International Journal of Software Architecture (IJSA) publishes theme issues of immense interest to its knowledge communities. Prospective theme-issue guest editors will propose these theme issues. . The Sr. Editor will decide whether to accept or reject a particular proposal, after consultation with the members of the Editorial and Advisory Boards. Your topic should reflect the IJSA’s total mission. Please find a complete proposal template with this message.
These guidelines apply to all future theme-issue submissions. You may wish to contact one of the Sr. Editors for additional information.
Theme Issue Proposal Content and Format
Your theme issue proposal should contain at least the following sections:
1. Proposed Title: The theme issue is always very clear, crisp, and meaningful. Try to make it no more than seven words.
2. Proposers’ Contact Information: Names, affiliations, postal address, electronic address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address.
3. Introduction: Please provide a brief explanation about the theme. Also, let us know how best it fits the theme in the larger context of software architecture. Also kindly, let us know its relevance to the readers of IJSA, its importance, timeliness, target audience, and any other issues. You can also examine recent publications, and other focus themes of IJSA so that our evaluators will ascertain that the theme do complement all other works and fills an existing gap.
4. Focus: List all challenges that needs to be highlighted or perspectives that will be emphasized. If other publications have addressed similar themes, how will this focus section differ over them? Describe what software developers will learn, and whether this information is available elsewhere.
5. Organization: Discuss in detail what you want the focus sub-theme to include. The introduction should probably include a brief tutorial or an overview to introduce concepts and terminology, and a sidebar on all related references. You can try to achieve balance in the theme, via a Point–Counterpoint (PCP) debate, a roundtable discussion among experts, or a range of technical articles to suggest significantly different viewpoints.
6. List of Potential Reviewers and Authors: Balance academics with industrial and governmental contributors. List established preliminary contacts. . However, remember that IJSA is a refereed publication; all invited manuscripts (except for the Point-Counterpoint article) are critically examined and are not guaranteed acceptance. The majority of manuscripts that finally appear in the issue will likely be the result of your solicitation. You should propose a good credible plan for assuring enough high-quality submissions. Guest editors may not submit articles, other than the introduction for possible inclusion.
7. Call for Papers: Create a call for articles, based on your focus. This is often, where the “rubber hits the road” on a topic: a good call is specific and clear.
8. Qualifications of the Guest Editors (GEs):In addition to technical qualifications, highlight your experience as previous editors. Attach a biography of up to one page for each GE, including a list of the five most relevant publications. Two GEs are preferable to one. At least one Guest Editor (GE) must reflect an industrial and practical viewpoint.
Proposal Review
If the EIC decides that the proposal is appropriate and complete, he/she will send it to the Editorial and Advisory Boards, who will have 3–4 weeks, to review the proposal and comment. Their comments are based on reader interest, technical accuracy, objectivity, balance, GE capability, proposal quality, and relationship to other planned and recent focus sections (including those of other publications).
Final Decision
The EIC makes the final decision and allots a specific number of pages (20 to 60) to the intended focus. This includes your introduction, the PCP, and the articles. You will also receive the board members’ comments, but not their names. The EIC may request additional information or a revised proposal based on the need for clarification, redirection, or rebuttal of reviewer comments. We usually reach a final decision within 2-4 months of the time of the proposal. Final control of focus publication rests with the Sr. Editor, or the EIC.
Overall Proposed Schedule
Ideally, it takes about 8 months, from the time of the proposal, until the focus section is finally accepted and published. Here is an estimated time schedule:
Month 0: EIC/Advisory Board approval; begin active solicitation and distribution of Call for Papers
Month 4: Submissions due
Month 5: Reviews due; decisions made and authors notified; authors sent reviews and asked to revise.
Month 6: All revisions are due. GE’s will make final recommendations to Sr. Editor, who in turn makes final decisions. Sr. Editor sends final-decision letters to authors. All manuscript files are due at Publications Office of IJSA.
Month 7: Introduction and Point/Counterpoint are due.
Month 8: Final versions edited, published.
You cannot accelerate this schedule, without the concurrence of the senior editor.
Solicitation Process
Call for Papers
If you have not already done so, prepare a call for articles; the lead editor will guide you through the process. Include the following text:
“Manuscripts may not exceed 5,400 words, including all figures and tables, which count for 200 words each. Submissions in excess of these limits are liable for rejection, without refereeing. The articles we deem within the theme’s scope will be peer-reviewed and are subject to editing for magazine style, clarity, organization, and space. Be sure to include the name of the theme you are submitting for.”
The call will appear in IJSA, on the Web, and elsewhere.
We always prefer author’s original, unpublished papers. Papers that have previously appeared in a conference proceeding may be submitted, but they must pass through our detailed technical review process. To be accepted, a significant portion of the content must be new. Please tell submitters that you cannot accept any manuscripts; you may only recommend them to the Editor in Chief, who makes final decisions.
Always solicit reviewers—as many qualified ones, reflecting the international community as possible, and the number of submissions, each is willing to review—before submissions finally arrive. Send a complete contact list to the Sr. Editor. If you have already confirmed their willingness to review within the allotted time (about 3 weeks), and the total number of articles each is willing to review, the process will be considered very smooth. Remind reviewers of the focus you have set, and any particular manuscript characteristics and attributes that you seek. Be sure to have at least one software practitioner as an expert reviewer on every submission. At least, three reviews by qualified people are required, before decision-making.
Publicity
Distribute the call for papers at appropriate conferences and workshops. Send it to other publications (such as, user group newsletters) and discussion lists, such as SE World. Send a brief note and the call to the prospective authors you know, by encouraging them to contribute, either as authors or as reviewers. Use the target list you provided in the proposal; reviewers, colleagues, and other board members, might be able to suggest additional names. It is your responsibility to seek submissions, and to make sure that we receive a significant number of high-quality submissions.
Submission Process
The IJSA always uses a secure, all-electronic, Web-based manuscript submission and a peer-review tracking system called Manuscript Central. Authors, who wish to submit to IJSA, must use this system (Provide a website). First-time users must create a new account; from there, they log into their own Author Center, and upload their submissions. The process is very easy, and the site itself provides detailed instructions on usage. Once an author uploads a manuscript, he or she can check its review status at any time, because it is viewable online. The Sr. Editor sends authors, an acknowledgment of receipt, as soon as the manuscript counted for total number of words.
We also discourage guest editors from submitting to their own issues. However, if you wish to submit a manuscript for the focus section, submit it through Manuscript Central; we will have it reviewed separately.
If an author sends you a submission directly, please direct him or her to the Manuscript Central Web page.
Review Process
Guidelines for Making Decisions
The Sr. Editor will tell you how to access the system as guest editor and see all of your theme's submissions and their review status (except, of course, your own submissions).
If you email the Sr. Editor about a particular submission, please include its identification number in the subject line. The Sr. Editor will then create a spreadsheet for the issue, listing all submissions and other pertinent information. Sr. Editor updates it regularly and sends you and the Sr. Editor a copy.
It is very important to conduct an initial review, before assigning reviewers to weed out poorly written or conceived papers, and those that are not with the special issue's scope. The Sr. Editor will also consider the latter group for possible review as non-theme articles. If you do not want to consider a submission, you may reject it outright, suggest alternative publications that could be more suitable, or tell the Sr. Editor to refer them to the EIC for non-focus consideration. The Sr. Editor will inform the author, once you send her your specific comments to include in the letter.
The Sr. Editor sends the other submissions to three (if confirmed) or seven (if not confirmed) reviewers each and monitors suggested deadlines. Try to confirm with specific reviewers ahead of time, so that they know what to expect and agree to the time commitment.
When each manuscript finishes the review process, you will be duly informed. The senior editor may also review manuscripts, making suggestions about length, organization, number and type of illustrations, title length, appropriateness, and the fit. Reviewers should not worry about or make comments about grammar or spelling. Sr. Editors will collaborate fully with the authors on magazine style and content (to make sure the manuscript flows, is direct, and organized--see IJOP Author Infromation for more information on our editing style).
The Recommendation Process
Before making recommendations to the Sr. Editor, you must have at least three reviews, including at least one from a reputed software practitioner. Remember your total page allocation, when you consider what you want to include. Your recommendations to the Sr. Editor should fall into these categories:
REC. TO ACCEPT: you DO want to include the manuscript in your focus section and you feel that the changes the author needs to make (if any), are slight enough that they could be easily addressed in the editing process by our Sr. Editors.
REC. TO REJECT: you DO NOT want to include the manuscript in your focus section.
REC. TO MAKE MINOR REVISIONS: you do want to include the manuscript in your special issue, but you feel that there are relatively minor changes the author needs to make, before it is edited. We give the author a few weeks to fix the changes on his/her own, before they resubmit. You will review the resubmitted manuscript, and then decide whether to recommend it to the Sr. Editor for acceptance or not.
REC. TO MAKE MAJOR REVISIONS: you might want to include the manuscript in your special issue, but the author needs to make significant changes before you can decide. Normally, we give the author a month to fix the changes on his/her own. Once the submission returns with revisions, we send it back to the original reviewers for a second round of reviews.
The Sr. Editor makes final decisions; either he or the Sr. Editor will inform you. The Sr. Editor sends out the decision letters, customizing each one with specific comments you provide. Sr. Editor advises authors of accepted submissions about his editing process, which collaboratively transforms manuscripts into our magazine style.
Deadlines for Special Issues
Because the schedule gives us only five months to complete the peer review process for Theme-Issue (TI) submissions, from start to finish, we strongly encourage you to follow this review schedule very closely:
Week 0: Manuscript submissions are due
Week 1: GE assigns reviewers to all submissions (rejecting some prior to review as needed)
Week 4: Reviewers submit their reviews
Week 7: GE’s submit their recommendations (via Manuscript Central) to the Sr. Editor
Week 9: Sr. Editor consults with the EIC and makes decisions.
Week 10: Sr. Editor sends decision letters to authors, with revision recommendations, as required.
Week 13: Authors submit revised articles.
Week 14: Sr. Editor sends revised "major" submissions back to the original reviewers.
Week 16: Reviewers submit new reviews.
Week 17: GE’s review the revised articles (accepts, minors, and majors) and make recommendations to the Sr. Editor, regarding what to include in the issue, the number of pages allocated to each article, and what (if anything) the authors still need to address during the editing cycle.
Week 18: EIC makes final decisions, Sr. Editor sends out decision letters.
Week 20: All materials submitted to Publications Office.
Do not accelerate this schedule without the concurrence of the EIC and the senior editor.
Page Limitations & Text Formatting Requirements
The EIC will give the GE’s a specific page allocation for all the theme papers, including the GE introduction and the Point/Counterpoint. The GE’s decide how many of those pages go to each piece.
We accept plain text, Word, LaTex, Postscript, and PDF. Any file an author uploads to Manuscript Central will convert into a PDF. Files cannot exceed 20 Mbytes.
The pages should be set to 8 1/2 inches wide, by 11 inches high. Margins should be at least one inch on the left, right, and at least 1.5 inches from the top and bottom. Authors must have page numbers on every page, at least one inch from the bottom of each page.
Articles should not exceed 5,400 words, including all text, the abstract, keywords, bibliography, biographies, and table text. Each table and figure considered as 200 words (to account for white space needed). You may automatically reject any article exceeding this word, without going through the review process. Authors must supply an abstract and at least two keywords, when uploading their manuscripts. Each submission should have a title page containing the submission's title and the names, affiliations, and contact information for all coauthors.
Peer Review Policies
Concurrent Submissions: We do not allow submissions to more than one publication at one time. If we determine that a manuscript is already submitted to another publication before IJSA's review process is completed, we will automatically withdraw that manuscript.
Duplicate Submissions: We do NOT accept duplicate submissions of manuscripts. Authors should not try to enter or upload a modified version of manuscripts that are already in the system as a new submission. Identical submissions are not entertained!
Preliminary/Conference Version(s): If any portion of a submission has appeared or will appear in future conference proceedings, the author must include a copy of the previously published manuscript, along with the IJOP submission and a summary of changes identifying the differences between the two.
The GE’s and reviewers must check each submitted manuscript to determine, whether a sufficient amount of new material has been added to warrant publication in IJSA or not. New results are not required; however, the submission should contain expansions of key ideas, examples, elaborations, etc.
If you have questions regarding this policy, please contact the Sr. Editor
Guest Editors’ Introduction
The introduction should discuss the theme topic in the context of the computer industry, by presenting recent results, future directions, and important trends and their implications, and getting across to the reader, why this topic is important and timely. The introduction should not summarize the articles, but instead explain how they relate to the topic and to each other; try to motivate the reader to read them. It could include a tutorial or overview to introduce concepts and terminology, enabling readers unfamiliar with the topic to understand the articles. It should be no more than four magazine pages (2500 words), including a Further Resources sidebar of 300–500 words, where you list and comment, on the most important sources of information about the topic (papers, articles, books, newsgroups, conferences, organizations). The Senior Editor (SE) will review your introduction.
Point–Counterpoint
Every focus section of IJSA needs to be perfectly balanced. If the main articles do not explicitly reflect conflicting views, then the section should contain a PCP, highlighting two sides of a controversy in the theme area. The GE’s choose the PCP topic and recruit the two authors. It should generate discussion about the theme and provide a forum for dissenting viewpoints. The essays should not include personal attacks, but should focus attention on supportable positions that take opposite views. The authors should be well-known and well-respected people in the field. Each PCP author has about 750 words to state her or his side of the argument, and about 250 words to respond to the other’s comments. A Sr. Editor will work with the authors to format their articles appropriately.
The Articles
Sr. Editor will copyedit and collaborate fully with the authors, on magazine style and content (to make sure the manuscript flows, is direct, and organized – see IJSA Author Information for more information on our editing style). We also reserve the right to edit the title of all submissions.
Letters to the Editor
Please forward any reader comments, you receive to the Sr. Editor, and we will send you what we receive. In either case, you may respond in print if you wish. The letters editor will advise you of publication deadlines.
For More Information:
“Srikanth G. K.” or “Sr. Editor” < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
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