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Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • Originality statement: This submission has not been previously published, is not under review elsewhere, and is not forthcoming in an archival journal, conference proceeding, or book. The authors agree not to submit the manuscript to another journal or conference until the editorial decision process at TOCSS has been completed.
  • Author approval: The submitting author confirms that they hold the copyright to the work being submitted, or have obtained authorization from the copyright holder(s), and that all authors have approved the submission to TOCSS.
  • Formatting requirements:TOCSS has no general rules about the formatting of articles upon initial submission. There are, however, rules governing the formatting of the final submission. See Author Guidelines for details. Although we can provide limited technical support, it is ultimately the responsibility of the author to produce an electronic version of the article as a high-quality PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format) file, or a Microsoft Word/RTF/LaTeX source file that can be converted to a PDF file.
  • Ethical standards: The authors confirm that the research complies with applicable ethical standards and legal requirements.
  • Data and code availability: Where possible, data, code, and other research materials supporting the findings have been made openly available or their availability has been clearly stated in the manuscript.
  • Compliance with Author Guidelines: The submission complies with the journal's Author Guidelines, including formatting, citation, and manuscript preparation requirements.
  • Templates for LaTeX/Word manuscripts: here you can download the LaTeX or Word templates for TOCSS submissions:

    LaTeX: https://anxosanchez.eu/downloads/tocss-latex-bundle.zip
    Word: https://anxosanchez.eu/downloads/tocss-word-bundle.zip

Author Guidelines

TOCSS publishes original research articles, reviews, perspectives, commentaries, and other contributions related to complex systems research across disciplines. For other proposals, please contact the editors-in-chief.

Manuscripts may be submitted in LaTeX (preferred) or Microsoft Word/RTF format. Authors are encouraged to use the official TOCSS template.

Submissions should include the following elements: title, author names and affiliations, corresponding author information, abstract, keywords, main text, acknowledgements (if applicable), and references.

 

The abstract should provide a concise overview of the research, including the main objectives, methods, results, and implications. Authors should provide 3–6 keywords.

The manuscript may be organized according to the conventions of the relevant discipline. Standard sectioning (e.g., Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions) is encouraged where appropriate.

Figures and tables should be numbered consecutively and cited in the text. Place figures and tables at appropriate locations within the text, rather than grouping them all at the end of the manuscript. Captions should be sufficiently informative to allow readers to understand the content without referring extensively to the main text. High-resolution figure files should be provided when necessary.

Mathematical expressions, equations, algorithms, and code listings should be clearly formatted and numbered when referenced in the text.

References should be provided in the numerical citation style used in the TOCSS template. Citations should appear as numbered references in the text and be listed in the References section in the order specified by the template. For LaTeX submissions, BibTeX is strongly recommended. Where available, authors should include DOI links.

Authors are encouraged to make data, code, and other research materials openly available through repositories such as Zenodo, OSF, GitHub, or equivalent services.

Submitted manuscripts must be original, must not be under consideration elsewhere, and must comply with applicable ethical and legal standards.

Authors must disclose the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the preparation of their manuscripts. AI tools may be used to assist with language editing, formatting, or coding tasks, but they cannot be listed as authors and cannot assume responsibility for the content of a manuscript.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of all submitted work, including any content generated or assisted by AI tools. Any substantial use of generative AI should be described in the manuscript or acknowledgements, as appropriate.

 

Authors submitting interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary work are encouraged to include in their Cover Letter a brief statement describing the disciplinary perspectives integrated in the manuscript and any aspects that may require evaluation beyond the standards of a single discipline.

TOCSS operates a single-blind peer-review process. Manuscripts deemed suitable for review are evaluated by at least two independent reviewers.





Research Articles

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Copyright Notice

By submitting a manuscript to TOCSS, authors grant the journal and the Complex Systems Society a non-exclusive, worldwide license to publish, distribute, archive, and preserve the work in all formats and media.

Articles published in TOCSS are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license permits users to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and TOCSS. Users may not distribute modified versions of the work without prior permission from the copyright holder(s).

Authors whose funding requirements mandate a more permissive license may request publication under CC BY 4.0.

Authors submitting to TOCSS confirm that they hold the copyright to the work being submitted or have obtained the necessary authorization from the copyright holder(s).



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