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InstructionsForAuthors.md

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Procedures for submission of accompanying software and data

IJOC now hosts accompanying software and data as online repositories within the IJOC Github organization.

Repository Name

The name of the repository associated with your paper will be XXXX.YYYY and is derived from the manuscript number in manuscript central. Typically, XXXX will be the year in which the paper is submitted, whereas YYYY is a four digit sequence number that is part of the manuscript number.

Repository layout

Your repository layout should resemble that of the template here to the extent possible, although some variations may occur and there are no inviolable rules. For examples, see https://INFORMSJoC.github.io. In general, the repository contents should be as follows.

  • README.md should describe the contribution, how to use it, how to cite it, and how to replicate the experiments in the paper, following roughly the format of the example. Note that the .md extension means "markdown," a simple text formatting language you can learn about here.

  • LICENSE should be a file containing the text of the license under which you intend to distribute the software and/or data. You must provide a license in order for the material to be used legally by others. An open source license is preferred (see the list of approved licenses at Open Source Initiative, and the license should allow free academic use at a minimum. Recommended licenses include the MIT License for software or any of the various Creative Commons licenses for other types of material.

  • AUTHORS is an optional file, standard in the open source world, that lists the authors of the contribution (usually just a list of names and e-mails).

  • Depending on how you want to organize things, you may also have a Makefile or other files needed to build the software and/or run the experiments.

  • Subdirectories

    • src should contain the source code for any software.

    • data should contain data files needed for experiments or used in the paper.

    • scripts should contain any scripts used to replicate the experiments in the paper or run other automated tests or experiments.

    • docs contains any additional documentation. Note that it is possible for the contents of docs to be a web site that will be hosted under the URL https://INFORMSJoC.github.io/NameofRepo. Please let us know if you are interested in activating that option.

    • results should containing any raw results from the paper, as well as any plots or figures.

You may wish to have an additional README.md in any of the subdirectories to provide additional information.

Preparing your repository

Once your paper is nearing the acceptance stage, the Area Editor will create a private repository from this template and give you read access to it. To populate the repository with your own materials, Fork it to make a copy that will live in your own Github account. Once you populate and customize the repository to your liking, open a Pull Request to begin the review by the Area Editor and, subsequently, the Editor in Chief.

Review process

As part of the review process, additional changes may be requested. These can also be submitted by a Pull Request.

Legal stuff

Please ensure that all files contain proper copyright and licensing statements and that the copyright holders have been notified of the submission. The copyright holder may or may not be you, depending on your employment contract and who funded the work.

Archive and DOI

Once accepted by the editor, a snapshot of the contents of the repo will be archived by creating a tag (known as a release on Github) with the name vXXXX.YYYY, where the repo's name is XXXX.YYYY. This paper and the snapshot of the repo will be given their own separate DOIs, also derived from the manuscript number. If the repo is named XXXX.YYYY, then the DOIs will be

https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.XXXX.YYYY

https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.XXXX.YYYY.cd

Citing the repo in your paper

The repo must be cited in your paper, as a regular reference, and appear in the list of references as follows (if using BibTex). Notice that you must use both the DOI and the Note lines to make this reference appear correctly.

@misc{CacheTest,
  author =        {Put the authors' names here},
  publisher =     {INFORMS Journal on Computing},
  title =         {Put the title of your paper here},
  year =          {put the year here - formal like 2023},
  doi =           {Put your DOI here - see above - example: 10.1287/ijoc.2019.0000.cd},
  note =          {Again, use your DOI here at the end of the link.  example: Available for download at https://github.com/INFORMSJoC/2019.0000},
}

FAQs

  • In the process of the review, changes were made to the software and/or data that was originally submitted and I don't want the original version of the software or data to be made public. Can you delete the history associated with the repository before making it public?

    • We can replace the repository used for the review process with a clean copy if you do not want the history made public.

  • What if I have an existing repository where the software is already being developed? Can I continue to develop there?

    • We expect this to sometimes be the case. But we still need to archive the version of the software and/or data associated with the paper itself in a static and permanent repository within the IJOC Github organization. If you wish us to Fork or move an existing repository into the IJOC organization as part of the submission process, that can be discussed.

  • What if I don't already have an existing repository, but I want to continue developing the software after the paper is published?

    • This is highly encouraged, but further development should take place a on a personally managed site on Github or one of the other similar sites. You should put a link to the site where you will manage the software in the long-term in the README.md in the IJOC repository to ensure people can find your development site. You cannot continue development on the IJOC Github site.

  • What if I later find a bug in the software and I want to fix it?

    • Please contact the Area Editor and we will determine the best course of action.

  • If I come out with a new version of the software later on, can I add it to the existing repository within the IJOC organization?

    • At the current time this is not done. The answer to this may evolve over time. Please contact us if/when this happens and we will make a determination.