Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering - What does Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering publish and what does it not publish?

The aim of ACME is to publish state-of-the-art review articles in the field of computational engineering and related topics. The Editorial Board consists of world leading researchers in the areas covered by the journal who join the Board by invitation of the Editors.

To assure publications of the highest quality, authors of submitted articles may be asked to introduce some revisions to comply with requests by the referees and/or editors. The basic prerequisite for authors is that the current knowledge on the subject matter of the paper, as documented in the existing technical literature, be properly summarized, structured and clarified in a way which makes it attractive to both experts and non-specialists.

The nature of ACME implies that even if authors are expected to reflect upon all available research results and methodologies within the intended scope of the article, the computational aspects should clearly be in the forefront of the discussion.

A typical article is expected to feature a substantial number of references -- fifty appears to be a number close to a reliable lower bound of the number of references expected for a state of the art review. In reviewing the literature the author(s) should not refrain from expressing his/her/their own views by exercising some well-balanced criticism -- both positive and (mildly) negative opinions are welcome. We strongly encourage authors to write papers interesting to read; this may even require the occasional use of philosophical or less formal language to achieve better understanding on the part of the reader.

One possible and preferred way of structuring the paper by many our readers is as follows:

Introduction, explaining why the article was written, by highlighting both the subject significance and the lack of its adequate, comprehensive coverage in the existing literature. The general review of the literature. Statement of the problem and identification of main difficulties in modeling the phenomenon on hand.Review of the solution techniques available and identification of their shortcomings. Presentation of the authors' own theoretical and computational results. Conclusions and future research directions.

Typical features which make an article unsuitable for publication in ACME are:

Too much emphasis on own research results without attempting a real review of the existing literature -- a report on a truly innovative area of research can clearly be exempted from this requirement. Too little emphasis on novel computational methodologies -- while papers deeply rooted in all contemporary theoretical engineering disciplines (mechanics in particular) are very welcome, those with no clear link to up-to-date computational methodologies should not be submitted. Insufficient content -- the expected length of papers is 40 pages or more; only in exceptional and well-motivated cases shorter articles can be accepted. Scope of the paper unrelated or far from the field of engineering in its broadest sense.

While the basic format of papers sought by the editors is that of a state-of-the-art review, some other types of summarizing contributions are also possible. Among them we mention:

Tutorial contributions, aimed at making the reader deeply acquainted with crucial theoretical or programming aspects of a new computational methodology; Bibliographic surveys, whose aim is to provide the readership with a relatively complete selection of available literature accompanied by comments on why and how the survey was prepared; Historical accounts, written in a way which can contribute to an improved apprehension of the subject by readers nowadays often overwhelmed by the amount of very specific information published in the technical journals; Discussions on current research needs, highlighting areas of emerging research and application potential which, in the authors' view, have not yet been sufficiently well explored.