This journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts (previously Manuscript Central) to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the guide for ScholarOne authors before making a submission. Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.

The instructions below are specifically directed at authors that wish to submit a manuscript to Optimization Methods and Software. More general information regarding publishing with Taylor & Francis can be found in the Publish with Us section of our website and in the Taylor & Francis Authors' Charter.

Optimization Methods and Software considers all manuscripts on the strict condition that they have been submitted only to Optimization Methods and Software, that they have not been published already, nor are they under consideration for publication or in press elsewhere.

Contributions to Optimization Methods and Software must report original research and will be subjected to review by referees at the discretion of the Editorial Office.

Manuscript preparation

1. General guidelines

• Papers are accepted only in English. British English spelling and punctuation is preferred. Please see the Editing Resources section of the Author Area for a list of third party companies who can help with editing and correcting your manuscript before you submit.
• Manuscripts should be compiled in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text; acknowledgments; appendices (as appropriate); references; table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figure caption(s) (as a list).
• Abstracts of up to 200 words are required for all papers submitted.
• Each paper should have 3-8 keywords. In addition to keywords, authors are encouraged to provide 2-6 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification codes.
• Section headings should be concise and numbered sequentially, using a decimal system for subsections.
• All the authors of a paper should include their full names, affiliations, postal addresses, telephone and fax numbers and email addresses on the cover page of the manuscript. One author should be identified as the Corresponding Author.
• Biographical notes on contributors are not required for this journal.
• For all manuscripts non-discriminatory language is mandatory. Sexist or racist terms should not be used.
• Authors must adhere to SI units. Units are not italicised.
• When using a word which is or is asserted to be a proprietary term or trade mark, authors must use the symbol ® or ™.

2. Style guidelines

• Description of the Journal's article style
• Description of the Journal's reference styles
• Guide to using mathematical symbols and equations
• Latex template (Please save the LaTeX template to your hard drive and open it for use by clicking on the icon in Windows Explorer.)

3. Figures 

• It is in the author's interest to provide the highest quality figure format possible. Please be sure that all imported scanned material is scanned at the appropriate resolution: 1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour.
• Figures must be saved separate to text. Please do not embed figures in the paper file.
• Files should be saved as one of the following formats: TIFF (tagged image file format), PostScript or EPS (encapsulated PostScript), and should contain all the necessary font information and the source file of the application (e.g. CorelDraw/Mac, CorelDraw/PC).
• All figures must be numbered in the order in which they appear in the paper (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2). In multi-part figures, each part should be labelled (e.g. Figure 1(a), Figure 1(b)).
• Figure captions must be saved separately, as part of the file containing the complete text of the paper, and numbered correspondingly.
• The filename for a graphic should be descriptive of the graphic, e.g. Figure1, Figure2a.

4. Colour

The Journal has no free colour pages within its annual page allowance. Authors of accepted papers who propose publishing figures in colour in the print version should consult Taylor & Francis at proof stage to agree a financial contribution to colour reproduction costs. Figures that appear in black-and-white in the print edition of the Journal will appear in colour in the online edition, assuming colour originals are supplied.

5. Reproduction of copyright material

As an author, you are required to secure permission if you want to reproduce any figure, table, or extract from the text of another source.  This applies to direct reproduction as well as 'derivative reproduction', where the contributor has created a new figure or table that derives substantially from a copyrighted source. Authors are themselves responsible for the payment of any permission fees required by the copyright owner. Copies of permission letters should be sent with the manuscript upon submission to the Editor(s).

• Copyright permission letter template

6. Supplementary online material

Authors are welcome to submit animations, movie files, sound files or any additional information for online publication.

• Information about supplementary online material

Manuscript submission

All submissions should be made online at the Optimization Methods and Software Manuscript Central site. New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site submissions should be made via the Author Centre.

Copyright and authors' rights

It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to Taylor & Francis. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course the Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors retain many rights under the Taylor & Francis rights policies, which can be found here. This includes the right to share a pre-print of an unpublished article with colleagues, via personal websites, institutional websites, or on pre-print servers such as www.arXiv.org. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.

Exceptions are made for government employees whose policies require that copyright cannot be transferred to other parties. We ask that a signed statement to this effect is submitted when returning proofs for accepted papers.

• Information on papers funded by NIH
• Further details and FAQs on Taylor & Francis's policy on copyright and authors' rights 

There are no page charges to individuals or institutions.

iOpenAccess

Authors whose manuscripts have been accepted for publication have the option to pay a one-off fee to make their article free to read online via the Optimization Methods and Software website. Choosing this option also allows authors to post their article in an institutional or subject repository immediately upon publication.

• Further details on iOpenAccess 

Visit our Author Services website for further resources and guides to the complete publication process and beyond.