Part of these guidelines are adopted from the AAAI AI Magazine submission guidelines.
How to Organize Your Article These guideliens provide general information about the individual elements of an article: title and author names; abstract; Introduction; headings; illustrations; tables; lists; extracts; cross-references; footnotes; acknowledgments; biographical sketch and photograph; symbols, abbreviations, and mathematical equations; and references. Refer to the appropriate subsection for information about a specific article element.
Title and Author Names The title of the article should be concise and informative. If the main title exceeds 50 characters (including spaces between words), include an abbreviated title on the first page of the article for use in the table of contents. The complete names of all authors should follow the article title.
Abstract Include a concise one-paragraph abstract of no more than 150 words describing the general thesis and conclusion of the article. A reader should be able to learn the purpose of the article and the reason for its importance from the abstract.
Introduction A brief introduction should portray the broad significance of the article. The whole text should be intelligible to readers in various disciplines. Technical terms should be defined the first time they are used.
Headings Use headings to separate major sections of your article. Resist the temptation to use too many headings. Avoid the use of successive headings: Insert at least two lines of text between two headings to separate them. Note that fourth-level headings and beyond typically indicate poor organization.
Illustrations All illustrations should be submitted in a form suitable for reproduction, preferably of such a size that the same degree of reduction (for example, 75 percent of the original size) can be applied to all of them. Illustrations must not exceed 8 x 10 inches. Have complicated figures professionally rendered by a graphic artist. We prefer illustrations that have been rendered in a drawing program such as Illustrator or PhotoShop. Please send such illustrations in their native format. If you don't use this software, please send us PostScript.
Number the illustrations according to the sequence of their appearance in the text; in text, the illustrations should be referred to as figure 1, figure 2, and so on. Each illustration must be referenced in the text and have a short caption. All captions should begin with the figure number (for example, Figure 1. Engineering Workstation. Incorporate legends into the body of the article.
llustrations from Other Publications Illustrations reprinted from other publications must be credited. It is the author's responsibility to obtain written permission from the copyright holder to reprint such illustrations in AI Magazine.Articles will not be scheduled for publication until the author guarantees that the necessary permissions were obtained.
Photographs Photographs should be no smaller than 3 x 5 inches, with medium-high contrast. Photographs must be 300 dpi minimum and can be black and white or color.
Tables Tables should supplement, not duplicate, the text. They should be numbered consecutively with respect to their citation in the text. Column headings should be short and self-explanatory. A brief title should be given below each table.
Lists In all instances, bulleted or other lists are converted into nonbulleted paragraphs containing complete sentences. Confine lists to illustrations, and do not include them in the text.
Extracts Long quotations and extracts should be identified as such and indented slightly at both margins. All extracts must be cited appropriately with a reference in author-year format that includes the page number(s) on which the extract appears. Extensive text reprinted from other publications must be credited. It is the author's responsibility to obtain written permission from the copyright holder to reprint such material in AI Magazine. If you are unsure whether you need to obtain copyright permission, contact the AI Magazine publications director.
Cross-References Cross-references are discouraged. However, if necessary, title the section of the article, and cite cross-references by section (or abbreviated section) title; for example, see The Programmer's Apprentice. Do not number sections or cross-reference by citing page numbers.
Footnotes Avoid footnotes as much as possible; they interrupt the reading of the text. If you are unable to incorporate the information into the body of the text, number the notes consecutively throughout with superscript Arabic numbers. In tables, footnotes are preferred to long explanations in the headings or the body of the table; place the footnotes under the table, and begin them with superscript lowercase letters.
Acknowledgments This section includes acknowledgments of help from associates, financial support, and permission to publish. Please limit acknowledgments to no more than three sentences.
Autobiographical Sketch and Photograph This sketch is a three- to five-sentence autobiographical statement about yourself, your current place of employment, your current job title, and any information relevant to your article. A biographical sketch should be provided for each author. A black-and-white (or color), preferably professionally taken head shot, to appear with each biography, is required before publication is scheduled.
Symbols, Abbreviations, and Mathematical Equations For necessary mathematical notation, please use widely accepted symbols and forms of abbreviation. If you have any doubt about a particular symbol or abbreviation, give the full expression followed by the abbreviation (in parentheses) the first time it appears in the text. Note that complex or extended mathematical formulae or proofs are not appropriate for AI Magazine.
References Reference citations in the text should appear in author-year format, for example (Smith 1975). References of the same year by the same author(s) should be distinguished by small letters following the year, for example (Smith 1977c). Incomplete references are deleted. Generally, references include the name of the author (last name first, initials only) and the date, followed by a period, then the title, with initials capitalized. The place of publication is followed by a colon, with the name of the publisher following. For journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters, also give inclusive page numbers.
If you are citing a general website, please incorporate the URL into a footnote. Do not include it in the reference section.
References should be listed alphabetically (by surname of the primary author or main entry) at the end of the article. Multiple references by the same author(s) should be listed with the most current reference first (for example, Matthews 1989 precedes Matthews 1986). Information for each reference should be in the sequence illustrated by the following examples.
Dissertation or Thesis Clancey, W. J. 1979b. Transfer of Rule-Based Expertise through a Tutorial Dialogue. Ph.D. diss., Dept. of Computer Science, Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA
Forthcoming Book Clancey, W. J. 1986a. The Engineering of Qualitative Models. Redwood City, CA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Forthcoming.
Published Book Petroski, H. 1985. To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Chapter in Published Book Brown, J. S. 1977. Artificial Intelligence and Learning Strategies. In Learning Strategies, ed. J. O'Neil, 345-378. New York: Academic Press.
Forthcoming Journal Article O'Connor, J. L. 1995. Artificial Intelligence and Commonsense Reasoning. AI Magazine 16(3). Forthcoming.
Published Journal or Magazine Article Hasling, D. W.; Clancey, W. J.; and Rennels, G. R. 1983. Strategic Explanations in Consultation. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 20(4): 3-19.
Paper Presented at Meeting (NOTE: Use this format only if no published proceedings appeared): Schoenfeld, A. H. 1981. Episodes and Executive Decisions in Mathematical Problem Solving. Paper presented at 1981 AERA Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, 24-30 September.
Paper Presented at Meeting and Published in Proceedings Clancey, W. J. 1983b. Communication, Simulation, and Intelligent Agents: Implications of Personal Intelligent Machines for Medical Education. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 556-560. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
Company Report Carbonell, J. R. 1970. Mixed-Initiative Man-Computer Instructional Dialogues, Technical Report 1971, USC/Information Sciences Institute, Marina del Rey, CA.
University Report Clancey, W., and Buchanan, B. G. 1982. Exploration of Problem Solving and Tutoring Strategies: 1979-1982, Technical Report, STAN-CS-82-910, Dept. of Computer Science, Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA. Article Style Although text published in the magazine is copyedited, time can be saved in the publication process if the initially submitted article conforms reasonably with AI Magazine style. The author should, at least, be aware of the elements of style listed here:
Acronyms Acronyms do not take articles. For example, refer to AAAI, not the AAAI. Do not use more than five acronyms in any one article.
Active versus Passive Active voice replaces passive voice whenever possible. Boldface Use of boldface to emphasize a term should rarely be necessary; the text should already read with the appropriate emphasis.
Capital Letters Use all capital letters only with acronyms (for example, ICP for interactive control panel). Systems, programs, commands, routines, and so on, however, appear in lowercase letters.
Down Style AI Magazine follows a down style. All words appear lowercase except a title preceding a name (President George Washington or George Washington, the president); acronyms (ICP or GPS); a person's name; or the official title of a program, conference, department, or group.
He/She Use he/she, not he or she alone.
I versus We Use the singular pronoun I (not we) for a singular author.
Italics Use italics when you introduce and define a term and when you use mathematical terms and equations.
Jargon Jargon is eliminated and the text rewritten. Articles in AI Magazine must be readable by a wide range of individuals, including those not familiar with the jargon of a particular subfield. If no other term or phrase can be found to replace the jargon, use of the term or phrase must be approved by the AI Magazine editor, and a definition must be given.
Latin Terms Avoid the use of Latin terms; when their use is unavoidable, they appear in roman text type.
Numbers Spell out numbers 1 through 9; use numerals for numbers 10 and over. In a series or sentence containing both, use numerals for all. Spell out numbers when they begin a sentence. Use numerals with units of measure or as values. Write four-digit numerals without commas; write numerals of five digits or more with commas. In a table or sentence containing both, use commas with all.
Postal Abbreviations Use postal abbreviations for state names only in conjunction with zip codes; otherwise, spell out the state name within text.
Serial Commas Use commas in all sentence groups of three elements or more (one, two, and three).
Split Infinitives Split infinitives only if doing so makes the text easier to read.
Since versus Because Use since to indicate time and because to indicate reason.
That versus Which Use that in restrictive clauses (those without a comma) and which in nonrestrictive clauses (those with a comma).
This The antecedent of this or these must always be clear. Referents should always be defined.
While versus Although Use while to mean at the same time; and although to mean in spite of the fact.
Trademarks Do not include (TM), reg., or (c) symbols within your article. Following standard publishing practice, trademarked terms throughout AI Magazine are used for editorial purposes only. Spelling and Hyphenation Use American English spelling. Follow Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, or American Heritage Dictionary for spelling and division of words. AI Magazine uses the preferred term, given first in dictionary entries, if more than one spelling is provided. For those words not cited in these dictionaries, the copyeditor maintains a word list. This list contains many of the terms commonly used in articles appearing in AI Magazine. A copy of this list is available on request.
Reference Materials For those style questions not answered here, refer to The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed., University of Chicago Press, 2003) or Words into Type (3d ed., Prentice Hall, 1974), or contact the AI Magazine production editor.