The Electronic Journal of Linear Algebra: Announcements

Guidelines for Editors

2020-11-15T12:03:46-07:00

Guidance for Electronic Journal of Linear Algebra (ELA) Editorial Process

This document provides guidance to the members of the editorial board on handling papers submitted to ELA and the decision making process for the publication of papers.

ELA strives to play a leading role in linear algebra research and the various aspects of its applications. In adjudicating papers, Editors are asked to be selective, uphold high scientific standards, as well as help ELA increase its impact and reputation in the mathematical community. ELA seeks to publish papers that fulfill as many of the following attributes as possible: Advance knowledge significantly, be conducive to further consequential research, explore the connections of linear algebra to other theoretical and applied fields, provide perspective and new directions in linear algebra, as well as potentially expand ELA’s readership and citations.

Editors must also be familiar with the Scope of ELA and the Referee Guidelines available on the portal hosted by the University of Wyoming (see https://journals.uwyo.edu/index.php/ela/login).

ELA’s Editorial System (OJS) is used by editors and referees to record all their actions, communications and recommendations.

A. Editorial Board Member Categories and Roles

Editor(s)-In-Chief (EIC): The EIC’s are appointed by ILAS for three year terms that are renewable upon a rigorous review of their performance and upon mutual agreement. They are in charge of the journal operations in accordance to the bylaws of ILAS. EIC’s work in conjunction with the Journal Committee and the ILAS leadership. The responsibilities of EIC’s include

Appointing members to the Editorial Board
Evaluating each submitted paper and deciding jointly either to reject it outright or to proceed with the editorial process
Managing those papers that pass the initial evaluation by either inviting other editors to handle them or by initiating the review process themselves
Communicating to authors the final decisions on the acceptance or rejection of submitted papers
Forwarding acceptance decisions to the managing team for the preparation of galley proofs
Posting prepared papers in their final form

Advisory Editors: The appointment is initially for three years and is renewable indefinitely upon mutual agreement. Advisory Editors have distinguished service to ILAS, ELA or to the Linear Algebra community at large. As such, they are in a position to provide to ELA general guidance, advice, and help the EIC’s in making initial evaluations of submissions. Advisory Editors may also be invited by the EIC’s to handle papers in their immediate area of expertise.

Associate Editors: The appointment is initially for three years and is renewable upon mutual agreement. The role of an Associate Editor consists of handling submitted papers or providing advice to the EIC’s. Upon initial examination of a paper, an Associate Editor may decide on its viability and act accordingly by either inviting referees or making a recommendation to an EIC to reject. In particular, it is expected that Associate Editors determine that a paper adheres to the scope and standards of ELA before sending it to reviewers. If an Associate Editor cannot handle an assigned paper, the EIC should be informed promptly. Typically, an Associate Editor handles 1-3 papers at any given time. (Associate Editors are designated as “Section Editors” in OJS.)

Managing Editors: Managing Editors oversee the operation and functionality of the ELA portal, as well as issues pertaining to the indexing and reviewing of ELA publications by professional societies. The preparation of galley proofs, obtaining author approval and pagination of accepted papers are tasked to a team of Associate and Assistant Managing Editors.

B. The Editorial Process

The editorial process is steered by ELA’s editorial system (OJS). Editors are invited upon appointment to join the system electronically. They can familiarize themselves with OJS by employing the available Help utility, or by inquiring one of the EIC’s. The Discussion utility is the preferred method for communications with other participants in the editorial process.

The editorial process can be summarized as follows:

EIC’s are alerted by OJS on new paper submissions. After an initial joint adjudication, EIC’s proceed to

either reject (“decline” in the nomenclature of OJS), assign the paper to be handled by another editor or handle the paper themselves

Handling editors inform the assigning EIC if they do not wish to handle a paper. Otherwise, they either make directly a recommendation to the EIC, or proceed with inviting referees in a timely fashion
Handling editors keep on top of deadlines and send out reminders to referees and authors, as needed
Referees communicate their reports to editors via OJS. Note that when referee reports are received, editors are alerted and must Confirm receipt in order to be able to forward the reports to authors if a revision is requested.
Depending on the recommendations, editors forward the referee reports to the authors asking for revisions, or make a final recommendation to the EIC’s for acceptance or rejection
More rounds of reviewing may ensue, as needed
The EIC’s communicate final decisions to the authors

C. The Recommendation

Editors should use the following categories in their final recommendations to EIC’s:

The effort or results constitute a major contribution
The paper is acceptable
The subject is out of ELA's scope
Results are published elsewhere
Results are not of high enough level of novelty, significance or difficulty
The paper is tedious, or there is too much in the literature on the same subject
The paper is thin in new results or does not represent sufficient progress
The paper contains major errors
The exposition of the material is poor

Categories 4 and 7 do not apply to survey papers. Papers in categories 3-9 above will be rejected.

Concluding Remarks

ELA editors are expected to respect the guidelines above, but also to interpret and adjust them within reason and according to their professional experiences. Given ELA’s limited technical resources, it is expected that editors enforce that papers are written rigorously and are grammatically sound before recommending acceptance.

ELA strives to observe or improve on the professional standards by publishing papers within four months from submission, on average. Typically, ELA expects reports on original submissions within three months. For relatively minor revisions, a report is expected within one month.

The editorial service is greatly appreciated by ELA and ILAS, and helps make our community stronger and more highly respected.

Guidelines for Referees

2020-11-15T12:00:19-07:00

Guidance for Electronic Journal of Linear Algebra (ELA) Refereeing Process

This document provides guidance to referees (as well as editorial board members who oversee this process) on the standards and decision making for papers submitted to ELA.

ELA’s Editorial Board believes that high standards for publication are of benefit to the authors, the journal, and the Linear Algebra community. Referees can help uphold these high standards, as well as help the authors produce better papers in the future. The standards of ELA are comparable to those of other leading journals in Linear Algebra, for example, Linear Algebra and Its Applications, Linear and Multilinear Algebra or SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications.

ELA’s Editorial System (OJS) is used by editors and referees to record all their actions, communications and recommendations. The editors take all measures to preserve the anonymity of referees to the author(s).

A. Judging the Quality of a Paper

ELA considers primarily original research papers, but also encourages survey papers. The latter, by their very

nature, need not contain new results and should be evaluated according to their ability to provide a critical assessment and comparison of existing work, to stimulate new research and interest on a topic, as well as to summarize well-known and less known results for the benefit of future research.

ELA’s Editorial Board asks referees to consider (some or all of) the following qualities and questions in judging whether a research paper is publishable in ELA or not:

(i) Correctness of results and proofs

ELA adopts the Halmos standard: a referee is not required to certify the correctness of the results in the paper, but does need to indicate whether or not the results are plausible and seem correct. As a referee, you should spend some time in error-detection (e.g., identify misstated results or logical errors) and suggest minor fixes. You are not expected, however, to do the research intended by the author(s).

(ii) Significance, innovation, interest or timeliness

Are the mathematical questions studied in the paper of some significance in your opinion? (Problems with obvious or simple solutions, or results that are minor improvements of known results will not be published.)
Are the results original and innovative? (Simple extensions or combinations of known results will not be published.)
Are the proof techniques new, or do they provide a novel use of known techniques?
Does the paper provide motivation and put the results into a proper framework?
Does the paper address a problem of recent or historical interest?
Will the results of the paper provide new insights to ongoing research by others?

(iii) Succinctness and accessibility

Do the proofs and the exposition provide an appropriate level of detail?
Is the material accessible for the typical International Linear Algebra Society (ILAS) member or ELA reader?
Are appropriate references to background material provided?

(iv) Readability, style and elegance

Will the reader be able to unpack the results in the paper with a reasonable amount of effort?
Is the exposition well-structured with proper use of scholarly vocabulary and grammar?
Is it evident that care has been taken by the author(s) in all aspects of the manuscript’s preparation?

B. The Recommendation

Recommendations for papers fall into the following typical categories:

The effort or results constitute a major contribution, perhaps with some improvements or revisions
The paper is acceptable, perhaps with some improvements or revisions
The subject is out of ELA's scope
Results are published elsewhere
Results are not of high enough level of novelty, significance or difficulty
The paper is tedious, or there is too much in the literature on the same subject
The paper is thin in new results or does not represent sufficient progress
The paper contains major errors
The exposition of the material is poor

C. The Referee Report

Referees can communicate (privately) with editors by initiating an OJS Review Discussion, in order to seek further guidance or express concerns. Referees are asked to not communicate directly with authors without the prior knowledge of the handling editor. Referees are asked to prepare their reports to the author(s) and editor so that it

clearly indicates a recommendation,
identifies specific ways that the paper can be improved, if any, and

provides comments that can benefit the author(s) by guiding them toward excellence.

Categories 4 and 7 do not apply to survey papers. Papers in categories 3-9 above will be rejected. A recommendation based on category 3 should be communicated very quickly to the editor handling the paper. If the substance of the paper is considered significant enough, then the author(s) of papers in categories 1-2 may be asked to provide a minor or major revision. We encourage referees to push authors to do better; so if you feel there is room for improvement, please do not put a paper in category 1. For papers in categories 1-2, help the author(s) and ELA’s managing editors team identify and correct typographical and linguistic errors to a reasonable extent.

Concluding Remarks

ELA editors expect referees to respect the guidelines above, but also to interpret and adjust them within reason and according to their professional experiences. For example, referees being consulted because of their expertise in a mathematical or scientific field other than linear algebra are expected to express their opinion on the impact of the results in their fields of expertise.

Typically, ELA expects reports on original submissions within three months. For relative minor revisions, a report is expected within one month. In the network of scholarly publication, the refereeing process lies upon the "critical path". Timely, thoughtful reports, allow good mathematics to be made available to the community sooner. If circumstances arise that prevent a referee from adhering to a deadline, ELA should be informed as soon as possible.

The refereeing service is greatly appreciated by ELA and ILAS, and helps make our community stronger and more highly respected.