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Springer Nature Code of Conduct

Springer Nature is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record, and, as a member, follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct. It is therefore important that the work you submit has been carried out in line with international standards for responsible research publication.

Authors should follow the minimum standards as set out in the Book Authors’ Code of Conduct and our Book Publishing Policies to adhere to the publishing standards before submitting their manuscript.

For Springer Nature’s policy on the use of AI, please refer to this page.

Alternative Text

In accordance with the EU Accessibility Act and our commitment to Accessibility at Springer Nature, proceedings contributions will henceforth need to be accessible to all readers and adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). According to these guidelines, textual substitutes are required for all non-text content, such as figures, illustrations and tables in image formats.

Authors will either be contacted by the PC Chairs asking them to create Alternative Text for their figures, or this task will be performed by our typesetters, in which case the corresponding authors will have an opportunity to check the Alt Text during the proofing stage.

Preparation of Your Paper

Your contribution may be prepared in LaTeX or Microsoft Word. Please use the templates provided on the authors’ page.

We need all source files (LaTeX files with all the associated style files, special fonts and eps files, or Word or rtf files) and the pdfs of all of the papers. Please note that we cannot accept Framemaker files. If your paper has been prepared using LaTeX, please supply us with the bib/bbl file for the references. LaTeX users should avoid self-defined environments and use the bibliographic style MathPhySci for computer science proceedings.

Please do not use long names for the labelling of your files, as this can make them difficult to open further down the line.

The program chairs and proceedings chair will be your main points of contact for the preparation of the volume.

Structuring Your Paper

Authors’ Names, Affiliations, Email-Addresses, and ORCIDs. The names of the authors must be final and correct before the paper is sent to Springer Nature. Beyond this point, it is not possible to add or alter authors’ names. Please check that all of the author information you provide is correct from the start. We encourage authors to insert their ORCIDs in superscript next to their names (please see the LaTeX and Word templates for examples).

The corresponding author, i.e., the author responsible for checking the final proof and for signing the license-to-publish agreement on behalf of all of the authors, should be clearly marked in the header of the paper. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed. The inclusion of the corresponding author’s email address is mandatory. In order to streamline communication during the publication process, there should not be more than one corresponding author per paper.

We strongly recommend that all authors include their email addresses in their papers. These are used by Springer Nature to send an email containing a coded personal access link, enabling authors to download a PDF of their paper from Springer Nature Link.

Headings. Headings should be capitalized (i.e., nouns, verbs, and all other words except articles, prepositions, and conjunctions should be set with an initial capital) and should, with the exception of the title, be aligned to the left. Only the first two levels of section headings should be numbered, as shown in Table 1. The respective font sizes are also given in Table 1. Kindly refrain from using “0” when numbering your section headings.

Table 1. Font sizes of headings. Table captions should always be positioned above the tables.

Words in a heading that are joined by a hyphen are subject to a special rule. If the first word can stand alone, the second word should be capitalized.

Here are some examples of headings: “Criteria to Disprove Context-Freeness of Collage Languages”, “On Correcting the Intrusion of Tracing Non-deterministic Programs by Software”, “A User-Friendly and Extendable Data Distribution System”, “Multi-flip Networks: Parallelizing GenSAT”, “Self-determinations of Man”.

Lemmas, Propositions, and Theorems. The numbers accorded to lemmas, propositions, and theorems, etc., should appear in consecutive order, starting with Lemma 1. Please do not include section counters in the numbering like “Theorem 1.1”.

Length of Papers

Full papers must not exceed 16 pages in LNCS format, excluding the bibliography and clearly marked appendices, with an absolute maximum of 20 pages in total. Short papers must not exceed 13 pages (including all content).

Fonts

We aim to publish all proceedings papers in full-text XML. Our templates for LaTeX are based on CMR, and our XML templates for Word are based on Times. We ask you to use the font according to the template used for your papers. Papers using other fonts will be converted by our typesetters.

Page Numbering and Running Heads

There is no need to include page numbers or running heads; this will be done at our end. If your paper title is too long to serve as a running head, it will be shortened.

Figures and Tables

It is essential that all illustrations are clear and legible. We do not support color in text, tables, or in equations. Also, please make sure that tables and equations are editable, and not pasted in as figures, in case your paper needs to be reformatted or corrections made.

Vector graphics (rather than rasterized images) should be used for diagrams and schemas whenever possible. Please check that the lines in line drawings are not interrupted and have a constant width. Line drawings are to have a resolution of at least 800 dpi (preferably 1200 dpi).

Grids and details within figures must be clearly legible and may not be written one on top of the other. The lettering in figures should not use font sizes smaller than 6 pt (~ 2 mm character height). Figures are to be numbered and to have a caption which should always be positioned under the figures, in contrast to the caption belonging to a table, which should always appear above the table. Figures and Tables should be cross-referred in the text.

Captions are set in 9-point type. If they are short, they are centered between the margins. Longer captions, covering more than one line, are justified. Captions that do not constitute a full sentence, do not have a period.

Remark 1. In the printed volumes, illustrations are generally black and white (halftones). Colored pictures are welcome in the electronic version free of charge. If you send colored figures that are to be printed in black and white, please make sure that they really are also legible in black and white. Some colors show up very poorly when printed in black and white. We do not support color in text, tables or in equations.

Formulae

Displayed equations or formulae are centered and set on a separate line (with an extra line or half line space above and below). Equations should be numbered for reference. The numbers should be consecutive within the contribution, with numbers enclosed in parentheses and set on the right margin. Please do not include section counters in the numbering. If you are using Word, please use the Math function of Word 2007, Word 2010 or Word 2013, or MathType or the Microsoft Equation Editor with Word 2003, to create your equations, and insert the math objects in your Word document in an editable format through MathType or MsWord equation editors.

x + y = z (1)

Equations should never be in color and should be punctuated in the same way as ordinary text. They should not be pasted in as figures.

Footnotes

The superscript numeral used to refer to a footnote appears in the text either directly after the word to be discussed or – in relation to a phrase or a sentence – following the punctuation mark (comma, semicolon, or period).¹

For remarks pertaining to the title or the authors’ names, in the header of a paper, symbols should be used instead of a number (see first page of this document). Please note that no footnotes may be included in the abstract.

Program Code

Program listings or program commands in the text are normally set in typewriter font.

Citations by Number

Arabic numbers are used for citation, which is sequential either by order of citation or by alphabetical order of the references (preferred), depending on which sequence is used in the list of references. The reference numbers are given in brackets and are not superscript. Please observe the following guidelines:

• Single citation: [9]
• Multiple citation: [4-6, 9]. The numbers should be listed in numerical order.
• If an author’s name is used in the text: Miller [9] was the first …

Please write all references using the Latin alphabet. If the title of the book you are referring to is, e.g., in Russian or Chinese, then please write (in Russian) or (in Chinese) at the end of the transcript or translation of the title. All references cited in the text should be in the list of references and vice versa.

If more than six authors are listed in one particular reference, this will be shortened and “et al.” will be inserted.

In order to permit cross referencing within Springer Nature Link, and between different publishers and their online databases, Springer Nature standardizes the format of the references according to the requirements for CrossRef (http://www.crossref.org/). The reference section is included in the metadata of the paper on Springer Nature Link, increasing the visibility of the referenced papers and facilitating research.

We strongly encourage you to include DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) in your references. The DOI is a unique code allotted by the publisher to each online paper or journal article. It provides a stable way of finding published papers and their metadata. The insertion of DOIs increases the overall length of the references section.

Additional Information Required from Authors

License-to-Publish Agreement

A semi-prefilled license-to-publish agreement is usually available here. The corresponding author (one per paper), who must match the corresponding author marked in the header of the paper, must have the full right, power, and authority to sign the agreement on behalf of all of the authors of a particular paper, and accepts responsibility for releasing this material on their behalf. Digital signatures are not acceptable. The corresponding author should be available to check the paper before it is published. Please note that once a paper has been delivered to Springer Nature, changes relating to the authorship of the paper cannot be made. Authors’ names cannot be added or deleted, their order cannot be changed, and the corresponding author cannot be altered.

Employees of US Government contractors or US Government departments often have to sign an alternative agreement. We urge such authors to contact their own legal departments as soon as their papers have been accepted and to get in touch with us straight away. This also applies for those affected by Crown Copyright. Unresolved copyright issues can delay the publication process considerably. Please be aware that more than one licence-to-publish agreement may be required for a paper, if some authors need a special form and others do not.

Correct Representation of Author Names

Authors’ names should be written out in full in the header of the paper. They are shortened by us to “initials surname” in the running heads and take the form “surname, given name” in the author index. If you or any of your co-authors have more than one family name, it should be made quite clear how your name is to be displayed in the running heads and the author index. All authors should write their given names in front of their surnames at the tops of their papers. If you only have one (main) name, please make sure that this name is written out in full in the running heads, when you check your final PDF. Only the names of real authors who can be held responsible for the contents of the paper may be named as authors of your contribution.

Names and affiliations cannot be changed once a paper has been published. Also, if you have more than one paper in the volume, please check that your name has been written consistently throughout.

In the case of an authorship dispute, Springer Nature will not be in a position to investigate or adjudicate. Authors will be asked to resolve the dispute themselves.

ORCID Identifier

Springer Nature is the first publisher to implement the ORCID identifier for proceedings, ultimately providing authors with a digital identifier that distinguishes them from every other researcher. ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) hosts a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities to these identifiers. This is achieved through embedding ORCID identifiers in key workflows, such as research profile maintenance, manuscript submissions, grant applications, and patent applications. Apply for an individual ORCID at www.orcid.org and include it in the header of your paper. Your ORCID will be replaced by the ORCID icon, which will link from the eBook to the actual ID in the ORCID database. As a result, only the ORCID icon will appear in the printed book.

Typesetting of Your Paper

Please make sure that the paper you submit is final and complete, that any copyright issues have been resolved, that the authors listed at the top of the chapter really are the final authors, and that you have not omitted any references nor included any redundant files. We cannot amend the list of authors in any way once the files have been sent to Springer Nature, so please check your paper for correctness before submitting it. Following publication, it is not possible to alter or withdraw your paper on Springer Nature Link.

What Will Be Done with Your Paper

If the templates and instructions have been followed closely, then only very minor alterations will be made to your paper. The format of the paper will be checked by our typesetters, and if, for example, vertical spacing has been inserted or removed, then this will be remedied. In addition, running-heads, final page numbers, and a copyright line are inserted, and the capitalization of the headings is checked and corrected if need be. References not adhering to the style required for CrossRef (http://www.crossref.org/) are reformatted, and DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) are added. (We would encourage you to include DOIs in your references.) Light technical copyediting may also be performed.

Proofreading Stage

Once the files have been worked upon, our typesetters send a copy of the final PDF of each paper to its corresponding author. We ask authors to clearly mark the corresponding author in the paper with a symbol of their choice. For papers written in LaTeX, our typesetters use the envelope command (\usepackage{bbding} \Envelope). The corresponding author is asked to check through the final PDF to make sure that no errors have crept in during the transfer or preparation of the files. Only errors introduced during the preparation of the files will be corrected. Particular attention should be paid to the references section. Please make sure that there are no mistakes or omissions in the header (title, authors, affiliations) or in the acknowledgment section.

If the typesetter does not receive a reply from a particular corresponding author within the timeframe given (usually 72 hours), then it is presumed that the author has found no errors in the paper. The tight publication schedule of our proceedings does not allow us to send reminders or search for alternative e-mail addresses.

In some cases, it is the corresponding volume editor or the publication chair who checks all of the PDFs. In such cases, the authors are not involved in the checking phase.

The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables, and figures. Changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title, and authorship, are not possible and cannot be processed. Please make sure that these are correct before you submit the paper.

The proofs of the cover, inside-cover pages, front-matter pages and author index are sent to the volume editors.

Online Publication in Springer Nature Link

All Springer proceedings papers are published in our digital library, Springer Nature Link. Subscribers to Springer’s eBook packages or to the electronic book series are able to access the full-text PDFs of our online publications and the ePub full-text XML versions. Front and back matter, as well as abstracts and references, are freely available for all users. The online version of your paper will be available before the conference, unless the proceedings are to be published following the event. Please inform your conference contact if we need to delay the online date because a patent application is underway.

Access to Your Paper on Springer Nature Link

Roughly one month after publication, all authors who have included their email addresses in the headers of their papers will receive an email containing a coded personal access link, which will enable them to download the PDF of their paper directly from Springer Nature Link.

Open Access and Open Choice

At Springer Nature, we offer the option of open access publishing for entire proceedings volumes or for individual proceedings papers. The latter is referred to as “open choice”. If you are interested in open choice, kindly inform your conference contact well in advance of publication. The conference contact will liaise with Springer Nature and provide you with details of pricing and conditions. You will need to agree to the payment terms and conditions and provide your invoicing address. Please note that proceedings are not covered by any of the open access agreements that Springer Nature has with institutes or countries.

Rather than signing the standard license-to-publish agreement, an open access License-to-Publish agreement should be signed for open access or open choice publications.

Checklist of Items to Be Sent to Your Conference Contact

• The final source files, incl. bib/bbl files, images, etc. (no older source files)
• A final PDF file corresponding exactly to the final source files.
• A license-to-publish agreement, signed by hand by the corresponding author on behalf of all of the authors of the paper.
• A suggestion for an abbreviated running head, if appropriate.
• Information about the correct representation of authors’ names, where necessary.

Acknowledgments. A third-level heading in 9-point font size at the end of the paper is used for general acknowledgments, for example: This study was funded by X (grant number X).

Disclosure of Interests. It is now necessary to declare any competing interests or to specifically state that the authors have no competing interests. Please place the statement with a third-level heading in 9-point font size beneath the (optional) acknowledgments, for example: The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. Or: Author A has received research grants from Company W, Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company X and owns stock in Company Y, and Author C is a member of committee Z.

Appendix

If a paper includes an Appendix, it should be placed in front of the references. If it has been placed elsewhere, it will be moved by our typesetters. If there is only one, it is designated “Appendix”; if there are more than one, they are designated “Appendix 1”, “Appendix 2”, etc.

Appendices should be referred to in the text. The content of an appendix is contained within the sections subordinated to the major heading “Appendix”. The language and styling rules for the text also apply to the appendices. The form of numbering of tables, figures, and equations in an appendix should be the same as in the body of the article, continuing the numbering used there.

¹ The footnote numeral is set flush left and the text follows with the usual word spacing.