Author Guidelines

The Journal of Web Semantics is an interdisciplinary journal based on both theoretical and applied research involving using or creating explicit representations of knowledge for Web-related information systems. At the core of our interests is work on extracting semantic information from Web resources, Semantic Web languages, technologies, ontologies, tools and resources, and linked semantic data. 

These areas include, but are not limited to, the following major technology areas: knowledge technologies, ontology, agents, databases and the semantic grid, obviously disciplines like information retrieval, language technology, human-computer interaction and knowledge discovery are of major relevance as well. All aspects of the Semantic Web development are covered. The publication of large-scale experiments and their analysis is also encouraged to clearly illustrate scenarios and methods that introduce semantics into existing Web interfaces, contents and services. The journal emphasizes the publication of papers that combine theories, methods and experiments from different subject areas in order to deliver innovative semantic methods and applications.

 

The Journal of Web Semantics addresses various prominent application areas including: e-business, e-community, knowledge management, e-learning, digital libraries and e-sciences.

 

Each of these areas is covered by an Associate Editor (AE) who supports the Editors-in-Chief (EiC). Furthermore, AE’s manage the review process for submitted papers in the respective areas.

 

The Journal of Web Semantics publishes four types of papers:

  • Research papers: Research papers are judged by originality, technical depth and correctness, as well as interest to our target readership. Research papers are recommended to have 15 - 25 pages in double column format.

  • Survey papers: We welcome survey papers that integrate the existing literature in (some area of) semantic web research and put its results in context. A survey article should:
    • develop a framework or overview of an area that helps to organise and structure the existing literature;
    • identify/evaluate trends, and expose topics that need additional research; 
    • explain what is currently known about the relevant area, and what it means to researchers and practitioners;
    • provide the basic knowledge that would enable new researchers to enter the area, current researchers to continue developments, and practitioners to apply the results.
    • Survey papers are recommended to have 15–25 pages (in Elsevier double column format).

  • Ontology papers: Ontology papers should be around 6–8 pages (in Elsevier double column format). These should be short, descriptive papers, the purpose of which is to present all facets of a significant and re-usable ontology resource. These can include:
    • the process of creating, modeling, learning and/or extracting the ontology;
    • important properties of the ontology;
    • how ontology developers and/or users benefited from Semantic Web Technologies; and
    • example use cases (we particularly encourage papers describing ontologies that are already deployed in the real world).

To foster this, we strongly prefer openly accessible ontologies to support the reuse of the resource by the research community. Ontologies themselves may be written in any formalism, bearing in mind the aim to support reuse.  

  • System papers: The purpose of systems papers is to present semantic systems that have been widely adopted and/or generated significant interest in the Semantic Web community. Systems papers should be around 8-10 pages (in Elsevier double column format). Systems papers should satisfy the following requirements: 
    • they should describe an implemented system that is used in practical applications
    • the system should rely on Semantic Web technologies

System papers should include: 

    • a description of the system itself
    • a description of the technical architecture of the system
    • a description and statistics of any data sources used by the system
    • a comparison to the state of the art and/or evaluation of the system, preferably  based on realistic application(s) and existing benchmarks, and including a user study if the system is an end-user application
    • references to resources related to the system such as system documentation, source code, or videos explaining the usage of the system
  • Resources & Benchmark papers: The purpose of resources & benchmark papers is to present novel benchmarks including datasets that deal with problems of interest to the community as well as extensive evaluations. These papers are recommended to have 15 - 25 pages in double column format.

Shorter or longer papers are allowable if the objectives of a paper warrant deviating length. Descriptions that are either unnecessarily short or long will negatively impact chances of acceptance.

Conference-style Review Cycle

We have employed a conference-style review cycle since January 2015 which repeats monthly, with the exception of January and August when the editorial office is closed. Each monthly review cycle follows an 18-week schedule - for example, in February 2019 the schedule will be:

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1st Feb:           Author submission

7th Feb:           EiC assignment to AE

14th Feb:         AE assignment to Editorial Board Reviewers

28th Mar:        EB Reviewers complete reviews

4th Apr:           AE decision to EiC

11th Apr:         EiC decision to Authors

25th Apr:         Author resubmission (minor revision)

2nd May:         AE decision to EiC

9th May:          EiC decision to Authors

9th May:          Author resubmission (major revision)

30th May:        AE decision to EiC

6th June:         EiC decision to Author