Applied Computing and Informatics

Format

Article files should be provided in Microsoft Word format

While you are welcome to submit a PDF of the document alongside the Word file, PDFs alone are not acceptable. LaTeX files can also be used but only if an accompanying PDF document is provided. Acceptable figure file types are listed further below.

Article length / wordcount

Articles should preferably be a maximum of 5000 words in length. This includes all text including references and appendices. Tables and Figures necessary to support the research findings should be included. Tables and figures should contain a self-explanatory captions.

Article title

A concisely worded title should be provided.

Author details

The names of all contributing authors should be added to the ScholarOne submission; please list them in the order in which you’d like them to be published. Each contributing author will need their own ScholarOne author account, from which we will extract the following details:

• Author email address.
• Author name. We will reproduce it exactly, so any middle names and/or initials they want featured must be included.
• Author affiliation. This should be where they were based when the research for the paper was conducted.

In multi-authored papers, it’s important that ALL authors that have made a significant contribution to the paper are listed. Those who have provided support but have not contributed to the research should be featured in an acknowledgements section. You should never include people who have not contributed to the paper or who don’t want to be associated with the research. Read about our research ethics for authorship.

Acknowledgements

If you want to include any acknowledgements, save them in a separate Microsoft Word document and upload the file with your submission.

Research funding

Your article must reference all sources of external research funding in the acknowledgements section. You should describe the role of the funder or financial sponsor in the entire research process, from study design to submission.

Structured abstract

All submissions must include a structured abstract, following the format outlined below.

These four sub-headings and their accompanying explanations must always be included:

• Purpose
• Design/methodology/approach
• Findings
• Originality

The following three sub-headings are optional and can be included, if applicable:

• Research limitations/implications
• Practical implications
• Social implications

You can find some useful tips in our write an article abstract how-to guide.

The maximum length of your abstract should be 250 words in total, including keywords and article classification (see the sections below).

Keywords

Your submission should include up to 12 appropriate and short keywords that capture the principal topics of the paper. Our Creating an SEO-friendly manuscript how to guide contains some practical guidance on choosing search-engine friendly keywords.

Please note, while we will always try to use the keywords you’ve suggested, the in-house editorial team may replace some of them with matching terms to ensure consistency across publications and improve your article’s visibility.

Article classification

During the submission process, you will be asked to select a type for your paper; the options are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit:

• Research Article
• Review Paper
• Mini Review
• Short Communication
• Editorials
• Book Reviews

You will also be asked to select a category for your paper. The options for this are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit:

1. Research Article
   
   Reports on any type of research undertaken by the author(s), including:

• The construction or testing of a model or framework
• Action research
• Testing of data, market research or surveys
• Empirical, scientific or clinical research
• Papers with a practical focus

2. Review Paper

Ideally a review paper takes stock of research in the particular field of research in a comprehensive manner and review concludes in identification gaps in research and future trends, as the case may be.

3. Mini Review
   
   It is a brief and concise overview of recent research in a specific field well in the scope of this Journal and supported by bibliography belonging to quality sources. The paper is spread over 2000-3000 words.
4. Short Communication
   
   A Short communication generally is an article that provides counter arguments or response to a published work within the scope of ACI. The submissions need not follow a strict paper outline and should preferably have between 2000 and 3,000 words. Sometimes, it is a piece of work demanding quick sharing with the scientific community. Such submissions are peer reviewed as true for other articles.
5. Editorials
   
   Editorial is an invited submission involving member of the Editorial Board or Guest Editor. The purpose of an editorial is to provide a write up on specific theme usually about a recent topic of interest. Editorial of a Special Issue provides a crisp and sequential introduction to the topics covered in the issue.
6. Book Reviews:
   
   Book review aims at providing insight and opinion on recently published scholarly books. Such submissions are short articles introducing new literature in the field.

Headings

Headings must be concise, with a clear indication of the required hierarchy. 

The preferred format is for first level headings to be in bold, and subsequent sub-headings to be in medium italics.

Notes/endnotes

Notes or endnotes should only be used if absolutely necessary. They should be identified in the text by consecutive numbers enclosed in square brackets. These numbers should then be listed, and explained, at the end of the article.

Figures

All figures (charts, diagrams, line drawings, webpages/screenshots, and photographic images) should be submitted electronically. Both colour and black and white files are accepted.

There are a few other important points to note:

• All figures should be supplied at the highest resolution/quality possible with numbers and text clearly legible.
• Acceptable formats are .ai, .eps, .jpeg, .bmp, and .tif.
• Electronic figures created in other applications should be supplied in their original formats and should also be either copied and pasted into a blank MS Word document, or submitted as a PDF file.
• All figures should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and have clear captions.
• All photographs should be numbered as Plate 1, 2, 3, etc. and have clear captions.
• All figure/table captions should include the necessary credit line, acknowledgement, or attribution if you have been given permission to use the figure/table; if the figure/table is the property of the author(s), this should be acknowledged in the caption.

Tables

Tables should be typed and submitted in a separate file to the main body of the article. The position of each table should be clearly labelled in the main body of the article with corresponding labels clearly shown in the table file. Tables should be numbered consecutively in Roman numerals (e.g. I, II, etc.).

Give each table a brief title. Ensure that any superscripts or asterisks are shown next to the relevant items and have explanations displayed as footnotes to the table, figure or plate.

Supplementary files

Where tables, figures, appendices, and other additional content are supplementary to the article but not critical to the reader’s understanding of it, you can choose to host these supplementary files alongside your article on Insight, Emerald’s content hosting platform, or on an institutional or personal repository. All supplementary material must be submitted prior to acceptance.

If you choose to host your supplementary files on Insight, you must submit these as separate files alongside your article. Files should be clearly labelled in such a way that makes it clear they are supplementary; Emerald recommends that the file name is descriptive and that it follows the format ‘Supplementary_material_appendix_1’ or ‘Supplementary tables’. All supplementary material must be mentioned at the appropriate moment in the main text of the article, there is no need to include the content of the file but only the file name. A link to the supplementary material will be added to the article during production, and the material will be made available alongside the main text of the article at the point of EarlyCite publication.

Please note that Emerald will not make any changes to the material; it will not be copyedited, typeset, and authors will not receive proofs. Emerald therefore strongly recommends that you style all supplementary material ahead of acceptance of the article.

Emerald Insight can host the following file types and extensions:

• Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)
• MS Word document (.doc, .docx)
• MS Excel (.xls, xlsx)
• MS PowerPoint (.pptx)
• Image (.png, .jpeg, .gif)
• Plain ASCII text (.txt)
• PostScript (.ps)
• Rich Text Format (.rtf)

If you choose to use an institutional or personal repository, you should ensure that the supplementary material is hosted on the repository ahead of submission, and then include a link only to the repository within the article. It is the responsibility of the submitting author to ensure that the material is free to access and that it remains permanently available.

Please note that extensive supplementary material may be subject to peer review; this is at the discretion of the journal Editor and dependent on the content of the material (for example, whether including it would support the reviewer making a decision on the article during the peer review process).

References

References: The Vancouver style reference format should be followed. In-text citations are to be numbered consecutively in parentheses. In the reference list, citations should be given in the same numbered order as in the text. All authors should be quoted for papers with up to six authors, and for papers with more than six authors, the first six should be quoted followed by “et al.” Periodical (Journal) abbreviations should follow those used by PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals). Some examples of how to quote references are given below.

Journal article:

1. Kwan I, Mapstone J. Visibility aids for pedestrians and cyclists: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials. Accid Anal Prev. 2004; 36(3): 305-12.
2. Rose ME, Huerbin MB, Melick J, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Brain Res. 2002 May; 935(1-2): 40-6.
3. Montero D, Roche E, Martinez-Rodriguez A. The impact of aerobic exercise training on arterial stiffness in pre- and hypertensive subjects: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Cardiol. 2014 May; 173(3): 361-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2014.03.072

Entire book: 

1. Miles DA, Van Dis ML, Williamson GF, Jensen CW. Radiographic imaging for the dental team. 4th ed.  St. Louis: Saunders Elsevier; 2009. 

Book chapter:

1. Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002.  p.93-113.

Electronic journal article (The most recent date of access must be given):

1. Stone D, Harper BJ, Lynch I, Dawson K, Harper SL. Exposure assessment: recommendations for nanotechnology-based pesticides. Int J Occup Environ Health. 2010 Oct-Dec; 16(4): 467-74 [cited 2010 Jan 10].  Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21222390

Electronic book/monograph on the Internet:

1. Donaldson MS, editor. Measuring the quality of health care [monograph on the internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 1999 [cited 2004 Oct 8]. Available from: http://legacy.netlibrary.com/

Proceedings article:

1. Christensen S, Oppacher F. An analysis of Koza's computational effort statistic for genetic programming. In: Foster JA, Lutton E, editors.  Genetic programming.  EuroGP: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Genetic Programming; 2002 Apr 3-5; Berlin: Springer; 2002. p.182-91.

Website [updated = Last Update Date; cited = Access Year Access Date]:

1. National Cancer Institute.  Fact sheet: targeted cancer therapies. [updated: 2014 April 25; cited 2014 June 2]. Available from: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/targeted#q1

Is there a submission fee
for the journal?

Applied Computing and Informatics is published under a platinum OA arrangement, in that all charges for publishing an OA article in the Journal are funded by King Saud University. Therefore, there is no charge to the author.

How can I become
a reviewer for a journal?

Please contact the editor for the journal, with a copy of your CV. You will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page.

Who do I contact if I want to find out which volume and issue my accepted paper will appear in?

Typically, papers are added to an issue according to their date of publication. If you would like to know in advance which issue your paper will appear in, please contact the content editor of the journal. You will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. Once your paper has been published in an issue, you will be notified by email.

Who do I contact if I have
a query about my submission?

Please email the journal editor – you will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. If you ever suspect an email you’ve received from Emerald might not be genuine, you are welcome to verify it with the content editor for the journal, whose contact details can be found on the editorial team tab on this page. Alternatively, you can email our Rights team.

Is my paper suitable
for the journal?

If you’ve read the aims and scope on the journal landing page and are still unsure whether your paper is suitable for the journal, please email the editor and include your paper's title and structured abstract. They will be able to advise on your manuscript’s suitability. You will find their contact details on the Editorial team tab on this page.

How do I make a change to the list of authors once the manuscript has been submitted?

Authorship and the order in which the authors are listed on the paper should be agreed prior to submission. We have a right first time policy on this and no changes can be made to the list once submitted. If you have made an error in the submission process, please email the Journal Editorial Office who will look into your request – you will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page.