Journal of the IASS
Information for Contributors

The Journal of the IASS welcomes contributions on topics related to shell and spatial structures as described by the Journal Aims and Scope.  Contributors need not be members of the Association, and there are no publication costs or page charges (except for those choosing the Gold Route open-access option). The three types of refereed contributions that may be submitted are:

Further information, templates and instructions specific to each of these three types are given below. 

Information Applicable to All Types of Contributions

Original Material.  Contributions must contain material previously not published, or not readily available to the members of the Association.  Submission of a manuscript shall be interpreted as an assertion by the author(s) that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and the presented research results have been obtained by all identified authors and no one else. If the contribution contains materials bearing a copyright, author(s) must submit documentation from each copyright holder granting permission to reproduce such material in the Journal, and the material must be properly acknowledged by reference citations and/or with credits in the captions of photos, figures and tables. The use by authors of another work (typically the work of another author) without permission, credit, or acknowledgment is considered plagiarism and is not permitted, neither by literal copying nor by paraphrasing.

Authorship. It is important that every author of a contribution be credited as such. It is equally as important that a person not be named as an author when he or she is not. To be an author one must have responsibility for a particular aspect (that is not minimal) of the research or preparation of the work, that is, must have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study, and must have approved the final form of the work. Fundamentally, an author must be prepared and have the ability and responsibility to publicly defend the work.

Color. The journal is published in full color.  Therefore, color photos and the use of color in figures are encouraged.

Submission.  All contributions should be submitted in electronic form, as a pre-formatted Microsoft Word .doc file or .docx file. Upload through the Journal's ScholarOne website:    https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/iass_journal.
To use this website, authors will need to create an account for their first submission, or login if they already have an account. After logging in, authors will be guided by the on-line system through the various steps of the submission process, with the options to find help on the top of the login page and to select "Author User Guide" to download the file Author.pdf that has detailed instructions for authors.

Copyright. The copyright for a Technical Paper or Project Description usually remains with the author(s), but they may elect to assign the copyright to the IASS.  As a prerequisite for publication, a completed and signed IASS License Agreement/Copyright Declaration must be submitted to the IASS Secretariat. This form may be downloaded here or from the ScholarOne website. A scanned version of the completed form may be uploaded to the ScholarOne website or emailed to the Associate Editor or the completed form may be sent by fax to the IASS Secretariat. (This form also provides for election of options for the Gold Route open-access and/or fast track publication, see below.)

Reviewing.  All material submitted for publication shall be evaluated as to editorial and technical content by a rigorous peer review process that enlists member and non-members of the Editorial Committee.  The Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with the Editorial Committee, reserves the right to accept or reject any manuscript.  Typically, the review process provides constructive suggestions for revisions of manuscripts to render them acceptable for publication.

Reprints.  Authors of accepted contributions will receive free of charge an electronic reprint in the form of a protected but printable .pdf file after publication of the article in the Journal.  Such a protected file will be downloadable by any IASS member from the online IngentaConnect journal site accessible from the members-only portion of these webpages; and similarly any paid-up journal e-subscriber can download such a protected file from the IngentaConnect site.  Finally, the public will be able to purchase protected .pdf files of individual articles from the IngentaConnect hosting site.

Open Access.  The IASS has adopted the Green Route with an embargo period of 12 months. Thus, all authors of Technical Papers and Project Descriptions may upload a pdf of their published contribution on publicly accessible repositories of their institutions, 12 months after the publication date of the issue in which it appears. Full publication details in the Journal of the IASS, including the DOI, should be provided along with the pdf.

Moreover, the IASS has also adopted as an option the Gold Route at a cost of an article processing charge of €400, payable when the article is accepted. If this option is selected by the authors in their License Agreement/Copyright Declaration (downloaded here or from the ScholarOne website), their article will appear on the Journal's IngentaConnect website as "F" and will be freely available to all, including as a Green Route publication without an embargo period. Interested authors may declare their interest either at the time of paper submission or when their article is accepted.

Fast Track Publication.  Fast track online publication of accepted articles is available to authors at no cost. Interested authors may select this option when they complete their License Agreement/Copyright Declaration (downloaded here or from the ScholarOne website). In such case, the article will be available on the Journal's IngentaConnect website for IASS members and Journal subscribers before its actual publication in the next available issue. If the authors select both the fast track and Gold Route options, the article will be available online for all before its actual publication in the next available issue.

Technical Papers

An MS Word template containing complete instructions may be downloaded by selecting the following:

• J_IASS_Tech_Paper_Template.dotx (27 KB)
  

It is required that authors use the template to compose their contributions directly in the two-column form for publication with equations, tables, figures and photos embedded in the manuscript document, including  figure/photo captions and table titles.  If some equations, tables or figures are too wide for the two-column format, they may extend across the width of the page as long as the exterior margins of the template are maintained.

The maximum length of Technical Paper manuscripts shall be the equivalent of about fourteen (14) pages, including figures and tables. Brevity is most strenuously encouraged. 

Project Descriptions

The principal criterion for an acceptable Project Description is that the project should have innovative or distinctive features that are clearly described.  In addition, the description should not exceed four (4) pages, should conform to the format of the template, and should include clear photos and/or drawings of the project as well as brief explanatory text.  The MS Word template is downloadable by selecting the following:

As an exception to the length limit of 4 pages, if there are very significant technical innovations represented by one or more projects, it would be appropriate for the contributor(s) to submit, instead of a Project Description, a full-length Technical Paper about these innovations using the project(s) as example(s) of implementation.

Discussions

Discussion of any Technical Papers and Project Descriptions published in the Journal of the IASS is encouraged and, after review, these will be published possibly together with a response from the author(s).  The deadline for submission of the written Discussion is six months from the date of publication of the original contribution.   The maximum length of a discussion of a Technical Paper should be the equivalent of about six (6) pages, while a discussion of a Project Description should not exceed two (2) pages. 

The templates and guidelines of manuscript preparation that apply to Technical Papers and Project Descriptions shall apply also to the corresponding Discussion manuscripts.  References cited in the original contribution should not be repeated, but should be cited by the original number; while new references should be numbered to continue the original sequence.  The Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with the Editorial Committee, reserves the right to accept or reject any Discussion, but such rejection is reserved for unusual cases of non-professional dialogue.