Proposals for Contemporary Mathematics (CONM)

Publication of Conference Proceedings

General

This series of high-quality, refereed proceedings written by recognized experts in their fields maintains high scientific standards. Volumes draw from worldwide conferences and symposia sponsored by the American Mathematical Society and other organizations.

Proposals

Proposals for the publication of conference proceedings are reviewed by the Contemporary Mathematics (CONM) Editorial Committee.  The Managing Editor of CONM requests conference organizers to submit as much information as possible about the conference, including: 

• title of conference;
• list of speakers and titles of talks including a list of who has agreed to submit a manuscript;
• abstracts (if available);
• who will serve as editor(s);
• a discussion of the focus and direction of the volume;
• a statement regarding the value of publication.

Organizers/editors are encouraged to include some expository articles that give an overview of and new developments in the particular field of focus.

Proposals should be directed to Christine Thivierge, Associate Editor for Proceedings, via email at cxt at ams.org or by mail to 201 Charles Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02904 USA. Questions regarding the status of projects under consideration should also be directed to her.

Initial approval, in most cases, is considered to be provisional; final approval is granted after receipt and review (by the CONM Editorial Committee) of referee reports for all papers. 

Restrictions

The minimum number of pages for a volume is 150 and, generally, the Society limits proceedings volumes to 350 pages. Organizers/volume editors who feel it is essential to go over the page limit should send a written explanation with their proposal. 

 Preliminary papers (to be published elsewhere in final form) or summaries of results previously published or soon to appear are not acceptable for inclusion in a proceedings volume unless specific approval from the AMS has been sought and obtained.  This was approved by the Society's Executive Committee and Board of Trustees (ECBT) in May 1993.

Manuscript preparation requirements

CONM is an author-prepared series, which means the AMS reproduces directly from camera-ready copy prepared by the author.  Close attention should be paid to page dimensions and specifications.  The AMS will provide contributors with instructions that give guidelines on TeX and non-TeX preparation.  Authors are expected to carefully proofread material before submission; author-prepared manuscripts are not proofread and authors will not receive proof copy prior to publication.

The Society promotes consistency among papers within a volume and has consequently developed author packages for the series (Contemporary Mathematics proceedings) in both AMS-TeX and AMS-LaTeX (compatible with LaTeX2e) which properly format manuscripts.  They are available, free of charge, from the AMS web site: http://www.ams.org/authors/procpackages.html. Authors are reminded that they may use any number of software applications to format their manuscript as long as the style remains consistent throughout and the required page dimensions are met.  The AMS has both pre-production and technical support staff available to answer questions about the formatting of papers.  Volume editors, however, are asked to provide assistance to authors unable to provide suitable camera copy.

The final responsibility for assuring that all manuscripts are formatted according to the instructions remains with the editor(s) of the volume.  The AMS reserves the right to exclude, from the volume, any manuscripts that are not submitted in the appropriate form. 

Submission deadline requirements

The ECBT has established guidelines to effect the policy of rapid publication of conference proceedings; timeliness of the publication of research material is essential.  Editors are required by the ECBT to set the manuscript submission deadline from three to at most five months after the conference.  The completed volume (refereed and accepted papers) should be submitted to the AMS within twelve months after the conference takes place.

The AMS will write to contributors on behalf of the volume editor(s) giving submission deadlines, information on which editor(s) to submit their manuscripts, and instructions on the preparation of manuscripts.

When the refereeing process is complete, the referee reports should be sent to Christine Thivierge and she will forward them to the Chairman of the CONM Editorial Committee for final review and approval of the volume.  Production can not begin until the volume has received final approval. 

Responsibilities of the volume editors

• Setting deadlines for manuscript submission (usually 3 but no more than 5 months after the conference);
• Refereeing papers; editors can designate a referee(s) or do it themselves.  Copies of all reports are required for approval;
• Notifying authors of acceptance or rejection of a paper;
• Providing assistance to authors who have trouble with the preparation of their camera-ready papers;
• Providing author-prepared copy of the preface/introduction and table of contents using a special tex package (AMS will strip in page numbers);
• Providing both primary and secondary 2000 Mathematics Subject Classifications that apply to the entire volume (no more than 10);
• Providing final volume title and a short title for use on the spine of the cover, if necessary.
• Informing the AMS of any travel schedule prior to and during production of the volume; we may require your assistance.

Responsibilities of the AMS

• Writing to contributors on behalf of the volume editor(s) regarding submission deadlines and instructions for preparation of manuscripts (the editors(s) are asked to provide a list of invited authors and their email addresses);
• Making available (free of charge) both the AMS-TeX and AMS-LaTeX versions of the CONM author packages;
• Handling, upon request, any follow-up correspondence with contributors that might be necessary with regard to late submissions or extended deadlines;
• Providing to authors a complimentary copy of the book upon publication and 50 free offprints of each article, to be divided among multiple authors as necessary;
• Providing to the editor(s) 6 complimentary copies of the volume, to be divided among multiple editors as necessary, with a minimum of 2 per editor.