For Authors - Editorial workflow

Review process

Submitted manuscripts are assigned by the Managing Editors to a Handling Editor based on the contents of the former and the workload of the latter. The Handling Editor

  • screens manuscripts for suitability for the journal and rejects submissions found to be obviously outside of the scope of the journal or not ready for peer review due to severe deficiencies in presentation;

  • selects, invites, and follows up on (usually two) reviewers that are sufficiently familiar with the subject matter of the manuscript to evaluate its novelty, correctness, and relevance to optimization;

  • makes a decision on accepting, rejecting, or requesting revision of the manuscript based on the reports of the reviewers;

  • communicates the decision to the authors.

All Handling Editor decisions should be supported by a brief justification based on the reviewers' reports or the editors own reading.

In case of acceptance, the Managing Editors will make sure the final version of the manuscript conforms to the journal style, assigns it to a Volume, and publishes it on the journal website in a timely manner.

Selection criteria

Manuscripts are selected based on their quality and potential interest within the nonsmooth optimization community. Correctness is an essential requirement. Novelty is expected from research articles. Articles of more expository nature, while not expected to provide novel results, should provide new insights into their subject matter.

Appeal procedure

Authors may appeal decisions by Handling Editors by contacting the Managing Editors.

Open access

The journal is committed to free open access to its contents, without any cost to authors or readers. Authors (or their employers) retain the copyright to their articles, but must grant third parties the right to use, reproduce, and share the article according to a standard Creative Commons (CC) license (unless a stricter open access license is required by employers or funding agencies).

Open science

Although not a requirement for publication, the journal also recommends that any source code (algorithm implementations) and data associated with the manuscript be made publicly available. This can be done, and a citable DOI identifier obtained, through platforms such as Zenodo.