Author's guide - Instructions for Final preparation

Journal of Machine Learning Research

[Based heavily on the JAIR Author's Guide, gratefully reproduced by permission of JAIR]

This file is available at http://www.jmlr.org/format/authors-guide.html

1.   [ ] Format article using JMLR style.
2.   [ ] Have your article proofread.
3.   [ ] Contact editor (editor@jmlr.org), obtain final approval and formatting check.
4.   [ ] Fill out permission to publish form, and send it.
5.   [ ] Fill out source code release, and send it (only necessary if you are releasing source code in an online appendix).
6.   [ ] Fill in page numbers and publication date, make final changes.
7.   [ ] Create HTML version (strongly recommended, but not required).
8.   [ ] Send all the required files.
9.   [ ] Inform the editor of any special mailing lists or newsgroups you'd like an announcement sent to.
10. [ ] After your article is published, create forward pointers (optional).

Once a paper has been accepted for publication in JMLR, you should follow the procedure outlined below. The final version of your manuscript is due to us within three months of the acceptance date. If you require more than three months, please request an extension from the editor. 

1. Format your article according the JMLR style, which is described in Instructions for Formatting JMLR Articles (PostScript and PDF versions are also available). The instructions also describe the use of the JMLR LaTeX style file, which should simplify adhering to the requirements. There is also an annotated JMLR sample paper available as LaTeX source, PostScript and PDF, which we strongly recommend using as a template for your submission.

For users of LyX, the graphical front end to LaTeX, Ralf Herbrich has made available a set of LyX layout files that conform to the JMLR style.

For users of Microsoft Word, George Forman has made available a template to simplify following the JMLR format. However, note that Computer Modern Roman, the standard font used by JMLR, is not available in most MS Word installations. Times Modern Roman, the closest match in MS Word, is acceptable, but please realize that your paper will look slightly different from the JMLR standard when it is published.

Unfortunately, we do not yet have macros or a template for FrameMaker, or Gnu's GROFF; we would be indebted to anyone who, in the course of formatting their paper using these systems, could make their templates available.

Authors are responsible for correctly formatting their article. If you wish we can recommend professionals who will do this for you for a fee.

Here are things to check, before you send us your article:

• Capitalize section and subsection titles.
• Make sure your abstract reads well. It will be used to advertise your paper.
• We recommend you use small caps for system names. (In LaTex that's \sc)
• Capitalize references to figures and tables, e.g. "In Figure 7..."
• Ensure that your paper has both sets of running heads: authors and paper title.
  
• It is preferable to cite published papers, rather than tech reports.
• Carefully read the section on citations in Instructions for Formatting JMLR Articles. Here are examples of BAD citations:
• "See (Ginsberg, 1994) for an analysis..." [Uses citation as a noun]
• "Drummond (Drummond, 1994) showed that..." [Should be "Drummond (1994)"]
• "...the best method (see the ERT test (Davis, 1995))..." [double parens, should be "...best method (see the ERT test, Davis, 1995)..."]
• In the authors' addresses, don't use commas at the end of the lines.
• Do not start a section with a subsection. (E.g., Each section should start with some text, rather than immediately starting with a subsection) Similarly, don't start a subsection with a subsubsection.
• Your paper should be formatted for 8.5 x 11 letter size paper, not A4 (common in Europe). If you are in Europe and use Latex, use "dvips -t" when you create your PostScript file to get the right size.

2. Make any final changes and have your article proofread. For better or worse, we do not have a copyediting staff. (Note: Authors are notoriously bad proofreaders. Have the paper proofread by a skilled proofreader - NOT one of the authors.)

3. Send the paper to the editor in charge of your article. Also send a copy editor@jmlr.org. You should leave the publication date and page numbers blank for the moment, pending final approval from the editor (step 7, below).

4. Please print out, fill in, and sign the Permission to Publish form (available in Word, PostScript and PDF formats). Send the form by US Mail or fax to:

Christina Ellas
The MIT Press
5 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142-4293 USA

FAX: 617-258-5028

5. We encourage you to make use of "online appendices" where appropriate. Online appendices can contain source code, data, even quicktime demonstrations -- anything that that will make life easier (or more interesting) for your readers and researchers who follow in your footsteps.

6. Once you have the final approval on the paper and the formatting, you should add in the page numbers and publication date sent to you by the editor. Put the final touches on any additional versions of the paper that you want us to publish alongside the PostScript or PDF version. As noted above, we encourage authors to produce an HTML version of their paper.

7. JMLR requests (but does not require) that authors construct a version of the paper in HTML in addition to the PostScript version. Check out the Latex2HTML translator at the following URL: http://cbl.leeds.ac.uk/nikos/tex2html/doc/latex2html/latex2html.html
(If you use Latex2HTML, don't bother using the JMLR style file, as it will only cause problems.)

8. Send the editor all the files. (A single tar file is convenient.) We would appreciate it if you use the following naming scheme for your files. Assuming the first author's last name is "Jones" and the current year is 2000, you should send us:

• jones00a.ps, the final PostScript file
• jones00a.tex (or jones00a.txt), a single LaTex source file (or, if you didn't use LaTex, some sort of ascii version of the paper if possible) which we can use for our search engine
• jones00a.tar, a tar file containing all the source files (latex files, figures, word file, whatever) which we will archive.
• abstract.txt, an ascii version of the abstract. Please also include the title at the top.

• jones00a.bw.ps, a version of your paper with grayscale (not color) figures. If your paper contains color figures, we need a black-and-white version for the hardcopy edition to be printed by MIT Press.
• jones00a.pdf, a pdf version of your paper. We will create one ourselves if you don't send it to us.
• jones00a-html.tar, a tar file of a directory called jones00a-html containing the HTML version of your paper.
• jones00a-appendix1.txt (or .ps, .lisp, or .whatever), an online appendix. If there are two or more, name them jones00a-appendix2.txt and so on.

As an alternative to emailing the files, you can send FTP instructions to the managing editor.

9. After we receive the final version and release the article, we will post anannouncement on the JMLR mailing list. The paper will also be stored at the JMLR distribution site and forwarded to ACM's computing repository (CORR) and the CiteSeer Index.

If you know of any other mailing lists where it would be appropriate to post an announcement for your paper, please feel free to forward our announcement. If you would prefer that we do, please let the managing editor know the addresses where he should forward the announcement.

10. After your article is published, you can create an HTML page listing pointers to subsquent papers you (or others, if you wish) write on the same topic. JMLR will maintain a pointer to this page, assuming you agree to maintain the page of forward pointers. Contact the Managing Editor if you are interested in this.

Congratulations!