Instructions to authors

Please read and follow these instructions carefully, doing so will ensure that the review and publication of your paper is as rapid and efficient as possible. The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts that are not prepared in accordance with these instructions.

Submission of Manuscripts
Copyright
Conflict of Interest
Authorship
Funding
Survey Articles
Preparation And Submission Of The Manuscript
LaTeX
Proofs
Availability of Data and Materials
Open Access Option For Authors

Submission of Manuscripts

Authors should submit postscript, LaTex, PDF or Word files via The Computer Journal. Instructions can be found on the Submission of Manuscripts page. Please contact the Editorial Office for additional help with manuscript submission.

Work submitted for publication must be previously unpublished, not under consideration for publication elsewhere and, if accepted, it should not then be published elsewhere in the same form. If previously published figures, tables or parts of text are to be included, the copyright-holder's permission must have been obtained prior to submission.

Authors should supply a list of between three and five referees who would be suitable to referee the paper. Please enclose full name, email and full postal addresses.

Authors/co-authors details

It is now compulsory to provide an ORCID ID to publish in this journal. Authors and co-authors are also required to provide institutional email addresses that we can verify (not gmail.com, yahoo.com, 163.com etc) and a valid ORCID ID; or a personal address accompanied by a valid ORCID ID (https://orcid.org/register). Authors are also encouraged to claim all published work though the ORCID website.

Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors, and the Journal will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content or images, write code, process data, or for translation) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details.

Re-submission of previously rejected papers

It is now the policy of the Journal not to allow resubmissions of previously rejected papers. Thank you for your understanding.

Copyright

Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford Journals authors will be invited to complete an online copyright licence to publish form.

Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Oxford University Press ("OUP") may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. You agree to notify OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process. Please note that OUP does not retain copies of rejected articles.

It is a condition of publication in the Journal that authors grant an exclusive licence to BCS. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. In assigning copyright, authors may use their own material in other publications, provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Oxford University Press is notified in writing and in advance.

Conflict of Interest

At the point of submission, The Computer Journal’s policy requires that each author reveal any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated - including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition. When considering whether you should declare a conflicting interest or connection please consider the conflict of interest test: Is there any arrangement that would embarrass you or any of your co-authors if it was to emerge after publication and you had not declared it?

As an integral part of the online submission process, Corresponding authors are required to confirm whether they or their co-authors have any conflicts of interest to declare, and to provide details of these. If the Corresponding author is unable to confirm this information on behalf of all co-authors, the authors in question will then be required to submit a completed Conflict of Interest form to the Editorial Office. It is the Corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors adhere to this policy.

If the manuscript is published, Conflict of Interest information will be communicated in a statement in the published paper.

Authorship

Authorship is limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the design and execution of the work described. Any contributors whose participation does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged but not listed as an author. OUP supports the ICMJE definitions of authorship. 

The Journal does not allow ghost authorship, where an unnamed author prepares the article with no credit, or guest/gift authorship, where an author who made little or no contribution is listed as an author. The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance on investigating and resolving these cases. For more information, please see the OUP Publication Ethics page.

Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors, and the Journal will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content or images, write code, process data, or for translation) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details. 

After manuscript submission, no authorship changes (including the authorship list, author order, and who is designated as the corresponding author) should be made unless there is a substantive reason to do so. The editor and all co-authors must agree on the change(s), and neither the Journal nor the publisher mediates authorship disputes.

Requests for changes to authorship must be directed to the journal editor via the Editorial Office. If individuals cannot agree on the authorship of a submitted manuscript, contact the editorial office. The dispute must be resolved among the individuals and their institution(s) before the manuscript can be accepted for publication. If an authorship dispute or change arises after a paper is accepted, contact OUP’s Author Support team. COPE provides guidance for authors on resolving authorship disputes.

Funding

Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'Acknowledgements' section.

The following rules should be followed:

• The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
• The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘National Institutes of Health’, not ‘NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies) Grant numbers should be given in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number xxxx]’
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]’
• Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
• Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'

An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [AA123456 to C.S., BB765432 to M.H.]; and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [hfygr667789].’

Crossref Funding Data Registry

In order to meet your funding requirements authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. For further information on this process or to find out more about CHORUS, visit the CHORUS initiative.

Survey Articles

The Computer Journal occasionally invites and considers for publication, after the journal’s usual rigorous peer review, survey articles on areas of special interest. Any other survey articles that are not invited may not be considered for peer review or publication.

Preparation And Submission Of The Manuscript

General

Papers must be clearly written in English. The text should be presented on A4 or an equivalent size. Please submit your manuscript in Computer Journal format using the following LaTeX template available on Overleaf. If this is not possible then please ensure that the manuscript is in single-column format and double line-spaced. Margins of at least 25 mm should be left around all sides of the text. Please number each page but provide a short running title on the title page only. Ensure that any unusual symbols or letters are clearly identifiable. Manuscripts submitted in other journal styles may be returned to you for re-formatting.

The manuscript should contain the following information: the full and a short title, and a complete list of authors, their affiliations and addresses; the main text; all figures and tables, and references. The corresponding author should be identified along with both his/her postal and e-mail addresses, and telephone and fax numbers.

You may wish to use a language-editing service before submitting to ensure that editors and reviewers understand your manuscript. Our publisher, Oxford University Press, partners with Enago, a leading provider of author services. Through the OUP-Enago partner page, prospective authors are entitled to a discount for language editing and a range of other services.

Enago is an independent service provider, which will handle all aspects of this service, including payment. As an author you are under no obligation to take up this offer. Language editing and other services from Enago are optional and do not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted. Edited manuscripts will undergo the regular review process of the Journal. For more details and a list of additional resources, please see OUP’s page on language services.

Style

The journal follows Oxford SCIMED style. Please refer to these requirements when preparing your manuscript after initial review. More information is available in our mini style sheet.

Tables should be clear and self-explanatory. Vertical rules will not be used in the published version. Any footnotes required should be indicated using superscripted letters.

Figures can be presented within the text of the paper, however, all figures should be supplied in an electronic format (EPS only). Figures should be formatted to fit into, or be reduced to, a single (85 mm) or double (178 mm) column width. Please also supply a legend for each figure.

Halftones should be of sufficient quality with respect to detail, contrast and fineness of grain to withstand the unavoidable loss of contrast inherent in the printing process.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs. 

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

Word-processed documents

Authors should provide an electronic copy of the manuscript which will be used for typesetting. Most Macintosh or PC-based word processing packages are acceptable for translation and publication in The Computer Journal . All manuscripts will undergo some editorial modification so it is important to check proofs carefully. Please try to follow the guidelines listed below, they are designed to reduce production delays and minimise editorial changes and thus the possible introduction of errors.

• Save the text as a single word processor file.
• Please cite and list references in journal style (see above).
• Complex displayed equations will still be manually typeset, therefore please check the proofs carefully.
• Use carriage returns to end headings and paragraphs only, not to introduce space between paragraphs and headings.

LaTeX

If you wish to submit a LaTeX manuscript,  you can use the following LaTeX template available on Overleaf, adjusting the formatting options as mentioned on OUP's Preparing and submitting your manuscript page under ‘OUP LaTeX template’ (The Computer Journal uses the Contemporary Large page design). Please include an accompanying PDF.

Front matter

The title is specified with a \title command. A short title is also obtainable by enclosing text in square brackets.

\title[This is the short title] {This is the main title}

Each author should be entered in a separate \author command. After this should follow an address in an \affiliation command; just one affiliation needs to be entered, so long as it is entered after the last author for that affiliation.

If you need to give the same affiliation twice, if an intervening author has a different address. The system will detect this and not print the affiliation twice, but will add appropriate markers to the author names to associate them with the correct affiliation. After exactly one author you should specify a full correspondence address and an email address. The following example will make this clearer.

Two authors, same address: \author{First Author} \author{Second Author} \affiliation{Department of Style, University of TeX, Country} \email{[email protected]}

Two authors, two addresses: \author{First Author} \email{[email protected]} \affiliation{Department of Style, University of \TeX, Country} \author{Second Author} \affiliation{Department of Files, University of LaTeX, Country}

Other commands present, which are used by the Journal's production staff are: \shortauthors{initials & surnames} \received{month date, year} \revised{month date, year} \volumenumber{00} \issuenumber{0} \volumeyear{1996} \begin{abstract} \end{abstract} \begin[object Object] \maketitle

Floats

As this journal is set in two columns, you may wish to make use of the two-column versions of the floats:

\begin{figure}, \begin{table}

Figure and table floats work as in article class except that the /small font is used and the table captions are ruled.

Font

By default (or with the mathptm option) this class uses Adobe Times Roman for the text font and the mathptm Adobe Times Italic based maths fonts.

The cmfonts option causes the class to revert to the standard TeX Computer Modern Fonts. On many installations this is much more convenient for previewing on screen.

A third option mathtime uses Adobe Times Roman for the text fonts and the 'mathtime' Times Italic based math fonts---it should be noted that these latter fonts are commercial.

References

The Computer Journal uses the numbering style of references, with reference number 1 being first reference mentioned in the text. References in the text should be cited by using:

\cite{ref1, ref2}

This produces \cite{ref1, ref2} in the text.

The reference list should be as free from author macros as possible. For example, the Reference list is started by:

\begin{thebibliography}{99}

And each reference is then added as:

\bibitem{ref1} Author, F. F. (1996) How to write my paper in the style of The Computer Journal. {\it Comp. J.}, {\bf 00}, 000--000.

To end the bibliography, type:

\end{thebibliography}

\end[object Object]

Mathematics

\begin{eqnarray} a&=&\frac{1}{\pi} \int^\infty_{-\infty} \frac{\Lambda}{1-2^{1/4x}}\,dx\\ &=&{\cal A}\frac{1+{\Bbb Z}}{1-{\bi t}}. \end{eqnarray}

Please use \$ for mathematics where possible. For example:

A compare and steer operation takes place resulting in the maximum of $A_n$ and $B_n$ being transferred to $D_n$ and the minimum of $A_n$ and $B_n$ transferred to $C_n$.

Other commands

Theorems and the like

These sections are, for example, begun with:

\begin{theorem} Then you enter your text. \end{theorem}

Acknowledgements

You begin the Acknowledgements section by typing:

\ack

And then adding your text.

Proofs

One round of page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for checking. Extensive changes to the text of the paper may be charged to the author.

The publisher will provide each author with free online access to their paper.

All authors have the option to purchase up to 10 print copies of the issue in which they publish at a 50% discount. Orders should be placed through this order form. Orders must be made within 12 months of the online publication date.

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, the Journal strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. Authors are required to include a data availability statement in their paper. When data and software underlying the research article are available in an online source, authors should include a full citation in their reference list. For details of the minimum information to be included in data and software citations see the OUP guidance on citing research data and software.

Whenever possible, data should be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files or deposited in a public repository. Visit OUP’s Research data page for information on general repositories for all data types, and resources for selecting repositories by subject area.

Data availability statement

The inclusion of a data availability statement is a requirement for papers published in the Journal. Data availability statements provide a standardized format for readers to understand the availability of original and third-party data underlying the research results described in the paper. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier.

More information and example data availability statements.

Preprint policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

Open Access Option For Authors

The Computer Journal offers the option of publishing under either a standard licence or an open access licence. Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution.

Should you wish to publish your article open access, you should select your choice of open access licence in our online system after your article has been accepted for publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.

Details of the open access licences and open access charges.

Read and Publish agreements

OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.

If you are eligible to publish your paper Open Access through a Read and Publish agreement, you can read our step-by-step guide for accessing R&P funds.

Contact us

If you have any queries about your manuscript or submission problems please contact the Editorial Office.