Electronic Journal of Computational Kinematics First Draft Proposal : June 22, 1998

Please send any comments, remarks, critics to:
Jean-Pierre.Merlet@sophia.inria.fr

The Electronic Journal of Computational Kinematics is a new, all-electronic, peer-reviewed journal sponsored by the International Federation on the Theory Of Machines and Mechanisms (IFToMM) that welcomes articles of high standards that contribute new information and new insights to computational kinematics and its applications.

We understand here under this term that branch of kinematics research involving intensive computation not only of the numerical type, but also of a symbolic or geometric nature.
Communication among researchers in this area must include more than a summary of results or a discussion of methods; the actual programs and data used are of critical importance.
Many of the algorithms published over the last ten years have never been implemented by anyone and are at risk of remaining theoretical ``curiosities.'' To bring such algorithms into the practical realm often requires considerable sophistication; researchers need to be encouraged to turn their talents in that direction.

EJCK aspires to combine the high quality, wide availability, and archival retention of traditional scientific journals with the speed and economy of electronic distribution. Accordingly, EJCK seeks high quality, rigorous papers of interest to the scientific and engineering community.
Submissions must be original. The work cannot have previously been published or pending publication in another journal, and submissions cannot be under review by any other forum. We will, however, publish work that has previously been reported in conferences or workshops. If the work has appeared in an "archival" conference we require that the submission substantively extend the conference paper.

The journal is essentially unlimited by size. Therefore, we have no restrictions on length of articles.
Information networks, multimedia developments and other technological advancements lead us to think about the formats of the scientific publications, rescuing those essential aspects to
guarantee the seriousness and reliability of the process and incorporating the facilities
that an electronic, tridimensional, instantaneous and animated media offers.
The full use of the computer media will be therefore encouraged: this include computer animation through the Web (possibly interactive), possibility of free software downloading, interactive use of softwares. Another possibility will be to provide an update of some paper of a previously published paper: this update will be refereed. This possibility enable to write evoluting papers with a minimal amount of work from the authors, the reviewers and the readers. We will encourage
online discussion of articles or the submission of open problems, a process as vital to the community as the formal publication process itself. If you wish to contribute commentary on one of our papers, please mail your comments to the Editor. A special care will be given to the acknowledgement of contributions of predecessors.

Once a year the Editorial Board of EJCK will grant "Best paper" awards to published
papers which make the best use of the computer media while presenting outstanding scientific results.

We are clearly aware of the evaluation problem: EJCK intend to be quickly recognized as one of the
leading journal in this field, thereby attracting high quality papers. One of the mission of the editorial board of EJCK will be to give a high visibility to this journal.

Articles are electronically submitted (see submission information) and will be published on-line without charge to readers or authors. We expect to be able to publish papers within one week of final acceptance, provided the filling out of a copyright form (see Copyright). Our editorial process will be expedited to the fullest extent possible, in order to achieve our goal of rapid dissemination of the highest quality work in the field of computational kinematics. Refereeing of articles is conventional and of high-standards (with at least 3 reviewers by paper), and is being carried out electronically.

SUBMITTING A MANUSCRIPT TO EJCK

Manuscripts may be submitted preferably by electronic mail or by ftp. Three type of formats will be accepted:

html: this will be the preferred format as it enable the full use of the computers as a media. Note that papers written in LaTeX may be translated into html using latex2html and that most text editor provide now ways to save files into html format. This html file should be Netscape compatible

LaTeX: although no guidelines will be provided papers using fancy styles will be rejected. It will be asked to the author to provide if possible a stand alone file. Figures will be provided in Postscript and should be included in the LateX file only by using some widely spread methods (e.g. epsfig). The editors reserve the right of converting a paper submitted in LaTeX format to html format using latext2html: therefore it will be the responsibility of the author to check is such conversion is possible before submitting a paper

Postscript: this format will be acceptable only if it has been checked that the file can be displayed using the free Postscript previewer ghostview.

An electronic mail for the submission of paper should begin with the electronic mail address of the author to contact for revisions or corrections and any other pertinent information about the paper. This electronic mail should be sent to ejck@sophia.inria.fr.

Once the manuscript is received, it is assigned to an editor who will send the manuscript for refereeing. Questions regarding the status of the manuscript can sent to ejck@sophia.inria.fr. Posting of articles will be immediate following acceptance and receipt of a signed copyright agreement (see Copyright section).

Paper presentation

The head of proposed paper should begin with the paper title, name(s) of the author(s), affiliation, e-mail contact . This head will be followed by a short abstract and key-words

Paper title

Should be written in bold font

Author(s)

Names should be separated with a comma (,) so don't use a comma as part of name. One of the above authors should be the designated contact author. This is the author with whom the journal will correspond throughout the review process.

Affiliation

Should give the full postal mail address of the author(s)

E-mail

The e-mail of the contact author

Abstract: Abstract should be written in italic font

Key-words: it is the responsibility of the authors to provide a list of key-words which should be
written in bold font

Instruction for the contact author

When submitting a paper the contact author should indicate:

its postal mail address

its electronic mail address

the phone number where the contact author can be reached during the day;include area code

its fax number

Information for Referees

Referees will be contacted by E-MAIL to see if they are available to review a manuscript for EJCK within the required time period. A quick response is essential - the journal reserves the right to find alternative referees if an individual cannot be contacted within 3 days during weekdays.

In order to speed up the reviewing process, referees may be required to download manuscripts from our FTP space and upload their amendments to it. Please e-mail Editor upon receipt or
return of a manuscript by this method. Alternatively, at the referees request, EJCK will execute file transfers to/from a server at the referees location if this proves easier.

The names of referees who leave their reviews unsigned will be available to authors upon request.

When reviewing manuscripts, referees should assess if the manuscript is fit for publication on the grounds that it is (a) of broad international interest; (b) it is worthy of publication in a first class international journal. Referees should pay particular attention to:

whether the title and abstract adequately convey the contents of the manuscript.
the list of key-words is adequate
the references to previous works is excellent

COPYRIGHT

Policy

EJCK will not own the copyrights to any works it publishes. Instead, it will obtain permission to publish and distribute the work from its authors who will retain copyright. EJCK will also obtain permission to grant certain rights to its readers and to reserve certain rights from the readers which will be retained by EJCK and the authors. In other words, of all the rights held by the creators of the work, the creators will grant a sub-set to EJCK, and EJCK will grant a further sub-set to the readers.

Before publication of any work, EJCK will obtain signatures from the authors on the following statement:

EJCK

Permission to Use Submitted Work

I _______________________________ author (and acting as agent for any co-authors) of the paper _______________________________________, certify that this paper is the original work of me and my coauthors, if any, and that I have not assigned the copyright of this work to anyone. I also certify that this work has not been published elsewhere and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

This certification and the agreement below applies to all original work submitted by me to EJCK regardless of the media or form of the work including without limitation print, electronic documents, video, audio, computer code, and haptic simulations.

I give permission to the Electronic Journal of Computational Kinematics to use my copyrighted work as follows:

Reproduction: EJCK may post my paper on its web site and identical mirror sites which may be established in the future. EJCK will allow all readers of the site to read, download, and print copies of the paper for their own use in research and education. Readers of EJCK will not be allowed to repost papers originating in EJCK. I also grant EJCK, but not readers of the www site, permission to re-publish the work in a collection of works by all means and media now known or hereafter discovered, including without limitation, print, microform, and CD-rom.

Modification: I retain all rights to modify the work, except EJCK shall have the right to modify the electronic format of the work for the purposes of effective distribution in such a way that does not alter the content of the work.

Distribution: EJCK may distribute the work through any electronic means, and I further assign the right to distribute the work as part of a re-published collection by all means and media now known or hereafter discovered, including without limitation, print, microform, and CD-rom.

Public Display: EJCK may display and transmit the work on its web site.

I grant these rights EXCLUSIVELY to EJCK with the following exceptions: I retain the right to contribute all or portions of the work to a collection or derivative work published by another publisher or organization. I retain the right to post this paper on a www site maintained by me under the condition that the posting contain the following statement with a link to the EJCK journal www page:

This paper is published in The Electronic Journal of Computational 
Kinematics.

If the www address of the EJCK web site changes, the author will update the pointer included in his/her positing to the current one.

These exceptions shall not restrict any of the rights granted to EJCK above.

I understand that I may not submit this paper to another journal for review and/or publication. I may re-use material from this paper in other papers or works that I create, but no more than 50% of the material in this paper may be reproduced in any single work, and such items that are reproduced must bear attribution as follows: "Used with permission of EJCK, the Electronic Journal of Computational Kinematics". This agreement constitutes permission for use as described above.

All requests from third parties for permission to reprint material from EJCK will be referred to the Author. I retain all other rights to the work.

Signed _________________________________________ (author)

Date _______________________________

Also EJCK will post the following policy statement for its readers:

EJCK

Terms of Use of Information Published in EJCK

The papers in EJCK are used by permission of the authors who retain copyrights to the works. As a reader of EJCK you have the following rights:

You may read and download the papers in your computer.
You may printout a copy for your own use in research or teaching.
You may printout any number of copies for distribution to students in a class you are teaching.

You may not do any of the following without permission from the authors of the paper:

Modify the papers
Re-post, broadcast, transmit, or publish the papers in any electronic or non-electronic form except for classroom use as stated above.