ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks

Authors are required to prepare and submit their manuscripts electronically. For purposes of editorial review, TOSN permits electronic submissions only in PDF format.

ACM Accepted Manuscript Preparation Guidelines

TOSN authors should prepare manuscripts according to the ACM accepted manuscript preparation guidelines. We will not accept submissions that do not use this format. Since these guidelines are in a state of transition with regard to electronic publication, the guidelines here take precedence whenever there is a conflict. We will soon have our own style guides which address more of the specific needs for electronic publishing.

Please see Formatting Documents For Electronic Publication below.

To ensure proper indexing, classification, retrieval and dissemination, authors must include the following in the manuscript.

• Descriptive title
• Author names and affiliations
• Abstract
• Content indicators
• Citations to relevant literature

The following policies serve as guidelines for the preparation of this material:

ACM Author Representation Policy

Prior Publication Policy

TOSN accepts submissions of original technical contributions that neither have been published in archival publications nor are under consideration by another archival journal at the time of submission. In the case where a contribution has already been published by a refereed conference, publication in TOSN is permitted only if the editor judges that the revision contains significant amplification or clarification of the original material, or there is a significant additional benefit to be gained from the journal publication. As a general guideline, we expect that at least 25% of material included in the journal publication has not been previously published (for additional information, please consult the Prior Publication and Simultaneous Submissions). In either case, any prior publication should be noted on the title page of the submission, and a summary of the differences with the conference version should be provided (as a cover letter) with the submission. Submissions that do not meet these requirements will be rejected without review.

Please note that TOSN does not allow resubmissions of papers that were previously rejected by TOSN.

Descriptive Title

Select a title that accurately and clearly tells what the paper is about. Choose title terms as highly specific as content and emphasis of the paper permit. Avoid special symbols and formulas in titles unless essential to indicate content. Avoid cute or clever titles.

Authors Names and Affiliations

Authors names should be given without titles or degrees along with the name and address of the organization for which the work was carried out. A footnote on the first page should acknowledge funding sources and presentations, if any, of the material at technical meetings (give dates and sponsoring societies). The author's current address should be given in a footnote on the first page.

The abstract should be from 150 to 200 words long and consist of short, direct, and complete sentences. It should be informative enough to serve in some cases as a substitute for reading the paper itself. It should state the objectives of the work, summarize the results, and give the principal conclusions. The title need not be repeated. Work planned but not done should not be described in the abstract. Because abstracts are extracted and used separately, do not use the first person, do not display mathematics, and do not use citation reference numbers. Try to avoid starting with the words "This paper ..."

Content Indicators

Categories and Subject Descriptors should be selected from the ACM Computing Classification System (CCS2012), which can be found at http://www.acm.org/about/class/2012. Use as many descriptors as applicable. General Terms are those common to more than one area of computing and are chosen from the fixed list that accompanies the classification system. Please read the HOW TO CLASSIFY WORKS USING ACM'S COMPUTING CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM for instructions on how to classify your document using the 2012 ACM Computing Classification System, and insert the index terms into your LaTeX or Microsoft Word source file.

Additional Keywords and Phrases consist of English language words that may also be useful for indexing. These may be synonymous with terms in the classification system, may be more specific than the subject descriptors, or may not be covered by the existing system at all. In this last case, use specific terms whose meaning is generally accepted in the computing community. Do not use broad, catchall terms (such as computer, system, or automatic) and do not use private terms or acronyms.

Citations

1. Reference linking and citation counts are facilitated by use of standard reference formats. Please adhere to the in-text citation style and reference format guidelines that we use for ACM publications. If you do not, your paper may be returned to you for proper formatting.

   Note: For BibTeX examples see: http://www.acm.org/publications/authors/bibtex-formatting

2. Accuracy: Authors are responsible for checking that all information in the references is correct.

3. Completeness: Include any and all information necessary for finding the work referenced. It is better to include more than enough information than too little information.

Submission for Editorial Review

In order to ensure timely review and facilitate electronic publication, manuscripts must be submitted as PDF files on the web at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/acm/tosn

Please note, if you don't have an account at ACM Manuscript Central for TOSN you will need to create an account before you can log in and submit to TOSN.

Each submission must include a PDF file for the complete manuscript and an ASCII file containing title, abstract, authors, and contact information for the corresponding author of the manuscript.

TOSN publishes original research papers (30-40 pages), tutorial and survey papers (30-50 pages), and technical notes (10-15 pages). Technical notes are used to describe industrial technologies and practical experience with sensor networks and Internet of Things. In the case where the work has already been published by a refereed conference, the submission should note the prior publication on the title page. Please refer to Editorial Charter for the prior publication policy.

Review Process

In general, the process follows the same guidelines as the other ACM Journal publications:

Submitted papers are evaluated by anonymous referees for originality, relevance, and presentation. The author will be notified of the name of an associate editor who will be responsible for the processing of the manuscript, upon request to the journal assistant. Revisions requested by the associate editor should be submitted through http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/acm/tosn which will be forwarded directly to that editor. After the refereeing process is complete, the associate editor makes a decision for acceptance or rejection. There are two types of revisions: major or minor. For a major revision, original referees will be invited to review the paper again, and make a recommendation. For a minor revision, no reviews are required, the editor makes the final decision of acceptance if both the content and format are acceptable. Note that it is recommended that all papers go through minor revisions before acceptance.

Timeline of the review process: expected time: first decision < 15 weeks, second decision < 35 weeks

Authors may contact the journal assistant for the status of the paper.

Desk Reject Policy

A submission may be rejected by the Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editor without review if it is clearly below the standard in quality/impact or is out of the scope of TOSN as the flagship journal on sensor networks. The AE must notify Editor-in-Chief with a proper justification for a Desk Reject and receive approval before committing the decision. Desk Rejects will be used only in cases when the submissions are clearly below the threshold or are clearly out of the scope of TOSN. 

Cover Letter

A cover letter is necessary. The cover letter should be submitted as a supplementary file together with the main documents.

Summary of Difference

If authors extend their conference paper to make a submission, the authors must submit the summary of difference as a supplementary file together with the main documents.

Procedures for "Accepted with Minor Revision" Papers

Authors whose paper is accepted with minor revisions shall prepare the final version using ACM Transaction Format. For latex users, a sample style file (ACM Small) can be found here. Authors should submit ALL source files (tex and figures), in addition to final PDF. It is recommended that all files are put in a zip or tar file and submitted as "not for review". Please note that after acceptance of a paper, authors are no longer able to submit any files to the manuscript center for that paper.

Procedures for Accepted Papers

Formatting

TOSN authors should prepare manuscripts according to the ACM accepted manuscript preparation guidelines. For latex users, a sample style (ACM Large) file (with TOSN specific information) can be found here. Note that  it is essential that the ACM copyright be included on the first page of your final document.

Official ACM Copyright Policy

Please read and observe the official ACM Copyright Policy.

Supplemental Online-only Material

Please provide a brief description of your supplementary online-only material (i.e., text and multimedia material) to be published in the Digital Library. A short “readme.txt” file will appear in the DL along with your supplementary material describing its content and whatever requirements there are for using it.

ORCID Requirements

ACM requires that all accepted journal authors register and provide ACM with valid ORCIDs prior to paper publication. Corresponding authors are responsible for collecting these ORCIDs from co-authors and for providing them to ACM as part of the ACM eRights selection process. For journals using the ScholarOne submission system, the submitting author will be required to provide their own ORCID upon submission. Authors are strongly encouraged, but not required, to include ORCIDs for all authors in their source files.  Please note: ACM only requires you to complete the initial ORCID registration process. However, ACM encourages you to take the additional step to claim ownership of all your published works via the ORCID site.

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission and supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities - ensuring that your work receives proper recognition. This requirement will also enable ACM to provide improvements to the normalization process of ACM Digital Library author profile data, aid in the detection of undeclared conflicts of interest and other publications-related misconduct in ACM Publications, assist with the implementation of ACM Open, and offer a host of other researcher benefits to ACM authors and the scientific community.

Before submission, the corresponding author should register for an ORCID.  Your co-authors should also create their individual ORCIDs at that time and add them to their accounts in the manuscript submission system. Otherwise, you will need to enter them manually into the ACM rights system upon paper acceptance and before publication in the ACM Digital Library. Simple instructions for complying with this mandate are provided inside the ACM eRights system.

ORCID information for all authors will appear on the article’s page in the ACM Digital Library. If ORCIDs are included in an article’s source files, they will also be linked in the published output.

The ACM ORCID FAQ should answer many of your questions.

ACM Policies

ACM Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects

As a published ACM author, you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM's new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects.

ACM Conflict of Interest (COI) Policy

The ACM Conflict of Interest (COI) Policy describes what a COI is, who is responsible for being aware of such conflicts, how to manage COIs, and how to report violations.

ACM Peer Review Policy

ACM recognizes that the quality of a refereed publication rests primarily on the impartial judgment of their volunteer reviewers. Expectations of reviewers and ACM can be found in the Reviewer section of the Policy on Roles and Responsibilities in ACM Publishing page.

Templates

Manuscripts accepted for publication in any ACM publication must be formatted using the ACM authoring template. Submissions must also use the ACM authoring templates. ACM style files will closely approximate the final output, enabling authors to judge the page-length of their published articles.

ACM authoring templates and detailed instructions on formatting can be found at http://www.acm.org/publications/authors/submissions. For both Word and Latex technical support, contact [email protected].

ACM Computing Classification System (CCS)

If your paper has been accepted, please read the HOW TO CLASSIFY WORKS USING ACM'S COMPUTING CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM for instructions on how to classify your document using the CCS and insert the index terms into your LaTeX or Microsoft Word source file. Providing the proper indexing and retrieval information from the CCS provides the reader with quick content reference, facilitating the search for related literature, as well as searches for your work in ACM's Digital Library and on other online resources.

Author Rights

ACM authors can manage their publication rights in either of the following ways:

• A license granting ACM non-exclusive permission to publish—allowing authors to self-manage all rights to their work by choosing to pay for perpetual open access from the ACM Digital Library.
• A publishing license agreement granting ACM exclusive publication rights—by granting ACM the right to serve as the exclusive publisher of a work and to manage ongoing rights and permissions associated with the work, including the right to defend it against improper use by third parties. (This license is roughly the equivalent of ACM’s traditional Copyright Transfer Agreement except that the author continues to hold copyright.)

As of January 2023, per decision of the ACM Publications Board, the traditional Copyright Transfer Agreement option is no longer available for ACM authors.  ACM will continue to defend all ACM-published works against improper use when allegations of publication-related misconduct are brought to light.  For more information please refer to this article in The Blue Diamond.

Additionally, ACM authors may post all versions of their work, with the exception of the final published "Version of Record", to non-commercial repositories such as ArXiv. See the ACM Author Rights page for additional information.

Learn more, including about posting to pre-print servers and institutional repositories, by visiting the ACM Author Rights page.

Open Access

ACM has made a commitment to become a fully sustainable and Plan S compliant Open Access (OA) scholarly publisher within approximately five years. ACM offers a number of ways to achieve this goal, including Hybrid OA, Gold OA, and the ACM OPEN program.

Most ACM journals, with the following exceptions, are Hybrid OA.  ACM Gold OA journals are:

• ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization (TACO)
• ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (THRI)
• ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS)
• ACM Transactions on Probabilistic Machine Learning (TOPML)
• ACM/IMS Journal on Data Science (JDS)
• Digital Government: Research & Practice (DGOV)
• Digital Threats: Research & Practice (DTRAP)
• Formal Aspects of Computing (FAC)
• Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages (PACMPL)
• Proceedings of the ACM on Software Engineering (PACMSE)

Click here to view the Article Processing Charges (APCs) to publish your article Open Access.

Additionally, all corresponding authors from an institution participating in ACM OPEN will have their research articles published OA at the time of publication at no cost to the authors.  Click here for a list of participating institutions. To ensure eligibility for the program, corresponding authors from participating institutions must use their institutional email address upon submission.

Language Services

ACM has partnered with International Science Editing (ISE) to provide language editing services to ACM authors. ISE offers a comprehensive range of services for authors including standard and premium English language editing, as well as illustration and translation services, and also has significant outreach in China. Editing is available for both Word and LaTeX files. As an ACM author, you will receive a generous discount on ISE editing services. To take advantage of this partnership, visit the Dedicated ACM Editing Service. (Editing services are at author expense and do not guarantee publication of a manuscript.)

Author-izer Service

Once your manuscript is published, this service allows you to generate and post a link on your home page or institutional repository to your published article. This link will let any visitors to your personal bibliography pages download the definitive version of the articles for free from the ACM DL. These downloads will be recorded as part of your DL usage statistics. A detailed description of the service and instructions for its use may be found at the ACM Author-Izer Service page.

LaTeX Collaborative Authoring Tool on Overleaf Platform

ACM has partnered with https://www.overleaf.com/, a free cloud-based, authoring tool, to provide an ACM LaTeX authoring template. Authors can easily invite colleagues to collaborate on their document. Among other features, the platform automatically compiles the document while an author writes, so the author can see what the finished file will look like in real time. Further information can be found at https://www.acm.org/publications/authors/submissions. The ACM LaTeX template on Overleaf platform is available to all ACM authors https://www.overleaf.com/gallery/tagged/acm-official#.WOuOk2e1taQ.

Kudos Article Sharing Platform

Kudos is a free service that you can use to promote your work more effectively. After your paper has been accepted and uploaded to the ACM Digital Library, you'll receive an invitation from Kudos to create an account and add a plain-language description. The Kudos “Shareable PDF” allows you to generate a PDF to upload to websites, such as your homepage, institutional repository, preprint services, and social media. This PDF contains a link to the full-text version of your article in the ACM DL, adding to download and citation counts.

Author Gateway

Please be sure to visit the ACM Author Portal for additional important author information.

Contact Us

For further assistance and questions regarding the journal editorial review process and paper assignment to an issue, contact the journal administrator ([email protected]).