Guidelines for ERCIM News articles

Style: ERCIM News is read by a large variety of people. Keeping this in mind the article should be descriptive (emphasize more the 'what' than the 'how') without too much technical detail together with an illustration, if possible.

Contributions in ERCIM News are normally presented without formulas. One can get a long way with careful phrasing, although it is not always wise to avoid formulas altogether. In cases where authors feel that the use of formulas is necessary to clarify matters, this should be done in a separate box (to be treated as an illustration). However, formulas and symbols scattered through the text must be avoided as much as possible.

Length: Keep the article short, i.e. 800 +/- 100 words.

Format: Submissions preferably in ASCII text or MS Word. Pictures/Illustrations must be submitted as separate files (not embedded in a MS Word file) in a resolution/quality suitable for printing.

Structure of the article:
The emphasis in ERCIM News is on 'NEWS'. This should be reflected in both title and lead ('teaser').
Also: NO REVIEW ARTICLES!

• Title
• Author (full name, max. two or three authors)
• Teaser:
  a few words about the project/topic. Printed in boldface, this part is intended to raise interest (keep it short).
• Details describing:
  what the project/product is
  which institutions are involved
  where it takes place
  why the research is being done
  when it was started/completed the aim of the project
  the techniques employed
  the orientation of the project
  future activities
  other institutes involved in this project
  co-operation with other ERCIM members in this field
• References:
  
  • 1 - max. 3 references are mandatory for special theme articles. For articles for the section "Research and Development", you can give up to three references (not mandatory)
  • Authors should preferably refer to important sources only (i.e. journal papers, books) and avoid meaningless references such as article in preparation, unpublished presentations, personal communications, research reports, patents, or local conference publications not listed in the major scientific digital libraries (such as IEEE, ACM, Springer).
  • The selected EN style is the shortened IEEE Citation Style.
  • The references should be as concise as possible and restricted to the minimal information needed. Avoid all unnecessary words (pages x pp., year, editors, location,...). Use acronyms instead of full conference names - OOPSLA x Object-Oriented Programming Systems, abbreviations (e.g. Conf. x Conference, IEEE TPAMI x IEEE Transaction on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, etc.).
  • Use et al. when three or more names are given.
• Useful Link(s) (URLs separated from the references)
  
• Contact address with:
  - full name of the author
  - phone number
• Photos, illustrations:
  ERCIM News is a full-color print magazine. Each article should be accompanied by an illustration (photos, graphics), for example of the product, applications mentioned in the article, people working on the project, etc. (avoid as much as possible flow charts and screen dumps).
  Photos should be submitted in jpg or tiff format in a resolution suitable for printing (pictures taken from the web are usually in a quality suitable for printing), graphics in a vector format (svg, eps, pdf).

A Word template for ERCIM News articles is available for download.

Publishing in ERCIM News offers several advantages:

• ERCIM News represents an excellent opportunity to present your research to a broad audience, also outside your own research community
• ERCIM News is published in print and online and reaches about 10,000 readers
• ERCIM News is widely distributed in the European Commission
• ERCIM offers a free professional proof-reading service
• Authors can reuse their articles; the copyright of the articles remains with the authors.
• Articles of the sections "Special Theme" and "Research and Innovation" are referenced by DBLP and by Web of Science (from issue 104 onwards)