Author Guidelines

1. Manuscript Submission

1.1. Manuscript Submission

Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities - tacitly or explicitly - at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

1.2. Permissions

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

1.3. Online Submission

Authors should submit their manuscripts online. Electronic submission substantially reduces the editorial processing and reviewing times and shortens overall publication times. Please follow the hyperlink "Paper Submission" on the right or visit at http://www.hcis-journal.com/manuscript directly and upload all of your manuscript files following the instructions given on the screen.

2. Title page

2.1. Title Page

The title page should include:

The name(s) of the author(s)
A concise and informative title
The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)
The e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author

2.2. Abstract

Please provide an abstract of 100 to 150 words.
The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

2.3. Keywords

Please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.

3. Text

3.1. Text Formatting

Manuscripts should be submitted in LaTeX. Please use Springer's LaTeX macro package and choose the formatting option "smallextended".The submission should include the original source (including all style files and figures) and a PDF version of the compiled output.

- LaTeX macro package

Word files are also accepted. In this case, please use Springer's Word template for preparing your manuscript.

- Word template

3.2. Headings

Please use the decimal system of headings with no more than three levels.

3.3. Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

3.4. Footnotes

Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation, and they should never include the bibliographic details of a reference. They should also not contain any figures or tables.
Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data). Footnotes to the title or the authors of the article are not given reference symbols.
Always use footnotes instead of endnotes.

3.5. Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the reference list. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

4. References

4.1. Citation

Reference citations in the text should be identified by numbers in square brackets. Some examples:

Negotiation research spans many disciplines [3].
This result was later contradicted by Becker and Seligman [5].
This effect has been widely studied [1-3, 7].

4.2. Reference list

The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list.

The entries in the list should be numbered consecutively.

- Journal article

Gamelin FX, Baquet G, Berthoin S, Thevenet D, Nourry C, Nottin S, Bosquet L (2009) Effect of high intensity intermittent training on heart rate variability in prepubescent children. Eur J Appl Physiol 105:731-738. doi: 10.1007/s00421-008-0955-8

Ideally, the names of all authors should be provided, but the usage of "et al" in long author lists will also be accepted:

Smith J, Jones M Jr, Houghton L et al (1999) Future of health insurance. N Engl J Med 965:325-329

- Article by DOI

Slifka MK, Whitton JL (2000) Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. J Mol Med. doi:10.1007/s001090000086

- Book

South J, Blass B (2001) The future of modern genomics. Blackwell, London

- Book chapter

Brown B, Aaron M (2001) The politics of nature. In: Smith J (ed) The rise of modern genomics, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York, pp 230-257

- Online document

Cartwright J (2007) Big stars have weather too. IOP Publishing PhysicsWeb. http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/6/16/1. Accessed 26 June 2007

- Dissertation

Trent JW (1975) Experimental acute renal failure. Dissertation, University of California

Always use the standard abbreviation of a journal's name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations, see

www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php

For authors using EndNote, Springer provides an output style that supports the formatting of in-text citations and reference list.

EndNote Style

5. Tables

All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.
Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.
Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

6. Artwork

For the best quality final product, it is highly recommended that you submit all of your artwork – photographs,

line drawings, etc. – in an electronic format. Your art will then be produced to the highest standards with the

greatest accuracy to detail. The published work will directly reflect the quality of the artwork provided.

6.1. Electronic Figure Submission

Supply all figures electronically.
Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.
For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format. MS Office files are also acceptable.
Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
Name your figure files with "Fig" and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.

6.2. Line Art

Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.
Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.
All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.
Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files

6.3. Halftone Art

Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.
If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves.
Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

6.4. Combination Art

Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line drawing, extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.
Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.

6.5. Color Art

Color art is free of charge for online publication.
If black and white will be shown in the print version, make sure that the main information will still be visible. Many colors are not distinguishable from one another when converted to black and white. A simple way to check this is to make a xerographic copy to see if the necessary distinctions between the different colors are still apparent.
If the figures will be printed in black and white, do not refer to color in the captions.
Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per channel).

6.6. Figure Lettering

To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts).
Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 2–3 mm (8–12 pt).
Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.
Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.
Do not include titles or captions within your illustrations.

6.7. Figure Numbering

All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
Figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).
If an appendix appears in your article and it contains one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures, "A1, A2, A3, etc." Figures in online appendices (Electronic Supplementary Material) should, however, be numbered separately.

6.8. Figure Captions

Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.
Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.
Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

6.9. Figure Placement and Size

When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.
For most journals the figures should be 39 mm, 84 mm, 129 mm, or 174 mm wide and not higher than 234 mm.
For books and book-sized journals, the figures should be 80 mm or 122 mm wide and not higher than 198 mm.

6.10. Permissions

If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format. Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that Springer will not be able to refund any costs that may have occurred to receive these permissions. In such cases, material from other sources should be used.

6.11. Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your figures, please make sure that

All figures have descriptive captions (blind users could then use a text-to-speech software or a text-to-Braille hardware)
Patterns are used instead of or in addition to colors for conveying information (color-blind users would then be able to distinguish the visual elements)
Any figure lettering has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1

7. Electronic Supplementary Material

Springer accepts electronic multimedia files (animations, movies, audio, etc.) and other supplementary files to be published online along with an article or a book chapter. This feature can add dimension to the author's article, as certain information cannot be printed or is more convenient in electronic form.

7.1. Submission

Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.
Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names; affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.

7.2. Audio, Video, and Animations

Always use MPEG-1 (.mpg) format.

7.3. Text and Presentations

Submit your material in PDF format; .doc or .ppt files are not suitable for long-term viability.
A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.

7.4. Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets should be converted to PDF if no interaction with the data is intended.
If the readers should be encouraged to make their own calculations, spreadsheets should be submitted as .xls files (MS Excel).

7.5. Specialized Formats

Specialized format such as .pdb (chemical), .wrl (VRML), .nb (Mathematica notebook), and .tex can also be supplied.

7.6. Collecting Multiple Files

It is possible to collect multiple files in a .zip or .gz file.

7.7. Numbering

If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.
Refer to the supplementary files as “Online Resource”, e.g., "... as shown in the animation (Online Resource 3)", “... additional data are given in Online Resource 4”.
Name the files consecutively, e.g. “ESM_3.mpg”, “ESM_4.pdf”.

7.8. Captions

For each supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of the file.

7.9. Processing of supplementary files

Electronic supplementary material will be published as received from the author without any conversion, editing, or reformatting.

7.10. Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your supplementary files, please make sure that
The manuscript contains a descriptive caption for each supplementary material
Video files do not contain anything that flashes more than three times per second (so that users prone to seizures caused by such effects are not put at risk)

8. After acceptance

Upon acceptance of your article you will receive a link to the special Author Query Application at Springer’s web page where you can sign the Copyright Transfer Statement online and indicate whether you wish to order OpenChoice, offprints, or printing of figures in color.

Once the Author Query Application has been completed, your article will be processed and you will receive the proofs.

8.1. Open Choice

In addition to the normal publication process (whereby an article is submitted to the journal and access to that article is granted to customers who have purchased a subscription), Springer provides an alternative publishing option: Springer Open Choice. A Springer Open Choice article receives all the benefits of a regular subscription-based article, but in addition is made available publicly through Springer’s online platform SpringerLink. We regret that Springer Open Choice cannot be ordered for published articles.

Springer Open Choice

8.2. Copyright transfer

Authors will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Publisher (or grant the Publisher exclusive publication and dissemination rights). This will ensure the widest possible protection and dissemination of information under copyright laws.
Open Choice articles do not require transfer of copyright as the copyright remains with the author. In opting for open access, they agree to the Springer Open Choice Licence.

8.3. Offprints

Offprints can be ordered by the corresponding author.

8.4. Color illustrations

Online publication of color illustrations is free of charge. For color in the print version, authors will be expected to make a contribution towards the extra costs.

8.5. Proof reading

The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor.
After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.

8.6. Online First

The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and page numbers.

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