Review Procedures

Manuscript Submissions: Authors must submit manuscripts to SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing (SISC) in electronic form. Hard-copy submissions will not be considered. Authors must enter submissions directly into the Journal Submission & Tracking System at http://sisc.siam.org. Authors should submit both the manuscript and a cover letter in PDF format.
Note: Figures, if any, must be embedded "inline" in the manuscript.

After the submission has entered SIAM's tracking system, the corresponding author receives an e-mail acknowledging receipt and providing the manuscript number. Authors are asked to include the manuscript number in all correspondence regarding the paper.

After checking the files the author submitted, the SIAM office contacts the EIC to let him/her know that there is a new manuscript that needs to be routed. Note that all contact with the EIC and all subsequent review correspondence with the Associate Editor (AE) and the SIAM office regarding the manuscript will be done via e-mail. The EIC briefly reviews each submission to determine whether it is appropriate for the journal and, if so, which AE is appropriate to handle the review. In making this decision, the EIC takes into account both the areas of expertise and the current workloads of the editors. If the EIC assigns the paper to an AE, (s)he does so by letting the SIAM office know to whom the submission should be routed for review. The SIAM office then contacts the AE to let him/her know that(s)he will be handling the manuscript. This e-mail provides the AE a direct link to the manuscript and the cover letter. Assuming the AE accepts the assignment, the paper is considered in review (status R) at this point. Note that the EIC can reject papers that are clearly inappropriate for SISC without assigning them to a Reviewing Editor.

Note on Manuscript Length: There is a limit of approximately 20 journal pages. The limit can be exceeded; however, substantial deviation from the limit requires that the referees, reviewing editor, and EIC be convinced that a longer paper is required.

Direct Submissions
Members of the editorial board occasionally receive submissions directly from authors. In such cases the editor should ask the author to resubmit the paper to the SIAM office through the Journal Submission & Tracking System at http://sisc.siam.org. This procedure ensures that the SIAM office will have the opportunity to access the manuscript for proper processing and tracking throughout the review process. Editors should not review a new submission without the approval of the EIC, who assigns the Reviewing Editor for each paper.

Conflicts of Interest and Rerouting
It is vital to the reputation of SIAM and all of its journals that conflicts of interest be avoided. Therefore, it is SIAM policy that editors not review papers authored by their friends, colleagues, co-workers, students, or recent former students. The same policy applies to referees: editors should not send papers to referees who work at an author's institution or who are known to have close ties to the author. To help avoid conflicts of interest, it is SIAM policy that editors who receive manuscript submissions or who are assigned manuscripts that present a conflict of interest decline the assignment. The EIC can then reassign the paper to another editor.

If the AE is unable or unwilling to handle a given submission, either because of workload difficulties, because the submission is outside his/her areas of expertise, or for any other reason, (s)he should click the DECLINE link in the web-based system, which alerts both the SIAM office and the EIC that a reroute of the manuscript in needed.

Manuscript Review
Once the SIAM office contacts the AE about the assignment, the AE should send confirmation and contact referees--via the web-based system--within 1 week. As is the case with AEs, referees are contacted by e-mail and have 1 week to send confirmation to the SIAM office (by clicking on the ACCEPT-the-request-to-review-the-paper link), or to decline to work on the paper (by clicking on the DECLINE link). SIAM asks that referees complete their review and send their reports within 3 months. If reports are not received within 3 months, the AE or SIAM office will prompt the referees.

Referees are required to complete a report. They are also asked to rate the manuscript excellent; good; fair; poor; or not appropriate for SISC. They are asked for a recommendation: Reject outright; return to the authors for major revisions, outlined in comments; publish after minor revisions, outlined in comments; publish as is. Lastly, there is an optional Manuscript Evaluation Form. Once the reports are received, thank you messages are sent to the referees and the reports go to the AE. Based on the reports, the AE makes a decision on the paper. The EIC may also weigh in on the final decision. The referees should provide comments that can be forwarded to the author. The referees' names are always kept confidential.

Option for EIC Assistance
There may be some instances in which the Reviewing Editor feels uncomfortable making a decision on a paper or communicating a decision to the author. In such cases, the AE has the option of contacting the EIC for assistance or to request that the EIC make the decision and/or communicate the decision to the author.

Status Changes and Communicating with Authors
It is vital that, in all communications with authors, AEs avoid wording that could make the status of the paper seem unclear (e.g., in a rejection message to the author: Is the intent to reject clear, or is a revision being implicitly encouraged?). Please note especially the important distinctions among the following statuses: rejected (RJ), in revision (V), and provisionally accepted (PA).

• Accepted (A). A manuscript is not considered officially accepted by the SIAM office until both a copy of the acceptance message to the author and the final, accepted versions of the electronic files of the manuscript have been received.
• Provisionally Accepted (PA). The status is also sometimes referred to as "accepted pending minor revisions". Unlike a paper that is "in revision", a paper that is PA will definitely be published in the journal; no substantial changes are necessary in order to make the paper acceptable.
• In Revision (V, V1, V2, etc.). When an author is asked to revise a paper, there is no guarantee that the revised version will be accepted for publication. Usually, in fact, such revisions are substantial and the paper will need to be refereed again. In this way, the "in revision" status differs from the status PA. Note that V1 refers to a second round of revision, V2, a third round, etc.
• In Review (R, R1, R2, etc.). As noted already, when a paper has been assigned to a review editor, it is considered "in review". R1 and R2 refer to second and third rounds of review, respectively; i.e., papers that have returned for review after having been in revision.
• Rejected (RJ). AEs should be very clear when rejecting a manuscript; i.e., a rejection message should not leave an author thinking that a revision is expected. If a substantially revised paper would, in fact, be welcome, the AE should clearly state that the revised version will be treated as a new submission when received.
  
  
• Rerouted (RR). The EIC can reroute papers in two situations:
  1. An editor can't handle a given manuscript due to workload or other considerations and asks that the manuscript be handled by another.
  2. An editor has not handled a manuscript in a timely or responsible fashion and the EIC determines that the paper should be handled by another editor.
  
  
  
• Withdrawn (W). An author can ask SIAM staff to withdraw a manuscript from the review process. Withdrawal messages should be e-mailed by the author to sisc@siam.org. The SIAM office will let the AE and EIC know of a paper being withdrawn. If an AE receives such a message, (s)he should forward it to the SIAM office. Papers may also be deemed withdrawn when an author fails to revise a paper within a reasonable amount of time and has not responded to inquiries. The decision to close out a manuscript is made jointly by the SIAM office and the editors, and exceptions are negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Files are never closed out without first giving the author ample opportunity to respond to prompts and submit a revision.

Transfer Policy
Manuscripts that are of high quality but are inappropriate for the journal to which they have been submitted can be transferred to other SIAM journals for consideration. If such a situation arises, the following procedure must be followed:

1. The AE contacts the SIAM office and the SISC EIC to suggest the transfer.
2. If the SISC EIC agrees with the request for transfer, the SIAM office consults with the EIC of the journal to which the paper might be transferred.
3. If the EIC of the transfer journal approves, the SISC AE or EIC suggests the transfer to the author.
4. If the author agrees to the transfer, the SIAM office will process the manuscript for the new journal.

Note that this procedure requires that the EICs of both journals be in agreement regarding the transfer, and that their agreement must precede any communication with the author regarding the possibility of transfer.