Policies and Submission Guidelines
Contents
- Who Can Submit?
- General Submission Rules
- Formatting Requirements
- VOL Journals: General Terms and Conditions of Use
- UTMJ: Editorial and Peer-Review Policy
Who Can Submit?
Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in University of Tennessee Mathematical Journal provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer).
General Submission Rules
Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to University of Tennessee Mathematical Journal, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at University of Tennessee Mathematical Journal. If you have concerns about the submission terms for University of Tennessee Mathematical Journal, please contact the editors.
While UTMJ is primarily a digital publication, we produce limited print editions for exhibition and dissemination. Please note that by submitting a manuscript, authors agree to transfer all copyright to UTMJ.
Formatting Requirements
Manuscripts should be submitted electronically in PDF files using the online submission form, and the LaTex files are not required for this initial submission. However, we require that text front size is 12 pts, and the left and right margins are 1.6 inch, the top and bottom margin are 0.6 inch. For example, one can use the latex comment below to generate your PDF file
\usepackage[top=16mm, bottom=16mm, left=44.45mm, right=44.45mm]{geometry}.
Manuscripts should be written in English and should contain
- title
- name(s) of author(s)
- abstract
- 2020 AMS Mathematics Subject Classification Numbers
- key words
- body of the paper
- references
- affiliation(s), address(es) and e-mail address(es) of author(s)
- Upon submission, an author suggests a member of the Editorial Board to be the article's handling editor.
- The paper is considered by one of the managing editors or the editor-in-chief, who makes an initial assessment. One of the managing editors or the editor-in-chief can reject and return a paper without being refereed if that paper seems unlikely to meet the journal's standards, without assigning it to a handling editor.
- If the paper passes the initial assessment, the managing editor or the editor-in-chief assigns the paper to a member of the Editorial Board. The assignee becomes the handling editor of the paper. A paper may be reassigned (for example, if the first assignee does not wish to handle it). The managing editor or the editor-in-chief can serve as a handling editor if the research topics are in his/her research expertise, or no member of the editorial board is available.
- The handling editor can quickly reject a paper that seems unlikely to meet the journal's standards. Experts may optionally be consulted for a general and quick opinion on whether the standards are likely to be met. A paper that is not rejected at this stage is then sent out for one or more referee reports. The handling editor may elect to serve as a referee if the paper falls within his/her areas of specialization.
- The handling editor may at any time request that the author(s) submit a revision (for example, to take into account referees’ comments). This does not imply that the paper will be accepted if the revision is made.
- The handling editor makes a recommendation to the editorial board with justification explaining the reasoning and the standards that are being used. The whole editorial board can access the referee reports and the editor’s recommendation.
- The final decision rests with the editor-in-chief and the managing editor, who made the initial assessment and the assignment of the submission to the handling editor, after receiving the final report from the handling editor.
For symbols and style conventions, authors should consult current issues of the journal. The LaTeX style file utmj.cls and its documentation can be obtained from the UTMJ web page.
The LaTex file is required after the paper is accepted. We encourage authors use LaTex with utmj.cls (will be launched shortly) to create the PDF for initial submissions. See Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details. Although bepress can provide limited technical support, it is ultimately the responsibility of the author to produce an electronic version of the article as a high-quality LaTex file using utmj.cls file that generate the PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format) file.
It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is such that there are no, and can be no, guarantees that documents in PDF will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.
VOL Journals: General Terms and Conditions of Use
The publisher of this journal is in a partnership with UT VOL Journals, the Volunteer Open-Access, Library-hosted Journals of the University of Tennessee Libraries. Users of the website, services, and/or software(s) affiliated with VOL Journals agree not to misuse the website, services, or software(s) in any way. Users also agree to abide by The University of Tennessee System Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources policy.
To seek an exception to the above terms, or if you have questions on rights or re-use, please contact the journal editors.
UTMJ: Editorial and Peer-Review Policy
Editors evaluate submitted papers strictly based on scientific merit with the help of peer review reports and experts’ opinions, without regard to authors' nationality, country of residence, institutional affiliation, gender, ethnic origin, religion, or political views.
This journal employs a single-anonymized review process (the names of the reviewers are hidden from the author).
All contributions will be initially assessed by managing editors and an assigned editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of one independent expert reviewer to assess the scientific quality of the paper.
The editors are responsible for the final recommendation regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The editors' decisions are final.
Details of the peer-review process follow.
As a non-profit and free service for the community, we aim to guard the highest scholarly and ethical standards. The governance structure of the journal and its acceptance procedures are designed to ensure transparency, fairness, and the highest quality.
One of the managing editors or the editor in chief makes the final decision on a submitted manuscript after the manuscript has been approved for publication by a handling Editor and overwhelmingly supported by members of the Editorial Board. The handling Editor must explicitly endorse the paper's scientific content. The information-gathering process is open to the entire Editorial Board.
Below are the steps in the process, listed in order.
a). If the recommendation is rejected, a week is allowed for members of the Editorial Board to raise objections and concerns.
b). If a recommendation is accepted, Editorial Board members have two weeks of discussion. All members of the Editorial Board are encouraged to make comments and raise opinions.
Until a final decision is made, it is possible to add further comments. If needed, the handling editor can contact the authors to make further revisions and improvements.
The handling editor is responsible for a final report with recommendations addressing the comments of other members of the editorial board.