Subject: Summary: Conf. proceedings help in publishing

From: "John Waite, Tel: ++30-1-7238958, N.H.R.F., Organic Chemistry Institute, Vas. Konstantinou 48, Athens 116-35" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 95 10:29 GMT

Hi Netters,
    A week ago I mailed the following questions and may I apologize if 
 anyone received more than one copy but our local mailserver had some
 problems last weekend:

    I would like some help/information concerning the publication of
 conference proceedings. I have looked unsuccessfully through CCL's
 archives, so will summarize any responses I receive. 
 
     Firstly I presume there are two main ways of doing this -
 either using a Journal or a Publishing House. Other?
     What are the (dis)advantages of these choices?
     Refereeing?
     Cost? etc.
 
     I believe there are also two ways of producing such proceedings -
     Photographically (on pre-defined forms) or electronically. Other?
     Again, what are the (dis)advantages of these choices?
     Cost? etc.
 
     Concerning Journals, the topic of the conference in question is
 super-computing. So which Journals are suitable? I would like their title,
 preferebly e-mail address or phone, else FAX or postal address + the name
 of a person to contact.
     Similarly for Publishing Houses - I know Elsevier, North-Holland,
 D.Reidel, Plenum and Kluwer do this sort of thing. Other?
     And the above contact proceedure(s).
 
     I would be grateful if any/some of these firms contacted me.
 My postal and e-mail addresses + direct phone are in the header of this
 message.
      Any other tips, suggestions, things to beware of, 'musts' or general
 info. will be appreciated,
      Thanking you all who contributed,
         John Waite

  Now for the replies; but first, three contacts I've dug up:

   Plenum Press:  ++44-71-377-0686

   Kluwer Press:  ++31-785-24400
            FAX:  ++31-785-24474

   J.Wiley:       ++44-243-779777
                  Baffins Lane,
                  Chichester,
                  West Sussex PO19 1UD
                  U.K.

 and a comment. If the conference organisation committee/edittorial
 board can guarantee the sale of more than around 100 copies of the
 proceedings, in book form, there is generally no charge imposed 
 by the publishing house. Further, the proceedure for such a 
 publication method is for a contract to be signed between the
 publisher and the edittor(ial board). I presume that if a journal
 can be found to print the proceedings, only the usual page charges
 if any, are involved.

 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 Firstly, from CCL's illustrious coordinator:

From: Jan Labanowski <[email-masked]>

While I will not be very specific, this is my experience with producing the
proceedings.
1) No publisher really wants them since they do not sell well. If you
   can promise that the it will be like "overview" of major trends in
   a given discipline, they will want to publish the book (hardcover).

2) You are much better off approaching the publishers before the meeting.
   It will also help you in forcing your speakers to have their chapters
   written up.

3) They usually prefer a "camera ready copy" and provide you with format
   requirements.

4) Do not believe for a second, that you will have book published withing
   a few months from the moment you deliver the manuscripts. It is a year
   at least (even, if the book is not reviewed).

So... In short, the traditional proceedings are not that hot. However, if
you can make your speakers to write chapters which will cover some specific
field, you have much better chance to sell the idea to the publisher. But
the thing needs to be focused on something which is considered hot topic
and where you do not have much competition.

Jan
[email-masked]

 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear Dr. Waite,

Thank you for your inquiry about (electronic) publishing of 
procedings.

I have passed your message along to one of our Publishing Editors
in the area of Computer Science, Ms. Eefke Smit, and she will 
contact you with further information. She can be reached at
	Tel +31-20-485-2473
	Fax +31-20-485-2616
	E-mail [email-masked]

As an example of what Elsevier can offer in electronic publishing,
you can view a conference procedings published electronically on 
our Elsevier Science Home Page at http://www.elsevier.nl on WWW.

I hope that we can be of service to you.

With kind regards,

Sandy MacFarlane
Marketing Manager
Elsevier Science bv
1055 KV Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Tel. +31-20-485-2676
Fax. +31-20-485-2845
E-mail [email-masked]

 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear Mr. Waite,

Via my colleague Sandy Macfarlane I was informed of
your request regarding conference proceedings in the
area of supercomputing.

Allow me to introduce myself as the responsible publishing
editor in that area.

Yes indeed, we do publish many proceedings in this area,
for example the HPCN-Supercomputing Europe Conference. But also
many others.

We often do so in one of our journals, as a Special Issue
containing a selection of the best papers, refereed and revised.
No costs involved. Extra copies made available.
Suitable journals are:

Future Generation Computer Systems (FGCS)
Parallel Computing
Microprocessors and Microsystems
Microprogramming and Microprocessing
Information and Software Technology

We also recently started publishing conference proceedings
electronically. Please take a look on Worldwide Web under URL:
http://www.elsevier.nl under COMPUTER NETWORKS AND ISDN for
the proceedings of the International WWW Conferences.

I will be happy to discus a new project with you. Which
conference are you referring to specifically ?

Please share your ideas with me, so that we can look for
an optimal solution,

with very best regards,

Eefke Smit
Senior Publishing Editor
Computer Sciences

Ms. Drs. Eefke Smit
Elsevier Science B.V.
P.O. Box 103
1000 AC  Amsterdam
phone: +31 (20) 4852 473
fax:   +31 (20) 4852 616
email: [email-masked]
 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Dave Edelson <[email-masked]>

As a former editor of Computer and Chemistry, which has published a number
of conference proceedings, and as a conference organizer myself, having aranged
for conferences to be published both as books and journals, I offer a few 
pieces of information which might guide you as to an appropriate choice for
your conference.

I see three choices:  The journal, which commits itself to reserving an
issue for the collected papers of your conference, a book which you print
up yourself, or a book done through an established publisher.

Taking the established publisher first, they take complete responsibility
for the production and sale of the book, leaving it to you to collect the
papers, review them (if they will be subject to review), see to it that
corrections etc. are made, and pass them to the printing process by a certain
date.  They may even offer the organization some money for this based on the
number they expect to sell, or they may want to be subsidized if they dont
expect to sell that many.  Either way, they will insist on doing some market
research before even making you an offer.  With the market as it is today,
many of the large publishers are refusing to take symposium collections because
of the high production costs and limited market.  Those that do price the book
excessively, probably limiting the market still further to the meeting 
participants.  Even libraries are refusing to spend the money for these books.

You can find book manufacturers who will take your stuff and make a book out
of it at a fixed price for so many copies.  It is then up to you to unload these
and recover your costs or make a profit.  World Publishing in Singapore is one
of these that has done work for meetings I have participated in.  The problem 
is that you could be stuck with a lot of unsold books.  More recently I under-
stand that World has taken it upon itself to distribute the books for you, but
I have not had any direct experience with this operation.

The Journal approach has several advantages.  It is recognized in the academic
community as a peer reviewed publication, while books are often not.  Hence the
academic would rather publish here than in a book for which he may get as much
credit.  The journal also has an established circulation, which gets the
distribution problem out of your hands.  Furthermore, it will reach more
than the limited audience of your symposium participants.
>From the editorial standpoint, you are relieved of much of the detail of paper
review and revision, since the journal editor handles this from his office, and
you become an advisor as to selection of reviewers and final judgments.  This 
also removes you from the first line of attack in case a paper is rejected.

Computers and Chemistry (published by Elsevier) would be happy to entertain
your proposal, and you could probably get some samples of conference issues
they have already published.  I suggest you talk to the new editor, James
Crabbe at Reading ([email-masked])

David Edelson
honorary editor
C&C

 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  James had already seen my request and mailed me. Here is his
 useful contribution:

 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: James Crabbe <[email-masked]>

Dear John,

I write as the editor-in-chief of the journal Computers and Chemistry, 
published by Elsevier Science.  We are happy to publish conference 
proceedings, and have done so on a number of occasions.
We could adopt the format of either producing papers from the conference 
(subject to the usual refereeing criteria), or produce a 'book' of 
abstracts for the meeting. In either case, the journal could then be 
available at a special price to participants of the meeting. 

If your conference is on the application of supercomuting to chemical, 
biochemical or molecular sciences, then it would appropriate for 
publishing in Computers and Chemistry.

I will send a file of the Aims and Scope of the journal, and Instructions 
for authors, which gives details of addresses etc.  

Please let me know if you would like to take this further.

I look forward to hearing from you,

James Crabbe.

   This is the attached file:

Computers and Chemistry
_________________________________________________________________

Aims and Scope of the Journal

Computers and Chemistry publishes papers in English on all fields relating 
computers and computational methods to the chemical and biochemical 
sciences, provided that they make a sufficiently novel contribution to 
knowledge.  Theoretical contributions will be considered equally with papers 
dealing with experimental work and applications. The journal is a 
multidisciplinary publication, covering the application of information sciences 
to topics as diverse as molecular design, molecular recognition, molecular 
dynamics, pharmacology and pharmaceutical chemistry, molecular biology, 
sequence analysis, molecular evolution, biomolecular structure prediction, solidstate modelling, materials sciences, chemical physics, industrial chemistry, andchemical engineering.

While the journal is predominantly devoted to research, papers on the 
development and application of information sciences to teaching and learning in 
the chemical and biochemical sciences will also be considered, provided they 
make a significant contribution to knowledge. 

>From time to time there are Special Issues of the journal, for example those in 
Open Problems of Computational Molecular Biology.

The following types of paper can be included in the journal:

Full Papers are the normal form of publication, and may be of any length that is 
justified by their content.  They are complete reports of original work.

Rapid Communications are brief reports bringing particularly novel and 
significant findings to the attention of the research community. 
Communications will receive full but accelerated reviewing, and it is hoped 
that a decision on acceptance or rejection will be made within three
weeks of receipt.  
Authors should include in their covering letter of submission a brief statement 
why they believe their Communication merits accelerated treatment.  
Communications, which should not exceed three journal pages in length, will be 
published as rapidly as possible.

Letters to the Editor are brief (about one journal page in length) items of 
scientific correspondence intended to provide an opportunity to discuss, expand 
or criticise points made in published work.  If a letter is polemical in nature,a reply may be sought from other interested parties.  Letters are published
at the discretion of the Editor.

Application/Software Notes provides information on software applications.  
Notes should be brief (not over two journal pages in length) and should include 
a description of the purpose, method of implementation, and performance of 
the program.  A statement of the availability, manner of distribution, and 
support of the program is required.  Authors may set a nominal charge to cover 
costs; programs intended for commercial sale are excluded.

Reviews will usually be solicited, although unsolicited reviews will be 
considered for publication.  Prospective authors should first consult
the Editor, and should forward a short (one typed page) summary of the 
area they propose to cover.

Book and Software Reviews; the Editor will be pleased to receive published 
books and software packages for possible independent review.  

_________________________________________________________________

Information for Contributors

Preparation of Manuscripts

General: Only original papers will be considered. The receipt of a paper by the 
Editor is held to imply submission for publication has been approved by all of 
the authors, that it has not previously been published in any language,
that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that if accepted for publication it will not be published elsewhere without the written 
consent of the Editor.

The official language of the journal is English.  Papers will be reviewed for 
proper English construction.  Authors with language difficulties are urged to 
seek assistance with the composition of their manuscripts.

Organisation: Manuscripts should be typed double-spaced on one side of the 
page only, and with wide margins.  The first page should contain the title, 
a list of authors' names, the affiliations and address(es) of the authors
when the work was performed (new addresses should be given in a footnote), 
a short running title (less than 65 characters), a list of up to eight 
keywords, and the telephone number, fax number and email address of the 
corresponding author, who should be indicated by an asterisk.

The second page should contain a 50-250 word abstract of the paper.

The remainder of the paper should be organised into sections; for example, 
Introduction, Materials and Methods (including any mathematical principles 
and algorithms if appropriate), Results, and Discussion.  The final two sections 
may be combined.  An Acknowledgement should be given if deemed necessary.

Computer programs : Program descriptions, where necessary, should take the 
form of flowcharts, with short listings of pertinent sections of code. Program 
listings should be limited in length to that necessary to define the algorithm; 
since available space precludes the reproduction of lengthy program listings, 
code which can be reproduced by  a skilled programmer should be omitted. 
However, authors do have an implied obligation to make the detailed code 
available to interested readers on request, either directly or through 
organisations such as the Quantum Chemistry Program Exchange.

Mathematical Expressions : All mathematical symbols may be either hand-
written or typewritten, but no ambiguities should arise.  Explain the 
meaning of all symbols in the text where they first occur. Greek letters 
and unusual symbols should be identified in the margin at their first
mention with their names in words. Distinction should be made between 
capital and lower case letters; between the letter O and zero; between t
he letter l, the number one and prime; between k and kappa.A vector will 
be printed boldface, and to indicate this the letter should be underscored 
with a single wavy line. The numbers identifying mathematical expressions 
should be placed in parentheses.

References : The Harvard system is preferred, although manuscripts referenced 
by the numerical system will also be considered.  For preference, references 
should be identified in the text as follows: one author (Zupan, 1989); two
authors (Zupan & Gasteiger, 1991); three or more authors (Sun et al., 1994). If 
there is more than one publication in a single year under the same authorship 
use Lucasius et al. (1991a, b) etc.  The references at the end of the manuscript 
should then be arranged as follows:

Sun L.-X., Xie Y.-L., Song X.-H., Wang J.-H. & Yu R.-Q. (1994) Comput. 
Chem.  	18, 103.

Zupan J. (1989) Algorithms for Chemists. Wiley, Chichester.

Zupan J. & Gasteiger J. (1991) Anal. Chim. Acta 248, 1.

Titles of journals are abbreviated according to Chemical Abstracts Source 
Index.  Serial publications such as Advances in Enzyme Regulation should be 
listed in the same form as journals.  References to chapters in monographs are 
listed as follows :

Fisman W.H. (1973) Advances in Enzyme Regulation (Edited by Weber G.), p. 
293. Pergamon Press, Oxford.

For references using the numerical system, they should be listed in the order
in which they appear in the text.

Figures and Tables :  These should be so constructed as to be intelligible 
without reference to the text; every figure, table and column being 
provided with both heading and legend.

Figures should be submitted in a form suitable for direct reproduction.  They 
should be provided as carefully prepared line drawings about twice the 
final size on plain white drawing paper, suitable for direct photographic 
reproduction.  Glossy photoprints of original laser printer are also 
acceptable, but dot matrix or thermal printer output is unacceptable. 
Each figure should be identified on the reverse, and legends provided 
on a separate sheet of paper.

Tables and program listings will be reproduced photographically directly from 
the authors' copy to avoid the introduction of errors.  The same quality 
standards set for figures apply here.  Character size should not be less 
than 10 pt (0.14 in. or 3.5 mm).  

Colour: Colour illustrations for the journal are welcomed and can be published 
without cost to the authors subject to the discretion of the Editor, 
and provided colour separations of sufficient quality are supplied. 
Queries should be addressed to: 
the Production Editor, Computers and Chemistry, Elsevier 
Sciences Ltd., Bampfylde Street, Exeter EX1 2AH, U.K. [Tel. +44 392 51558; 
Fax +44 392 425370].

Cover photographs :  Suggestions for colour or black-and-white cover 
photographs for the journal are welcome.  Submit them to the Editor as slides 
with 8.5 x 11" colour or black-and-white prints to accompany specific articles.  
A short legend should accompany each photograph.

Submission

This may be by mail, fax, or, in certain circumstances, by email.

Mail :  Manuscripts should be submitted in triplicate to the Editor at the 
following address:

Dr. M. James C. Crabbe,

Wolfson Laboratory,

AMS Building,

University of Reading,

P.O.Box 228,

Whiteknights,

Reading, Berkshire, RG6 2AJ, U.K.

Tel : +44 734 318894

Fax : If authors feel that manuscripts that can be reviewed from a from a faxed 
copy (i.e. usually without half-tone figures), then a single copy of the 
manuscript may be transmitted to the Editor by fax, to the following number :

Fax : +44 734 318894

Acknowledgement of receipt and the review decision will be returned by fax to 
the corresponding author.

Email : For Letters, and manuscripts that can be transmitted and reviewed from 
an email copy (figures may be a problem), then a single copy may be transmitted 
to the Editor by email, to the following address:

Email : [email-masked]

Authors must include their normal mail address, fax and telephone numbers. 
Acknowledgement of receipt and the review decision will be returned by email 
to the corresponding author where possible.

Disks : Authors may now submit accepted manuscripts on 3.5" or 5.25" disks.  
See the appropriate page in this journal for details.

Refereeing of Papers

All papers are subject to anonymous review by experts; authors will be provided 
with referees' comments. Authors may suggest potential reviewers (complete 
with addresses, fax and telephone numbers) for their papers, but the Editor is 
under no obligation to follow such suggestions.  Authors may also suggest 
names of those they wish to be excluded from the review process.  To expedite 
reviewing, it would be helpful if authors enclose two copies of their recent 
relevant papers, or papers in press.

Proofs

Corrections to proofs should be restricted to printers' errors.  Other than these, 
any substantial changes will be charged to the author.

Reprints

These can be provided at a reasonable cost if ordered when the page proofs are 
returned.  A reprint order form will accompany the proofs. Copies of the 
particular issue in which the article appears may also be ordered on this form, at a generous discount. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: James Crabbe <[email-masked]>

Dear John,

If you wish to pursue the publication of proceedings with Computers and 
Chemistry, you may like to 
know that the publishing editor at Elsevier is David Claridge, on :
[email-masked]

Yours,

James.

 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A company called ARInternet Corporation is publishing the papers
>from the Electronic Computational Chemistry Conference held last
November 1994.  They advertise on a WWW home page
at http://arinternet.arclch.com:8080 (I haven't surfed this
page personally so I can't verify).  Steve Bachrach would be a
good person to talk with ([email-masked]) at Northern Illinois
university in United States to regarding how to deal with ARInternet
and electronic publishing in general.

Kent Stewart
Abbott Laboratories
United States

 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 And a final message from the same organization:

Journal vs book.  The journal route is much less work because their editorial
offices take care of part of it. Another advantage is that if this is a good
journal, then the papers are more distributed.  Final advantage is that
the stuff is not camera-ready, which is easier for the authors.

The book route has the advantage that everyone gets a little money. And you
as editor get more fame.  It also may be easier to do. Be very careful about
the price that the publisher will charge and think about if your readers will
pay it. It is also more work in that you, as editor, will be responsible for
getting all the manuscripts, writing a preface, doing the index, etc.  Also the proof-reading.  If you have time, this is fun. But it can be a drag.

In chosing a publisher, be sure to find someone who will publicize the book.
I suggest that Wiley's Research Studies Press who did the distance geometry
books & others might be a good bet. Camera ready copy is probably as easy 
as proof-reading inexperienced type-setters.  However, there are lots of
publishers.

Before you do a book, you should ask if this book will be of lasting value
as a reference or will it be only a summary of stuff already published
elsewhere and not global in view. That is, how valuable will it be for
people to own it rather than the original literature. The value should
determine how much time you are willing to put into it.

  @@@@@@@@@@@      Yvonne Martin, Senior Project Leader
             @     Computer Assisted Molecular Design Project
   @@@@@@@@  @     D-47E, AP910 2fl
  @          @     Abbott Laboratories
  @          @     One Abbott Park Road
   @@@@@@@@@@      Abbott Park, IL 60064
                   Phone: 708 937-5362 FAX: 708 937-2625