The ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software (TOMS) publishes significant research results concerning the development, evaluation and use of mathematical software in support of important application areas. (See the Editorial Charter for further details.) Submitted papers are judged primarily on originality and relevance, but effective presentation is also critical. Contributions should conform to generally accepted practices for scientific papers with respect to organization and style.
Authors should consult the ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software Editorial Charter to determine the scope of papers for the journal. Contributions must be of one of the following types:
Research paper
A paper that discusses original research into mathematical software. Where appropriate, reference will be made to publicly available software written by the author and/or by others. The paper should not fall into any of the categories below.
Survey paper
A paper that summarizes and organizes recent mathematical software research results in a novel way that contributes to advancing research in the field. The paper should have a narrow focus. (Very high standards for effective presentation will be applied.)
Algorithm paper
A paper that describes the implementation of a particular algorithm in computer software. A machine readable implementation of the algorithm, in the form of a complete, and well-engineered software package, must be included. This software is considered part of the submission. It will be evaluated by referees and, if accepted, published in the Collected Algorithms of the ACM (CALGO).
Remark, Certification and Translation papers
A Remark is a short communication (possibly including software) regarding a numbered algorithm previously published in CALGO. A Certification paper describes a detailed (usually experimental) analysis of a numbered algorithm previously published in CALGO (usually by a different author); it will normally include the software employed in the certification. A Translation paper includes a translation of a numbered algorithm previously published in CALGO into a different programming language. (This must represent be a substantial undertaking that adds significant value to the original). A machine readable implementation of the translation, in the form of a complete and well-engineered software package, must be included. This software is considered part of the submission. It will be evaluated by referees and, if accepted, published in the CALGO.
Submissions that include software must conform to the ACM Algorithm Policy.
Experimental analysis of the performance of mathematical software implementations are often included in papers published in TOMS. Computational experiments of this type are fraught with pitfalls. Many of these difficulties are discussed in the following paper:
D.S. Johnson, A Theoretician's Guide to the Experimental Analysis of Algorithms, in Proceedings of the 5th and 6th DIMACS Implementation Challenges, M. Goldwasser, D. S. Johnson, and C. C. McGeoch, Editors, American Mathematical Society, Providence, 2002. Postscript of preliminary draft (36 pages). [PDF version]
TOMS authors are urged to follow the recommendations of this paper.
By submitting a manuscript to TOMS, authors warrant that the paper is original, has not been previously published, and has not been simultaneously submitted elsewhere.
Widely disseminated conference proceedings and newsletters are a form of publication, although they are usually only semiarchival and often unrefereed. Publication, or republication, of a (perhaps revised) paper which has been widely disseminated is permitted only if the editor judges that (a) the revision contains significant amplification or clarification of the original material or (b) there is a significant additional benefit to be gained from journal publication. In either case, any prior appearance should be noted on the title page of the paper.
For further information, see the ACM Policy on Prior Publication and Simultaneous Submission.
ACM has established a rigorous policy on plagiarism. Manuscripts found to be in violation of this policy will be immediately rejected. Authors of papers found to be in violation after publication face severe penalties. It is important that all authors and co-authors review this policy before submission. Note that this policy also covers the practice of self-plagiarism (i.e., reuse of one's own previously published material without reference to the original source).
For more information, see the ACM Policy on Plagiarism.
Authors must prepare and submit their manuscripts electronically. This facilitates both a quicker editorial review process as well as faster and more accurate processing of accepted papers.
By default, papers will be published monochrome in the printed version of the journal; use of color in the printed version will be approved on a case-by-case basis and only when absolutely necessary for the presentation of the material. The online version of the paper, i.e., the PDF file posted in the ACM Digital Library, can use color provided the projection to monochrome in the printed version does not lose essential information. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that this projection will be satisfactory.
If accepted, final manuscripts must be submitted to ACM in either LaTeX or Microsoft Word. These are described in the ACM manuscript preparation guidelines. Authors are urged to follow these guidelines in the original preparation of their manuscripts whenever possible.
To ensure proper indexing, classification, retrieval and dissemination, authors must include the following in the manuscript.
The following serve as guidelines for the preparation of this material.
Select a title that accurately and clearly describes the paper. Choose title terms as highly specific as the content and emphasis of the paper permit. Avoid special symbols and formulas in titles unless essential to indicate content. Avoid cute or clever titles.
Authors' names should be given (without titles or degrees) along with the name and address of the organization for which the work was carried out. A footnote on the first page should acknowledge funding sources and presentations, if any, of the material at technical meetings (give dates and sponsoring societies). The author's current address should be given in a footnote on the first page.
The abstract should be between 150 and 200 words and consist of short, direct, and complete sentences. It should be sufficiently informative to serve in some cases as a substitute for reading the paper itself. It should state the objectives of the work, summarize the results, and give the principle conclusions. The title need not be repeated. Work planned but not completed should not be described in the abstract. Because abstracts are extracted and used separately, do not use the first person, do not display mathematics, and do not use citation reference numbers. Try to avoid starting with the words "This paper ..."
Three types must be assigned: (1) categories and subject descriptors, (2) general terms, (3) keywords and phrases. The first two items are selected from the Computing Reviews Classification Scheme. Select as many of these as may be applicable.
The keywords and phrases are additional English language words that indicate the content of the submission. They should not be synonymous with those already in the classification system: they can be more specific in relation to the paper than the subject descriptors and need not be covered by the existing classification system. The following guidelines may be helpful.
Every work cited in the text must appear in the list of references, and, conversely, every item in the reference list must be cited in the text.
Citations should appear in the text in the form "[Lastname year]" or "Lastname [year]", as appropriate to the context. Multiple citations may be grouped as "[Lastname year; Lastname year]"; drop the Lastname if it is the same as the previous one. For two authors use "Lastname and Lastname"; for three or more authors use "Lastname et al." Append lowercase letters to the date in the citation and in the reference list if both authors and dates of multiple references are identical. Examples :
[Renka 1996]
Renka [1996]
[Duff 1981; 1983]
[Dongarra and Grosse 1987]
[Duff et al. 1986]
Dongarra et al. [1988a]
The following guidelines should be followed in preparing the list of references.
Jenkins, M. A., and Traub, J. F. 1975. Principles for testing zerofinding programs. ACM Trans. Math. Soft. 1, 1 (Mar.), 26-34.
Freund R. W. 1994. The look-ahead Lanczos process for nonsymmetric matrices and its applications. In Proceedings of the Cornelius Lanczos International Centenary Conference, J. D. Brown, M. T. Chu, D. C. Ellison, and R. J. Plemmons, Eds. SIAM, Philadelphia, Pa., 33-47.
The programming language Fortran should appear as "Fortran 77", "Fortran 95", or simply "Fortran", the latter referring to the international standard current at the time that the paper is accepted. The archaic form "FORTRAN" should not be used.
All submissions to ACM TOMS should be made
using the online manuscript processing facilities of Manuscript Central. Access
to Manuscript Central requires an account, which can be established immediately
via links from the Manuscript Central home page.
When a paper has been prepared using a version of
Normally, a manuscript with no accompanying code being submitted for publication should be uploaded as a Research paper, though Survey papers are also acceptable. For Algorithm paper submissions, the submitted code intended for publication (and accompanying files such as test cases or manuals) must also be uploaded. Remark, Certification paper and Translation submissions will also usually have submitted code that is intended for publication. When in doubt about which is the appropriate type of publication, authors should contact the Editor-in-Chief, Ian Gladwell, at gladwell@seas.smu.edu, in advance of submission.
Submitted papers are assigned to an Associate Editor who chooses anonymous referees. These referees evaluate the paper for originality, relevance, and presentation then make a recommendation to the Associate Editor who in turn makes a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief or the Algorithms Editor. Revisions requested by the Editor-in-Chief or the Algorithms Editor should be uploaded to ACM Manuscript Central. After the refereeing process is complete, the Associate Editor makes a recommendation for acceptance or rejection to the Editor-in-Chief or the Algorithms Editor, who makes the final decision on publication. The name of the Associate Editor who is responsible for processing the manuscript is available to the author on Manuscript Central. The author is expected to report any change of postal or electronic address on Manuscript Central.
Once a manuscript is accepted, a final version must be submitted electronically to the Editor-in-Chief or the Algorithms Editor for transmission to ACM for publication. ACM provides for submission in either LaTeX or Microsoft Word. Please refer to ACM's Guidelines for Submitting Accepted Articles for details on final manuscript formatting and submission procedure.
Authors whose papers are accepted sign a form which either transfers copyright to the ACM or declares that the paper is part of government work. Authors retain liberal rights to material published by the ACM. The following is the standard copyright notice used by ACM journals :
Copyright (c) 20xx by the Association for Computing
Machinery, Inc. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of
this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that
copies are not made or distributed for profit or direct commercial advantage
and that copies show this notice on the first page or initial screen of a
display along with the full citation. Copyrights for components of this work
owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted.
To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, to redistribute to lists,
or to use any component of this work in other works, requires prior specific
permission and/or a fee. Permissions may be requested from
Publications Dept, ACM Inc.,
Further details can be found in the ACM Interim Copyright Policies.
Submittal of an algorithm for consideration for publication in ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software implies that unrestricted use of the algorithm within a computer is permissible. Software associated with algorithm papers (and incorporated the Collected Algorithms of the ACM) are also copyrighted by the ACM. However, ACM grants liberal rights for reuse of the software for noncommercial purposes. See the ACM Software Copyright and License Agreement for details.
Author's institutions or corporations are requested to honor a page charge of $60.00 per printed page or part thereof, to help defray the cost of publication. Page charges apply to all contributions. Payment of page charges is not a condition of publication; editorial acceptance of a paper is unaffected by payment or nonpayment.
Last change: Ian Gladwell, April 2007