For Authors

Submission Types
Submission Guidelines
Online Submission
Open and Transparent Reviews
Decision Categories & Two-Strike-Rule

Submission Types

See also this list of currently open calls.

The journal invites high-quality submissions on all topics related to the Semantic Web, including the use of semantic technologies in other contexts than the World Wide Web. Submissions can fall in one of the following categories.

• Full papers – containing original research results. Results previously published at conferences or workshops may be submitted as extended versions. These submissions will be reviewed along the usual dimensions for research contributions which include originality, significance of the results, and quality of writing.
• Survey articles – full-length papers surveying the state of the art of topics central to the journal's scope. Authors may want to contact the editors before writing a survey. Survey articles should have the potential to become well-known introductory and overview texts. These submissions will be reviewed along the following dimensions: (1) Suitability as introductory text, targeted at researchers, PhD students, or practitioners, to get started on the covered topic. (2) How comprehensive and how balanced is the presentation and coverage. (3) Readability and clarity of the presentation. (4) Importance of the covered material to the broader Semantic Web community.
• Linked Dataset Descriptions - short papers (about 4-6 pages) containing a concise description of a Linked Dataset. The paper shall describe in concise and clear terms key characteristics of the dataset as a guide to its usage for various (possibly unforeseen) purposes. In particular, such a paper shall typically give information, amongst others, on the following aspects of the dataset: name, URL, version date and number, licensing, availability, etc.; topic coverage, source for the data, purpose and method of creation and maintenance, reported usage etc.; metrics and statistics on external and internal connectivity, use of established vocabularies (e.g., RDF, OWL, SKOS, FOAF), language expressivity, growth; examples and critical discussion of typical knowledge modeling patterns used; known shortcomings of the dataset. Papers will be evaluated along the following dimensions: (1) Quality of the dataset. (2) Usefulness (or potential usefulness) of the dataset. (3) Clarity and completeness of the descriptions. Papers should usually be written by people involved in the generation or maintenance of the dataset, or with the consent of these people.
• Descriptions of ontologies – short papers describing ontology modeling and creation efforts. The descriptions should be brief and pointed, indicating the design principles, methodologies applied at creation, comparison with other ontologies on the same topic, and pointers to existing applications or use-case experiments. It is strongly encouraged, that the described ontologies are free, open, and accessible on the Web. If this is not possible, then the ontologies have to be made available to the reviewers. For commercial ontologies, exceptions can be arranged through the editors. These submissions will be reviewed along the following dimensions: (1) Quality and relevance of the described ontology (convincing evidence must be provided). (2) Illustration, clarity and readability of the describing paper, which shall convey to the reader the key aspects of the described ontology.
• Application reports – short papers describing deployed applications of Semantic Web technologies. The reports should be brief and pointed, indicating clearly, in what sense and to what extent semantic technologies have been used in the application. These submissions will be reviewed along the following dimensions: (1) Quality, importance, and impact of the described application (convincing evidence must be provided). (2) Clarity and readability of the describing paper, which shall convey to the reader the key ideas regarding the application of Semantic Web technologies in the application.
• Reports on tools and systems – short papers describing mature Semantic Web related tools and systems. These reports should be brief and pointed, indicating clearly the capabilities of the described tool or system. It is strongly encouraged, that the described tools or systems are free, open, and accessible on the Web. If this is not possible, then they have to be made available to the reviewers. For commercial tools and systems, exceptions can be arranged through the editors. These submissions will be reviewed along the following dimensions: (1) Quality, importance, and impact of the described tool or system (convincing evidence must be provided). (2) Clarity, illustration, and readability of the describing paper, which shall convey to the reader both the capabilities and the limitations of the tool.

For alternative types of submissions, please contact the editors.

Submission Guidelines

Authors are requested to submit their manuscript electronically. To do so, request an account on this site (if you do not have one already), and after approval of the account, follow the Author Actions/Submit Manuscript menu item. Note that the manuscript should be uploaded as single PDF file including all tables and figures. There is also space for auxiliary files if required (e.g. responses to the reviews in the case of resubmissions).

There are no strict guidelines for the formatting of manuscripts for submission. However, authors may choose to adhere to the preparation guidelines for accepted papers (see below). Authors should be aware that their submitted manuscript, together with reviews, will be made publicly available on the under review, respectively, the reviewed papers sections.

Manuscripts of papers accepted for publication must be formatted according to the IOS Press templates. Hence, we recommend to use these templates from the very start. LaTex users are kindly requested to use the LaTeX template which at the same time is the preferred document format. MS Office and OpenOffice users may want to select the DOC template.

The SWJ uses an open and transparent review process (see FAQ Q1 and Q2 for details.). Therefore, the solicited reviewers, editors, as well as authors of open reviews are published together with the final submissions. By naming them in the head of the paper, readers can immediately see who reviewed the manuscript as well as who assigned these reviewers and accepted the paper for publication. If your paper has been accepted for publication, please make sure to add this information; see here for details.

Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that they have read and agreed to the terms of the IOS Press Author Copyright Agreement.

Online Submission

Please submit your manuscript using this website. To do so, request an account on this site (if you do not have one already), and after approval of the account, follow the Author Actions/Submit Manuscript menu item. Please indicate in the cover letter the paper category of your submission, and/or if you are submitting the paper in response to a specific call. Optionally, please indicate an editorial board member whom you would like to handle your manuscript.

If you want to do a resubmission after an "accept with revisions", simply make it a new submission and indicate in the cover letter that it is a resubmission. Giving the tracking number is optional but helpful for us. To submit a camera-ready version of an accepted paper, log in as author and find your paper under "My submissions" - you'll see an upload link there.

Decision Categories & Two-Strike-Rule

Decisions on submitted manuscripts are one of the following.

1. Accept
2. Minor revisions required
3. Major revisions required
4. Reject

They mean the following:

1. The manuscript is suitable for publication and only requires minor polishing; thus, no further reviews are requested.
2. The authors are required to make moderate changes to their manuscript. The manuscript becomes acceptable for publication if the changes proposed by the reviewers and editors are successfully addressed. The revised manuscript will be send back to all (or a selection of) reviewers for a second round of reviews. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers detailing the improvements made for the resubmission.
3. The manuscript cannot be accepted for publication in its current form. However, a major revision which addresses all issues raised by the reviewers may be acceptable for publication. The revised manuscript will undergo a full second round of review. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers detailing the improvements made for the resubmission. The two-strike-rule described below applies to all manuscripts that received a major revision decision, i.e., the next round of reviews needs to be a minor revision or an accept.
4. In its current form, the manuscript is not suitable for publication. A resubmission would require substantial revisions and is only encouraged in special cases. The editors should to be contacted before resubmitting a previously rejected paper.

This policy goes in effect on 1st of March 2013. Decisions made prior to this date have been following a different policy, and have to be read accordingly. In particular, the previous "reject and resubmit" decision is now deprecated.

The journal furthermore implements a two-strike-rule, as follows: If a submitted paper receives a "major revisions required", then a submitted revised paper needs to receive a "minor revisions required" or an "accept", otherwise it will be rejected.