Instruction for Authors
Instructions for Authors
In addition to regular submissions, Constraints welcomes applications, surveys, and letters. Please see Springer's Instructions for Authors for more information on these and on general formatting.
Submission procedure: To submit a paper, authors should use the online manuscript submission and tracking system for Constraints at:
Once logged into the system, authors will be asked to enter basic information about the paper (including title, authors, abstract, email address of contact author) and can then upload their submission.
Format: Authors are encouraged, but not required, to prepare their submissions using LaTeX. A LaTeX macro package is available to prepare your submission.
When submitting a paper using the online manuscript submission, the publisher requests that you submit all source files. The main text can be in LaTeX or Word (unfortunately, the online submission system will not accept Postscript or PDF for the main body of the article) and the figures can be in a wide range of formats including LaTeX, Word, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, EPS, and Postscript. The source files will then be compiled into a single PDF for sending to the referees. The online submission system sometimes fails to produce a correct PDF. In the case of any such difficulties, authors are encouraged to contact the Editor-in-Chief (michela.milano@unibo.it).
Style: Authors are encouraged to make liberal use of examples and illustrations, to minimize notation, to carefully edit their text and to otherwise enhance the accessibility of their articles.
Length: Authors are encouraged to be concise. The length of a submission should normally be kept under 30 journal pages.
Originality: Submissions must be original work that has not been published or accepted for publication in another journal. A submission may not be under simultaneous review by any other forum.
Authors may submit papers that have appeared previously in conferences or workshops. If the paper has appeared previously in an "archival" conference or workshop, the submission should, under normal circumstances, extend the previously published version. As a guideline, the extended submission should contain at least 25% new material. Examples of new material include previously missing proofs, additional examples, more detailed explanations, additional experiments, and more detailed descriptions of the experiments. Note that new results are not required. Authors of submissions that have appeared previously in conference or workshops are asked to notify the Editor-in-Chief at the time of submission (michela.milano@unibo.it).
Reviewing: Submissions will be evaluated on their originality and significance. Under normal circumstances, submissions will be reviewed and a decision returned within 2-3 months.
Copyright: Authors of accepted paper must transfer the copyright of the article to the publisher. However, authors retain the right to distribute individual copies of their paper to students and colleagues, physically and electronically, including making the paper available from their personal web sites, with proper citation to the published source. The posted version must be the authors' final version, not the final PDF version by the publisher.