Guidelines for Authors

Authors should closely follow the guidelines below before submitting a manuscript.

Language

All papers have to be written in English.

Paper Types

We will be open for submissions of the following types:

  • Research Papers: We accept as main category research papers that report on original research. Results previously published at conferences or workshops may be submitted as extended versions.
  • Position Papers: We accept position papers presenting discussions and viewpoints around Data Science topics. These papers do not need an evaluation, but need to present relevant and novel discussion points in a thorough manner.
  • Survey Papers: We also publish survey papers of the state of the art of topics central to the journal’s scope. Survey articles should be comprehensive and balanced, and should have the potential to become well-known introductory and overview texts.
  • Resource Papers: Resource papers introduce and describe a resource of value for further research, including but not limited to datasets, benchmarks, software tools/frameworks/services, methodologies, and protocols.
Preprint

By submitting your manuscript you agree that it will be made available on this journal website as a preprint, and it will remain available after acceptance or rejection together with the reviews. Removal of a manuscript during or after review is not possible.

Paper Length

The following length limits apply for the different paper types:

  • Research papers: 12 000 words
  • Position papers: 8 000 words
  • Survey papers: 16 000 words
  • Resource papers: 12 000 words

Note that these word counts are not targets but maximum values. Papers may be significantly shorter. Exceptions for longer papers are possible if well justified (contact the editors-in-chief before submitting papers that exceed the stated word limits).

These word counts include the abstract, tables, and figure and table captions. Author lists and references, however, are not counted. Each figure counts for an additional 300 words.

Extended Versions

We accept extended versions of works previously published at workshops or conferences under the following conditions:

  • The previous publication is clearly and prominently indicated and referenced
  • The additions and differences are described in the introduction
  • At least 25% of the content of the extended version are new
  • The extended version covers significant additional elements, and is not just a more verbose version of the previous content

It is furthermore the authors’ responsibility to ensure that the publication of the extended version complies with the requirements (including copyright) of the previous publisher.

Semantic Publishing with Nanopublications

Authors are strongly encouraged to provide nanopublications together with their manuscripts. These nanopublications can be created at this connector page of the Nanodash tool, where you also find further instructions. Good-quality nanopublications can contribute to the significance and novelty of the manuscript.

Author Information and Contributions

Submissions should contain the full names, affiliations, and ORCID identifiers for all authors, and email-addresses for the corresponding authors. Any author included in the author list should have contributed significantly to the paper, and no person who has made a significant contribution should be omitted from the list of authors. Please read the IOS Press authorship policy for further information.

References

Every item on the list of references needs to come with exactly one of these identifiers (if multiple apply, the highest on the list should be picked):

  • DOI
  • PubMed ID (PMID)
  • ACM Digital Library (dl.acm.org) URL
  • PubMed Central ID (PMCID)
  • JSTOR URL
  • ISBN (only when citing an entire book)
  • CEUR.org URL
  • arXiv.org / biorxiv.org URL
  • SSRN.com URL
  • any other URL representing the referenced work
Paper Formats

We encourage authors to submit their papers in HTML. There are various tools and templates for that, such as RASH, dokieli, and Authorea. We also accept Jupyter Notebooks and other HTML-based interactive formats.

We also accept submissions in Word or LaTeX. In that case, please use the official templates by IOS Press found here (LaTeX only) and here (Word and LaTeX).

Data

All relevant data that were used or produced for conducting the work presented in a paper must be made FAIR and compliant with the PLOS data availability guidelines prior to submission. See in particular the list of recommended data repositories. (We might provide our own data availability guidelines in the future, but we borrow the excellent PLOS guidelines for now.) In a nutshell, data have to be made openly accessible and freely reusable via established institutions and standards, unless privacy concerns forbid such a publication. In any case, metadata have to be made publicly accessible and visible.

Evaluation Criteria

See the reviewing guidelines for the specific criteria according to which submitted papers are evaluated.