Guidelines for Volume Editors of Springer Computer

Science Proceedings

1 Scope of This Document

You will find here Springer’s guidelines for the preparation of proceedings volumes
to be published in one of the following series:

 Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), incl. its subseries Lecture Notes in
Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics (LNBI), and
LNCS Transactions (contact: [email protected]);
 Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) (contact:
[email protected]);
 IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology (IFIP AICT), for-
merly known as the IFIP Series ([email protected]);
 Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Tele-
communications Engineering (LNICST) ([email protected]);
 Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP) (contact:
[email protected])

2 Sending your Proposal

Conferences applying for publication in one of our series must have an international
Program Committee, a coherent set of topics of international relevance, and at least
three reviewers per paper. We do not publish the proceedings of conferences with an
extremely broad scope. If your conference fulfills the aforementioned criteria, kindly
complete our proposal form and send it to the appropriate email address indicated
above.
Unless Springer’s OCS is used, evaluation of all contributions should be docu-
mented by the Volume Editors/conference organizers and should be made available to
Springer if requested.

3 Using Springer’s Online Conference Service (OCS)

The OCS is Springer’s online manuscript submission and review system, which can
be used for all Springer proceedings free of charge. This tool simplifies the task of
organizing review committees, and facilitates the movement of manuscripts through
submission, reading, discussion, acceptance/rejection, revision, and dispatch to
Springer. If you are interested in using Springer’s Online Conference Service, please
visit the OCS Website at http://www.springer.com/ocs.
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4 Papers for Publication

Springer proceedings should contain original research that has neither been published
nor submitted for publication elsewhere. Kindly refer the authors to our ethics
webpage and stress the importance of this.
It is the task of the Volume Editors and Program Committee to check that neither
plagiarism nor self-plagiarism has taken place. Support from Springer is available, if
needed.
It is possible that your manuscript will be run through our plagiarism-checking
tool, following the arrival of the files at Springer.

4.1 Types of Papers and Page Counts

The most common types of papers accepted for publication are full papers (12–15+
pages) and short papers (6-8+ pages). Within the application-oriented fields, demo
papers may also be an option. A limited number of poster papers may be included, but
these should not be shorter than 4 pages. If you have poster papers, please do not
include them without first discussing this with an editor from Springer.
We do not wish to publish very short papers, as their scientific content is not sig-
nificant. Such papers will be moved to the back matter, will not be made available for
indexing, and will not be visible as individual papers on SpringerLink. Please do your
utmost to avoid having papers of fewer than 4 pages. Abstracts of invited talks that
are not accompanied by a full paper will be included in the front matter.
Generally speaking, we discourage volume editors from setting rigid maximum-
paper-length restrictions. Authors tend to “squeeze” their work when faced with such
limits. They remove vertical space or use different font sizes or do not adhere to the
correct format for the references. In such cases, our typesetters reformat the papers,
which can lead to an unexpected increase in the overall number of pages.
We accept a mixture of Word papers and LaTeX papers. These papers will have a
slightly different appearance in the final publication.
The approximate size of the proceedings should be discussed with the Springer edi-
tor during the evaluation stage. We can fit up to 800 pages in a single volume.

4.2 Figures
All figures are printed in black and white, unless special arrangement has been made
for colored figures. Colored figures remain in color in the online version. Please make
sure that any colored figures are equally comprehensible in black and white. Figures
and Tables should be cross referred in the text.

5 Workshop Proceedings

The proceedings of large workshops are published in the same way as conference
proceedings. Smaller workshops associated with a particular conference can be
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grouped together in one volume. In this case, we can insert “part front matters” sepa-
rating the different workshop papers. Please refer to the Euro-Par 2018 Workshop
Proceedings for a good example of this. Due to space restrictions, we usually just
include the name(s) of the main workshop chair(s) on the front cover. However, the
names of all of the workshop chairs can be included in the front matter and on
SpringerLink, so all chairs can be recognized as volume editors. We would expect the
number of chairs to be relative to the number of papers included in the volume.
Some conferences attract a large number of satellite events, from which the best
papers may be selected for publication in a proceedings volume. Please refer to LNCS
11155 for an example of this. As described in the preface, the authors improved and
extended their papers based on the reviewers’ feedback and the discussions held dur-
ing the event.

6 Tasks of the Volume Editors

Once you have received the formal (email) confirmation from Springer that your pro-
ceedings have been accepted or conditionally accepted for publication, please feel
free to start announcing this in the relevant places and media, in particular on your
conference website and in the call for papers, but also on social media platforms, in
newsletters, etc.

6.1 Fixing the Timeline

We need all of your files 9 weeks before the start of the meeting. This should be taken
into account when fixing your own dates, in particular the deadline for receiving the
final files from the authors. Within 9 weeks, we are able to produce printed proceed-
ings and deliver these to the conference on time, as well as the online version in pdf
and ePub format with full-text XML. When you send the files, please give us a rough
estimate of your order.
If you ONLY need the online version to be ready in time for the event (and no
printed proceedings or Springer-created USBs), then we require your files no later
than 6 weeks before the start of the event. If you send the files later than this, we can-
not guarantee that the publication will be online in time for the event.

6.2 Instructing Authors about Templates and Copyright Forms

Authors should be directed to our “Information for Authors of Computers Science
Proceedings” page, where they can download the correct templates for the preparation
of their papers. Our LaTeX templates are available in Overleaf and you may like to
draw the authors’ attention to this service via the conference website.
Authors must be made aware of the fact that they have to submit a signed Consent-
to-Publish form, through which the copyright of their paper is transferred to Springer.
Please make sure that the authors sign the form sent out when the proposal is official-
ly accepted and no other form.
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It is easier for the authors if a partially completed Consent-to-Publish form is made

available on the conference website. The conference name and the names of the vol-
ume editors (usually the PC chairs) can be entered in advance.
The Consent-to-Publish forms should be collected by the Volume Edi-
tors/organizers. Each form should be saved in the individual folder containing all of
the files pertaining to a particular paper. The corresponding author, who must match
the corresponding author marked on the paper, should sign on behalf of all of the
authors of a particular paper, having obtained their permission to do so in advance.
Once a paper has been delivered to Springer, changes relating to the authorship of the
paper cannot be made. Authors’ names cannot be added or deleted, their order cannot
be changed, and the corresponding author cannot be altered.
We do not accept digital signatures on the copyright right forms at present. If you
have any queries regarding copyright, please contact Springer well in advance of pub-
lication.

6.3 Preface, Organization Pages, Table of Contents, and Author Index

It is the task of the volume editor to prepare the organization pages and the preface
and to structure the volume in comprehensible parts. The preface should give a good
introduction to the volume and present the conference or workshop. Clear information
regarding the peer review process (single or double blind / number of reviews per
paper) and the numbers and types of papers submitted and accepted should be given.
The preface is usually one or two pages long and is followed by the organization
pages. When listing the Program Committee members, whose names should be or-
dered alphabetically by surname, kindly just include their universities and countries
and not their departments or labs. At the end of the organization pages, the sponsors
may be listed and their respective logos displayed. The Steering Committee members
are usually listed above the Program Committee members. We encourage you to
make use of the front-matter templates (in LaTeX and Word) that are available from
the volume editors’ website at http://bit.ly/2HaWmko.
We prefer the use of American English in the preface and we ask you to write the
preface in the past tense, because it is mainly read after the event. The preface and the
organization pages will be copy-edited at our end, and any corrections are submitted
to the corresponding volume editor for approval. Light technical copyediting of the
papers may also be performed.
The final Table of Contents is created by Springer from the title information in the
papers. However, we ask you to provide us with a preliminary Table of Contents
when you send the files. This should contain the titles of the papers and the names of
the authors in the order in which they are to appear in the volume and should include
topical section headings. The papers should be grouped according to the topics they
address and not according to the sessions of the conference. Any session numbering
will be deleted by our typesetters. Please include all papers pertaining to one topic
under one single topical heading, even if there are/were two or three such sessions at
the conference. If the titles given in your preliminary Table of Contents differ from
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those in the papers, then we take the paper titles to be the correct ones and create the
final Contents accordingly.
The Author Index is also generated at Springer, but you can help us present the au-
thors’ names in the correct way by submitting a list of authors who have complex
family names, particles, or suffixes, or do not use the Western name order (i.e., given
name(s); family name). It should be made quite clear, which part of the name is the
given name and which is the family name.
Please check that the names of the authors are written consistently throughout the
proceedings volume. If one author has contributed to more than one paper, his or her
name should be spelt and structured in an identical manner in all papers as well as in
the Table of Contents and the Author Index.
Please note that pages I–IV (in front of the preface) are prepared by Springer.

6.4 Sources and PDF Files

We need all source files (LaTeX files with all the associated style files, special fonts
and eps files, or Word or rtf files) and the final pdfs of all of the papers. For LaTeX
papers, references are to be supplied as Bbl files to avoid omission of data while con-
version from Bib to Bbl. Please note that we cannot include hyperlinks in reference.
A mixture of LaTeX and Word files is fine. Please do not send any older versions
of papers. There should be one set of source files and one pdf file per paper. Our type-
setters require the author-created pdfs in order to check the proper representation of
symbols, figures, etc.

6.5 Corresponding Authors

When submitting their paper, the authors should allot a corresponding author, who
must be available to carry out a proof check of the paper. He or she is given a 72-hour
time-slot to do so. The corresponding author should be clearly marked as such in the
header of the paper. He or she is also the one who signs the copyright form on behalf
of all of the authors. Please note that the corresponding author cannot be changed
once the paper and the copyright form have been sent to Springer.
We encourage the inclusion of all of the authors’ email addresses and ORCIDs in
the header, but at the very least, the email address of the corresponding author should
be present.
Please compile a list of the email addresses of all of the corresponding authors. The
list should include the starting page numbers of the papers, so that it is clear which
email address belongs to which paper. It is possible to have two corresponding au-
thors per paper (preferably one, but no more than two).
Approximately one month after publication, the volume editors and all authors
whose email addresses are included on their papers will receive an email from
Springer linking them, via a password, to their personal MySpringer page, from which
they will be able to access a pdf of the entire volume.
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6.6 Labeling and Sending the Files to Springer

For LNCS, CCIS, LNBIP, LNICST, and IFIP AICT publications, a volume number is
required in order to label the directories correctly. To receive your volume number, as
well as the address of our ftp server, please send an email to the address indicated in
the acceptance email. The zip file should be labeled using the abbreviation of the
series and the volume number, e.g., lncs10789, and the directories should be labeled
by adding the starting page of the paper, so the directory containing all of the files
pertaining to the paper starting on page 15 would be labeled lncs107890015.
If your proceedings volume contains papers presented at more than one conference,
it should be made quite clear (e.g., in the Table of Contents), which papers were pre-
sented at which event. This information is made available to Google Scholar as soon
as the proceedings have been published on SpringerLink.

6.7 Information Required for Publication

When informing you of your volume number, we shall send you a Word file request-
ing details concerning the volume editors and the conference itself. The conference
information is made available on SpringerLink. For an example, please see LNCS
11429. Click on “Check for updates” on the left-hand side and then open “More In-
formation”.

6.8 Proofs
The contact author of each paper is contacted by email by our typesetting partner and
asked to check the final pdf files of their papers. The purpose of this procedure is to
ensure that no errors have crept in during typesetting. We do not accept any updates
to the papers themselves at this stage, as this would slow down the publication pro-
cess considerably. If you, the volume editors, would prefer to check all of the papers
yourselves, without the involvement of the authors, then kindly inform us of this
when you send the files.

6.9 Ordering Proceedings

We ask you to send an estimate of your order when you send the files. Please make
absolutely sure that you notify us when you send the files if you wish to order USB
proceedings, as the production of these affects our workflow. Kindly refer to the
terms sent out by the Springer editor for the options and prices on offer and inform us
if you wish to opt for free online access during the conference.
We require both the shipping address and the billing address, including the name,
email address, and telephone number of a local contact. If the recipient (and the bill-
ing party) has a VAT number that exempts them from paying VAT, then please sub-
mit this information along with the billing party’s address so that we can make the
necessary provisions for the invoice. The proforma invoice sent with the delivery
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(often from our printing office, Printforce) is not the final invoice and is not to be
paid.
If manuscript files are submitted to us no later than the agreed deadline, then we
schedule your proceedings copies to be delivered to your conference venue around a
week before the event starts. If you have any special requirements in terms of delivery
dates and conditions, then we need to be notified about this as early as possible. Su-
perfluous books cannot be returned to Springer.
We manage to arrange for door-to-door deliveries in most cases. In some countries
(e.g., Brazil or India), it is often necessary that recipients of our consignments help
with customs clearance, etc.
Due to the considerable problems associated with deliveries of books or USBs to
China, we would encourage you not to order hardcopies but rather to opt for the 4-
week free online access via the conference website.
However, if deliveries to China cannot be avoided, a so-called Customs Registra-
tion code is required. This is a 10-digit number that any company with an import-
license in China will have. If the recipient does not have such a number, then a cus-
tom clearance agency should be used. The Volume Editors/conference organizers are
responsible for contacting the clearance agency well in advance of the expected deliv-
ery date.
Books that are not tied to a tight delivery schedule can be sent from our warehouse.
They can either all be sent to one single address or to individual recipients. In both
cases, we require one single invoicing address. We supply an Excel sheet for the re-
cipients’ addresses, if the books are to be sent to individuals.

7 Availability of SpringerLink Online Versions

Generally speaking, online versions of our proceedings (eBooks) are made available
in SpringerLink around a week before the start of the conference.
If you are handling a conference with authors who have patent applications under
way in connection with their papers, then please be aware that the online availability
date might be a crucial issue for them. To avoid any inconvenience, please let us
know if we need to delay the publication of the online versions until the first day of
the conference, or even later, and please inform the authors accordingly.

8 ORCID Identifier

Springer is the first publisher to implement the ORCID identifier for proceedings,
ultimately providing authors with a digital identifier that distinguishes them from
every other researcher. ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) hosts a registry
of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities
to these identifiers. This is achieved through embedding ORCID identifiers in key
workflows, such as research profile maintenance, manuscript submissions, grant ap-
plications and patent applications. Please refer to our webpage for more details.
8

Apply and encourage all contributing authors to also apply for an individual
ORCID at www.orcid.org and include them with your address information. The au-
thors should include them in the headers of their papers. The ORCID in number form
will be replaced by the ORCID icon, which will link from the eBook to the actual ID
in the ORCID database. As a result, only the ORCID icon will appear in the printed
book.

9 Embedded Videos in Proceedings and Electronic

Supplementary Material

Springer now offers authors the option of including embedded videos in their papers
and we would encourage you to make authors aware of this by referring them to
http://bit.ly/2xgOtCA, where they will find the technical requirements. Please click
here for an example of an animated figure.
Authors must not violate privacy and confidentiality rules and, as always, permis-
sion must be sought for use of third-party content. All types of Electronic Supplemen-
tary Material (ESM), including videos, should be sent with the authors’ files. If videos
are to be embedded, unequivocal instructions as to their positioning must be included.
If no indication is given, the video will be stored at the end of the paper.
Slides that complement a paper may be included as ESM. We do not publish slides
as an alternative to full scientific papers.

10 Open Access and Open Choice

At Springer, we offer the option of open access publishing for entire proceedings
volumes or for individual proceedings papers. The latter is referred to as “open
choice”. If you or any of your authors are interested in these options, kindly contact
the editorial at Springer well in advance of publication for details on pricing and con-
ditions. You may also like to take a look at our open access webpage.
It is the task of the volume editors to liaise between the authors and Springer and to
provide Springer with a final list of papers affected, together with their respective
invoicing addresses and the CC-BY Consent-to-Publish forms.

11 Book Metrics

The book metrics for Springer publications are now available on Springer.com and
SpringerLink. These give details on the number of citations, downloads, and readers
at paper level and at book level.
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12 Indexing

If you wish to check whether your proceedings have been indexed in Scopus; Ei
Compendex; or the Conference Proceedings Citation Index (CPCI), part of Clarivate
Analytics’ Web of Science, please refer to our SN SciGraph Indexing tool. You can
expect your proceedings to be indexed in Scopus / Ei Compendex roughly 3-8 weeks
after publication. For the WoS, this can take many months.

13 MySpringer – A Service for Springer Authors and Editors

Approximately four weeks after the publication of your volume, you will receive an
email from Springer linking you, via a password, to your personal “MySpringer
page”. From here, you will be able to download the pdf of the entire volume.
This service is available to all Volume Editors and Authors who have supplied us
with their email addresses. If the same email address is supplied for all of the publica-
tions by a particular author or editor, then these can be grouped on one single page.
Springer authors and volume editors are entitled to 40% off the list price of any
Springer publication. Details on how to make use of this privilege are given on your
“MySpringer” page.

14 Data Publishing

Springer encourages authors to validate the results presented in their papers by means
of data and, in addition to ESM, we can accommodate links to data or code within the
papers published in our proceedings. If you, as editors, wish to make use of Springer
Nature’s figshare repository, we can set up a branded area for your particular confer-
ence. Here are the branded areas for Euro-Par, TACAS, ISWC, and ECML PKDD,
for example.
Permanent DOIs are assigned to the data and code stored in Springer Nature’s
figshare repository and links are set up between the paper on SpringerLink and the
data or code. Authors of such papers should include a data citation in their references
section and a data availability statement in their paper. We offer two possible ser-
vices. If Springer Nature is to take care of the curation of the data and code, then the
service is offered at a fee. If the volume editors are willing to take care of the curation
and the communication with the authors, the service is offered free of charge. The
upload of the data to figshare is usually requested approximately one week before the
final submission date for the papers.
If you are interested in data publishing, as well as other new developments in pro-
ceedings publishing, please refer to our Computer Science Proceedings News page.

15 Checklist
Here is a checklist of everything we require from the volume editor:
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 Preface and organization pages: source and pdf file.

 Table of contents (incl. topical headings): any type of electronic version.
 Papers: sources (incl. bib files and images) and pdf files of each contribution, as
well as one consent-to-publish form per paper, grouped in a directory, labeled us-
ing the volume number and the starting page of the paper.
 A completed “Production” file, which is sent to you with your volume number.
 A list of the authors’ names that are not straight forward (Given Name; Family
Name).
 Conference logo: for inclusion on the cover (where applicable).
 Excel-list of email addresses of corresponding authors: one per paper. The list
should include the starting page number of the paper, so that it is clear which
email address belongs to which paper.
 Estimate of the number and the format (online access, USBs, print, etc.) of pro-
ceedings copies required for distribution at the event.
 Anything else you would particularly like to draw our attention to (specifics of
delivery, billing procedure, etc.).

16 Appendix

If a paper includes an Appendix, it should be placed in front of the references. If it

has been placed elsewhere, it will be moved by our typesetters. If there is only one, it
is designated “Appendix”; if there are more than one, they are designated “Appendix
1,” “Appendix 2,” etc.

6 June 2019