ProjectsISSS

The priority deadline for submission of abstracts is February 28, 2006.
Abstracts submitted after this date and before June 1 will be considered for inclusion in the program on a space-available basis.
Papers accepted for presentation will be compiled on a CDROM and distributed at the conference.
The deadline for submission of full papers is April 30, 2006.

ISSS 2006 represents a turning point. Since 1998, the conference proceedings have been available only on CD-ROM. These proceedings, as an official publication of the society, have an ISBN. The production of the CD-ROM will still be done. However, as the Internet has become more of an everyday way of life, it's become more common for researchers to want to be able to access the papers over the Internet.

Previously, ISSS authors have followed a paper-oriented procedure, even though many papers were in electronic form. Authors wrote brief abstracts of their planned content on their word processors (e.g. Microsoft Word). They would then e-mail the abstract file to the conference chair and SIG chair for acceptance to the annual meeting. (The instructions from last year still referred to diskettes, which could be seen as an improvement to mailing in documents printed on paper!)

Upon acceptance of the abstract, the authors would then complete their papers, and e-mail them to the ISSS office. Upon arrival at the meeting, each registrant would receive the conference abstracts, printed as a booklet. In addition, the full papers were available on a CD-ROM.

Some of these processes will remain the same for 2006, but there are some changes on the form of abstracts and submissions, where the ISSS conference organizers need your cooperation.

In 2005, the abstracts (only) for the annual meeting were available in advance on the ISSS web site, while the papers were produced onto CD-ROM — the common ISSS practice. From the time that preliminary abstracts were submitted, they were updated/evolved (through the manual intervention of the conference co-chairs) up to the final paper deadline. The list of abstracts, at that point, became the list that went into production for the booklet distributed in conference arrival packages.

In 2006, both the abstracts and the full paper will be available on the ISSS web site. This change has been enabled through the installation of a new open source software package, JournalsISSS. JournalsISSS is based on Open Journal System, and will allow all of the publications from the meeting to be openly accessible over the Internet, as well as indexable by search engines such as Google and Yahoo. With the rich functionality associated with JournalsISSS has come a rigourous revisiting of review and publication processes associated with the annual meeting.

This adoption of JournalsISSS portends a new level of transparency in publications, from ISSS members, through to a worldwide research community on the Internet. It requires, however, three changes in the way that authors prepare and submit papers.

Preparation of documents in an XHTML format:

On JournalsISSS, as a web-based medium, the final form of documents displayed is XHTML content interpretable by a web browser. XHTML 1.0 Transitional is one of the standards in common use on the Internet. XHTML is not the native format for word processing packages (e.g. .doc format on Microsoft Word). In order to distribute the production effort across the ISSS community, the ISSS conference organizers are requesting authors to submit abstracts and papers in the XHTML format, rather than an alternative format that will require reformating. The editors of the proceedings don't necessarily except the XHTML to be 100% perfect in form — they'll use HTML Tidy as an aid to clean up documents. If an author can provide a document 60% to 90% compliant to standards, the pressures of final production in the days preceding the conference will be largely reduced. All authors are be required to submit their abstracts and papers as XHTML 1.0 Transitional documents. Suggestions to make this transition easier are in the section, “Preparing Abstracts and Papers for ISSS Sonoma 2006”, below. In addition, a A Shell for ISSS Proceedings has been prepared template and example to follow.

Submission to the JournalsISSS web site:

Each author, rather than e-mailing documents as attachments to the ISSS office, can self-register on the JournalsISSS web site and upload documents using a web browser. In contrast to the manual processes in prior ISSS meetings — a large undertaking by a small number of people — the submission, sorting, reviewing and notifications have now been automated as a computer-based workflow. The steps to submit your abstract and paper are described in the section “Submitting Your Abstract and Paper to JournalsISSS”, below. Many online journals have migrated to the Open Journal System on which JournalsISSS is based.

Formalization of Content Licensing with the Creative Commons:

Although many authors have believed that the ISSS had assumed the copyright on papers published in the proceedings, this has never been the case. The ISSS approach to proceedings is in contrast to that of many other conferences. As a venue to develop new ideas and collaborate with other members, the ISSS encourages the contribution of content in many forms and at varying levels of completedness, ranging from early findings and through to nearly-completed research. Theoretical, empirical and applied works are welcomed. Most contributions would generally be classified as “working papers” distributed to peers for comments and discussion. Inclusion into the proceedings has neither required transfer of ownership from the original author, nor exclusivity. Thus, the copyright of the work has remained available for the author to assign to publishers of prestigious journals such as Systems Research and Behavioral Science. The path for authors approved by the ISSS board is described in the section “Creative Commons Licensing”, below. Explicit formalization of rights and privileges in the broader accessibility of papers associated with intellectual property serves both the author and the society in the age of the Internet.

The topics of interest to the ISSS Sonoma 2006 meeting are described in the Call for Participation, and more specifically, the Calls for Papers that include SIGs and other proposed sessions. In addition, Guidance on the Style of Abstracts and Papers for Annual ISSS Meetings can be consulted.

If you, as a potential contributor to the Sonoma 2006 proceedings, find these new requirements to be a problem, you should contact Gary Metcalf, ISSS VP for Conferences and Membership 2006, at gmetcalf@interconnectionsllc.com.

Instructions on Preparation of documents in an XHTML format, and details on the other two topics, follows.

Conventionally, papers submitted to most publications are written in a variety of word processing packages, with Microsoft Word a common choice. Leaving the reformatting of content to a layout editor is an artifact of pre-computerized writing, when typewritten hard copy was submitted for a publisher, and galley proofs were send back and forth. Today, the author who does not write on a computer is rare, and he or she can take more responsibility for formatting.

Unlike the proprietary Microsoft Word .doc format, XHTML is an open standards format. It can be viewed on a variety of Internet browsers with only small variations in look-and-feel. If an author or editor wants to import XHTML content into Microsoft Word (e.g. to add revision marking), this is relatively straightforward. The challenge is in the conversions in the other direction, from Microsoft Word .doc format into XHTML. For a layout editor, Microsoft Word does a relatively bad job of formatting content for web pages, by adding lots of extraneous proprietary tags.

The are a number of alternative XHMTL editors, and each author may use a tool he or she prefers. Fortunately, the new world of open source software means that authors with good Internet connections can download some suitable XHTML editors for free. Nvu is good choice as an alternative to Microsoft Word.

Table 1. Editors tested with the ISSS 2006 template

Here are step-by-step instructions on preparing your paper and abstract.

1. If practical, download Nvu and install it on your personal computer.
2. Click **this link to open the ISSS template for abstracts** and **this link to open the ISSS template for papers**. Once you have opened the template page:

• Internet Explorer users: select File… Save As…, and save the template to your computer.
• Firefox users: select File… Save Page As…, and save the template to your computer.
  

3. Open the ISSS template using Nvu (or Microsoft Word, if you must). From Nvu (or Word), go to File.. Open… and then select the template that you have saved. If you just click directly on the file, it's probable that it will be shown in an web browser, rather than an editing program.
4. Save the template under a name that includes the surnames of the authors, e.g. 2006-ISSS-Author1-Author2.html . If you have chosen to use Microsoft Word as your editor, do not save in .doc format! (To ensure your document is XHTML, when you have selected File … Save As …, the Save As Type … option of Web Page (*.htm; *.html) should be chosen.)
5. Using the template as an example, delete out or write over the sample text. Use the built in styles, including:

• Body text (which appears in Microsoft Word as “Normal (web)”
• Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 and Heading 4.
• Italic (that is translated into XHTML as “emphasis”) and bold (that is translated into XHTML as “strong”).
• Unordered and ordered lists (i.e. “bullets”).

6. More advanced supported editing features include:

• Tables — including a “summary” describing the content for the visually impaired.
• Web links — that point to places on the Internet.
• Anchors — that link to other places within the same document.
• Footnotes are tricky in web documents. In the sample template, they are implemented as endnotes, and will require hand-coding of XHTML. If you're uncomfortable doing this, try to avoid them!
• Images must be provided as a separate file, preferably as a PNG or JPG format. Use a distinct filename that won't conflict with other documents, e.g. Author1-Author2-ShortTitle-Figure1.png. If practical, include the original drawing (e.g. created in Open Office Draw or Microsoft Powerpoint), and the layout editor may be able to do small touch-ups.

7. Resist using:

• Underscores. (On browsers, web links often show up as underscored).
• Font size changes. (Yes we see those buttons in Nvu, but they're not really good form! Use the Heading styles, instead).
• Colors (unless you really know what you're doing in HTML).

8. Do not edit the embedded styles (i.e. the Cascading Style Sheet) included in the ISSS template. In final production, the embedded CSS will be replaced by a CSS common across the whole web site, so your changes will be fruitless!
9. If you have a technical formatting question, you can send e-mail to webadmin@isss.org.

The ISSS is interested in your content, so the form is an issue of saving time and work for those who compile the proceedings. If you must use Microsoft Word, go ahead, and the layout editors will do their best to clean it up during the review process.

Early in preparing your document, you are advised to register a userid and password (as described in “Submitting Your Abstract and Paper on JournalsISSS”, below), and look at “Step one of the submission process”. There is a checklist of requirements that you should meet, and it may be productive to keep these in mind, early.

Note that the character set selected for the ISSS template is UTF-8, which is Unicode. This allows entry not only of western (Latin) characters, but also eastern character (e.g. Chinese and Japanese). This will support correct presentation of your paper on Internet browsers around the world.

Viewing an abstract or a paper on JournalsISSS does not require registration. But in order to submit a paper, you must register on the site. (Note that the ISSS site is a loosely coupled system, so userids and passwords on different parts of site operate independently. You can make your life easier by personally setting them all to be the same.)

• At http://journals.isss.org , you'll see Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of the ISSS. Register a userid and password.

Meeting proceedings are being managed as three issues within a single publication:

1. Preliminary abstracts will be published on the web site. They will also be printed out in a booklet to be distributed as part of your conference arrival package. Contributions are reviewed for acceptance to the meeting by the conference chair, on the advice of SIG chairs.
2. Papers are published on the web site, and will be included on the CD-ROM proceedings for the meeting. These papers are lightly reviewed by SIG chairs, and are available online to other attendees in your session, as well as the conference at large.
3. Late papers received after the final paper deadline may still be accepted to the conference, but will not appear in this year's CD-ROM. They are included on the CD-ROM for the subsequent year.

You are requested to submit your abstract for review before the deadline of February 28, 2006. Step by step, here is what you'll do. (You may find it helpful to copy this section, paste it into something simple like Word or Wordpad, and print it for reference.)

1. Sign in at http://journals.isss.org with the userid and password that you had previously registered.
2. Under “Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of the ISSS”, select the role of “Author”.
3. You should be on the “Active Submissions” page. Select “Step one of the submission process”.
4. On the “Step 1. Starting the Submission” page, …

• Ensure that your paper meets the criteria on the “Submission Checklist”, and tick each checkbox..
• For the “Journal Section”, select “Abstract”
• In the “Comments to the Editor” field, enter one or more preferred SIGs for which the abstract should be considered. This will direct the editor to send the abstract to the appropriate reviewers.
• “Save and continue”.

5. Step 2: Entering the Submission's Metadata

• Fill in the names and information for the author(s). Below the “Bio Statement” field, you can create additional fields by selecting the “Add Authors” button. If there is more than one author, be sure to designate the primary author using the button below that author's name.
• Insert the working title in the “Title” field.
• Under the Indexing section, specify at least two keywords into the “Keywords” field.
• Leave the Language box selected as “en” for English, unless special arrangements have been made with the Editor to submit in another language.
• If there are supporting agencies for your work, list those in the appropriate fields.
• “Save and continue.”

6. Step 3: Uploading the Submission

• Follow the instructions on the page to attach your abstract to the JournalsISSS site.

7. Step 4: Uploading Supplementary Files

• This page provides the option of attaching additional files, such as images or drawing files, if necessary.
• “Save and continue.”

8. Step 5: Confirming the Submission

• Under “File Summary”, verify that the correct file has been uploaded to the web site .
• “Finish submission.”

9. You should receive e-mail notification on the progress of your abstract. To check at any time, you can log in and return to the “Active Submissions” page to see the status.

The submission of a final paper, if your abstract is accepted to the conference, follows similar steps.

1. Sign in at http://journals.isss.org with the userid and password that you had previously registered.
2. Under “Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of the ISSS”, select the role of “Author”.
3. You should be on the “Active Submissions” page. Select “Step one of the submission process”.
4. On the “Step 1. Starting the Submission” page, …

• Ensure that your paper meets the criteria on the “Submission Checklist”, and tick each checkbox.
• For the “Journal Section”, select “Article”
• In the “Comments to the Editor” field, you can enter the SIG into which your paper was accepted (or just leave it blank).
• “Save and continue”.

5. Step 2: Entering the Submission's Metadata

• Fill in the names and information for the author(s). Below the “Bio Statement” field, you can create additional fields by selecting the “Add Authors” button. If there is more than one author, be sure to designate the primary author using the button below that author's name.
• Insert the working title in the “Title” field.
• Copy the text of your abstract for the final paper (from a browser or editor), and paste it into the “Abstract” field. (Hint: use either Edit … Copy … and Edit … Paste …, or Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v). Ensure that paragraphs breaks appear appropriately.
• Under the Indexing section, specifyat least two keywords into the “Keywords” field.
• Leave the Language box selected as “en” for English, unless special arrangements have been made with the Editor to submit in another language.
• If there are supporting agencies for your work, list those in the appropriate fields.
• “Save and continue.”

6. Step 3: Uploading the Submission

• Follow the instructions on the page to attach your abstract to the JournalsISSS site.

7. Step 4: Uploading Supplementary Files

• This page provides the option of attaching additionalfiles, such as images or drawing files, if necessary.
• “Save and continue.”

8. Step 5: Confirming the Submission

• Under “File Summary”, verify thatthe correct file has been uploadedto the web site.
• “Finish submission.”

9. You should receive e-mail notification on the progress of your paper. To check at any time, you can log in and return to the “Active Submissions” page to see the status.

If for any reason you have difficulties following this procedure, please contact the VP for Membership and Conferences, Gary Metcalf, at: gmetcalf@interconnectionsllc.com for alternate instructions. An editor can post content on your behalf, and then you can follow through on tracking its progress.

Creative Commons Licensing

The ownership and privileges of content contributed to past annual ISSS meetings has been vague. For this reason, although many authors have declared their interest in making their conference papers available on the ISSS web site, the ISSS had not been formally assigned the privileges of redistribution. In order to protect the rights of both authors and the ISSS, this ambiguity is now being clarified.

The ISSS requests that you permit your work to published on the ISSS web site under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license. This is the license that has been selected by the ISSS Board of Directors for all of the content on the ISSS web site, beginning in 2006. In a description of the features of this license,

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. Others can download and redistribute your work …, but they can also translate, make remixes, and produce new stories based on your work. All new work based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also be non-commercial in nature. (Source: “Meet the Licenses”, Creative Commons)

This Creative Commons license has a deed, and a legal code associated with it. The license is not an alternative to your copyright, but instead, on top of your existing copyright. Your work is automatically copyrighted once it is put into tangible form (e.g. pressing the save button). This license is not mutually exclusive with other licenses that you may choose to place on your work. If you want to make money with the work, in another license with another party, that option is still open to you. If someone wants to make a different use of the work, (e.g. publishing it in a book), he or she is still obligated to contact you directly.

When you submit your abstract and paper to JournalsISSS, an agreement to license the work under a Creative Commons license will appear as one of the checkboxes in the “Submission Checklist”. Checking off that box represents sufficient permission for the ISSS to post your abstract and paper on its web site.