INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

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Editorial policy

Papers submitted for publication should be original and interesting, and as such provide contributions to the field of simulation. Advice can be obtained from the editors as to whether papers on such topics are likely to be appropriate. English reprints of articles previously published in another language will be considered.

The editorial policy is to review and publish articles with all possible speed. The journal consists of regular articles on the field of simulation and a book review section. Special issues in areas of simulation are encouraged. Proposals should be sent to the editors.

All full length papers are reviewed by two referees with expertise in the particular area. Technical notes are reviewed by the joint editors. Book reviews are handled by the Book Review Editor.

Submission of manuscripts

Authors should submit their paper electronically, in either WORD (.doc file) or a pdf file (single files only), by accessing the OR Society website and clicking on the 'Submit paper - JOS button. The submission system is designed to be self-explanatory but before using it authors are advised to ensure that they have conformed to the script requirements detailed below and that their paper can be divided easily by them, for input purposes, into:

  • Abstract (including Keywords)
  • Main Text (including Appendices and References)
  • Figures
  • Tables
  • Captions for Figures and Tables

all of which will be submitted as one document, but with the last three items separated from the main text. The Statement of Contribution, which has to be provided, but will not be published as part of an accepted paper, should be a summary in no more than 300 words of the contribution of the paper to the discrete event simulation. Authors must be prepared to agree to a statement that their paper is not under consideration with any other journal (see point 4 in 'Proofs, Copyright and Conditions of Submission' below). The paper should conform to the following requirements.

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Script requirements

Manuscripts should be in at least 1.5 line spacing, with ample margins. The pages of the main text should be numbered consecutively.

Papers should not normally exceed 10 journal pages (or about 5000 words). Each figure is equivalent to about one-third of a page, and hence manuscripts should not exceed 20 typed, double spaced A4 pages, including figures, tables, references and appendices.

Technical notes and viewpoints should not exceed six manuscript pages. Viewpoints should be submitted as for regular papers, but omitting abstract, keywords and statement of contribution. Book Reviews should only be offered after consultation with the Book Reviews Editor and should not be submitted using this system.

Figures, tables etc, should be submitted at the same time as the main text of the paper with each on a new page, and should take account of the page size of the journal. Wherever possible, figures should be suitable for subsequent direct photographic reproduction. Figure captions and table headings should be provided on a separate page at the end of the script. It is not normal practice for any diagrams to be printed in colour in published papers, but if authors require this they will have to pay the publisher's charges for such printing.

In writing your paper you are encouraged to review or reference papers in the area you are addressing previously published in the journal. This provides coherence and continuity for our readers.

A running head of not more than 30 characters should be supplied for papers with long titles.

Sections and subsections should be clearly differentiated but should not be numbered.

Papers should be written without the use of footnotes.

Mathematical expressions and Greek or other symbols should be written clearly with ample spacing. Use widely accepted symbols and abbreviations, following the style of BS 1991 Part 2 1954.

Spelling should conform with The Concise Oxford Dictionary.

References should be indicated in the text by author name(s) followed by date of publication, all in parenthesis, for example (Brown and Allen, 2001) or for a work by more than two authors (Van der Meer et al, 2005). In a list of references put oldest first. At the end of the article references should be listed (unnumbered) ordered alphabetically by author name. Do not use et al here unless for items with more than four authors. If more than one reference has identical date and authorship use superscripted a, b, ... after the date to distinguish, for example (Allen, 2001a).

Please adopt the following style for listing references:

  • Journals (abbreviate titles as in the World List of Scientific Periodicals):

    Lang D C, Monefeldt C and Rosenhead J V (2000). Looking in the wrong place for healthcare improvements: A system dynamics study of an accident and emergency department. J Opl Res Soc 51: 518-531.

  • Books:

    Glover F and Laguna M (1997). Tabu Search. Kluwer Academic Publishers: London.

  • Papers in a contributed volume:

    Osman IH (1995). An introduction to meta-heuristics. In: Lawrence M and Wilsdon C (eds). Operational Research Tutorial 1995. Operational Research Society: Birmingham, pp 92-122.

  • Unpublished reports and theses (which should be available on request):

    Mourtos I (2003). Integer and constraint programming methods for mutually orthogonal latin squares. PhD thesis, University of London.

References to internet sites must be given in brackets in the text, not in the reference list. The full URL must be given, followed by date website was accessed.

  • Example:

    http://www.ms.ic.ac.uk/info.html accessed 1 January 2003

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Content

There should be an abstract of not more than 150 words. The abstract should be sufficiently comprehensible to enable any reader of the journal to judge the paper's potential interest. Since this abstract will be published in International Abstracts in Operations Research, it should be complete in itself and contain no references. Authors will be asked during submission to provide 3-6 key words defining the essential content of the paper. A list of recommended keywords is given below. The keywords on the list are used in the referee selection process, and in the construction of the annual index, so it is important that authors make maximum use of this suggested list.

All theoretical papers should commence with an introduction which is comprehensible to non-specialist readers. IN PARTICULAR THE RELEVANCE OF THE PAPER TO PRACTICE SHOULD BE MADE EVIDENT WITHIN THE PAPER.

Where appropriate, worked examples should be included in theoretical papers to assist the understanding of non-specialist readers.

All case-oriented papers should commence with an introduction which indicates clearly that this is an account of an actual project.

All papers should end with a conclusion which summarizes the value of the work and, where appropriate, indicates possible directions for future developments.

Wherever possible, theorems, computer programs, lists and calculations should be placed in appendices.

References should be included from ALL appropriate sources and should be readily accessible to readers.

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Keywords

  • Accidents
  • Accounting
  • Advertising
  • Agriculture
  • Air transport
  • Allocation
  • Architecture
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Automation
  • Banking
  • Behaviour
  • Bidding
  • Building
  • Capital budgeting
  • Coal
  • Cognitive mapping
  • Combinatorial analysis
  • Communications
  • Community OR
  • Computational analysis
  • Computers
  • Conflict analysis
  • Construction
  • Control
  • Corporate planning
  • Cost benefit
  • Costing
  • CPM
  • Cutting stock problem
  • Cybernetics
  • Data envelopment analysis
  • Decision analysis
  • Decision support systems
  • Defence studies
  • Developing countries
  • Development
  • Distribution
  • Dynamic programming
  • Econometrics
  • Education
  • Electricity
  • Energy
  • Engineering
  • Environmental studies
  • Equipment
  • Expert systems
  • Finance
  • Flexible manufacturing systems
  • Forecasting
  • Forestry
  • Fractional programming
  • Fuzzy sets
  • Game theory
  • Gaming
  • Gas
  • Geometric programming
  • GERT
  • Goal programming
  • Government
  • Health service
  • Heuristics
  • History of OR
  • Hospitals
  • Industrial relations
  • Information systems
  • Information theory
  • Insurance
  • Integer programming
  • Inventory
  • Investment
  • Layout
  • Learning
  • Libraries
  • Linear programming
  • Location
  • Logistics
  • Maintenance
  • Management
  • Man-machine systems
  • Manpower planning
  • Marketing
  • Markov processes
  • Medicine
  • Methodology
  • Microcomputers
  • Military
  • Multi-objective
  • Networks and graphs
  • Neural networks
  • Non-linear programming
  • Oil
  • Optimization
  • OR education
  • Organizational studies
  • PERT
  • Philosophy of OR
  • Planning
  • Population
  • Practice of OR
  • Probability
  • Production
  • Professional
  • Project management
  • Public expenditure
  • Purchasing
  • Quadratic programming
  • Quality
  • Queueing
  • Rail transport
  • Recreation
  • Regional studies
  • Regression
  • Reliability
  • Repair
  • Replacement policy
  • Research
  • Resource
  • Risk
  • Road transport
  • Scheduling
  • Search
  • Sea transport
  • Sequencing
  • Simulation
  • Sports
  • Statistics
  • Stochastic processes
  • Stochastic programming
  • Strategic planning
  • System dynamics
  • Systems
  • Telecommunications
  • Time series
  • Timetabling
  • Trade unions
  • Traffic
  • Training
  • Transport
  • Travelling salesman
  • Urban studies
  • Vehicle routeing
  • Water

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Proofs of papers are sent to authors for checking and correction of fact, especially with regard to mathematical content. Alterations to diagrams and non-essential textual changes should be avoided. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt. Failure to do so may result in the paper being published with editorial corrections only.

Twenty-five reprints of each paper are provided free to the author, and further reprints and copies of the issue (at a specially reduced rate) may be ordered when proofs are returned. However, it is not possible to supply reprints of letters and viewpoints.

The copyright of all material published in the journal is held by the OR Society. Authors of accepted papers will be asked to sign a form assigning copyright to the Society.

Submission of a paper for refereeing means that the author certifies that the manuscript is not copyrighted; nor has it been accepted for publication (or published) by a refereed journal; nor is it being refereed elsewhere at the same time. Submission of a paper to more than one journal simultaneously is unacceptable both to the Editor of this journal and to the editors of other journals in the field of simulation.

If authors use material within their article that has been published elsewhere then they must obtain the permission of the earlier publisher.

Authors may publish figures or any other part of their contribution in any other work directly by them, without asking permission, provided that the usual acknowledgements are made.

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Business matters

Business correspondence and enquiries relating to advertising, subscriptions, backnumbers or reprints should be addressed to the relevant person at Palgrave Macmillan Journals, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, UK.