AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 1 EXPERT SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS An International Journal AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK TABLE OF CONTENTS . XXX . • Description • Audience • Impact Factor • Abstracting and Indexing • Editorial Board • Guide for Authors p.1 p.2 p.2 p.2 p.2 p.5 ISSN: 0957-4174 DESCRIPTION . Expert Systems With Applications is a refereed international journal whose focus is on exchanging information relating to expert and intelligent systems applied in industry, government, and universities worldwide. The thrust of the journal is to publish papers dealing with the design, development, testing, implementation, and/or management of expert and intelligent systems, and also to provide practical guidelines in the development and management of these systems. The journal will publish papers in expert and intelligent systems technology and application in the areas of, but not limited to: finance, accounting, engineering, marketing, auditing, law, procurement and contracting, project management, risk assessment, information management, information retrieval, crisis management, stock trading, strategic management, network management, telecommunications, space education, intelligent front ends, intelligent database management systems, medicine, chemistry, human resources management, human capital, business, production management, archaeology, economics, energy, and defense. Papers in multi- agent systems, knowledge management, neural networks, knowledge discovery, data and text mining, multimedia mining, and genetic algorithms will also be published in the journal. Reproducibility Badge Initiative and Software Publication Reproducibility Badge Initiative (RBI) is a collaboration with Code Ocean (CO), a cloud based computational reproducibility platform that helps the community by enabling sharing of code and data as a resource for non-commercial use. CO verifies the submitted code (and data) and certifies its reproducibility. Code submission will be verified by the Code Ocean team for computational reproducibility by making sure it runs, delivers results and it is self-contained. For more information please visit this help article. Note that an accepted paper will be published independently of the CO application outcome. However, if the paper receives the Reproducibility badge, it will be given additional exposure by having an attached R Badge, and by being citable at the CO website with a DOI. We invite you to convert your open source software into an additional journal publication in Software Impacts, a multi-disciplinary open access journal. Software Impacts provides a scholarly reference to software that has been used to address a research challenge. The journal disseminates impactful and re-usable scientific software through Original Software Publications which describe the application of the software to research and the published outputs. For more information contact us at: software.impacts@elsevier.com Benefits to authors https://help.codeocean.com/en/articles/1120151-code-ocean-s-verification-process-for-computational-reproducibility https://www.journals.elsevier.com/software-impacts https://www.journals.elsevier.com/software-impacts AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 2 We also provide many author benefits, such as free PDFs, a liberal copyright policy, special discounts on Elsevier publications and much more. Please click here for more information on our author services. Please see our Guide for Authors for information on article submission. If you require any further information or help, please visit our Support Center AUDIENCE . Knowledge Engineers, Managers, Systems Engineers, Automation and Control Engineers, Electronic and Electrical Engineers. IMPACT FACTOR . 2019: 5.452 © Clarivate Analytics Journal Citation Reports 2020 ABSTRACTING AND INDEXING . Cambridge/Computer and Information Abstracts Web of Science Research Alert Current Contents - Engineering, Computing & Technology Science Citation Index Expanded Scopus INSPEC EDITORIAL BOARD . Editor-in-Chief Binshan Lin, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, United States of America Founding Editor Jay Liebowitz, University of Maryland Global Campus, Adelphi, Maryland, United States of America Associate Editors Rodrigo Agerri, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, HiTZ Center - Ixa, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain Information Extraction, Sequence Labelling, Natural Language Processing Stuart Barnes, King’s College London, King’s Business School, London, United Kingdom Sharing Economy, Consumer Behaviour, Sustainability, Digital Innovation, Machine Learning Vincent Charles, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru CENTRUM Graduate Business School, Lima, Peru Management Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Big Data Kwai-Sang Chin, City University of Hong Kong Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Decision Support Systems, Management Intelligence, Quality and Engineering Management Sumali Conlon, University of Mississippi, University Park, Mississippi, United States of America Business intelligence, Expert and Intelligent Systems, Machine learning, Data science, Natural language processing, Intelligent systems and AI in Business & Erik Cuevas, University of Guadalajara University Center of Exact Sciences and Engineering, Guadalajara, Mexico Research topics/areas, Optimization, Metaheuristic methods, Evolutionary Computation, Swarm Intelligence, Image processing PIERPAOLO D'URSO, University of Rome La Sapienza Department of Social and Economic Sciences, Roma, Italy fuzzy clustering, clustering of spatial data, clustering of time series, clustering of spatio-temporal data, clustering of complex structures of data, imprecise data science Reggie Davidrajuh, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway Discrete-event systems, Petri Nets, Modeling, Simulation, Performance Evaluation, Algorithms Zhi-Hong Deng, Peking University School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Beijing, China Machine learning, Natural language processing, Data mining Debora Di Caprio, University of Trento Department of Economics and Management, Trento, Italy Knowledge-based Systems, Algorithm, Statistic Computing, Fuzzy system, Soft computing, Intelligent Systems and AI in Business & Social Science https://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-services https://www.elsevier.com/journals/expert-systems-with-applications/0957-4174/guide-for-authors https://service.elsevier.com/app/home/supporthub/publishing/ AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 3 Giorgio Maria Di Nunzio, University of Padua Department of Information Engineering, Padova, Italy Interactive Machine Learning, Visual Data Mining, Information Retrieval Theory, Big Data, Linked Open Data, Digital Geolinguistics Sofia Balula Dias, CIPER, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Cruz Quebrada, Portugal Intelligent Learning Management Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Serious Games, Blended-Learning, Fuzzy Logic, Deep Learning, Higher Education, Exergames, Affective learning, Collaborative learning, Online learning Elisabetta Fersini, University of Milan-Bicocca Department of Informatics Systems and Communication, Milano, Italy Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Data Science Iztok Jr Fister, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia Computational intelligence, Data mining, Sport, Swarm intelligence C. Bryan Foltz, The University of Tennessee at Martin, College of Business and Global Affairs, Martin, Tennessee, United States of America Information Systems Security, Privacy, Web Development Francisco Guijarro, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain Business Intelligence, Trading Rules, Portfolio Management, Valuation Jin-Kao Hao, University of Angers, Angers, France Combinatorial Optimization, Metaheuristics, Large Scale Optimization, Applications Li-An Ho, Tamkang University, Taipei, Taiwan Knowledge Management, Project Management, Information Management, Human Resources Management, Human Capital, Instructional Design Alessio Ishizaka, NEOMA Business School, Mont St Aignan, France Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, Supply Chain Management, Decision Support Systems, Operations Management, Decision Analysis Dragi Kocev, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia Ensemble Learning, Structured Output Prediction, Multi Label Classification, Hierarchical Multi Label Classification, Semi-supervised Learning, Feature Selection Salim Lahmiri, Concordia University, John Molson School of Business, Department of Supply Chain and Business Technology Management, Montréal, Quebec, Canada Data science, Data analytics, Signal processing, Intelligent systems, Pattern recognition Voon-Hsien Lee, Tunku Abdul Rahman University - Perak Campus, Kampar, Malaysia Business intelligence, Intelligent Systems and AI in Business & Social Science, Quality Management, Supply Chain Management Chunping Li, Tsinghua University, School of Software, Beijing, China Artificial Intelligence, Data Analysis and Data Mining, Machine Learning and Automated Reasoning Chinho Lin, National Cheng Kung University Department of Industrial and Information Management and Institute of Information Management, Tainan, Taiwan Knowledge Management, Strategic Management, Supply Chain Management, Total Quality Management Peter Love, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia Infrastructure, Safety, Resilience Engineering, Asset Management, Information Systems Evaluation, Quality Management, Computer vision, Engineering Informatics, Deep Learning, Machine Learning Yannis Marinakis, School of Production Engineering & Management, Chania, Greece Swarm Intelligence, Vehicle Routing Problem, Supply Chain Management, Metaheuristic Algorithms, Optimization Yalda Mohsenzadeh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America Rui Neves, University of Lisbon Higher Technical Institute, Lisboa, Portugal Algorithms applied to the stock market Luiz Eduardo de Oliveira, Federal University of Parana, Curitiba, Brazil Pattern Recognition, Machine Learning, Image Processing Keng-Boon Ooi, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Artificial neural networks for machine learning, decision support systems, data mining Joanna Paliszkiewicz, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warszawa, Poland Trust management, knowledge management, social media, leadership, trust Zbigniew Pastuszak, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin Faculty of Economics, Lublin, Poland Business intelligence, Knowledge-based Systems, Data science, Decision support systems, prediction systems and early warning systems, Data driven optimization, Intelligent systems and AI in business & social science Guojie Song, Peking University, Beijing, China Data mining, Social network analysis, Intelligent transportation system Ying Tan, Peking University School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Beijing, China AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 4 Fields of specialization- Deep Neural Networks, Deep Learning, Swarm Intelligence, Fireworks Algorithms, Data Mining, Financial Predication Joao Manuel R.S. Tavares, University of Porto Faculty of Engineering, Porto, Portugal Biomechanics, Medical Imaging, Computational Vision, Gait &, Posture, Biodevices, Image Processing &, Analysis, NDT Manoj Kumar Tiwari, National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai, India Decision Support Models, Simulation Model, Computational Intelligence, Machine Learning, Supply Chain and Logistics, Manufacturing Systems, , Conrad Tucker, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America Machine learning , Intelligent systems and AI in engineering, Expert and Intelligent Systems Julien Velcin, Lumière University Lyon 2, Lyon, France Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Mining, Natural Language Processing, Social Media Analysis, Digital Humanities Ling Wang, Tsinghua University Department of Automation, Beijing, China Computational Intelligence, Scheduling, Meta-heuristics, Soft Computing, Intelligent Optimization Ping Wang, James Madison University, Department of Computer Information Systems & Business Analytics, Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States of America Supply Chain Management Models and Analysis, Structural Equation Modeling, Multivariate Analysis, Classification Problems June Wei, University of West Florida College of Business, Pensacola, Florida, United States of America Business Intelligence, Knowledge-Based Systems Petros Xanthopoulos, Stetson University School of Business Administration, Deland, Florida, United States of America Business Analytics, Machine Learning, Operations Research Hua Xu, Tsinghua University Department of Computer Science and Technology, Beijing, China Natural Language Processing, Intelligent Optimization Algorithms, Intelligent Information Processing, Multimodal Information Processing and Mining Steve Yang, Stevens Institute of Technology Wesley J Howe School of Technology Management, Hoboken, New Jersey, United States of America Microstructure, Behavioral Finance, Portfolio Optimization, Algorithmic Trading, Financial Systemic Risk Editorial Advisory Board Pornthep Anussornnitisarn, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand Dianne Berry, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom Bernt Bremdal, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Francisco Javier Cantu, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Monterrey, Mexico Kimiz Dalkir, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Randall Davis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America Edward Feigenbaum, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America Roar Fjellheim, Computas AS, Oslo, Norway Mark Fox, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Olli-Pekka Hilmola, LUT University - Kouvola Unit, KOUVOLA, Finland Jae Kyu Lee, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology College of Business, Seoul, South Korea Dusan Lesjak, International School for Social and Business Studies, Celje, Slovenia Ana Gabriela Maguitman, National University of the South, Bahia Blanca, Argentina Shawn Mankad, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America Vladimir Milacic, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Singapore Management University, Singapore, Singapore Daniel O'Leary, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America Zbigniew Pastuszak, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin Faculty of Economics, Lublin, Poland Cezar Scarlat, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Bucuresti, Romania Randall Shumaker, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, United States of America James Slagle, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America Ching Y. Suen, Concordia University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada Jie Tang, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China Efraim Turban, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America Ismail Burhan Turksen, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Jan Vanthienen, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Shouhong Wang, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States of America Mark Zielinski, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 5 GUIDE FOR AUTHORS . INTRODUCTION EXPERT SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS is a refereed international journal whose focus is on exchanging information relating to expert and intelligent systems applied in industry, government, and universities worldwide. The thrust of the journal is to publish papers dealing with the design, development, testing, implementation, and/or management of expert and intelligent systems, and also to provide practical guidelines in the development and management of these systems. Types of Paper The journal will publish papers in expert and intelligent systems technology and application in the areas of, but not limited to: finance, accounting, engineering, marketing, auditing, law, procurement and contracting, project management, risk assessment, information management, information retrieval, crisis management, stock trading, strategic management, network management, telecommunications, space education, intelligent front ends, intelligent database management systems, medicine, chemistry, human resources management, human capital, business, production management, archaeology, economics, energy, and defense. Papers in multi-agent systems, knowledge management, neural networks, knowledge discovery, data and text mining, multimedia mining, and genetic algorithms will also be published in the journal. Contact Details for Submission Authors are requested to submit their original papers using the submission website. To submit your paper online, please go to https://www.editorialmanager.com/eswa/Default.aspx. Authors interested in online submission are requested to go to the website and upload their manuscript and its associated artwork. An electronic (PDF) proof is generated and the reviewing process is carried out using that PDF. The PDF file may be edited after acceptance to follow journal standards. Authors and editors send and receive all correspondence by email via the website and no paper correspondence is performed. For the name and address of the editor-in-chief, please refer to the list of editors in each issue of the journal or on the journal's homepage. Submission checklist You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details. Ensure that the following items are present: One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details: • E-mail address • Full postal address All necessary files have been uploaded: Manuscript: • Include keywords • All figures (include relevant captions) • All tables (including titles, description, footnotes) • Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided • Indicate clearly if color should be used for any figures in print Graphical Abstracts / Highlights files (where applicable) Supplemental files (where applicable) Further considerations • Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked' • All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa • Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet) • A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare • Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed • Referee suggestions and contact details provided, based on journal requirements AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 6 For further information, visit our Support Center. BEFORE YOU BEGIN Ethics in publishing Please see our information pages on Ethics in publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication. Declaration of competing interest All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/ registrations, and grants or other funding. Authors should complete the declaration of competing interest statement using this template and upload to the submission system at the Attach/Upload Files step. Note: Please do not convert the .docx template to another file type. Author signatures are not required. If there are no interests to declare, please choose the first option in the template. This statement will be published within the article if accepted. More information. Submission declaration and verification Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis, see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright- holder. To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originality detection service Crossref Similarity Check. Preprints Please note that preprints can be shared anywhere at any time, in line with Elsevier's sharing policy. Sharing your preprints e.g. on a preprint server will not count as prior publication (see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information). Use of inclusive language Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." 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Author contributions For transparency, we encourage authors to submit an author statement file outlining their individual contributions to the paper using the relevant CRediT roles: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; Writing - review & editing. Authorship statements should be formatted with the names of authors first and CRediT role(s) following. More details and an example Changes to authorship Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. 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To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum. Article transfer service This journal is part of our Article Transfer Service. This means that if the Editor feels your article is more suitable in one of our other participating journals, then you may be asked to consider transferring the article to one of those. If you agree, your article will be transferred automatically on your behalf with no need to reformat. Please note that your article will be reviewed again by the new journal. More information. Copyright Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (see more information on this). An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement. Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. 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Open access Please visit our Open Access page for more information. Elsevier Researcher Academy Researcher Academy is a free e-learning platform designed to support early and mid-career researchers throughout their research journey. The "Learn" environment at Researcher Academy offers several interactive modules, webinars, downloadable guides and resources to guide you through the process of writing for research and going through peer review. Feel free to use these free resources to improve your submission and navigate the publication process with ease. Language (usage and editing services) Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to use the English Language Editing service available from Elsevier's Author Services. Submission Our online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your article details and uploading your files. The system converts your article files to a single PDF file used in the peer-review process. Editable files (e.g., Word, LaTeX) are required to typeset your article for final publication. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, is sent by e-mail. https://www.elsevier.com/authors/article-transfer-service https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/copyright https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/copyright/permissions https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/word_doc/0007/98656/Permission-Request-Form.docx https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/submit-your-paper/sharing-and-promoting-your-article https://www.elsevier.com/journals/expert-systems-with-applications/0957-4174/open-access-options https://researcheracademy.elsevier.com/ https://webshop.elsevier.com/language-editing-services/language-editing/ https://webshop.elsevier.com/language-editing-services/language-editing/ AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 8 Additonal Information Papers submitted to Expert Systems with Applications, may also be posted on The Computer Science Preprint Server http://www.compscipreprints.com. Such posting on The Computer Science Preprint Server is in conformity with Elsevier copyright policy and in no way conflicts with submission to Expert Systems with Applications. PREPARATION Peer review This journal operates a single anonymized review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final. Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups. More information on types of peer review. Use of word processing software It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the word processor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the word processor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier). Note that source files of figures, tables and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also the section on Electronic artwork. To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor. Article structure Subdivision - numbered sections Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line. Introduction State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. Material and methods Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be summarized, and indicated by a reference. If quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and also cite the source. Any modifications to existing methods should also be described. Theory/calculation A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already dealt with in the Introduction and lay the foundation for further work. In contrast, a Calculation section represents a practical development from a theoretical basis. Results Results should be clear and concise. Discussion This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature. http://www.compscipreprints.com https://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/what-is-peer-review https://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/what-is-peer-review https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/submit-your-paper AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 9 Conclusions The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section. Essential title page information • Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible. • Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, the e-mail address of each author. • Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that phone numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author. • Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes. Highlights Highlights are optional yet highly encouraged for this journal, as they increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that capture the novel results of your research as well as new methods that were used during the study (if any). Please have a look at the examples here: example Highlights. Highlights should be submitted in a separate editable file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point). Abstract A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself. Keywords Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes. Abbreviations Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article. Acknowledgements Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.). Formatting of funding sources List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements: Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA [grant number zzzz]; and the United States Institutes of Peace [grant number aaaa]. https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/highlights AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 10 It is not necessary to include detailed descriptions on the program or type of grants and awards. When funding is from a block grant or other resources available to a university, college, or other research institution, submit the name of the institute or organization that provided the funding. If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Math formulae Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images. Present simple formulae in line with normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text). Footnotes Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article. Many word processors can build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Otherwise, please indicate the position of footnotes in the text and list the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list. Artwork Electronic artwork General points • Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork. • Embed the used fonts if the application provides that option. • Aim to use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, Symbol, or use fonts that look similar. • Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text. • Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files. • Provide captions to illustrations separately. • Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the published version. • Submit each illustration as a separate file. • Ensure that color images are accessible to all, including those with impaired color vision. A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available. You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here. Formats If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply 'as is' in the native document format. Regardless of the application used other than Microsoft Office, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please 'Save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below): EPS (or PDF): Vector drawings, embed all used fonts. TIFF (or JPEG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones), keep to a minimum of 300 dpi. TIFF (or JPEG): Bitmapped (pure black & white pixels) line drawings, keep to a minimum of 1000 dpi. TIFF (or JPEG): Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale), keep to a minimum of 500 dpi. Please do not: • Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colors; • Supply files that are too low in resolution; • Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content. Color artwork Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF (or JPEG), EPS (or PDF) or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color online (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) in addition to color reproduction in print. Further information on the preparation of electronic artwork. https://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-schemas/artwork-and-media-instructions https://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-schemas/artwork-and-media-instructions https://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-schemas/artwork-and-media-instructions AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 11 Figure captions Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used. Text graphics Text graphics may be embedded in the text at the appropriate position. If you are working with LaTeX and have such features embedded in the text, these can be left. See further under Electronic artwork. Tables Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables can be placed either next to the relevant text in the article, or on separate page(s) at the end. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells. References Citation in text Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication. Web references As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list. Data references This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article. References in a special issue Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue. Reference management software Most Elsevier journals have their reference template available in many of the most popular reference management software products. These include all products that support Citation Style Language styles, such as Mendeley. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal's style. If no template is yet available for this journal, please follow the format of the sample references and citations as shown in this Guide. If you use reference management software, please ensure that you remove all field codes before submitting the electronic manuscript. More information on how to remove field codes from different reference management software. Users of Mendeley Desktop can easily install the reference style for this journal by clicking the following link: http://open.mendeley.com/use-citation-style/expert-systems-with-applications When preparing your manuscript, you will then be able to select this style using the Mendeley plug- ins for Microsoft Word or LibreOffice. Reference style Text: Citations in the text should follow the referencing style used by the American Psychological Association. You are referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition, ISBN 978-1-4338-3215-4, copies of which may be ordered online. https://citationstyles.org https://citationstyles.org https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager/ https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/26093/ https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/26093/ https://apastyle.apa.org/products/publication-manual-7th-edition AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 12 List: references should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc., placed after the year of publication. Examples: Reference to a journal publication: Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J. A. J., & Lupton, R. A. (2010). The art of writing a scientific article. Journal of Scientific Communications, 163, 51–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sc.2010.00372. Reference to a journal publication with an article number: Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J. A. J., & Lupton, R. A. (2018). The art of writing a scientific article. Heliyon, 19, Article e00205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00205. Reference to a book: Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (2000). The elements of style (4th ed.). Longman (Chapter 4). Reference to a chapter in an edited book: Mettam, G. R., & Adams, L. B. (2009). How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In B. S. Jones, & R. Z. Smith (Eds.), Introduction to the electronic age (pp. 281–304). E-Publishing Inc. Reference to a website: Powertech Systems. (2015). Lithium-ion vs lead-acid cost analysis. Retrieved from http://www.powertechsystems.eu/home/tech-corner/lithium-ion-vs-lead-acid-cost-analysis/. Accessed January 6, 2016 Reference to a dataset: [dataset] Oguro, M., Imahiro, S., Saito, S., & Nakashizuka, T. (2015). Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions. Mendeley Data, v1. https://doi.org/10.17632/ xwj98nb39r.1. Reference to a conference paper or poster presentation: Engle, E.K., Cash, T.F., & Jarry, J.L. (2009, November). The Body Image Behaviours Inventory-3: Development and validation of the Body Image Compulsive Actions and Body Image Avoidance Scales. Poster session presentation at the meeting of the Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies, New York, NY. Journal abbreviations source Journal names should be abbreviated according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations. Video Elsevier accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit with their article are strongly encouraged to include links to these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the file in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 150 MB per file, 1 GB in total. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages. Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content. Data visualization Include interactive data visualizations in your publication and let your readers interact and engage more closely with your research. Follow the instructions here to find out about available data visualization options and how to include them with your article. Supplementary material Supplementary material such as applications, images and sound clips, can be published with your article to enhance it. Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received (Excel or PowerPoint files will appear as such online). Please submit your material together with the article and supply a concise, descriptive caption for each supplementary file. If you wish to make changes to supplementary material during any stage of the process, please make sure to provide an updated file. Do not annotate any corrections on a previous version. Please switch off the 'Track Changes' option in Microsoft Office files as these will appear in the published version. https://www.issn.org/services/online-services/access-to-the-ltwa/ https://www.sciencedirect.com https://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-schemas/artwork-and-media-instructions https://www.elsevier.com/authors/tools-and-resources/data-visualization AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 13 Research data This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings. To facilitate reproducibility and data reuse, this journal also encourages you to share your software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project. Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. If you are sharing data in one of these ways, you are encouraged to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page. Data linking If you have made your research data available in a data repository, you can link your article directly to the dataset. Elsevier collaborates with a number of repositories to link articles on ScienceDirect with relevant repositories, giving readers access to underlying data that gives them a better understanding of the research described. There are different ways to link your datasets to your article. When available, you can directly link your dataset to your article by providing the relevant information in the submission system. For more information, visit the database linking page. For supported data repositories a repository banner will automatically appear next to your published article on ScienceDirect. In addition, you can link to relevant data or entities through identifiers within the text of your manuscript, using the following format: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN). Mendeley Data This journal supports Mendeley Data, enabling you to deposit any research data (including raw and processed data, video, code, software, algorithms, protocols, and methods) associated with your manuscript in a free-to-use, open access repository. During the submission process, after uploading your manuscript, you will have the opportunity to upload your relevant datasets directly to Mendeley Data. The datasets will be listed and directly accessible to readers next to your published article online. For more information, visit the Mendeley Data for journals page. Data in Brief You have the option of converting any or all parts of your supplementary or additional raw data into a data article published in Data in Brief. A data article is a new kind of article that ensures that your data are actively reviewed, curated, formatted, indexed, given a DOI and made publicly available to all upon publication (watch this video describing the benefits of publishing your data in Data in Brief). You are encouraged to submit your data article for Data in Brief as an additional item directly alongside the revised version of your manuscript. If your research article is accepted, your data article will automatically be transferred over to Data in Brief where it will be editorially reviewed, published open access and linked to your research article on ScienceDirect. Please note an open access fee is payable for publication in Data in Brief. Full details can be found on the Data in Brief website. Please use this template to write your Data in Brief data article. MethodsX You have the option of converting relevant protocols and methods into one or multiple MethodsX articles, a new kind of article that describes the details of customized research methods. Many researchers spend a significant amount of time on developing methods to fit their specific needs or setting, but often without getting credit for this part of their work. MethodsX, an open access journal, now publishes this information in order to make it searchable, peer reviewed, citable and reproducible. Authors are encouraged to submit their MethodsX article as an additional item directly alongside the revised version of their manuscript. If your research article is accepted, your methods article will automatically be transferred over to MethodsX where it will be editorially reviewed. Please note an open access fee is payable for publication in MethodsX. Full details can be found on the MethodsX website. Please use this template to prepare your MethodsX article. https://www.elsevier.com/authors/tools-and-resources/research-data https://www.elsevier.com/authors/tools-and-resources/research-data/data-base-linking https://www.elsevier.com/authors/tools-and-resources/research-data/data-base-linking#repositories https://www.elsevier.com/authors/tools-and-resources/research-data/mendeley-data-for-journals https://www.journals.elsevier.com/data-in-brief/about-data-in-brief/video-discover-the-benefits-of-publishing-your-research-data https://www.elsevier.com/journals/data-in-brief/2352-3409/open-access-journal https://www.journals.elsevier.com/data-in-brief https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/word_doc/0004/215779/Datainbrief_template.docx https://www.journals.elsevier.com/methodsx https://www.journals.elsevier.com/methodsx https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/word_doc/0020/203528/MethodsX-Article-Template.docx AUTHOR INFORMATION PACK 6 Apr 2021 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa 14 Data statement To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect. For more information, visit the Data Statement page. AFTER ACCEPTANCE Online proof correction To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors. If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Offprints The corresponding author will, at no cost, receive a customized Share Link providing 50 days free access to the final published version of the article on ScienceDirect. The Share Link can be used for sharing the article via any communication channel, including email and social media. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Both corresponding and co-authors may order offprints at any time via Elsevier's Author Services. Corresponding authors who have published their article gold open access do not receive a Share Link as their final published version of the article is available open access on ScienceDirect and can be shared through the article DOI link. AUTHOR INQUIRIES Visit the Elsevier Support Center to find the answers you need. Here you will find everything from Frequently Asked Questions to ways to get in touch. 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