Review Procedures
Manuscript Submissions
Submissions to the all-electronic SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical
Systems (SIADS) must be in electronic form and sent via SIAM's Journal
Submission & Tracking System at
http://siads.siam.org. Hard-copy
submissions will not be considered. Once logged into the system, authors
must provide a cover letter and a PDF file of the manuscript. Any
questions can be directed to
[email protected].
Note: Non-supplemental images/figures, if any, must be embedded "inline" in the manuscript.
SIADS authors are encouraged to submit supplemental files to complement their work. Some of these files, such as movie files, may be appropriate for inclusion in the journal; others, such as computer program files, may be more appropriate for DSWeb, SIAM's website devoted to the dynamical systems community. Files intended for inclusion in the journal must be peer reviewed along with the manuscript and should be included with the submission. You are also required to submit an index of Supplementary Materials. In the index, list each item along with a brief description and a justification for why the item should be included. This index will be used by the editor and referees in judging the appropriateness, and the descriptions will also ultimately appear on the Supplementary Materials webpage available to readers. This html template should be used to create the index (right click and "save link or target as" to download: also available as a text file). DSWeb supplemental files will not be peer reviewed with the submitted manuscript and will be discussed with the author only after the submitted paper has been accepted.
Note on Manuscript Length and Size of Files: Generally, manuscripts should not exceed 40 pages in length and/or 5 megabytes in file size. Supplemental files should not exceed 50 megabytes in size. Exceptions to these limits must be justified to the editor-in-chief. If these limitations are exceeded, please contact the SIAM office ([email protected]) in advance to explain the need for the extra size/space.
Once the submitted manuscript has been received by the SIAM office, the files will be tested to ensure that they are readable/functional. At this point, the manuscript has a status of "unrouted" (UN) (see status descriptions below).
The SIAM office sends the corresponding author an e-mail acknowledging receipt and providing the manuscript number. Authors are asked to include the manuscript number in all correspondence regarding the paper.
Direct Submissions
Members of the Editorial Board occasionally receive submissions directly from authors. In such cases the editor will ask the author to resubmit the paper to the SIAM office through the Journal Submission & Tracking System at http://siads.siam.org. This procedure ensures that the SIAM office will have the opportunity to access the manuscript for proper processing and tracking throughout the review process. Editors should not review a new submission without the approval of the EIC, who assigns the Review Editor for each paper.
Papers authored by Editorial Board members: Papers authored by Editorial Board members are subject to the same anonymous peer-review process as other papers. Submissions to the journal authored by the members of the Editorial Board will be handled by the Editor-in-Chief. Submissions to the journal authored by the Editor-in-Chief will be directed to the Vice President for Publications, who will oversee the review process.
Conflicts of Interest and Rerouting
It is vital to the reputation of SIAM and all of its journals that
conflicts of interest be avoided. Therefore, it is SIAM policy that
editors not review papers authored by their friends, colleagues,
co-workers, students, or recent former students. The same policy applies
to referees: editors should not send papers to referees who work at an
author's institution or who are known to have close ties to the author. To
help avoid conflicts of interest, it is SIAM policy that editors who
receive manuscript submissions or who are assigned manuscripts that
present a conflict of interest decline the assignment. The EIC can then
reassign the paper to another editor.
Also, if the MEB is unable or unwilling to handle a given submission, either because of workload difficulties or because the submission is outside his/her areas of expertise, or for any other reason, again, he/she should decline and the EIC will invite another editor to review the paper.
Manuscript Review
The MEB designates, via the web-based system, the names of 2 referees and, if possible, 2 backup referees, along with their e-mail addresses, phone numbers (if available), and the names of their respective institutions. The potential referees are contacted by e-mail to determine if they are willing to review the paper. Once they've agreed and accessed the paper, SIAM asks that referees complete their review and send their reports within 6 weeks. If reports are not received within 6 weeks, the SIAM office will regularly prompt the referees. Once reports are received, thank you messages are sent to the referees and the reports go to the MEB for evaluation. Based on the reports, the MEB makes a decision on the paper, which usually results in a change of the paper's review status. In most cases, the author receives copies of the referee reports along with the editor's decision letter. Note that all of this communication is done by e-mail and works within the web-based Submission & Tracking System.
Option for EIC Assistance
There may be some instances in which the MEB feels uncomfortable making a
decision on a paper or communicating a decision to the author. In such
cases, the MEB has the option of contacting the EIC for assistance or to
request that the EIC make the decision and/or communicate the decision to
the author.
Status Changes
The various status designations and the steps that the MEB should follow
are discussed in detail below. The MEB should review these very carefully
and, in his/her communication with authors, avoid wording which could make
the status of the paper seem unclear (e.g., in a rejection message to the
author: Is the intent to reject clear, or is a revision being implicitly
encouraged?). Please note especially the important distinctions among the
following statuses: rejected, in revision, and minor revision.
- Accepted (A). A manuscript is not considered officially accepted by the SIAM office until both a copy of the acceptance message to the author and the final, accepted versions of the electronic files of the manuscript have been received.
- In revision (V, V1, V2, V3). When an author is asked to revise a paper, there is no guarantee that the revised version will be accepted for publication. Usually, in fact, such revisions are substantial and the paper will need to be refereed again. The editor usually requests the revision be completed within three months. Note that V1 refers to a second round of revision, V2, a third round, etc.
- Minor revision (PA, PA1, PA2, PA3). Unlike one that is "in revision," a paper that is PA is more likely to be accepted as long as the author(s) makes the changes specified, but there is no promise and the editor may still reject it. The revision is minor; no major changes are necessary in order to make the paper acceptable. The author receives a decision letter and referee reports. The letter may state whether the editor intends that the revised paper will be sent back to the referees or not. Also, a due date of no longer than one month for the revision should be stated.
- In review (R, R1, R2, R3). As noted already, when a paper has been assigned to a review editor, it is considered "in review". R1 and R2 refer to second and third rounds of review, respectively; i.e., papers that have returned for review after having been in revision.
- Rejected (RJ). MEBs should be very clear when rejecting a
manuscript; i.e., a rejection message should not leave an author
thinking that a revision is expected. If a substantially revised paper
would, in fact, be welcome, the MEB should clearly state that the
revised version will be treated as a new submission when
received.
Note: If an MEB assesses that a paper is clearly inappropriate for the journal, or that it is of poor quality, before having it sent to referees, he or she can reject the paper without refereeing. - Withdrawn (W). Only an author can withdraw a manuscript from the review process. Usually, withdrawal messages are sent by the author to the SIAM office, but they are sometimes sent to the MEB or even the EIC. The SIAM office will let the MEB know if a manuscript that he or she is handling is being withdrawn. If an MEB receives such a message, (s)he should forward it to the SIAM office.
- Unrouted (UN). As already indicated, an unrouted manuscript is one that has been received by the SIAM office but has not yet been assigned to a Reviewing Editor by the EIC.
Manuscripts that are of high quality but are inappropriate for the journal to which they have been submitted can be transferred to other SIAM journals for consideration. Note that for SIADS, it is unlikely that manuscripts would be transferred to other journals, given that the other journals are not completely electronic, but if such a situation arises, the following procedure must be followed:
- The MEB contacts the SIAM office and the SIADS EIC to suggest the transfer.
- If the SIADS EIC agrees with the request for transfer, the SIAM office consults with the EIC of the journal to which the paper might be transferred.
- If the EIC of the transfer journal approves, the SIADS MEB suggests the transfer to the author. The MEB should clearly state that the paper would be transferred to a traditional journal, so the electronic facets of the paper would no longer be considered.
- If the author agrees to the transfer, the SIAM office will process the manuscript for the new journal.
Reports
Various reports can be run by SIAM. Reports on the status of all SIADS papers in process, as well as a separate report on overdue papers, will be sent to the EIC every month. MEBs will receive reports from the SIAM office on the status of their papers on a regular basis. Reports will include information on status of manuscript refereeing. We request that you review these reports and forward any corrections, changes, or status updates to the SIAM office as soon as possible (preferably within one week) after you receive them. We also ask that you pay special attention to overdue papers and make every effort to complete their reviews as quickly as possible.
If there is any specific information that you would like that is not covered in the reports, or if you have any other questions, please contact SIAM's Publications Manager ([email protected]).