper. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed. The inclusion of the corresponding author’s email address is mandatory. In order to streamline communication during the publication process, there should not be more than one corresponding author per paper.

We strongly recommend that all authors include their email addresses in their papers. These are used by Springer to send an email containing a coded personal access link, enabling authors to download a PDF of their paper from SpringerLink.

Headings. Headings should be capitalized (i.e., nouns, verbs, and all other words except articles, prepositions, and conjunctions should be set with an initial capital) and should, with the exception of the title, be aligned to the left. Only the first two levels of section headings should be numbered, as shown in Table 1. The respective font sizes are also given in Table 1. Kindly refrain from using “0” when numbering your section headings.

Words in a heading that are joined by a hyphen are subject to a special rule. If the first word can stand alone, the second word should be capitalized.

Here are some examples of headings: “Criteria to Disprove Context-Freeness of Collage Languages”, “On Correcting the Intrusion of Tracing Non-deterministic Programs by Software”, “A User-Friendly and Extendable Data Distribution System”, “Multi-flip Networks: Parallelizing GenSAT”, “Self-determinations of Man”.

Lemmas, Propositions, and Theorems. The numbers accorded to lemmas, propositions, and theorems, etc. should appear in consecutive order, starting with Lemma 1. Please do not include section counters in the numbering like “Theorem 1.1”

3.2 Length of Papers

The most common types of papers accepted for publication are full papers (12–15+ pages) and short papers (6-11 pages), where a page constitutes 300-400 words. We only wish to publish papers of significant scientific content. Very short papers (of fewer than 4 pages) may be moved to the back matter. Such papers will neither be available for indexing nor visible as individual papers on SpringerLink. They will, however, be listed in the Table of Contents.

3.3 Fonts

We aim to publish all proceedings papers in full-text xml. Our templates for LaTeX are based on CMR, and our xml templates for Word are based on Times. We ask you to use the font according to the template used for your papers. Papers using other fonts will be converted by our typesetters.

3.4 Page Numbering and Running Heads

There is no need to include page numbers or running heads; this will be done at our end. If your paper title is too long to serve as a running head, it will be shortened.

3.5 Figures and Tables

It is essential that all illustrations are clear and legible. High resolution is required for the printed proceedings. Vector graphics (rather than rasterized images) should be used for diagrams and schemas whenever possible. Please check that the lines in line drawings are not interrupted and have a constant width. Grids and details within the figures must be clearly legible and may not be written one on top of the other. Line drawings are to have a resolution of at least 800 dpi (preferably 1200 dpi). The lettering in figures should not use font sizes smaller than 6 pt (~ 2 mm character height). Figures are to be numbered and to have a caption which should always be positioned under the figures, in contrast to the caption belonging to a table, which should always appear above the table. Figures and Tables should be cross referred in the text.

Captions are set in 9-point type. If they are short, they are centered between the margins. Longer captions, covering more than one line, are justified. Captions that do not constitute a full sentence, do not have a period.

If screenshots are necessary, please make sure that the essential content is clear to the reader.

Remark 1. In the printed volumes, illustrations are generally black and white (halftones). Colored pictures are welcome in the electronic version free of charge. If you send colored figures that are to be printed in black and white, please make sure that they really are also legible in black and white. Some colors show up very poorly when printed in black and white. We do not support color in text, tables or in equations.

3.6 Formulae

Displayed equations or formulae are centered and set on a separate line (with an extra line or half line space above and below). Equations should be numbered for reference. The numbers should be consecutive within the contribution, with numbers enclosed in parentheses and set on the right margin. Please do not include section counters in the numbering. If you are using Word, please use the Math function of Word 2007, Word 2010 or Word 2013, or MathType or the Microsoft Equation Editor with Word 2003, to create your equations, and insert the math objects in your Word document in an editable format through MathType or MsWord equation editors.

x + y = z (1)

1 The footnote numeral is set flush left and the text follows with the usual word spacing.

Equations should be punctuated in the same way as ordinary text.

3.7 Footnotes

The superscript numeral used to refer to a footnote appears in the text either directly after the word to be discussed or – in relation to a phrase or a sentence – following the punctuation mark (comma, semicolon, or period).1

For remarks pertaining to the title or the authors’ names, in the header of a paper, symbols should be used instead of a number (see first page of this document). Please note that no footnotes may be included in the abstract.

3.8 Program Code

Program listings or program commands in the text are normally set in typewriter font.

3.9 Citations by Number

Arabic numbers are used for citation, which is sequential either by order of citation or by alphabetical order of the references, depending on which sequence is used in the list of references. The reference numbers are given in brackets and are not superscript. Please observe the following guidelines:

Please write all references using the Latin alphabet. If the title of the book you are referring to is, e.g., in Russian or Chinese, then please write (in Russian) or (in Chinese) at the end of the transcript or translation of the title. All references cited in the text should be in the list of references and vice versa.

If more than six authors are listed in one particular reference, this will be shortened and “et al.” will be inserted.

In order to permit cross referencing within SpringerLink, and between different publishers and their online databases, Springer standardizes the format of the references according to the requirements for CrossRef (http://www.crossref.org/). The reference section is included in the metadata of the paper on SpringerLink, increasing the visibility of the referenced papers and facilitating research considerably.

We strongly encourage you to include DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) in your references. The DOI is a unique code allotted by the publisher to each online paper or journal article. It provides a stable way of finding published papers and their metadata. The insertion of DOIs increases the overall length of the references section.

4 Additional Information Required from Authors

4.1 License-to-Publish Agreement

A semi-prefilled license-to-publish agreement is usually available from the conference website or from the conference organizer. Please send the signed agreement to your conference publication contact, either as a scanned PDF or by fax or by courier. The corresponding author (one per paper), who must match the corresponding author marked in the header of the paper, must have the full right, power, and authority to sign the agreement on behalf of all of the authors of a particular paper, and accepts responsibility for releasing this material on their behalf. Digital signatures are not acceptable. The corresponding author should be available to check the paper before it is published. Please note that once a paper has been delivered to Springer, changes relating to the authorship of the paper cannot be made. Authors’ names cannot be added or deleted, their order cannot be changed, and the corresponding author cannot be altered.

Employees of US Government contractors or US Government departments often have to sign an alternative agreement. We urge such authors to contact their own legal departments as soon as their papers have been accepted and to get in touch with us straight away. This also applies for those affected by Crown Copyright. Unresolved copyright issues can delay the publication process considerably.

4.2 Correct Representation of Author Names

Authors’ names should be written out in full in the header of the paper. They are shortened by us to “initials surname” in the running heads and take the form “surname, given name” in the author index. If you or any of your co-authors have more than one family name, it should be made quite clear how your name is to be displayed in the running heads and the author index. All authors should write their given names in front of their surnames at the tops of their papers. If you only have one (main) name, please make sure that this name is written out in full in the running heads, when you check your final PDF. Only the names of real authors who can be held responsible for the contents of the paper may be named as authors of your contribution.

Names and affiliations cannot be changed once a paper has been published. Also, if you have more than one paper in the volume, please check that your name has been written consistently throughout.

In the case of an authorship dispute, Springer will not be in a position to investigate or adjudicate. Authors will be asked to resolve the dispute themselves.

4.3 ORCID Identifier

Springer is the first publisher to implement the ORCID identifier for proceedings, ultimately providing authors with a digital identifier that distinguishes them from every other researcher. ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) hosts a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities to these identifiers. This is achieved through embedding ORCID identifiers in key workflows, such as research profile maintenance, manuscript submissions, grant applications and patent applications. Apply for an individual ORCID at www.orcid.org and include it in the header of your paper. Your ORCID will be replaced by the ORCID icon, which will link from the eBook to the actual ID in the ORCID database. As a result, only the ORCID icon will appear in the printed book.

4.4 Embedded Videos in Proceedings and Electronic Supplementary Material

Springer now offers authors the option of including embedded videos in their papers. Please refer to this page for the technical requirements. See here for an example of an animated figure.

Authors must not violate privacy and confidentiality rules and, as always, permission must be sought for use of third-party content. All types of Electronic Supplementary Material (ESM), including videos, should be sent with the authors’ files. If videos are to be embedded, unequivocal instructions as to their positioning must be included. If no indication is given, the video will be stored at the end of the paper.

Slides that complement a paper may be included as ESM. We do not publish slides as an alternative to full scientific papers.

4.5 Data Publishing

If the conference organizers have chosen to make use of Springer Nature’s figshare repository, authors will be asked to upload their data and code to a special branded area of this repository. Here are the branded areas for Euro-Par, TACAS, ISWC, and ECML PKDD, for example.

Permanent DOIs are assigned to the data and code stored in Springer Nature’s figshare repository and links are set up between the paper on SpringerLink and the data or code. Authors of such papers should include a data citation in their references section (an example is given in the references section of this document) and a data availability statement in their paper. The data citation is applicable to both software and data. The upload of the data to figshare is usually requested approximately one week before the final submission date for the papers. Details are provided by the conference organizers.

5 Typesetting of Your Paper at Springer

Please make sure that the paper you submit is final and complete, that any copyright issues have been resolved, that the authors listed at the top of the chapter really are the final authors, and that you have not omitted any references. Following publication, it is not possible to alter or withdraw your paper on SpringerLink.

5.1 What Will Be Done with Your Paper

If the templates and instructions have been followed closely, then only very minor alterations will be made to your paper. The format of the paper will be checked by our typesetters, and if, for example, vertical spacing has been inserted or removed, then this will be remedied. In addition, running-heads, final page numbers, and a copyright line are inserted, and the capitalization of the headings is checked and corrected if need be. References not adhering to the style required for CrossRef (http://www.crossref.org/) are reformatted and, if available, DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) are added. (We would encourage you to include DOIs in your references.) Light technical copyediting may also be performed.

5.2 Proof Reading Stage

Once the files have been worked upon, our typesetters send a copy of the final PDF of each paper to its corresponding author. The corresponding author is asked to check through the final PDF to make sure that no errors have crept in during the transfer or preparation of the files. Only errors introduced during the preparation of the files will be corrected. Particular attention should be paid to the references section.

If the typesetter does not receive a reply from a particular corresponding author, within the timeframe given (usually 72 hours), then it is presumed that the author has found no errors in the paper. The tight publication schedule of our proceedings does not allow us to send reminders or search for alternative e-mail addresses.

In some cases, it is the corresponding volume editor or the publication chair who checks all of the PDFs. In such cases, the authors are not involved in the checking phase.

The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables, and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title and authorship, are not possible and cannot be processed.

The proofs of the cover, inside-cover pages, front-matter pages and author index are sent to the volume editors.

6 Online Publication in SpringerLink

All Springer proceedings papers are published in our digital library, SpringerLink. Subscribers to Springer’s eBook packages or to the electronic book series are able to access the full-text PDFs of our online publications and the ePub full-text XML versions. Front and back matter, as well as abstracts and references, are freely available for all users. The online version of your paper will be available before the conference, unless the proceedings are to be published following the event. Please inform your conference contact if we need to delay the online date because a patent application is underway.

7 Access to Your Paper on SpringerLink

Roughly one month after publication, all authors who have included their email addresses in the headers of their papers will receive an email containing a coded personal access link, which will enable them to download the PDF of their paper directly from SpringerLink.

8 Open Access and Open Choice

At Springer, we offer the option of open access publishing for entire proceedings volumes or for individual proceedings papers. The latter is referred to as “open choice”. If you are interested in open choice, kindly inform your conference contact well in advance of publication. The conference contact will liaise with Springer and provide you with details of pricing and conditions. You will need to agree to the payment terms and conditions and provide your invoicing address. Rather than signing the standard license-to-publish agreement, a CC-BY License-to-Publish agreement should be signed.

9 Checklist of Items to Be Sent to Your Conference Contact

Acknowledgments. This should always be a run-in heading and not a section or subsection heading. It should not be assigned a number. The acknowledgments may include references to grants or support received in relation to the work presented in the paper. Authors should make sure that they have included all necessary acknowledgments before sending the files. Updates at a later stage are not possible.

Appendix

If a paper includes an Appendix, it should be placed in front of the references. If it has been placed elsewhere, it will be moved by our typesetters. If there is only one, it is designated “Appendix”; if there are more than one, they are designated “Appendix 1”, “Appendix 2”, etc.

Appendixes should be referred to in the text. The content of an appendix is contained within the sections subordinated to the major heading “Appendix”. The language and styling rules for the text also apply to the appendixes. The form of numbering of tables, figures, and equations in an appendix should be the same as in the body of the article, continuing the numbering used there.


References (in MathPhySci, to be used for computer science proceedings)