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Data Engineering Bulletin
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    — Author Instructions

Recent Announcements

Author Instructions

Size Limitations

I am placing this notice first because it represents an addition to the instructions. I want to limit the size of postscript versions of an issue to less than 2.5MB. Further, I do not want any paper to exceed 1.0MB. The problem that papers have meeting these requirements is caused by very large postscript figures. These figures usually result from screen-scraped images which should be compressed before they are embedded. It is the responsibility of the author to ensure that the postscript of his paper is less than 1MB. It may be necessary for the editor to ask for further size reductions if too many authors have maximum size papers. Indeed, in an eight paper issue, the limit could conceivably be around 300KB. I think it unlikely that this kind of restriction will be necessary because many authors have much smaller papers. But authors need to understand that the size of their paper is limited.

Formatting Instructions

Authors should use the deauthor.sty document style provided by the Data Engineering Bulletin.

Authors should begin papers with

\documentclass[11pt]{article}

and use at least the following packages

\usepackage{deauthor,times,graphicx}

Add any more to this list that the paper requires.

Define a graphicspath

\graphicspath{{authorname/}}

I will put the article file in such a directory, and this directory name then needs to be added to the path for for embedded figures.

Authors should write their paper using vanilla latex commands. There are a few rules:

1. Use \maketitle to format the paper title, not the title page environment.
2. Use the environments below as they are defined in deauthor.sty:

   abstract proposition theorem claim lemma definition corollary proof

3. Do not modify the page layout, especially don't modify

   \textheight \topmargin \textwidth \headheight \oddsidemargin \headsep \evensidemargin \footheight

   The document style deauthor.sty is defined to prevent the use of the LaTeX \setlength command to change the layout parameters defined by deauthor.sty. Such attempts will produce error messages and be ignored. For example, the command "\setlength{\textwidth}{3in}" will result in the error message

   ! AUTHOR error: You aren't allowed to change \textwidth .. Ignored. \@unchangeable ... allowed to change #1.. Ignored}

   \setlength ...xtwidth \@unchangeable {\textwidth } \else \ifx #1\textheight \... l.26 \setlength{\textwidth}{3in}

   and be ignored.

4. The submission should be a single .tex file, plus the .ps postscript files required for figures in the file, if needed. In particular, the author should not submit multiple .tex files or .bbl (BibTeX) files.

5. The postscript files for figures should be in a subdirectory called figs. The figures can be included using a number of possible commands, e.g. \psfig, \epsfig, \includegraphics, etc.

6. Papers should use the \title command for the title, \authors for authors, and \begin{abstract}...\end{abstract} for the abstract.

All Data Engineering Bulletin articles are copyrighted by the IEEE. Authors are expected to sign a copyright transfer. Information about the IEEE copyright policy is here . This is the copyright transfer form .  The signed copyright transfer should be faxed to the editor-in-chief (David Lomet) at fax number (425) 708-3356.  [Please include a cover page and clearly mark on this that this is to be delivered to "lomet@microsoft.com".]   In addition, all articles are included in the collection of CD's produced by SIGMOD.  An email from the issue editor will request that you grant permission for this re-publication at the time that the issue containing your article is published. 

Issue Editor Instructions

Size Limitations

I am placing this notice first because it represents an addition to the instructions. I want to limit the size of postscript versions of an issue to less than 2.5MB. Further, I do not want any paper to exceed 1.0MB. The problem that papers have meeting these requirements is caused by very large postscript figures. These figures usually result from screen-scraped images which should be compressed before they are embedded. It is the responsibility of the issue editor to enforce this size requirement.

Formatting Instructions

Editors assemble an issue of the Bulletin using the debulletin.sty file by tailoring the deissue.tex file as follows:

1. Make sure that all submitted articles have followed the author instructions above, and that the resulting postscript article produced by LaTex is visually acceptable.
2. Modify deissue.tex so that the article environments refer correctly to the articles of the issue.
3. Write your letter introducing the issue, in deauthor.sty, using the \documentstyle command above, bracketing it with \begin{document}...\end{document} and refer to it correctly from the letter environment.
4. Optionally set the date, volume number, and issue number in issue.tex to the values appropriate for  your issue.
5. Use LaTex to generate the issue from issue.tex. Latex must be executed twice in order to produce the cover which includes the table of contents.

This will not result in camera-ready copy, as it will be missing the letter from the editor-in-chief, entries for the "Notices" section, the front inside cover, the IEEE logo, etc. But it will contain all the material specific to the special issue, and will give the editor a good idea of how the issue will look.

Copyrights and Permissions

1. Each article of each issue of the Data Engineering Bulletin must be accompanied by a signed copyright transfer (see author instructions above).  It is the responsibility of the issue editor to solicit these copyright transfers from authors.  The signed copyright transfer should be faxed to the editor-in-chief (David Lomet) at fax number (425) 708-3356.  [Please include a cover page and clearly mark on this that this is to be delivered to "lomet@microsoft.com".] 
2. In addition to copyright transfers, editors should solicit permission from authors for their articles to appear in the CD's being produced by SIGMOD.  A form email message (a template) is provided here for your use.  This should be sent to the contact author of each paper, with author replies sent to the editor-in-chief at "lomet@microsoft.com".

last updated - 7/14/04