Advice to Authors

The readers of our Journal may notice that the time difference between the earliest ?Received? date and the latest date of any article in a given issue may be more than a year.What causes such differences, and how can you, a prospective author, be assured of a very speedy publication?

Every high quality scientific journal has the very natural desire to publish only first class, quality works.In the case of many journals, that is the only, perfectly reasonable and appropriate, objective.However, there exist quite a few scientific endeavors today, for which the speed of publication also plays a very important role.I believe that our field, dealing with the applications of mathematics, is definitely a member of the latter group.An easy solution to the achievement of speedy publication is the utilization of an author prepared electronic version.

In this journal, we are trying to perform a triple-objective optimization:

(a)to publish works of the highest quality;
(b)to publish them speedily;
(c)to have them typeset uniformly.

If you are a prospective author, you can help speed your paper towards publication in the following ways.

1.In order to insure quality, all published papers are refereed carefully. Please be sure to select that Editor from our Board whose interests are closest to the subject of your paper.In many cases, that Editor will be willing to review your work himself, availing himself of perhaps only one more referee-a speedy process.However, if you send it to just anyone on our Board, it may take some time before that person even finds appropriate referees-not all of whom are willing to do a fast enough review of your paper, thus causing the first major delay.

2.After a paper is accepted, it has to be typeset, unless that job was already done by you and/or by your secretary. We typeset all of our papers inAMST_EX, amsppt.sty ?style file.? That is what gives us our uniformity.Therefore, the best that you can do is this:submit to us, on a diskette or via e-mail, such a LaT_EX version of your work.In all likelihood, it will be printed in the next available issue, because you will not need to have a galley proof!The second best option is to provide us with a LaT_EX or any other T_EX file, for then you are again helping considerably; our work is minimized.In most such instances, authors also do not need to receive galley proofs.We send them only if there are major departures from your original format.The third ?speedup? option is to provide us with any electronic version of your manuscript-such as Microsoft Word.In this case, you will receive galley proofs, but in a shorter time.

None of the above, of course, means that we do not accept ordinary, typewritten manuscripts.We certainly do, and will continue to do so!

3.Three other ways in which the publication of some papers is delayed are these.

(i)The author did not provide a list of at least six possible reviewer?s names and addresses from the geographic region of the Editor to whom it is submitted.We ask for these, because sometimes our regular reviewers are so overworked that we need to approach others as well, in order to obtain a speedy decision.

(ii)The author did not submit good enough quality, Xerographically reducible and reproducible graphs and/or figures.

(iiiThe references are not numbered in the order of appearance in the text, or are not given in full detail.

(iv)The sequence of equation numbers is inconsistent.

In all such cases, the papers are returned to the authors for a (time-consuming) correction. 

4.Finally, when we send out a galley proof, we request that the author return it within 48 hours.Until we receive it back, of course, we cannot proceed.

And so, the above is an explanation as to why such discrepancies in the ?Received? dates can occur within one single issue.With your help, and the tips above, hopefully your next paper will be published very quickly, indeed!

Ervin Y. Rodin

Managing Editor

Disclaimer

No responsibility is assumed by the Publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein.

Although all advertising material is expected to conform to ethical (medical) standards, inclusion in this publication does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement of the quality of value of such product or of the claims made of it by its manufacturer.

In order to make this issue/volume available as economically and as rapidly as possible, the authors? typescripts have been reproduced in either their original or reprocessed T_EX format.The authors are fully responsible for the contents of the text, and the authors/Texnological Associates for its quality.