Manuscript Preparation

Style

Manuscripts should be word processed with wide margins at sides, top and bottom.  (Manuscripts prepared for A4 paper should have top and bottom margins wide enough to accommodate printing on 8.5 x 11 paper, and similarly, manuscripts prepared for 8.5 x 11 paper should have wide enough side margins to accommodate printing on A4 paper.)  Use of LaTeX is preferred as that will facilitate conversion of the manuscript to its final published form. 

Please see the LaTeX support page for IMS publications to use the IMS recommended template.

Title

The title should be descriptive and as concise as is feasible, i.e., it should indicate the topic of the paper as clearly as possible, but every word in it should be pertinent (e.g., avoid titles like “On an unsolved problem of …”.)

Abbreviated Title

An abbreviated title to be used as a running head is also required. This should normally not exceed 35 characters.

Affiliations and Addresses

Indicate the present institutional affiliation of each author as you would like it to appear.  List the permanent mailing address, email address, and URL (if available) of each author after the references.

Summary

Each manuscript is required to contain a summary, clearly separated from the rest of the paper, which will be printed immediately after the title. Its main purpose is to inform the reader quickly of the nature and results of the paper; it may also be used as an aid in retrieving information. The length of a summary will clearly depend on the length and difficulty of the paper, but in general it should not exceed 150 words. Formulas should be used as sparingly as possible within the summary. The summary should not make reference to results or formulas in the body of the paper-it should be self-contained.

Footnotes

Footnotes should not be used, except as described under Title Page Footnotes below. Such information should be included within the text.

Title Page Footnotes

The following items should be included as footnotes on the first page:

• MSC 2000 subject classifications. Primary-; secondary-.

• Key words and phrases.

• Acknowledgment of support.

The list of classification numbers representing the primary and secondary subjects of the article can be found at http://www.ams.org/msc/ or in the Mathematical Reviews Annual Subject Index.  Typically, one primary and several secondary classifications are appropriate.  The key words and phrases should describe the subject matter of the article; usually they will be words and phrases that appear in the body of the paper. These words and phrases will be used in electronic and print indexing systems (e.g., Current Index to Statistics), so think of the words and phrases for which you would search if you were looking for a paper like this one.  The acknowledgement of support should reference all grants and contracts that provided support for the research.

Identification of Symbols

Manuscripts for publication should be clearly prepared to insure that all symbols are properly identified. Distinguish between “oh” and “zero,” “ell” and “one,” “epsilon” and “element of,” “summation” and “capital sigma,” etc. Indicate also when special type is required (Greek, German, script, boldface, etc.); unless indicated otherwise, formula letters will be set in italics. Acronyms should be introduced sparingly. Any handwritten symbols should be clearly identified.

Formulas

Fractions in the text are preferably written with the solidus or negative exponent; thus, (a + b)/(c + d) is preferred to \frac{a+b}{c+d} and (2\pi)^{-1} or 1/(2 \pi) to \frac{1}{2 \pi}. Also, a^{b(c)} and a_{b(c)} are preferred to a^{b_c} and a_{b_c} , respectively. Complicated exponentials should be represented with the symbol exp. A fractional exponent is preferable to a radical sign.

References

References in the body of the paper may use either the \citep{} command for a numbered bibliography, or \cite{} for a name/year bibliography.

Abbreviations for journals should follow the standard of Mathematical Reviews and can be found at http://www.ams.org/msnhtml/serials.pdf or in the current index issue of Mathematical Reviews.

Complete references can be obtained using the MR Lookup feature.