Guide for Initial Submission

Please submit your manuscript with a cover letter/e-mail containing the following imperative statements: (Click here for a sample cover letter/e-mail.)

1. Title and the central theme of the article.
2. Which subject/theme of the Journal the material fits.
3. Why the material is important in its field and why the material should be published in this Journal.
4. Nomination of up to four recognized experts who would be considered appropriate to review the submission. Please state (1) the names, title, addresses, phone, fax, and email addresses of these reviewers, (2) the expertise of each reviewer relating to your paper, and (3) your relationship with each of them. An attempt will be made to select at least one of the reviewer nominations.
5. The fact that the manuscript contains original unpublished work and is not being submitted for publication elsewhere

Note that author name(s) must not appear anywhere else in the manuscript except in the title page and the reference list (if cited). No information can be placed in the properties of the manuscript's electronic file. Inappropriate submissions will be returned to authors. Factors leading to this action include submission with improper or no cover letter, excessive length, technically inappropriate material, single spaced body of text, subject of no interest to readers, manuscripts simultaneously submitted to other publications, and manuscripts not adhering to author guidelines. Non-English speaking author should have his/her paper proofread by a professional technical writer for grammatical and spelling corrections as well as the readability of the paper, before submitting it to the Editor.

A complete submission must include: (1) the cover letter, (2) the title page, and (3) the manuscript without authors' names in three separate MS-Word files. These files should be submitted electronically to the Guest Editor (see address in the Call for Papers).

Description

Decision Support Systems welcomes contributions on the concepts and operational basis for DSSs, techniques for implementing and evaluating DSSs, DSS experiences, and related studies. In treating DSS topics, manuscripts may delve into, draw-on, or expand such diverse areas as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer supported cooperative work, data base management, decision theory, economics, linguistics, management science, mathematical modeling, operations management psychology, user interface management systems, and others. The common thread of articles published in the journal will be their relevance to theoretical, technical DSS issues.

The Journal's research papers tend to fall into the following six topic departments:

1. DSS Foundations. e.g. DSS principles, concepts, and theories; frameworks, formal languages, and methods for DSS research; tutorials about the nature of DSS; assessments of the DSS field.

2. DSS Development-Functionality. e.g. methods, tools, and techniques for developing the underlying functional aspects of a DSS; solver/model management; data management in DSSs; rule management and AI in DSSs; coordinating a DSS's functionality within its user interface.

3. DSS Development-Interfaces. e.g. methods, tools, and techniques for developing the overt user interface of a DSS; managing linguistic, presentation, and user knowledge in a DSS; DSS help facilities; coordinating a DSS's interface events with its functionality events.

4. DSS Impacts and Evaluation. e.g. DSS economics; DSS measurement; DSS impacts on individual users, multiparticipant users, organizations, and societies; evaluating/justifying DSSs.

5. DSS Reference Studies. e.g. reference discipline tutorials for DSS researchers; emerging technologies relevant to DSS characteristics or DSS development; related studies on such topics as communication support systems, computer supported cooperative work, negotiation support systems, research support systems, task support systems.

6. DSS Experiences, Management, and Education. e.g. experiences in developing or operating DSSs; systems solutions to specific decision support needs; approaches to managing DSSs; DSS instruction/training approaches.
 

Guide for Authors

***Note to Authors: please make sure your contact address information is clearly visible on the outside of all packages you are sending to Guest Editor. The Editor does not accept responsibility for damage or loss of papers submitted. ***

(1) Papers must be in English.

(2) Submission of a paper will be held to imply that it contains original unpublished work and is not being submitted for publication elsewhere.

(3) Manuscripts should be typewritten on one side of the paper only, double-spaced with wide margins. All pages should be numbered consecutively. Tables, references and legends for figures should be typed on separate pages. Titles and subtitles should be short. See (9)for illustrations.

(4) The first page of the manuscript should contain the following information (i) the title; (ii) the name(s) and institutional affiliation(s) of the author(s); (iii) an abstract of not more than 100 words and keywords. A footnote on the same sheet should give the name and present address of the author to whom proofs and reprint order form should be addressed. Please note that abstract and keywords are compulsory items. Furthermore, it is strongly recommended to include biographical note(s) and photograph(s) of the author(s).

(5) Acknowledgements and information on grants received can be given before the References or in a first footnote, which should not be included in the consecutive numbering of footnotes.

(6) Important formulae (displayed) should be numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript as (1), (2), etc., on the right-hand side of the page. Where the derivation of formulae has been abbreviated, it is of great help to referees if the full derivation can be presented on a separate sheet (not to be published).

(7) References to the literature should be indicated by arabic numerals enclosed in square brackets. Specific identification of the applicable parts of the reference, e.g. page numbers, equation numbers, etc., may be included within the brackets. If possible, avoid mentioning author's names. In the list of references, items should be listed alphabetically and numbered consecutively (in square brackets); initials should precede the family names.

For material using the Latin alphabet, titles should be given in the original language. Titles using Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, etc., characters in the original should be transliterated.

The following are examples of different types of references. Please pay special attention to punctuation and capitalization.

For a monograph:

[1] R.W. Hartenstein, Fundamentals of Structured Hardware Design (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1977).

For a paper in a journal:

[2] R.A. Beauclair and A.H. van de Ven, A Group Process Model, Journal of Behavioral Sciences 7, No. 3 (Aug. 1971).

For a paper in a contributed volume:

[3] G. Chroust, Orthogonal Extensions in Microprogrammed Multiprocessor Systems, in: G. Chroust and J.R. Mühlbacher, Eds., Firmware, Microprogramming and Restructurable Hardware, Ch. 2 (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1980).

For an unpublished paper:

[4] P.T. Wilkinson, Link Protocols for Packet-Switching Networks, NPL Report COM 78 (Feb. 1975).

(8) Footnotes should be avoided where possible. Try to incorporate footnote material into the text, e.g. parenthetically or as a "remark" or "note". If they cannot be avoided, footnotes should be numbered consecutively and typed on a separate sheet.

(9) Original, camera-ready illustrations should be provided (e.g. an original in black ink on white paper). Illustrations in colour will be accepted where the use of colours is essential for the presentation. More detailed information is available from the Publisher. Care should be taken that lettering and symbols are of a comparable size. The drawings should not be inserted in the text and should be marked on the back with figure numbers, title of papers, and name of author. All graphs and diagrams should be referred to as figures and should be numbered consecutively in the text in arabic numerals. Graph paper should be ruled in blue and any grid lines to be shown should be inked black. Illustrations of insufficient quality which have to be redrawn by the publisher will be charged to the author.

(10) All unessential tables should be eliminated from the manuscript. Tables should be numbered consecutively in the text in arabic numerals and typed on separate sheets.

Any manuscript which does not conform to the above instructions may be returned for the necessary revision before publication.

Page proofs will be sent to the authors. Corrections other than printer's error may be charged to the author. 50 reprints of each paper are supplied free; additional reprints are available at cost if they are ordered when the proof is returned.