There are a number of requirements for a successful submission, and it will simplify the process if you ensure that you can meet all of these before starting to complete the form

It will avoid the need for revision if you ensure that your paper meets the formatting requirements of the journal. These are given in detail in the Paper Template. In particular ensure that you have included an Abstract and Keywords (but see the note below) and also that you have provided sufficient top and bottom margins.

Obtain copyright clearance for any figures that you wish to reproduce, and ensure that such figures are given appropriate attribution in the text (typically this will be by including a suitable reference in the figure caption). We welcome the inclusion of direct quotations from other work (including your own) where appropriate, but such quotations must be clearly marked (e.g. by placing in double quotes and indenting) and referenced.Any authors found guilty of significant copying without attribution (i.e. plagiarism) will be barred from publishing in the Journal.

If possible we need to be able to contact all authors to ensure that they are kept informed of the submission of the paper. Therefore we shall need the email address under which they are registered. For authors who are no longer available (for example if they are deceased or you have lost touch with them) you can set the email address to "given_name.family_name@example.com", but avoid this if possible (we use this form of address because the example.com domain is reserved for testing, and it is therefore guaranteed that it cannot point to an active user, whatever their name).

Select the link below (after logging-in if necessary). Do this before converting your paper to PDF as you will need to copy the keywords selected in the process of completing this form into your paper (see the Keywords page for further information). In this stage you will also need to paste the abstract of your paper into the form.

If possible the paper should be submitted in the ISO standard PDF/A-1 format, or the equivalent version 1.4. We shall attempt to process files with later PDF versions, but the conversion is not guaranteed to be reliable and you will need to check the converted paper much more carefully [more information].

The next form will allow you to select the PDF file of the paper and upload it (i.e. send it to the journal). You will also need to tick a check box confirming that you accept the JCSE Terms and Conditions

The file will have the JCSE header and footer overlaid automatically, and a copy will be sent to each author. The corresponding author (assumed to be the person logged in when the submission form was completed) will be able to modify the paper (by uploading a revised version) and list of authors if necessary and then approve it for publication. Unless requested by the editor, you will not be permitted to modify the paper after you have approved it for publication (since the reviewers must have a fixed document to review), so please check it carefully. Note that, unlike most print journals, there is no proofing stage, and it is up to author to ensure that their paper has a good standard of presentation. If the paper if approved for publication without modification the preprint will be published without any opportunity to modify it before it is published as a paper.

Once sufficient reviews have been received the paper will be considered for publication.

• If approved for publication without modification, the original PDF file will have a revised overlay added to indicate that it is fully-published, and it will be referred to as a paper rather than a preprint. Readers will still be able to make comments on the paper - registered authors will be informed of these comments, and may reply if they wish. For this reason it is important that all authors and co-authors keep their registration information (particularly their email address) updated.
• If the outcome of the review is that the paper requires minor revision before publication, authors will be invited to submit a revised paper; this will be published after checking by the editor.
• If the outcome of the review is that the paper requires major revision before publication, authors will be invited to submit a revised paper; this will be subject to further review, normally by the same reviewers, and readers who made comments on the original paper will also be informed. The editor may optionally decide to remove the preprint while waiting for the revised paper, and authors may also choose to do this.
• If the outcome of the review is a recommendation that a paper should not be published, then the preprint will be removed. Authors may resubmit a modified paper, but this will be treated as a completely new submission.

Six months or more after the paper has been published or one year after first submission authors may submit an updated edition – this is treated in essentially the same way as a new publication, except that it will substitute for the original paper, retaining the same volume and paper number. The original version will remain available to readers to maintain the integrity of the record. This will be achieved by assigning edition numbers to copies of the paper.

Authors may request the removal of a paper while it is in the preprint stages, but not once it has been fully published as a paper. However, authors are asked to avoid removing a preprint if possible as this will potentially waste the valuable time of reviewers. Also authors should be aware that other journals may regard the publication of a preprint (even if it has subsequently been removed) as sufficient to preclude subsequent publication elsewhere.

After each stage of the submission process authors will be sent an email giving further advice on the next stage. This may take some time to arrive as the paper editor will need to do some checking. You can check on progress via YourJCSE that you will find at the top right of most pages once you have logged in. You will also be able to view copies of emails via YourJCSE.

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