ECST Guidelines

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Introduction
Content from ECS Meeting
Content from ECS-Sponsored Conferences
Requirements
First-Run, Case-Bound Books
Publication Schedule
Financial Obligations
Editorial Board

Introduction
ECS Transactions (ESCT) is an online publication for content presented at ECS meetings and ECS-sponsored meetings. The papers appearing in ECST will be reviewed to ensure that submissions meet generally-accepted scientific standards. The degree of review to be given each paper is at the discretion of the sponsors and the symposium organizers. Papers submitted to ECST will be embargoed until all papers from their respective symposia have been reviewed and accepted by the editors. They will be officially published no earlier than the second Friday prior to the first day of the meeting or conference. Papers will be published in volumes (corresponding to a meeting or conference) and issues (corresponding to individual or combined symposia at the meetings).

The collections of these papers will serve as the proceedings of their respective symposia, and will be available for sale collectively, as well as individually. Papers in ECS Transactions are not considered by the Society to be peer-reviewed, and thus they may be submitted to the Journal of The Electrochemical Society or to Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters within six months of the symposium, for consideration via the journals’ peer-review process. Symposium or conference chairs may apply to the ECST Editorial Board to have their issue, or combined issues, also published as a hard-cover book.

Content from ECS Meetings
Papers presented at symposia held at ECS meetings, currently held in the spring and fall of every year, are automatically eligible for submission to ECST. All presenting authors are welcome to submit their papers for review and approval by the symposium organizers or the ECST Editorial Board. If the symposium organizers from an ECS meeting desire to derive revenue from the publication of their symposium papers in ECST (with or without a hard-cover book edition), they must assign an editor to the issue, submit a Request-to-Publish application form, and meet the guidelines given below. This application may be found on the ECS Transactions website. A schedule of deadlines will be posted to the ECS website for each volume of ECST, and will be sent to the symposium organizers and/or designated issue editor. The official ECS Call for Papers, and any other separate calls published by the sponsor of the conference, must state that the material will be published in ECS Transactions; and, if applicable, that a hard-cover book is planned. Requests for approval will not be considered if notice is not given in all calls for papers.

Content from ECS-Sponsored Conferences
For content from other conferences, publication will be allowed in ECST only if the conference is sponsored by ECS, or by one of the ECS Divisions, Groups, or Sections. ECS-sponsored conferences that desire to publish their content in ECST (with or without hard-cover book) must apply to the ECST Editorial Board well in advance of publicizing their conference. Request-to-Publish application forms may be found on the ECS Transactions website. All calls for papers of the conference must state that material will be published in ECST, and if applicable, that a hard-cover book is also planned. Requests for approval will not be considered if notice is not given in all calls for papers. A schedule of deadlines will be established for the volume, and must be agreed to by the sponsors.

Requirements
The following items are required for publication.

• All papers must be submitted directly to ECS Transactions by the established deadlines in order to be eligible for publication. All submitting authors must also agree to the terms of the ECS Transfer of Copyright Agreement, which may be found on the ECST website.

• All symposia must submit a “Request-to-Publish” application form to indicate (a) whether or not the symposium plans to serve as an editor for the ECST issue, and (b) whether or not it is applying for a hard-cover book to be available AT the meeting. The application must be signed by the lead editor and by an official representative of the sponsors (lead Division, Group, or Section). This indicates approval of the subject, technical content, and acceptance of all responsibilities, as indicated below.

• Organizers must comply with the schedule of deadlines specific to each issue. For an issue that will be available AT the meeting, the editors must ensure that all papers are reviewed and accepted in ECST no later than approximately 10 weeks before the meeting or conference. If the books must be shipped to a non-U.S. country, the materials must be accepted in ECST no later than approximately 14 weeks before the meeting or conference.

• Editors must work with the ECST staff to create the supplemental material (table of contents and indices) by the deadline; see the editor instructions on the ECS website.

First-Run, Case-Bound Books
In order to publish an issue in a hard-cover edition, it should contain ALL papers presented at the meeting. A minimum of 80% of ALL papers presented (invited, contributed, and posters) is required for the hard-cover book. In no case may the book contain fewer than 30 papers. If an issue does not meet these numbers for a hard-cover edition, then it will be published as an online issue.

All calls for papers of the conference must state that the content will be published in ECS Transactions, and that a hard-cover book is also planned or under consideration. Requests for approval will not be considered if notice is not given in all calls for papers.

If a hard-cover book is desirable, and an ECS symposium is new or small, symposium organizers are encouraged to discuss combining papers from smaller symposia into one book. In this case, the organizers should complete one application. The minimum requirements still apply; however, the 80% rule applies to the total number of papers per symposium, whereas the 30-paper minimum applies to the entire book.

Pricing—A break-even analysis is prepared for each approved book based on information in the application, the number of abstracts submitted to the symposium, timeliness of past hard-cover publication, and on historical sales data. The Society will review the analysis with the ECST Editorial Board, the symposium’s lead editor, and the chair of the symposium’s lead sponsor in order to determine whether or not to produce a hard-cover edition. If the results appear favorable, the Society will undertake the hard-cover book production with the obligations (see “Financial Obligations”) accepted by the sponsors. The cost of any complimentary copies (see below) will be included in the price.

If the results are unfavorable (not enough expected abstracts, symposium has never done a book before, problems with past publication, etc.), the ECST Editorial Board may deny publication of the hard-cover edition. However, that symposium will still have its papers published in an online issue of ECST, and can build up critical mass for future approval of a book over the course of the symposium’s next few instances.

Print Run—Unlike commercial products, hard-cover books published from issues of ECST will be produced only in quantities sufficient to process prepaid orders, plus a limited number for sale at and after meetings. Books are permitted to go out of stock within two years.

Complimentary copies—The editor(s) of the book and the chair of the Executive Committee of the lead sponsor (ECS Division, Group, or Section) shall determine whether any complimentary copies shall be distributed, and if so, to whom. A maximum of 10 such copies can be given.

Publication Schedule
Articles will only be accepted in ECST for a limited period of time, typically for approximately 4 weeks. Please refer to the schedule of deadlines specific to each issue. For all articles in ECST, the Society will not sell these articles (in any format) until all manuscripts from that respective symposium are accepted in ECST. They will be officially published no earlier than the second Friday prior to the first day of the meeting or conference.

Financial Obligations
If the sponsors of the symposium (ECS Divisions, Groups, and/or Sections) do not assign an editor to work on ECST issues (and therefore are not continuing their sponsorship), or if the issue editors do not complete their editorial obligations on time, the ECST Editorial Board will take over the review and acceptance of those papers submitted to the issue. In either case, the sponsors will derive no revenue from the sales of ECST articles or issues. If there is more than one sponsor for an issue of ECST, and if any one sponsor does not meet its obligations, the remaining sponsors may determine that the non-participating sponsor will not share in any revenues. If an agreement cannot be reached, the ECST Editorial Board will arbitrate. It is the responsibility of all sponsors to notify the ECS headquarters office if any of the original sponsors will no longer share in the revenue.

Allocation of Revenue—The total allocation to be distributed to all sponsors is 30% for a two-year period following publication of a sponsored issue. Income will be distributed to all sponsors in equal portions. It is the responsibility of all sponsors to notify the ECS headquarters office if the distribution is in unequal portions, and to confirm the percentages to be used.

Editorial Board


Editor
John W. Weidner University of South Carolina Department of Chemical Engineering Swearingen Engineering Center Columbia, SC 29208-0001, USA Tel: 1.803.777.3207 Fax: 1.803.777.8265 E-mail: weidner@engr.sc.edu
Associate Editor
James M. Fenton Florida Solar Energy Center University of Central Florida Cocoa, FL, USA E-mail: jfenton@fsec.ufc.edu

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