Authors Guide

This guide covers how to prepare your manuscript file: formatting, page limits, the cover page, and what to submit after acceptance. For scope, originality, disclosure and the review process, see RLJ Submission Guidelines.

Formatting Instructions

All submissions should be in PDF format. All of the content before (but not including) the references is referred to as the main text. There is a recommended page limit of 8 pages and a strict page limit of 12 pages for the main text; authors should use their best judgment to edit the paper to ensure the content needed to understand the main parts of the method is included in the main text. The cover page does not count towards the 8–12-page limit.

Main texts exceeding 8 pages are reserved for papers that cannot fully convey their core scientific contributions within 8 pages (e.g., for clear and thorough proofs or plots related to additional experimentation). Reviewers may penalize papers for unnecessary main text length above 8 pages, so authors are advised to minimize length while maintaining scientific rigor.

Authors should look at previously published RLJ papers for examples of expectations on writing quality and organization. You must use the provided style files. Any submissions that violate the style guidelines may be rejected without further review.

Cover Page

At RLJ, the first page of the PDF file should be a one-page cover page. In addition to the title and abstract, the cover page must include a box clearly stating the paper's main contributions.

Submissions will be judged primarily on the contributions claimed on their cover pages and the evidence provided to support those claims. Major contributions should not be claimed in the main text if they do not appear on the cover page. Overclaiming can lead to a submission being rejected, so it is important to have well-scoped contribution statements on the cover page.

Additionally, contribution statements should be contextualized and clearly (and briefly) state the state of the field before the submission. The work discussed in the contextualization needs to be relevant to the submission.

Reviewers use the cover page as a rubric—see Supporting Claims for what constitutes sufficient support for a claimed contribution.

Supplementary Material

You are welcome to include supplementary materials alongside your paper submission. These can include code, extra figures, and videos. It is crucial, however, that the main text stands on its own as a complete document. Please note that reviewers are not obliged to examine the supplementary materials or any text beyond the main text. Therefore, any results critical to your paper should be fully detailed in the main text.

Note: the main text ends when the references begin. Appendices before the references are treated as part of the main text: subject to the 8–12 page limit, peer-reviewed, and may contain content central to the paper's claims. Supplementary material after the references is not part of the main text, has no page limit, is not necessarily reviewed, and should not contain any claims or material central to the paper.

We recommend including all parts (main text, appendices, references, and supplementary material) in a single PDF file.

Preparing the Final Version

Upon paper acceptance, authors will be asked to submit a final version of the paper generated using the [accept] option in the style files. At this stage, only minor revisions (e.g., correcting typographical errors) will be permitted. Along with the final PDF, authors must also submit a publication form acknowledging the rights granted to the journal—see Style Files and Forms.

Copyright remains with the authors, who are free to share the final version of their work. See Publication for the licensing terms.